Why isn't Sager more popular?

It weirds me out that most popular reviewers out there never seem to review Clevo products and I'm wondering why that is. The biggest reason I can think of is because Clevo sell some of their laptops to be rebadged, which might confuse some target customer. And also since resellers have the freedom to swap out components, there are so many variations even on a single model that maybe reviews can't reliably review a certain model since it be different depending on which reseller you buy it from? (but then again this is a common practice, even in Amazon you can swap out components). I believe Clevo/Sager has probably the best bang for the buck laptops, and they have just as good build quality/reliability as any laptop manufacturer out there (although I'm gonna say I'm a bit disappointed with my NP8377, the chassis is even thinner than my old P170SM and the keyboard... they feel good but at the same time not very responsive).

Then again, maybe I shouldn't worry about Clevo/Sager popularity because when they do, you know they'll put premium prices on brand recognition. Hmmm....

 

You really hit the nail on the head in your first few sentences. Many people probably own Clevo laptops and have no idea that they do. Origin, sager, xotic pc, HIDevolition just to name a few have them and put their own logo on them. Heck even Aorus has some strangely similar chassis to the Clevo models that I would not be surprised if that is what they are.

And best bang for the buck? Eeeeeeeeh sometimes. Clevo really isn't trying to make their laptops with the highest end materials. So that does save costs. But, overall quality just seems to be a step behind the name brand laptops like MSI, Razer, Asus, and Gigabyte. Alot of plastic is used in their premium laptops while even mid range laptops from the big manufactures are metal. Plus clevo seem to have poor thermal and vent designs that I've seen plenty of people make mods to improve thermals. Though honestly since it's easy to buy a second bottom panel and make that mod is kinda cool.

One thing I will say the Clevo has above the others is repair-ability. Keyboard died? You can get a replacement. Fan decided to die? You can buy a new one. So there are some perks to them and tweakers and do it yourself people would love.

And I'd be lying if I didn't say laptops like the NP8454 had my attention. Full desktop RTX 2070, OLED screen, and 9980HK? That's a dream mobile workstation if it can handle the I9. Plus a removable battery is just unheard of these days. Very tempted.

 

Plastic is not always just the value choice, it can make sense too but Clevo/Sager makes a good niche in terms of price/performance/features.

 

Also, if you're going for ease of user repair/maintenance/upgrade, I think an all metal case is something to avoid. A (lid) and C (wrist rest) panels sure, but metal D (bottom) covers are a giant pain even when you know what you're doing.

 

Also they transmit heat better which is not nice for your lap.

 

Design choices dictate any possible places for human contact be adequately insulated from heat unless you live in Antarctica where the extra heat could come in handy. Metal wouldn't be my choice for top or bottom panels at the very least. Even the tunnels for ventilation for the hot air to flow out would be better with plastic because of how easy it is to work with. Plastic has its merits in applications so it definitely isn't the villain people make it out to be. Poor quality plastics are the plastics we all despise though.

 

I was thinking of how when metal bends out of shape it never quite bends back to the right one, but this is the better point here, a bent case is annoying but is better than scorched wrists.

 

Yes plastic deformation of metal impacts its structure so it wont go back. That's why you get metal fatigue.

 

Forgot I wanted to reply to this xD

Terreos when you said mods to improve thermals (and second bottom panel?), what do you mean by that? Is there a thread in this forum that talks specifically about this, because I'm interested in perusing it. My laptop's thermal is okay, CPU idle at mid-high 30s, and with benchmarking/stress test it would get to high 70s,low 80s, but this is without GPU running. Running games, with both components hot and shared heatsink, it would goes low 80s to low 90s. I have yet to hit thermal throttling, but still I'd like to lower the temp if I can. It's been pasted with good thermal paste and pad, undervolted, and going to undervolt the GPU next. It uses an elevated cooling pad, but if there's anything else I can do to lower it so it won't reach 90s would be a great goal