Highly Considering a Sager Laptop

Hi everyone,

Browsing through a few threads briefly, this sure does seem like the right place to be to ask about a Sager laptop. I'm highly considering buying one for school next year (I'll be using it for working, playing Starcraft II, and a little computer programming) but I had some general questions, concerns, and thoughts, and I wondered if anyone here could help me out with them!

Firstly, is it really better to buy a Sager laptop from a reseller? And if so, why? Sager's site proclaims a 30-day money back guarantee, which is tempting, as I've never bought a Sager notebook before and it'd be nice to have an ace in the hole if something goes wrong, so to speak.

(On a side note, for the sake of convenience, the laptops I'm looking at will be linked from Sager's site.)

One of the problems I have with Sager right now is that they seem to be really thick, bulky, and heavy. 1.63" at it's thickest point is pretty large, and 6 pounds is a helluva laptop to lug around... and this is with me only looking at 15.6" models!

Right now I'm mostly looking at this laptop: custom gaming laptops - Welcome to Sager Notebooks But I haven't been able to find any reviews on it. The size and weight are still meh, but better than others... the only thing that worries me is that the graphics cards is a GeForce GT630M, which, as I've found out from some benchmark sites, is just a rebranded GT550M or so.

Lastly, everyone on this subforum is probably a Sager lover, but could someone try and very objectively tell me what they like about Sager and what they don't? How does the build quality feel, just holding it? How well does the trackpad work? How does the keyboard feel?

I know that this is super long and has a helluva lot of questions, but if anyone can address just a few of them, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much!

Zeya

 

I got what I wanted. It's a sturdy, plain and minimal look, no branding, matte 95% LCD is incredible for the upgrade price. The keyboard feels great, performance iis good, easy access through back panel and maintenance.

What I don't like:
They went with a muxless design, having only the iGPU connected to the display so it is always on rather than going with muxxed so I can manually switch betwee the iGPU and dGPU. It confuses me a lot why Clevo did this with a gaming/performance laptop, it's idiocy.

I also don't like the blame being directed at AMD for what is Clevo's fault for being morons.

 

So far I've owned two notebooks from Sager and from what I can tell there of pretty decent build quality to say the least, not exceptional but simply decent. Although they use plastic as there entire exterior its pretty sturdy and surely to last a long time and especially compared to AW its built to access components pretty easily and has a more professional look to it.

As for the resellers its simply because Sager has poor customer service - or so I've heard, while I've personally never dealt with them the general consensus is that there generally unpleasant and annoying to get anything done if anything goes wrong. That's where the resellers come in, they fill out any forms that are required contact Sager to do whatever necessary and gets the job done without hassling you and causing you problems. However it should be noted theres a difference between Resellers and Builders, for example Malibal and Sager are builders and they actually make there own notebooks and sell it to the user without a middle man (such as XoticPc, Powernotebooks etc.) As for which reseller/builder might be the best, you should check out the Resellers feedback section.

Also in terms of performance yes its thick but really would it bother you? I myself am also a student but I've never had a problem with its size. When your travelling your carrying it in something and you take it out when you need it so personally I've never had that problem. In terms of GPU you might want to select something like a 650m.

 

This answers a lot of what I was wondering, thank you very much. XoticPc looks to be pretty reliable/decent, so if I get one I'll probably go from there.

I guess the size thing isn't a huge issue (no pun intended) but I was just a little worried about weight+size because I am (gasp) a macfag as of now, so I'm used to a slim and light machine (for the record, I went from PC to Mac and I'm going back to PC now).

Right now I'm looking at the NP9130- it looks nice. I don't need something as powerful as the 9150, and besides, I prefer a chiclet keyboard...

 

I understand what you mean because I've had a 13" macbook and I currently still do own a 15" MBP, however when you use it day in and day out eventually the bulkiness that was originally apparent disappears. Also the 9130 is a lot better choice in terms of performance per price and should last you a lot longer. Just note that if you use back light a lot on your keyboard the 9130 doesn't have one.

 

Alright, I may definitely buy one then! I don't use a backlit keyboard-- the Mac I'm using is one from....oh god....6 years ago maybe? One of the old white plastic ones xD. No, I pride myself on being a touch typist and I don't need backlit.

I'll probably order one soon, but first I think I'm going to want to call Xoticpc or Sager and double-check on the return in 30 days thing. It looks like a really awesome laptop, but if I can't stand it, it'd be nice to know that I could return it.

Thanks for your help!

