15 or 17 inch model?

I need some help guys. Im trying to decide between the 15 or 17 inch clevo but cant make up my mind.

I currently have an old gateway 17inch beast and would appreciate the additional portability of the 15 inch clevo, however I am a bit concerned that going down to a 15 inch will make me squint when playing Starcraft 2.

Does anyone have any experience on these matters or has gone down from 17 to 15 - what did you find? loved it or regretted it?

Cheers

 

i play sc2 for hours each day on my 15 inch, no problems here.

 

l just got my p150hm and i had an 18inch acer multimedia laptop and the clevo has a way better screen. i have no trouble slaying noobs on the screen size. the upgraded matte screen is soo worth the money. i dont believe u will notice too big of a difference, i didnt. on a side note these laptops are great and will probably get my next laptop from a clevo reseller. by the way the resellers who post here often are mythlogic, xotic, malibal,lpc, and a few others, also check out the reseller guide for reviews.

 

Thanks guys - now just need to find a good deal

 

I also came from a Gateway 17" beast (P-7805u).

I originally ordered a P150HM but then decided to switch to a P170HM for a few reasons:

-No real need for portability. Sure, I sometimes use the laptop on the couch but for the most part, the laptop stays in the house. For that reason, I felt it made more sense to go with a 17". My wife has a 14" Toshiba that we take whenever we go somewhere and need a laptop.

-I didn't want to have to choose between an optical drive caddy for an extra hard drive and an optical blu-ray drive. The P170HM gives me the best of both worlds: two hard drive bays and a blu-ray drive. I do watch movies on my laptop and burn lots of CDs/DVDs. I realize I could have gotten a USB optical for the P150HM but to me, that kind of defeats the purpose of portability if you have to drag around an external drive.

-I like the extra real estate on the 17" screen versus the 15".

-Bigger chassis = better cooling. With the temps that the 6990 is reported to reach, every bit of cooling efficiency helps.

-5 speakers on the P170HM versus 2 on the P150HM. I understand regardless that the speaker sound isn't the best in the world but I can only imagine that the sound is better on the P170HM.

 

There are several differences between P150HM and 170HM.
Chipset: HM65 for P150HM and HM67 for P170HM.
Well so what follows: HM67 supports RAID0 and Intel XTU (OC CPU / RAM); HM65 don't.
PSU: P150HM 180Watt, P170HM 220Watt.

 

I never understood the argument to go with the 8150 over the 8170 for increased portability. The 8150 is not some ultralight model. The difference in weight is less than 2 pounds. I travel frequently for work and carry both my work laptop and my NP8170 in the same bag without too much trouble. I probably wouldn't notice 2 pounds less. Go with the 17" if you prefer a bigger screen.

 

Good point and another factor in choosing the 17" after comparing laptop specs.

If 2 pounds is the difference between ease of portability and driving yourself to the point of physical exhaustion, less time on the laptop and more time doing pushups may be beneficial to you.

 

I have played SC2 on my Asus 15.6" laptop, and when I played, I never had a problem with details being too tiny. Then again, it was running at 1360x768 (where'd my 6 other horizontal rows of pixels go, Blizzard?) as opposed to the full HD 1920x1080 screens the P150HM/NP8150 use. It may be a matter of lowering the resolution, which also means more FPS! I thought 1360x768 detail was crisp enough, but this is coming from someone who has never seen a full HD screen on a laptop before.

I also LAN with my buddies from time to time, and when that happens, space gets pretty limited. If I had to bring a 17" laptop to LAN, there would be a mutiny for the little space there is available.

 

I was set on the 15, now after reading this thread, I think 17 suits me better.

 

Mutiny over 1.5 inches? That's a pretty fickle bunch you LAN with.

P170HM dimensions:
length: 16.22 inches
width: 10.87 inches
height: 1.65-1.79 inches
weight: 8.60 pounds w/battery

P150HM dimensions:
length: 14.80 inches
width: 10.08 inches
height: 1.38 - 1.69 inches
weight: 6.83 pounds w/battery

So the P170HM is:
1.42 inches longer
0.79 inches wider
.38 inches taller (at most) and the same height (at least)
1.77 pounds heavier

Just for reference, the length of most adults thumb (from the tip of the thumb to the first knuckle) is about 1 inch.

