P151SM1 battery life and a very weird response from XoticPC

I've been trying to ascertain what the battery life is on the P151SM1 so I emailed XoticPC asking them whether the quoted 2+ hours from during gaming or if it was a less intensive task like web browsing. I would post the response but there is an attached "CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE" at the bottom saying that "Posting this email publicly without our consent is unauthorized".

The gist of it is a rep named Hutsady K. saying that the 2 hour battery life listed is under minimal use and I should only expect 30-45 minutes on battery if I were gaming.



Is Clevo putting AAA batteries in these laptops or something? I can't believe they would have a max time of 2 hours with everything minimal, or even run out in 30 minutes when gaming.

This either gives me a bad view on XoticPC or Clevo and I'm not really sure what to think. I've always heard very good things about Xotic but I get some very weird vibes from their website. Their news hasn't been updated in almost a year and every single review of any laptop on their website seems absolutely curated. Also, the comments on their 'blog posts' are bizarre and don't seem like real people, see here. What's the deal with the confidentiality notice in my email? I just wonder if some of the good reviews for these guys are contrived like those comments on that blog post. Some of the comments copied directly below in case Xotic chooses to clean up:

But in all honesty, I would probably still buy from Xotic, but I am really curious about the battery life on the P151 series.

 

If it helps, My x7200 has a battery life of about 45 minutes before it turns off(not shutdown.)





Sent from my SGH-9500 using Tapatalk 2

 

Most laptops running the highest end games suck up a lot of power and no lithium-ion battery will be able to run longer than 1 hour at the most running these games. You also have to keep in mind the fans running at full power to keep the whole thing cool. We're just not at extended life from batteries yet, though hopefully in the future we'll see a battery that'll be able to hold the load we all covet. If it helps, I bought my Sager from XoticPC four years ago, and I can assure you they're a legit company. However, if you're spooked, there are plenty of other re-sellers in the US that you can choose from.

 

I mean, as for battery life, I don't really care about life while gaming because who really plays games without being plugged in? What I do care about is battery life on the iGPU and if that is only 2 hours max, that seems way too low for practical usage.

 

I use my computer for work as well as gaming, and I am curious as to the battery life while not gaming. Sometimes I have to make some impromptu presentations and don't have access to a power outlet, so I need battery life for an hour. My current computer in my signature has about 1.5 hours of battery life when not playing games; I'd be a little surprised if a so-called energy saving haswell doesn't have at least that much battery time.

 

I get 3.5 hours with my P150EM.

 

deleted. was having a bad day

 

You can't really "game" on any of these laptops on battery anyway.

The GPU's are underclocked and limited when running on battery as the battery wouldn't be able to supply enough power for the GPU to be full clock at 100% use...

This is true with almost all laptops also btw.

Battery will be fine for web or anything non GPU intensive. Will last around 2 hours give or take a bit.

Don't think you will get a laptop and bust open a game though and play while on battery because short of it being an old game or the built in windows ones lol it ain't gonna be purddy unless on power.


As for Xotic disclaimer in e-mail. A lot of companies do similar, my job even does. You're not allowed to forward or share the e-mails etc. It's more to protect the company due to various legal things.
That said, Xotic also doesn't build or have any control in Sager laptops. They are Clevo manufactured, Sager just slaps them together (though most often not even that) and provides the sales and warranty direct or through a reseller like Xotic.

 

Hello Grim Tuesday, I do apologize if my answer was not what you wanted to hear but it is the truth. Its better to tell you that then to say "Yah you'll get 2hrs battery time when gaming" then you get the computer and its nothing like that.
Battery life is always listed as maximum you can get with minimal use. Everyone lists it this way regardless of brand or website. When you're just browsing the net the power the computer consumes is way different then running everything full throttle. Notebook computers shouldnt be ran on battery for gaming anyway you'll get much lower performance then when plugged in. Kinda like car commercials that give you a estimate MPG, thats usually under the standard driving conditions or highway when you're changing the RPM of the engine much. If you drive it close to redline all the time you're not going to get what its capable of doing.
As Bryanu mentioned pretty much all companies have a non disclosure statement on the bottom of their emails. I do many emails a day with people daily and the ones being sent from work or a business do have that.

