11.6" Clevo with 650M instead of 13.3"? What's going on?

So in the next few months I will need to purchase a laptop for use at college, so I require a good 4 hours (or more) of battery life, but I also wouldn't mind playing some BF3 and Skyrim while away from home. I know many people in my situation right now, because they want a light laptop that is both portable and a decent gaming machine. The 650M is a perfect light-medium gaming GPU, so I was somewhat happy to see it appear in such a small 11.6" form factor. However, I was also disappointed.

I have used Alienware M11x's before, and while they were decent little gaming machines, the display was tiny. 11.6" is way too small for gaming in my opinion. IMO it's just uncomfortable looking at such a small screen and trying to pinpoint enemy locations while playing games like BC2 or BF3. I even found RPG's like ME2 to be very uncomfortable on a 11.6" display.

13.3" displays are only a little larger, but I find them to be the perfect size for gaming and work. I currently own a Lenovo Z370 and the display is perfect for light gaming, as I am perfectly comfortable while playing source games. 15.6" is better, but IMO is too large to be portable. 15.6" laptops are also quite heavy.

So I was shocked that Clevo did not release a laptop with a 650M and a 13.3" display, but instead released a 11.6" with DDR3 Memory (wouldn't this bottleneck the GPU performance?).

I don't know about you guys, but if a 13.3" Clevo laptop with a 650M (or option for 660M, with optimus of course) was released with Ivy Bridge I wouldn't even hesitate to purchase it.

So why do you guys think they went with a 11.6" gaming machine instead of a 13.3"?

 

Maybe just to make the current M11x look like a joke...

They wanted to beat the competition at least for a short while and steal some sales instead of thinking of the customer and bringing us a 12,5inch with 660M...

 

If Clevo would offer a 13.3 gaming notebook, I would only buy that one. But now I will have to buy both a 11.6 and a 15.6

 

12.5" still seems kind of small. However, if a 13.3" Clevo was released with a quad core IB CPU, GTX 660M, 1600x900 or 1920x1080 display, 4+ hours of battery life, I'd throw $1200 at it without thinking twice.

This. For me its between building 2 low end gaming desktops (~$600 each), leaving one at home and one at college, and keeping my Lenovo Z370, or buying a 13.3" gaming laptop. I know the Y480 is coming out, but I dislike the design of the Z370 (pretty much the same design) so I would prefer a Clevo.

 

Yes with all the buzz around the ultrabooks, both 11.6 and 13.3 you think they would've looked at those sales figures and went with the 13.3 size.

 

Another here that would really consider a 13 with 650/660.

I am torn with getting another fullsize, maxed gpu, gaming machine or
going for a smaller/lighter/cooler midlevel gpu performance machine.

11/12 is just too small for me. Not really interested in the other 13's with
less than 650 as gaming would be too poor.

I think for sure in a year from now there will options like this available.

 

I don't know about you guys, but the 11.6" size is perfect for me and a lot of other people. I've got a 12.5" Lenovo x220 right now with the 1366x768 IPS screen. It's a great little laptop with 9 hours of battery life, but the graphics performance is very poor (Integrated Intel on the Sandy Bridge CPU). Moving from a 12.5" to an 11.6" isn't a big deal to me because it's the same overall resolution. I'm not sure I'd even want a bigger resolution on such a small screen anyway, as things are already relatively small.

The portability of an 11.6" is more important to me than the overall power. The 650m is just a bonus to the longish battery life and other more powerful components. The whole laptop will be nearly on par with the larger 15.6" 560m machines from last generation, and that's impressive.

Considering it's also <$1000 I fail to see the complaints. This laptop just might not be for you guys. For me, as a person who flies 2 times a month or more- it's the perfect size to go in my carry on and leave room for clothes, yet it gives me the power I need to do some light gaming in my hotel room. The x220 has been great, but it is NOT a gaming machine by any stretch of the imagination.

I just don't see the benefit in the features everyone is complaining about:
1) Backlit keyboard- who cares? It's a tiny laptop and battery life is the most important thing. I'd almost rather prefer the thinklight like I have on my thinkpad, because it works like a desk lamp when I'm working near the laptop on a plane or in a car. The multifunction uses make it better overall.

2) 13" over 11.5"- this just adds size and weight and puts it in the awkward zone between ultraportables and full size 15" laptops. If I wanted a bulky laptop, I'd carry my 15.6" P150. Smaller is better for me. Now, having BOTH an 11" and a 13" would be fine because that would cover everyone.

3) Higher res screen- Yeah, 1366x768 is a terrible resolution, but not on a 12.5" screen or smaller. It's a nightmare on 15" screens, but the smaller you go the more acceptable it becomes. A 1600x900 or 1080p screen would result in super tiny text on 12.5" and smaller.

