P151SM1 vs P150SM 770m

I'm looking for a new laptop and some recommendations included the P151SM1 and the P150SM. Ordinarily, I would prefer the P151SM1, seeing as I don't have much use for a backlit keyboard and I don't plan on upgrading my notebook any time soon. However, there have been reports of people having problems with the 770m in the P151SM1, notably that it seems to stay clocked at 705.5mhz even in games, with the boost kicking in only for certain games. Have there been any fixes implemented for this issue? Also, does the P150SM suffer from the same issue, or does its GPU throttle properly?

 

With a 180W PSU the 150SM is going to have the room to be a bit more aggressive with the likes of turbo.

 

Personally, I only went with the P151SM1 because Sager hadn't released a P150SM at the time. But the prices are so similar (~$100 difference I believe) that, looking back, I think I definitely would've strongly considered the P150SM. It also has a rubber exterior as opposed to a plastic exterior (on the lid/palm rest) that the P151SM1 has. But if I was going with the P150SM, I probably would've upgraded to the Radeon 8970M seeing how it only costs an extra +$100 to upgrade from the 770M. But I guess you'd have to have a little faith that AMD would step their game up in the driver support department. As far as upgradeability (which I'm guessing is why most people go with this model), I doubt that would have been of any importance to me. Whatever card I select at the time of purchase is probably the card I'd stick with for that machine seeing as it would probably cost upwards of ~$800 to get whatever card is next in line.

 

My only issue with this is that one of the primary uses of this laptop will be to take notes in university, meaning I'd need to be able to squeeze out at least 3 or 4 hours of battery life from it. I was hoping to be able to do so with Optimus enabled, but I'm worried that AMD's drivers might not be as efficient at graphics switching. Is there a way for me to manually force integrated graphics so that, for example, I could force them when I go to lecture and flip the discreet GPU back on later on when I want to game?

 

It's all automatic AFAIK. Sometimes I'll zoom in and out in PowerPoint and all of a sudden the dGPU is turned up. But I think 3 to 4 hours is definitely doable for light tasks.These machines are pretty heavy, though. It's easily the bulkiest and heaviest laptop I've ever owned and extremely loud. No matter what you do those fans will spin up and down. I haven't found a way around it. I usually just keep this at home as a desktop replacement so none of those things are of any concern to me. But if you're gonna lug this around from class to class, I'm not sure if these are the best options. But if you're main priority is gaming, you can't go wrong with these machines.

 

My 150EM gets nearly 5 hours of battery life.

I put all of the apps that I run on the ssd and use my hdd for storage and Steam. This way my hdd is basically off unless I want it on. I also use the Hotkey app. I've never had an issue with Optimus and I regularly use powerpoints and even VLC to watch and speed up lectures.

I'm sure the newer 151 and 150SM can do even better.

 

I can get similar on my 157SM with a 780M, but keep in mind when on battery the systems limit the GPU usage anyway so that generally won't be a factor. I say if someone can spare the few more bucks get the better one. They all use similar parts anyway power and cooling wise.

 

I want to emphasize this post. It's a great home computer, but not ideal at all for classes. It's rather large, heavy, and noisy for classrooms. I know 2 people who got last year's iteration of the P151SM1. One of them doesn't bring a computer to class anymore and the other bought a smaller computer just for classes.

 

The AMD cards do just fine on battery

 

We haven't had any inquiries with regards to the clock issue. If it is an epidemic, hopefully driver revisions will resolve it. But between the P151SM and the P150SM, any nuances like that would most likely be the same.

 

I went with the 150 for the backlight. I'm a sucker for pretty colors haha.

It's sitting next to me in its box anxiously awaiting lunch time for me to open it

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

I cant go without a backlight anymore, once without just seem dull.

 

Once you go backlit, you never go back.

 

15.6" laptops aren't that big, will fit most backpacks which a lot of college students (including me) bring to school. It does get annoying when I'm in a class with tables that are smaller than my books.