Novatech X70 MV Pro Forum Review

Novatech X70 MV Pro Review

The X70 is a brand new product for Novatech, filling a space between the oversized gaming notebooks and the more mainstream multimedia notebooks. With the latest 9800M GTS graphics from nVidia and Centrino 2 technology from Intel, this notebook is certainly not lacking on the performance front, while all is packed into a 15.4” form factor machine with no compromises. It fits in Novatech’s range somewhere between the recently reviewd X50 MV Pro multimedia notebook and the X80 MV Desktop replacement with a price that reflects this.



Specifications:

• Screen: 15.4” WSXGA+ 1680 x 1050 (X-Glass)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 (2.53GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 6MB Cache)
• Memory: 2GB DDR3 Ram
• Storage: Fujitsu 320GB HDD (7200rpm)
• Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW
• Wireless: Intel 5100 AGN + Bluetooth 2.0
• Graphics: nVidia 9800M GTS GDDR3 512mb
• 2 Mega Pixel Web Camera
• Battery: 8 Cell
• Dimensions: 364mm x 269mm x 41mm
• Weight: 3.2Kg with 8-Cell Battery
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Retail Price: £1332.85 inc. VAT (at time of review)

Build and Design:

The X70 breaks away from the all too common glossy plastic finish of many notebooks on the market today, with the only trace being found in the small area around the keyboard. For the remainder of the notebook, a sleek brushed black (anodized) aluminium finish which is surrounded by a silver edge which really makes it stand out from the crowd. One very noticable thing is the complete lack of branding on the notebook. There is nothing, except a small sticker on the underside of the notebook which says that Novatech actually build this laptop.



As far as build quality goes, the X70 is nothing short of excellent. There is no keyboard or palmrest flex whatsoever and as usual with Clevo based notebooks, everything seems very well put together. Thanks to the rigid aluminium lid, there is no show through whatsoever when pressure is applied to the back of the screen and the screen hinges seem very robust with no wobble whatsoever. One slight drawback of the hinge design is that it can only be put back to around 45 degrees and no further, although this isn’t to limiting.



You may have noticed that through this review I have referred to the X70 as a laptop rather than a notebook. This is because it is actually possible to use on your lap – It doesn’t actually have any air intakes on the underside of the notebook and doesn’t get unbearable hot either.

Screen

As far as notebook screens go, the display in the X70 is sharp and bright with good viewing angles, but sadly has a stuck pixel which is somewhat dissapointing, although it is not always noticable. Also, Novatech doesn’t offer a no dead pixel warranty as an extra on their notebooks like many other notebook manufacturers which would be a welcomed addition. The quality of the screen is greatly improved by the X-Glass coating, which is not over-reflective like many other notebooks but is enough to give the extra clarity and improved contrast of such a coating. If it wasn’t for the stuck pixel, this screen would match the high standards set by the rest of the laptop. The screen would also benefit from LED backlighting as it is not as bright as the superior screen of the X80.



It would have been nice to see Novatech using a 16:9 screen rather than the 16:10 as this Notebook is so geared up for high definition playback, although they are limited somewhat by what is offered by the ODM

Speakers:

The speakers on the X70 are about average as far as notebooks go, being adequate to watch a movie but for anything more, you really need external speakers or headphones. The placement of the audio jacks could be better, being right next to the hard drive which causes some interference in the audio output, but this hardly noticable over music.



Processer and Performance:

The X70 sports the Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 processor which runs at a healthy 2.53 GHz. This provides ample power for almost every task that you throw at it and combined with the powerful nVidia 9800M GTS graphics chip, provides stunning frame rates in the latest games, while has a low TDP at 25W so that it is more efficient than the slightly more powerful processors which helps improve the battery life. Novatech have chosen to use a Fujitsu 320GB 7200rpm hard drive in this model which is currently the biggest 2.5” hard drive available in this speed, although if you require the optimum performance, you can upgrade to a Solid State Disk for around £50. As mentioned previously, the X70 features the nVidia 9800M GTS graphics chip. This is currently the second most powerful mobile chip from nVidia which, coupled with the X-Glass screen provides stunning graphics and frame rates in the latest games.



Benchmarks

CPU-Z



GPU-Z



Windows Experience Index



HD Tune



3DMark 05





3DMark 06





Heat and Noise

Unlike its bigger brother the X80, the X70 uses a single fan cooling design which seems to be far superior in most ways. Noise is reduced massively over the two fan design, and even when gaming, the fan noise is not intrusive at all, and if complete silence is required, there is a silent mode, activated by a button above the keyboard which clocks down the system so the fan isn’t required.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard included is above average as there is no flex whatsoever and the responsiveness is great. The only small issue that is noticeable is the noise that the keys make. It is really quite loud and intrusive and is still very noticeable when typing as softly as possible.



The touchpad is also generally good, however it has a rather unusual button design. Both the touchpad and buttons are made up from only one piece of plastic so it is unclear how bit the buttons are. The buttons themselves are quite narrow with a blank space in the middle which one would assume is for a fingerprint reader that isn’t currently available. The touchpad finish is also not very forgiving to touchpad grease which is very obvious.



Input and Output Ports:

The X70 has almost every connection you could want for a laptop, including both HDMI and E-Sata connections. The only port that would be welcome is a standard VGA port for use with older displays / projectors, however there is a DVI adapter provided for this. Also t placement of the audio connections could be better as they are on the front which is useful for headphones but can be a little annoying when connecting to speakers.