We dont write up our own reviews , i see how they can sound like it. You can check our resellerratings.com page too if you'd like where there are over 1100+ reviews.

 

Seriously? Dude was asking a question and trying to get some clarification as to what he thought looked off. There's not a damned thing wrong with that. Get over yourself.

 

Hutsady,

Thanks for answering my question truthfully. Like I said in the OP, I was trying to figure out whether I should think poorly of Xotic or I should think poorly of Clevo for having really poor battery life . I would much rather have my question answered truthfully now than buy the laptop and be disappointed by the battery life later.

All that said I don't really want to run the computer on battery for gaming, though. What I want is something I can game with in my dorm but be able to survive a day of note taking. I'm still not sure I believe all the reviews but I have heard plenty of real people having great experiences from Xotic and your customer service is nice so I would be willing to buy from you guys.

@Mr.DJ, you're just a donkey Just because you're having a bad day doesn't mean you have to take it out on me. I'm no corporate shill for one of Xotic's competitors, I was legitimately curious why there is such a giant circlejerk about them.

 

Most desktop replacement category laptops suffer from poor battery life. Also, most of the advertised battery life claims are made assuming you are using the integrated GPU (intel HD2/3/4000) and being on powersaver mode. Some systems cant even use the dedicated GPU without being plugged in as the battery itself just doesnt provide enough juice.

 

my apologies for earlier post. its not normally like me, i promise.
it could well have come across misinterpreted due to wording from both our countrys and not enough coffee at 8.30am

ill crawl back under my rock again.

only another 19 hours on emergency call.

 

If the SM models are anything like the EM models you should easily be able to get 3.5 hours of light web use out of it. As far as gaming, if you stick with the IGP you'll get probably 2 hours or so, just limit the FPS. You could probably get by using the dedicated GPU but it automatically limits itself to very low clocks on battery and the IGP would probably perform just as well under that circumstance.

 

Happy to help out and clear anything up. You'll see the same battery life with any brand if it has the same componets in there. To get a powerful machine you need powerful parts which i turn need lots of power to run them. For note taking in class you'll be ok for a few classes, just try to hunt down a seat next to a power outlet if you have lot of time in classes.

MrDJ is typically very helpful, very much out of character for him. Glad he recognized it and apologized later

 

I went through college with a Sager NP8660 (now going on its 5th year, probably the equivalent to P151SM of that time) and was able to get at least 3+ hours during classes as long as I turned the brightness down and put it in power saver. Also utilizing the button that turned my LCD off when I wasn't using it helps a lot too. You can also buy a second battery if you're concerned. Helps with those long flights and you want to watch some movies

 

See, this is exactly the sort of thing that confuses me. With Hutsady saying there is a conceivable max of 2 hours but then other people reporting that the laptop can go much further, it leaves me very confused. I'm starting to think the P151SM1 is the best notebook for me, even if its battery life is not the best.

Thanks everyone for all the help so far.

 

Shouldn't Optimus be improving the battery life a lot when doing mundane tasks? Case in point: P150HM (last one without optimus) gets 2h on wlan [1] while P177SM gets 3:18 [2]. That does not seem to be a lot given what a power hog a dedicated GPU is. I'm not expecting ultrabook levels, but it would be nice to be able to watch a movie without having to look for a power socket.

[1] Review Schenker XMG P501 PRO Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews
[2] Review Schenker XMG P703 (Clevo P177SM) Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

well, is it even confirmed yet if the p151sm has switchable graphics? afaik no official specs have surfaced yet for that model... also depends on the size of the battery that machine sports.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

i have no idea what model is what with all the world wide model numbers but heres the tech spec for the two 4th gen 15" lappys from Schenker

A523 mySN.co.uk | XMG | Schenker Technologies - XMG A523 15.6" Notebook

P503 mySN.co.uk | XMG | Schenker Technologies - XMG P503 15.6" Notebook

 

thanks for the links DJ

the P503 is the P157SM, whereas the A523 could actually be the P151SM. the PSU size fits (120W), also the rest of the specs would make sense @chiclet non-backlit keyboard, 765M, etc.

edit: ah nope, the Schenker A523 is actually the Clevo W350ST: http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Schenker-XMG-A523-Clevo-W350ST-Notebook.93898.0.html

 

thought id better redeem myself after my blip on this thread yesterday

and im glad im not the only one getting totally confused with all the different model numbers worldwide

it took me months back in the days of the m860tu/D900F to work out a spread sheet with all the clevo and suppliers model numbers. if i had time i would try again but its a ruddy nightmare.

