NP6852 vs NP8155

If I customize up an NP6852 vs NP8155 Sager's site, the difference in cost is $250. I could use a little help trying to figure out what that extra $250 gets me.

Specs-wise, the only obvious difference I can see is the 1060 vs 1050 Ti- but both should be more than enough for my needs (light video and photo editing, older gaming, everyday use).

These are the differences I can see:

• Are there any differences in the display panels?
• NP8155 graphics are user switchable
• NP8155 supports 4 DIMM slots vs 2 for the NP8155 (so 32GB vs 64GB max)
• NP8155 has Killer wireless .
  
• NP6852, the storage is pretty simple. I'd go with a 500 GB M2 for OS and the default 1 TB mechanical for now. If I wanted to upgrade either, it would be a rip and replace, correct?
• NP8155 is a little more complicated but has better options. I'm still a little confused, even looking at the owners form post. I guess what I'd ask is: If I go with the 500GB Samsung 850 EVO M.2 for my OS and the default 1TB SATA for now and want to expand in the future with either another M2 SSD or another mechanical drive, what are my options? For instance, if 1TB M2 SSDs have come down a bunch in price next year and I want to add one to what I already have, could I do it?
• Keyboards and touchpads the same?
• NP8155 has better audio theoretically, but it's still laptop-quality, right?
• NP8155 has more ports: the 2 DisplayPort are 1.3 vs 1.2, USB 3.1 vs 3.0, and additional audio jacks. I need support for dual external monitors (HD not 4K) and I have a couple of external USB 3.0 HDs for backups but these are supported on both. I don't think these matter too much for what I'm doing: it's just increased speed across the cables, right?
• NP6852 has removable battery vs embedded for NP8155, curiously.
• Weight is pretty much identical (0.01 lb difference)
• NP8155 is about 0.3" longer and wider but 0.08" thinner
  
• NP8155 says Aluminum alloy vs I assume all plastic for the NP6852. What's the difference in build quality? It doesn't seem to affect weight- does it add to durability?
• How about differences in battery life or cooling? If there are significant differences, this could be a big factor.

To get a bigger picture, here's a link to my Which notebook should I buy post and maybe there's something else in here that I'm missing that will be a bigger deal. Both are within my price range but if I'm going to pay $250 more, I want it to be worth it.

The big ones to me appear to be the 1060 vs 1050 Ti, expandability for RAM and HD, and the build quality of aluminum vs all plastic. Am I missing other things?

 

Bump:

I think I've narrowed it down to these two but there's not much about either. I'm worried a bit about the the shell of the NP6852 as I can't seem to find any videos or anything but stock photos of this unit online- it looks pretty cheap and plastic. Also, the couple of reviews I've seen have described the keyboard as spongy. However, if those concerns are incorrect or overblown, I'd definitely rather save the $250 as the 1060 doesn't mean much to me.

 

By no means am I very qualified, but I'll attempt to address some of your questions to the best of my ability.

-Both display panels are listed as IPS FHD matte display. I'm fairly confident that they are indentical
-User switchable graphics might be handy for you if preserving battery when the GPU is not necessary is important
-I know absolutely zero about video editing, but the extra RAM capabilities might be important there
-The internet community seems to prefer the intel wireless over the killer wireless
-Storage issues you mentioned: Yeah I've read that discussion in the owner's lounge too, and I have no idea >.<
-Keyboards/touchpads: This is purely a guess, but since the 17" models use the same keyboard as the 15", I would think they probably have the same keyboard.
-I/O really depends on your personal needs, but if it matters, I seem to remember something about the 2 high speed USB ports will split the transfer speeds if being used concurrently
-Differences in size/weight/build quality/etc. Sorry, I really don't know


I would have chimed in to say that the difference between the 1050ti and the 1060 are not negligible (from what I've ascertained in my recent shopping research), but your second post seems to indicate that this is not terribly important.

The NP8155 I have ordered should hopefully be arriving in a week or so, and I would happy to answer any questions you may have.

I am also in the US and I ordered from a company called LPC Digital that only deals with sager/clevo machines. It might be worth it to give them a call, and see if they can help you figure out any major differences. Larry has been very helpful in my dealings with him so far.

I don't truly know you, or your needs, but from what I've read in this post, and your other "Which should I buy" post, my gut says you should get the 8155. You had mentioned that you had slightly overbuilt your previous laptop and it paid off.

When I'm in one of these situations I flip a coin. Then I try to figure out if I was relieved or disappointed by the result of the coin flip, it helps sometimes.