4)650m versus 660m - I'd imagine this is largely based on cooling issues. The W110er is much like the W150 from last generation in that it has a shared heatpipe system for the GPU and CPU. The W150 could only do up to the 555m (which has a lot less power than the 650m) and it still struggled with much higher temps than the P150 models did. That's why the 560m was only available in the better cooled Pxxx models and up. I don't know about you, but I don't want a laptop that's going to cook my lap to get better GPU performance. I'm already pretty impressed that they managed to cram all they did into this form factor for the cost.

Anyway, this is just my perspective on it after owning a ton of machines and looking for a powerful ultraportable.

 

I had the same problem as you guys, but I imported myself the lg p330 which packs a sb i5 and a 555m, it may not be as fast as the upcoming 650m, but its enough for my needs..

Also Im not willing to give up the positives of the p330 which are silent cooling even when gaming, a great keyboard, a unibody like metal chassis (not quite the bottom is plastic, but not cheap plastic), low weight (1,6kg), removable battery, slim profile and a nice style!

 

well first off, its probably for competition against the m11x.

and i know right now 13inches does seem like the best size in terms of portability and with kepler and ivy bridge out, we can cram more power in smaller form factors than ever before.

even with that in mind, i dont think manufacturers will allow for all these redundancies. There is no economic reason for developing another laptop that does exactly any other 15.6 inch laptop does.

and gaming on a 12.5 or 13.3 inch screen imo is not much better than 11.6 inches.

Thats why i still see that 15.6 inches and up are still the only true gaming laptops since they are the ones with 1080p screens.

and seriously, they are not going to put a 1080 screen in 13.3 inches and smaller laptop. max ive seen is 900p on sony vaio s series

 

I imagine the m11x is exactly why they brought out this laptop. that, and the fact that small, portable laptops are becoming very popular with consumers. They're a little late, but oh well. I don't think anyone who's "serious" about gaming thinks they should be getting a 11-13" laptop. While they're nice for portability, it's just not a good gaming experience.

and the Sony VAIO Z 13.1" had a 1080p option..

 

I don't know. I would assume everyone may have a different idea on
what is most important in a gaming laptop.

I mean is it screen color, viewing angles, finish (matte,gloss). Is it the highest
fps or the best graphics. They are not usually one in the same.

Would only SLI/Crossfire be considered a real gaming machine. They are the
best performers.

Does the machine need to do anything else but gaming. Weight, battery life,
portability, noise, or heat might be issues.

Finally how about cost. Usually almost everyone has a different idea on this.

In the end it's always compromise.

 

Another +1 for a 13.3" gaming notebook. I am fully aware that some would find it an awkward size as has been mentioned already (not really ultra-portable, not really complete gaming notebook) but a 660M in a chassis less than 15" and bigger than 12" with decent battery life would be awesome beyond words.

I've never really owned a higher-end gaming system and would love for once to just have a machine that can allow me to enjoy newer games without having to compromise graphic quality but I'm also at a point in life where something portable for school is important too.

I've been lurking these forums for over half a year now in hopes that I will finally see something like that offered but I guess it won't be this year either. I'd wait another year but my Core 2 duo T5800 with 9600M GS could really do with an upgrade... I don't even want to talk about the 1366*768 resolution on a 16.1" screen

 

Would have been nice but would rather see a backlit keyboard than a 13" model.

 

Is the main reason for mediocre GPUs in smaller PCs have to do with limitations in effective cooling and sufficient power supply?

 

I would prefer a 13'' model, it would suit my needs, since I dont have a desktop for quite some years...

And for me the 13'' is the perfect format, it includes portability and it can have the screen state necessary, just look at the vaio Z

 

Bingo! Sager marketing at work.

Makes one wonder what Alienware has up their sleeve?

I don't think you can get 660m in anything but a 14" or larger to be honest.

Yes, primarily cooling. it takes a lot of copper and bigger/more powerful fans to cool the higher TDP parts.

 

i wouldnt call the gt 650m ddr3 or ddr5 mediocre, this is a huge step in laptop gaming where u finally have previously gtx level performance in under 14 inches.

 

I wouldn't go so far as to call it mediocre- previously most laptops at smaller sizes were integrated only or really low end discrete cards. The W110er with the 650m is actually pretty powerful for the form factor.

But you are correct, it's largely a limitation in power and cooling as you go down in form factor. The more powerful cards have higher TDP, which means they draw more wattage and produce more heat. More heat requires more copper and larger/more fans to adequately cool it, thus leading to a bigger chassis. New technology tends to run on smaller processes and at better levels of energy efficiency, which is why we're finally seeing some decent mid-high end cards in smaller notebooks.

 

Thanks for the above replies. I'm new to the forum and a newbie when it comes to the magical inner workings of PCs.

 

Right. From everything we can tell, GT 650m is between 460m and 560m performance both which would be unheard of in anything less than a 15" notebook.