 

Remember that this 15.6 is a wide screen measure, so it's comparable in size to a 17" 4x3 laptop as far as size. If the video card is a concern then just upgrade it to a better model. I have dropped my old Clevo on a corner (closed) and the plastic held up well and the metal behind it prevented much more than a slight dent in the corner. Just remember what you are getting, this is a portable gaming system, the battery is not going to last 5 hours while you play BF3 and it's not going to be .5" thick and weigh less than 4 pounds.

 

You may also be interested in the new W370, or at least the 15" version when it comes out. Also check out the W150ER. (NOTE: These are the clevo model numbers, I don't remember the sager ones off the top of my head)

This is actually the suggested design by BOTH nVidia AND AMD at this point. Expect all new laptops to be muxless like this. It's not like Clevo did something cheap...

 

Sager computers do have a 30day return period, no restocking fee either, the shipping costs is the only thing not refunded.

 

This was the final thing that won me over to giving Sager a try. Even NewEgg charges a restocking fee on everything.

I would assume that any company willing to give you a 30 day guarantee and no restocking fee on a custom built product seems pretty serious about getting it right and keeping the customer happy.

We'll see how it goes though. I haven't received mine yet. That's just my train of thought.

 

Yeah, that 30 days back thing is pretty unique and really quite a good deal. It might convince me to at least buy a Sager laptop for now, and god forbid I hate it, I can return it (atm, the other laptop I'm looking at is a Samsung 7 Chronos. Quite a difference between that and Sager, yes, I know). As long as the return process is nice and easy, life will be good! Haha

 

I bought a NP9150 and will be using it for college.

If you are looking for a high performance gaming laptop, you aren't going to get much lighter than the Sager ones. The NP9150 weighs 6.8 pounds, but comparable laptops from other brands weigh over 8 pounds. If you want a portable laptop, then you shouldn't be looking at gaming laptops. The lightest you can probably get will be 5.5 lbs, so that NP3260 isn't really heavy for the type of hardware in it. The laptops are thick, yes, but I don't see thickness as being an issue. A thick laptop won't prevent me from putting it on a desk.

As to the laptop you are looking at, the 630M isn't a great card. It will run SC2 on low-medium settings, but it will have trouble running modern games now and in the future. I would recommend getting the NP9130, if not the NP9150. You will want to upgrade the CPU to a 3610QM. This is 2012, don't get a dual core .

And yes, Sager has a 30 day return policy that is applicable through resellers. It is no questions asked.

I would recommend either the NP9130 (with an upgraded CPU) or the NP9150. The main difference is that the NP9150 is has the backlit keyboard (you say you don't need one, but it is amazing), has a rubber finish, and is more upgradable.

 

Regarding the 630m:

I've got one in the machine I'm typing on right now (MSI) and it works pretty well for gaming at lower resolutions (1366x768 or lower). At higher resolutions, probably not so much. If you want to pay games, I'd say get a better card. If you plan to only play games occasionally, the 630m will get the job done at med to high settings at lower resolutions.

For instance, a few weeks ago I started and completed Dead Space 2 with "High" settings. The only things I disabled were Anti-Aliasing, Ani. Filtering, and Shadows on low. That game was release in 2011, I think, so not too shabby.

 

When I got my laptop in the keyboard was actually messed up. Certain keys (t, y, u, h, x) some times would just not read for a few clicks. I didn't have to push them any harder to get them to work, just keep pressing them 2-5 times to get them to work. This was terrible when typing as I would miss letters and mess up whole sentences when I knew I had pressed the keys.

I tell you that to tell you this. I went through Sager to get another keyboard (I purchased from Xotic) because I needed a keyboard shipped to me first. I was in the last two weeks of my summer classes and could not do without the laptop, however the end of the classes would put me past the thirty day limit. They asked no questions. I was required to put a payment down, but they sent me a keyboard and a return label. I dropped it in and popped the keyboard they sent me right back in the mail the same day. Three days later my payment was refunded and two days after that they got the keyboard.

Not only did they work with me in a dire time, but they paid shipping both ways AND refunded my fee BEFORE they even got the keyboard back. They might be a bit hard to talk to, but they do work very well.


As for the quality of the laptop, I love it. This thing is build EXACTLY how I like laptops, easy access to anything and everything, every extra feature you can imagine. If I had to choose a complaint I would say that the speaker system is a bit iffy and sometimes sounds a bit distorted and just bad in general. However I am a headset gamer so I always have my headset on. I don't notice the speakers that much since I don't use them in the first place.

Oh, and the program that controls the lights for the keyboard also puts the little emblems in the corner when you hit caps lock and num lock, which annoys me to no end, but what can I do?

All in all I would recommend them. I've build and worked with computers for nearly 15 years and this is one of the best feeling laptops I have ever owned. For reference purposes I went with the Np9170 from Xotic.