All descriptions are from left to right



1. Optical Disk Drive



1. Expresscard Slot
2. Memory Card Reader
3. 2 x USB 2.0 Port
4. RJ-45 Gigabit LAN port
5. RJ-11 Modem Port



1. Headphone Jack
2. Microphone Jack
3. SPDIF Jack
4. Mini Firewire Port



1. DVI-D Port
2. HDMI Port
3. USB 2.0 Port
4. USB 2.0 / E-Sata Port
5. Kensington Lock Slot

Wireless

The X70 makes se of the Intel Wifi-Link 5100 AGN card which has an excellent range and achieves decent speeds even when only using a G connection. The laptop also features Bluetooth and has a slot available for an HSDPA card (not available at point of review).

Battery

The battery life of the X70 is actually surprisingly good for a notebook of this nature. If you are conservative and use the Silent Mode, you can get almost 3 hours or useful life, although when gaming you will reduce this to nearer the one hour mark. It would have been good to see a binary graphics option available like on the rival Alienware M15X but the Silent Mode does compensate for this a little.

Operating System and Software

My review model of the X70 had Vista Home Premium 32bit installed, however it is available with most flavours of Vista and XP or without an operating system at all. Sadly there was no operating system disk included, although they are available from Novatech upon request The only pre-installed software that the X50 ships with is a 60 day trial of Microsoft Office and the only disk which comes with it is a Driver disk which also contains a .PDF version of the user manual.



Customer Support

Novatech provides some of the best customer support I have ever experienced from a computer manufacturer. Every issue I have had with the laptop I purchased from them has been dealt with in a professional and efficient way, and I have been nothing less than 100% satisfied with it. Novatech have both phone support and a live chat which I have tried out and both seem to be very helpful. I have to say their live chat is on a whole different level to that of Dell. As standard, all Novatech laptops come with a 12 month return to base warranty, however for the cost of around £40, this can be upgraded to a 2 year C & R warranty which I think is a must have.

Conclusion

The Novatech X70 is the best laptop currently available if you are looking for the optimum balance between gaming performance and portability, being far smaller than most similarly configured 17” notebooks and only slightly bigger than more mainstream 15.4” notebooks. The main downsides are the slightly disappointing screen quality and the worryingly warm hard drive.



Pros

• Sleek design with a premium finish
• Desktop performance graphics in a 15.4” form factor
• Available with a variety of operating systems or none at all
• Silent mode which improves battery life considerably
• Great build quality

Cons

• Dissapointing screen
• Hot hard drive
• Keyboard and touchpad could be better

Thanks to James, Chris and KP for organizing this review unit for me

Worth Noting:

Since this review the X70 MV Pro Specifiations have changed to include the nVidia 260M GTX 1GB DDR3 and Blu-Ray as standard

 

Nice review, but I would have liked to see their GTX 260M review

 

Not a bad review. Thumbs up!

 

From what they have told me they aren't shipping the 260M quite yet as there was a small delay in production of some kind. I did this review a while ago (I have had the review sample since before christmas) as it was officially for the techpond forum and as it is going back tomorrow, I thought I would post it over here aswell

 

Fantastic review, will recommend it to sceptical potential buyers

 

what? is that true? ive looked at galleries of the laptop and it seems like there are definitely intakes on the bottom

 

there is the single fan intake on the bottom.

I feel that the whole review isn't fully accurate.

 

thanks for clarifying, i was unsure about that

 

I want that sleek touchpad without the fingerprint reader.

 

On the model I had, there were what would appear to be air intakes and vents but ALL of them were covered over on the underside with an adhesive black plastic sheet... I believe I took a picture of this but will have to have a look around...

@Gophn, what did you feel wasn't accurate as it would be good to know before I start the next review tomorrow of their X55 (Asus Z97V) notebook

 

thing is, if there are no intakes on the bottom, where are the intakes? there is no room anywhere else i believe

 

The fan sucks air through the keyboard... I cant seem to find the photos i took of it but I believe it is something which has been touched on here before.

EDIT:

 

I think that black film is supposed to be removed.... especially since the fan wont be able to intake air properly if you dont.

 

I find most resellers do take it off before they send it. It's the sellers like Novatech who sell you the notebooks in set packages rather than allowing you to customise your own hardware presale that possibly don't remove them. This may be because they don't have to spend (much?) time inside the machine itself.

I'm guessing it's an attempt by Clevo try to keep the chassis as clean as possible during transitions.

Just my 'cents. If anyone knows why then please correct me.

 

I can see how it might appear like it should be removed but I didn't once have a problem with the laptop over heating (other than the standard hot hard drive which is a flaw with the M860TU), and the temperatures and fan noise were quite reasonable.

@ Oiad, I know for a fact that Novatech build all of these laptops to order, even if you follow the set configuration as I visited their production facilty last summer. They also run extensive tests on every laptop before they ship to make sure they are top notch

 

I think what Ioad is getting at is that they only supply 2 configurations per chassis so whilst they build for each customer then don't technically "custom build". Their testing is definitely not in question though.

The blocked panels are a bit of a strange one really. Some batches came with them and some without. I know that a couple of resellers (yes we do all talk from time to time ) didn't actually realise that their latest batch had the black film attached until after I mentioned it and they had a look at their stock. It isn't for shipping purposes though and it is only on a small number of chassis.