Honestly, the suggestion that the P170HM is some enormous laptop that dwarfs the P150HM is a bit overstated, no?

 

I must say, however, that I was a tad prejudiced going into this discussion. I have seen typical 17" offerings at Best Buy and whatnot, and they all looked bigger than their 15" counterparts. I think it comes down to the surface area of the laptop. The P170HM is 176.31 sq. inch in surface area, whereas the P150HM is 149.18 sq. inch in surface area. This equates to a 27.13 sq. inch difference. I will admit that the P170HM does not sound like a laptop that dwarfs the P150HM in size; we can agree that 18.4" is a bit outrageous though, right?

Also, mutiny over 1.5 inches does happen! We try and fit as many people in one round table as possible; we got 6 people seated there, with barely enough room for one mouse pad to go beside each laptop. And with heat being vented to the left on most laptops (thank you Clevo for venting out the back), everyone complains about their hands getting roasted.

 

Also when using a laptop tray or folding stand every inch of area is precious. Whenever I use 17” laptops they leave little room for the mouse and I’m cramped. With a 15” that extra inch or two makes all the difference.

If you say a 17” isn’t THAT much bigger than a 15, just remember that also means that a 15” isn’t THAT much smaller either.

If the specs are the same, same GPU, CPU, dual hard drives, memory slots etc that I say go for the 15”.

 

It's not a big difference, but still a difference. 14" are still quite a bit smaller IMO than a gaming 15" and then up to gaming 17". To each their own but I think 15" is my max.

 

You guys need to buy bigger tables instead of smaller laptops.

 

Can the 15" come in the metallic finish of the 17"? Im not a fan of the rubberized/blueish finish.

 

I believe the P151HM has the non-rubberized finish.

 

My thinking used to be that the weight/size savings of 15 wasn't enough to justify getting it over the 17.

Then I realized that 15 was the limit for me and that 2 pounds makes more difference than i thought and 15 fits better on many impromptu work surfaces.
(forget 17 on airplane)
So now I only look at 15 and smaller

 

To each their own but the difference in screen size while gaming is enough to have made the difference in my purchase decision. I just think the whole portability issue is overplayed when recommending the 15 over the 17. Carrying the NP8150 over your shoulder is not going to feel much deferent than carrying an NP8170

 

As a frequent traveller myself, on most airplanes today 15" is too large to reasonably work on. Not so much the side to side dimension but trying to open the screen at a workable angle is difficult when the seat in front of you is reclined is damn near impossible.

 

Personally, I got the 8150 because I felt the keyboard layout was aesthetically better and because upgrading to the 95% gamut screen was much cheaper.

 

This is my first 17 incher, and there's no way I'm going back to a smaller screen.

I am a big guy though, so 15.6" probably doesn't feel small to most people.

 

My work laptop is 15.6 and the laptop I just bought the wife is 17". Weight difference is not noticeable when the bag is on your back. But, the screen difference when looking at them is.

 

I'm so used to 20"+ desktop monitors. 15" simply doesn't do it for me...

 

17 is better in my opinion. bigger screen makes and visual ease makes up for the extra 2 pounds, which in the end is not really a hassle. This is why Im going with a 17" screen again. Now if I could finally make up my mind on the gpu...

 

Well, this just changed my mind about a 15".

 

After using a 15 inch for the last three years, I feel this form factor gets a bit cramped for multitasking, such as having a excel/website split screen.

I also think the 17" is more capable of using a 1080p screen. The 1680x1050 on my 15'' already makes my eyes squint, and I hate to constantly zoom in and out for webpage viewing.

 

As others have stated, the actual size difference between a 15" and a 17" is rather small.

For me though a 17" just doesn't "feel" right.

 

The monitors are small enough that you should consider having a larger monitor for at home and use the smaller 15.6" factor for short-term outdoor/library/etc use.

 

It really depends.

However 15.6 inch isn't a portable laptop. You can consider a netbook for portability.

 

When I had a 17 inch laptop, I thought it was way too large to carry around / bring to school

14 Inch is a great size but 15.6 inch should be fine, as it's hard to pack in power when a laptop gets smaller

I'd go for a 15 inch for a little more portability than the 17 inch