 

The review I linked to says it does.

Wysyane z mojego Nexus 4 za pomoc Tapatalk 2

 

Those numbers are WRONG, I bet they didn't turn off the backlit keyboard . Any P15xEM user can tell you 3.5 hours is about normal. I tested at 30% brightness, wi-fi on, basic web browsing and ended up over 3.5 hours.

 

I think I've done a bit better than 3.5 hours on my P150SM maybe pushed it to 4 or 5 hours, I was basically using it on and off all day on battery and never plugged it in, I spent at least a few solid hours tweaking and messing about with stuff - it wasnt super light use or anything.......

Just for you, and not all because I want to play games for an extended period ..... I will pull out the power cord, set my system to "balanced" performance - turn OFF they backlit keyboard to minimum (I think this is off), and set screen to number 4/8 (so just under50%, with 5/8 been just over half) and turn off my CPU/GPU overclocks and just run 'O'Naturalle and see hold long I can play World of Tanks for before it goes in to hibernation on me....... see you on the other side, FPS will be limited to 40fps, I will rerun the assessment tomorrow with JUST the intergrated 4600MQ for comparison - and comment on FPS it was able to maintain and general smoothness of game-play, I am running the default "medium" settings at 1920x1080 (I do usually run "maximum" but in real life, these are what I would do if I wanted for some reason to play on battery, as I would be looking to maximise my gaming performance without sacrificing to much quality)

 

not sure how demanding tanks is but i hope it doesnt knacker your battery as they cant take heavy gaming as it just cant handle the drain.

 

23 mins in 71% battery remaining, gaming is smooth enough and comfortable, 40fps maintaining well, temperatures are ultra low on both CPU and GPU, and the fans are near silent, they are on their minimum setting speed wise. it is draining quicker than I expected ??? where is all that power going - its certainly not producing much heat or noise as I said.... it is just ticking over nicely - no big FPS drops either its quiet smooth and consistent. WorldofTanks is on of the only games that I can't max out settings wise, it pretty heavy on the graphics and looks stunning - don't underestimate it till you've seen it

 

Results are IN and I am slightly disappointed but this is a GTX 780m LOLOLOL

1 HOUR 10 MINUTES with medium settings, I believe any further restrictions on FPS would result in an undesirable gaming experiance. The matches happened to be some of the best I've ever had, and to add to that I won every single game throughout the testing, and was the top tanks with 2x more damage than any other player in every game except 1. The only game I lost was the last where the system went to sleep, I survived the battle but the base was captured and the game finished when I managed to resume play - we would have WON otherwise! again I had minimum 2x more damage than any other play. The M18 Hellcat is a rapid and fast aiming tank, it requires blinding fast aiming skills and equally coordinated maneuvering so it is a real hot test of a systems latency and general responsiveness.



The CPU typically ran around 1.3-1.4 GHz and the GPU ran around the 400gpu/440 mem

typical CPU power usage was 10w (as reported) and the GPU floated around 60% usage with the memory controller using about 30% of its capacity

I'll re-run the test with the HD 4600 as soon as the battery is recharged........ I've been needing a break, I've been working so hard I've barely played any games on this P150SM since I bought it!! I'm beta testing 3 "things" and really havent left much room for playing lately :thumbsup: so overall I enjoyed this......

 

Reserving this post. I've just finished a 3hr marathon writing some new code for my machine (for the W110ER cpu cooler) and the battery is back up to 100% but I don't have time to test tonight, I'll be busy probably most of tomorrow and beyond, so I'll just hold this post, and update as soon as i can with the HD 4600 intel graphcis