 

I think if Sager can deal with GT650m on their 11.6'', i think they should be able to deal with GTX660m on 13.3'' factor, even acer had a dual fan setup with the 3820TG, i think its possible, sacrificing the optical to have dual coolers, so you can get a quad and higher end gpu. I would order one for sure, if this ever becomes available, tired of lugging 15/17'' laptops, but needed for a decent gaming experience, personally i find 11.6 too small, but 13.3 would be good enough.

The old vaio Z did had a 1080p screen option on 13.3'' factor. Hell even my ipad has 2048x1536, its sad when today TVs and Tablets lead the screen industry while laptops and desktops just follow.... thing need to change.

 

the new vaio Z still has it, although its 13.1

and I still find a more useful size 13''

the problem with clevo is that they compromise on something, sometimes the compromise is large, like the battery life on the p150hm/170hm we are still in the low class battery life on the em models. granted in the 15'' we have the most powerful 15'' out there wtih only msi as a competition

 

So a clevo to compete with mx11 and aw just dropped the mx11.

Good timing.

 

yup Alienware has just discontinued the m11x. I'm typing on one right now and i love it but it looks like this Clevo is where im going to have to go if i want to upgrade on an ultraportable gaming machine. I just wish it had a backlit keyboard, if i did i would be sold.

 

Wow I did not know, they discontinued the M11x. Maybe they did to make a 13" model?

 

if thats the case, I hope they dont make the chassis that much larger, it was close already to what a 13'' chassis is in terms of size, and if we go by the m14x its going to be heavy and underpowered

 

I dont think they will make a 13 inch version, if they did it would start stepping on the toes of the m14x. My one hope is that the discontinuation is only part of the story and they are making a 12.1 inch model. they wouldnt even have to expand the laptop to do that because the screen bezel is so large.

 

With the dissapointing release of the overpriced and underpowered Y480 (640M) are there ANY 650M kepler machines in the 13"-14" range? The sager reps mentioned potential asus projects getting announced on 4/29 - anyone know what they're referring to? Only 14" Asus I see is running a 635M.

Would really like to avoid the 11.6" if possible but ti seems to be my only sub 15" option for Ivy Bridge and 650M.

 

The m14x r2 is a 14" that has the 650m as well

 

Asus N46VZ, it's not a big secret lol. Already be annunced a long time ago. For example, in some russians websites they expect to have them in a week.

Íîóòáóêè / Íîóòáóêè

ÒåõíîÑèòè - Íîóòáóê ASUS N46VZ 14" HD /i7-3610 / 8/ 1000/ GT650M 2GB/ Multi/ WF/CAM/ W7HP

 

No ivy bridge compatibility and way overpriced

 

DUDE if you want i7-3612QM, AMD 7670M and 1600 x 900 screen all in a 14" aluminium body, then you may consider this:

Sony VAIO E Series 14P gets Ivy Bridge processor nudge, improved display -- Engadget

 

Very cool, hadn't seen this, thought it was downgraded to 635. Looking forward to see the pricing.

 

Nice! Pricey but nice thanks for the link!

 

i believe the m14x r2 has ivy bridge compatibility, they probably had to redesign a motherboard to take on the gt 650m, which is different size to the gt 555m, so they probably ugpraded to the new motherboards that have backwards compatibility with sandy bridges, once ivy bridge comes out 29th, ull see all the websites start updating their stock to ivy bridges.

the sony vaio kinda looks good, but unfortunately amd 7670 is not goin to cut i think, its a mediocre card a best, u wont be able to play any new games on high/ultra cept COD unless u get a gt 650m or above.

 

Agreed - well have to wait to see what is announced. I expect this Sunday the 29th well know better.

Those Russian sites have the ASUS priced at $1600 FYI.

And here it is on a Polish site for 1200 (i7, 650M): http://www.ceneo.pl/16591235s

 

I dont know the performance of the 7670m, but I do know that the m14x r2 is going to come with ivy.

 

Right - the question is when. Also, helllooooo massive price tag.

 

when they start shipping the m14x r2, its available for order but you are limited to chose the SB cpus, not that it should matter much.

for me problem aint the price, its more the weight X performance ratio. its quite low. for around the same size and weight I can get the np9150 with much more power.

Im sincerely looking for the s430 from lenovo, its a 14'' light and comes with an unnamed nvidia gpu, I just hope its a 640m kepler version.

 

this is awesome lol... I'm going to buy this within the next couple of weeks.. Exactly what I wanted in this form factor... Performance between 460 and 560m? and the resolution is 720p..It should eat everything max res...I wonder what kind of battery life to expect though...

 

Overpriced, I agree, but it's shipping with Ivy Bridge.

 

I carry an HDMI cable. And a mouse. It is not very difficult to find a TV to plug into - most hotel rooms have one, as do conference halls, recreation rooms, dorm common rooms etc.