Sager NP8170 questions before buying

Hey all
I'm considering to buy this laptop soon,But I've some questions
1)How's the build/sound quality of it? I heard it's good but Anandtech's review worries me
AnandTech - AVADirect's Clevo P170HM with GeForce GTX 485M: High-End You've Been Waiting For
"I am utterly mystified as to why the screen bezel has become the last outpost for glossy plastic on modern notebooks when it's one of the worst places for the material. The reflective nature of it is distracting and liable to only further irritate users who have largely grown weary of screens with glossy finishes. Mercifully the gloss only materializes in one other place: a tasteful trim around the aluminum palm rest beneath the keyboard. The rest of the interior surfaces of the P170HM (excluding the white-LED infused indicator bar) are a black matte plastic that seems sturdy enough if a little chintzy."
and
"The keyboard, of course, remains the bane of Jarred's existence. That's understandable: as far as chiclet keyboards go, Clevo's remain among the worst we've seen. The keys are loose, extremely clicky, and you can hear the entire keyboard rattle if you're a key abuser like I am. Worse still, the layout is utterly moronic and Clevo seems steadfast in their refusal to change it. There's a massive amount of wasted space on either side of the keyboard on this chassis "

2)Should I get the 3D 120Hz screen or the Matte display w/72% gamut(I need a matte screen)

3)How's the battery life(compared to something like M17x R3 ? )

I'm torn between the M17x R3 and this.And the build quality/keyboard are important for me ?

 

Get the Sager NP8150. Same amount of power, more portable, much better matte screen available (95% gamut)

Be sure to:
- Select an OS
- Get the GTX 485M (not 580M unless you need a 10% boost)
- Upgrade to the 95% gamut matte display (part of the reason I'm recommending the 8150 over the 8170)

I don't really understand the draw to 17" notebooks.

 

yes i agree. the 8150 is a better choice, unless you are somehow visually impaired and need a bigger screen, in which case you can get an external monitor.

 

Thanks guys
The reasons I need a 17" laptop are
1)I worked with my sisters 15.6" lenovo and I found it a little small for my eyes.
2)I need and HDD+SSD so and 8170 has two drive bays whereas 8150 has one. (I also need the optical drive so replacing it with a SSD isn't an option for me )

But I really like the matte screen 95% color gamut of the 8150

 

the problem is with the m17x is that there is no 485m, and the 580m is overpriced so you will probably go with the 6970m, which with all its recent problems is not the best card to get. although right now its 120 off the 580m

 

The AU Optronics B173HW01 V5 is a Matte screen and it is a beauty! We and other resellers are putting this on this model. It is 72% gamut.
_

 

You're forgetting the key difference. Assuming her Lenovo was an IdeaPad and not a Thinkpad (or maybe even if it was a Thinkpad), it most likely had the worthless resolution 1366x768. The screens in the 15.6" Sager NP8150 are VERY different. They have 1920x1080 resolution. Things onscreen will be quite a bit smaller and you won't get that "cramped" feeling that goes along with using a screen with too low of a pixel density. 1366x768 belongs in 12-inch laptops and just causes everything to be oversized when bloated up to 15.6 inches. This is probably why you're so put off by the 15.6" screen size, because unfortunately most 15.6" screens are 1366x768. Marketing makes us believe we need bigger screens, when in reality all we need are higher resolutions in the same screen size... and the NP8150 provides the best resolution you can get in a 15.6" screen.

The NP8170 and NP8150 both have the 1920x1080 resolution, and the only difference is that the NP8150 has that resolution in a smaller screen size. 1920x1080 is good for even a 17" laptop because most 17" laptops are 1600x900 - which is almost as worthless for 17" as 1366x768 is for 15". Unless you need more PHYSICAL screen surface area, there's no advantage of a bigger screen.

 

I see. She has an old thinkpad sl500
So,what do you say about the build/keyboard quality ?

 

The SL500 had two screens resolution options, 1280x800 and 1680x1050.

If you have access to the laptop right now, put this black square onscreen and measure it with a ruler

If it's considerably larger than 1 square inch, it's the 1280x800 display which is much worse than the Sager's 1920x1080 display.

 

The build quality on Sager laptops is fantastic. I personally like the keyboard, but some people have a problem with it.

 

If you need more than one internal hard drive AND an optical drive and/or you want 3D display, then get the P170HM. If not, the P150HM is your best bet. No other real difference.

 

I checked it. And the max resolution is 1680x1050 but she currently has set it to 1280x800

 

well then the screen probably looks aweful. when you set a resolution to a non native setting it becomes fuzzy, because this pixels of the screen and the output of the computer do not match.

 

Yes you're definitely right about this.
But still the Anandtech review worries me about the build quality/keyboard.Strangely they reviewed another version of 8170(with a better config) and they were happy with it's build quality

 

keep in mind that clevo/sager notebooks are renowned for their build quality. most people reviewing these laptops are simply nitpicking. for example, it seems that issues with the keyboard are something like a key not being as big as the user expected, or something along those lines. no one complains about flex or a cheap feel. sager/clevo notebooks are as sound as laptops come.

and i agree- the 8150 makes more sense. i was also contemplating the 17" screen, but as others have said, there is no resolution difference, only 1.7 inches, a second hdd, and few hundred dollars. but either way, im sure you will enjoy either one.

 

^ Truth!!!