Good luck in your laptop purchasing journey, I'm at the tail-end of mine and know it can be rough.

 

The 81xx series can take EITHER up to 1x M.2 PCI-E + 2x 7mm 2.5" SATA OR up to 2x M.2 SATA + 2x 7mm 2.5" SATA.

The 81xx series has a more advanced cooling system.

 

@Taargus Thanks for the lengthy post! Sounds like you went through a lot of the same and it's a little tougher with the Clevos as they aren't quite as popular as some of the "name brands". But in exchange, seemingly better builds and quicker to market with new components for a better price than the competition. LPC was one of the couple of companies I was looking at ordering from. I'm still wafflng but I probably need another night or two to sleep on it.

@Meaker@Sager thanks for the simplified HD explanation! Also, the video in the other thread was extremely helpful!

 

Not a problem

 

@felaptop come any closer to a decision?

My 8155 just came in last night. It's been awesome so far.
If there's something about it I can answer now that I have one in hand, just let me know

 

@Taargus I'm leaning towards the 8155 but haven't pulled the trigger yet. Considering LPC-Digital, too. And I'll be following you here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/noob-sets-up-first-rig.802064/ because I also want to try to undervolt and may consider repasting (tho probably not the latter).

How'd you spec yours out? I'm looking at doing a 500GB M.2 EVO for OS and the stock 1TB for storage as well as maybe 16GB RAM but not much else beyond that (dead pixel warranty). Not even sure if I'm going to have OS loaded or do that myself. Did you go with the G-Sync? I've heard this can pretty substantially affect battery life.

A couple of questions that I've been wondering:
-Temps when not gaming but standard use (email, surfing, youtube, etc)
-Battery life when doing the same - this is huge as any heavy duty work, I'll be on cord but I also want to be mobile
-How's the keyboard feel
-Anything else jump out with first impressions?

 

Just a quick reply before I'm off to a very long day at work.
I'll edit this post tonight with more detail.

Initial impressions are all positive.
Temps are good and keyboard feels great. Build quality exceeds expectations.
This weekend I should able to give some numbers regarding battery life.

 

Excellent news

 

SanDisk X400 512GB SSD SATA (6Gb/s)
1 TB HGST 7200 RPM SATA HDD
16GB Dual Channel DDR4 PC4 2400MHz RAM
Intel AC 8265 wireless card (turns out it wasn't my ISP that sucked )
Stock thermal compound
Win10 Home

I did not. The 8155 did not have the option for G-sync. I decided the 8156 was not worth $300 to get gsync and 3 more gigs of vRAM

The results of the morning's battery test for the NP8155 are in.

I went into the bios, switched to hybrid graphics, rebooted the machine and unplugged.
Keyboard backlight was left on for maybe the first 20 minutes or so (when I remembered to turn it off >.<) and the brightness was set to ~35%, which was plenty comfortable for my living room.
Usage during the test consisted of checking email, a bit of reddit, a bit of wikia, a couple of hours logged on a MUD, and quite a bit of flash gaming. All perfomed on Chrome with 1-3 tabs open at a time. Speakers and an optical mouse were in use for ~1/2 the test.

Battery gave me 4 hours of light use, almost on the nose.

-at 3hr50min windows gave me the 10% warning, 7% warning at 4hr. Probably could have gone a bit longer.​

Temps were 40-45C the entire time.
Avg temp = 42. HWInfo reports max = 59 (I might have set it down with a vent blocked for a moment when I got up, not sure, never saw the 59)
The fans never came on, and I never noticed any heat on my lap or my palms.
This has been also what I've observed during light use while in discrete mode and plugged in (for both CPU and GPU).
For the duration, the laptop was either on my lap or, when I got up to get some coffee/pee, it sat on a cushioned ottoman.

The keyboard has been a real joy to use. I was a bit worried seeing as I had become so accustomed to the keyboard on my old ASUS k54c, but after only 2 days of real use, I already prefer the keyboard on the 8155.

First impressions have been great. I love this machine.

I was worried about it being large and bulky. While it is certainly not small, I was worried for no reason.

2 minor complaints so far

The front edge is fairly sharp, and digs into my wrists

-Could be fixed with better posture, but that ain't gonna happen so I just put a bit of the belt from my robe in between and it's all gravy​

The track pad leaves something to be desired.

-Could be a driver issue, could be win10, I don't really know
​

Not a complaint of mine (because I don't really care) but my wife noted that the laptop is a fingerprint magnet.​