 

OK,thanks for all the help guys I guess I'm going with the 8150 then

 

You cannot go wrong with the P150HM / 8150 - it's a great notebook. Here is NBR's Official Review for the P150HM / 8150: MALIBAL Lotus P150HM Review

 

Below are 2 excellent reveiws of the Sager-NP8150-Clevo-P150HM from members here on the forum...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo-reviews-owners-lounges/549118-sager-np8150-clevo-p150hm-review-forerunner.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo-reviews-owners-lounges/558469-impressions-review-sager-np8150.html
_

 

good choice, and go with the 2630qm, i saw a benchmark between the whole range of sandy bridge cpus, and they were all within 1% performance of each other, because the architecture is so good that the bottleneck of the performance is now solely limited to the graphics card, but its good to have a quad core for multitasking, and if you record yourself while gaming im sure it would be good for that as well.

 

if you do programming or web surfing a lot other than gaming, I'd suggest a 17' screen over the 15'.

I've had a G53 with 1080p before but eventually gave it up and am now considering a 17' simply because my eyes get sore quickly with the tiny font size on 15'. Sure I could enlarge it in windows 7 but then what's the point of having a high-res screen in the first place? just my personal opinion.

in terms of gaming, both will be fine. actually I'd say both are still a waste because I won't feel the graphics being coarse or sandy even with my 24' 1080p external display, so 1080p in laptop for gaming is an over-kill. that's my personal opinion again and I'm sure there are ppl with good eye sights and likes to look into screen closer enough to spot the difference of 1080p and 900p on 15'/17' screen during gaming.

 

Thanks for the reviews and tips guys.
Everything seems perfect except the battery life,I was expecting more than 2 hours.

@mangos
Well 8170 doesn't come with a 95% gamut screen so I'd rather get a Sloghtly smaller display with a better quality

 

BTW,should I go with NP8130 if I plan to get the GTX 560M? Because I found it about $150 cheaper with the same specs as 8150
Aside from the power adapter,extreme CPUs and GTX 485/580M support,are there any other differences between these two ?

 

If you plan on getting the GTX560m, definitely get the NP8130. The coating is MUCH nicer (you don't have to deal with a rubberized trackpad), and it's cheaper.

EDIT: And, beside the rubberized exterior difference and the differing stock screens, you pretty much have the differences down.

 

Also keep in mind the upgradeability. The 8150 uses a larger power supply and slightly different mobo which will allow you to upgrade to some of the higher end GPUS and the Xtreme processors. If you don't plan on upgrading those down the road, than I would have to agree the 8130 is the way to go.

 

P170HM/NP8170 has at the least 2.5 hours of battery life. I do believe people have reported 3 hours. It should be the same idling clocks as the P151HM1/NP8130 and P150HM/NP8150.

Also, I think the P170HM is the same price as the P151HM1 with the same specs...
*goes and checks Malibal's website*
The P170HM is slightly more expensive; by about $120. I suppose for the larger chassis/220W PSU/2nd HDD bay. Your choice my friend.

 

Thanks for all the replies guys
I'm still debating between 15 and 17 decisions decisions.....

 

In my opinion, I would take the 15"; it's a bit lighter and smaller so it's easier to carry it around when you need to, and it'll be packing the same hardware as the 17" so there will be no performance difference. With the money you save you could buy a larger external screen (NewEgg just had a 23" LED IPS panel on sale for ~$150, for example) to hook the laptop up to when you are at home.

Also, since you were wanting a SSD and HDD, you could always look at the Momentus XT hybrid drive, which I've heard pretty great things about.. it gives SSD performance for the apps you use, but retains higher capacity limits for a hdd (500gb). A lot of people seem pleased by it and it is only a $65 increase over the stock drive, so it's a lot cheaper than getting an actual SSD and a HDD. Furthermore, If you -really- want a pure SSD, you could always put a SSD in the laptop for all of your programs, and use an external HDD for everything else.

I was in this same situation recently, deciding between 15" and 17". The way I ultimately saw it was that the 17" just wasn't for me, because if I wanted a bigger screen I could get a much larger external screen to hook it up to, and if I needed a laptop to travel with me, a 15" screen would be much more convenient (for me at least).

I'm going for the 8130 btw, and I'm just going to place it on a cooling pad and use an external monitor and wireless mouse/keyboard set up at home, and when I need to go I'll just unplug my laptop, throw (or gently place) it in my backpack, and go.

 

I disagree on the Momentus XT statement. I've heard nothing but awful things about that drive. Also, notice Asus took them out of the G series laptops? The G74 has 750GB HDDs instead of the 500GB Momentus'. I would get a regular HDD if you can't afford a full SSD right now. Then, when you can, go for that SSD.

As for the 15" vs 17" argument, xydin makes some good points. I opted for the 17" because I can't be bothered hooking up another monitor to this thing.

 

one of many in life

 

And yet...not so important in the grand scheme of things

Mr. Mysterious

 

Well for me it is

You meant screen size, I was confuse with the actual laptop

 

Aww...

I thought I had read the 8130 just had a different power supply that prevented the GPU upgrade?

So the Mobo is different as well?

If so what's the difference? & does that mean that the 8130 power supply and GPU can't be swapped w/o swapping the mobo too?

 

What problem with the keyboard specifically? (Purchasing right now.)

 

The P150HM (8150) and P151HM1 (8130) have the exact same motherboard. They are the same machine, internally. The only differences are the stock screen options, the exterior coating, and the power supply size. I think he may have been referring to the P170HM (8170), which uses the HM67 chipset while the other two use the HM65 chipset. The chipset doesn't affect the CPU and GPU you can use, though the HM67 does allow XTU overclocking and unlocked multipliers on CPU's among some other small details.

You can swap the GPU's without issue, as long as you have the right size power brick and the right heatsink (which should come with the GPU).

 

Cool,

Thanks for the swift response and the reassurance. Threw me for a loop there when he said "slightly different mobo".

 

O.O This I did not know. This will aid me in my upcoming search for a new machine.