Eurocom Monster 1.0 (Clevo W110ERF) Review: Biggest Isn't Always Better Discussion

[RiverandSky]

Found some Monster benchmarks done by Eurocom on their site: http://web.eurocom.com/ec/ec_GetBenchmarkB(18)

Nearly identical 3DMark 11 scores

[Mitlov]

Produces a gaming laptop.... makes cursor keys as small as possible. *facepalm*

Most games use WASD instead of arrow keys anyway.

[R3d]

I dont know what to think about the W110ER, it seems it delivers the perfomance excellently but either averages or even fails on the rest. For example the battery life of about 4 hours, the mediocre screen or the build quality.

Id much rather game on my 13" P330 with weaker perfomance and middle details then on a tiny 11.6 inch netbook on which I probably couldnt even tell the difference between medium-to-high details settings because the screen is so tiny (and of bad quality)

Also with the weight of 1,8kg they couldve made a 13" or even 14" notebook out of it, the screen size stands in contrary to the thickness and the weight. My p330 for example weighs 1,7kg while being made out of a metal chassis (bottom is plastic) and sporting a 13" screen.

Many users have also reported high idle temperatures in the owners thread, including HTWingnut, and Load temperatures that go up to 95 deg. or higher.. So cooling doesnt seem that perfect? Maybe someone do a test with prime95 and furmark while checking temperaturesß

You realize that the AUO B116XW03 panel in the W110ER is actually superior to the LG LP133WH4-TJA1 panel in the P330, right? (same gamut/contrast, but slightly better viewing angles)

So if you're able to live with picture quality the P330 screen then you should have no complaints about the W110ER screen.

[TSE]

I wonder if this is just the beginning of putting Ivy Bridge quad-cores into ultraportables such as the Sony Z, Thinkpad X220, and MacBook Airs?

[Mr.Mischief]

I wonder if this is just the beginning of putting Ivy Bridge quad-cores into ultraportables such as the Sony Z, Thinkpad X220, and MacBook Airs?

The current Macbook Air's can barely handle a 17 watt chip, I highly doubt they will get a 35 watt quad anytime soon.

[IKAS V]

Great review as always.You might wan't to link it to this incredibly detailed user review by HTWingNut
HTWingNut's Sager NP6110 / Clevo W110ER First Look & Review

He goes into great detail and gets into what we all really want to know...game benchmarks, they speak for themselves.

A reseller does offer a matte screen option for this, no others do but at least it's an available option. And to those that complain about screen size give it up, bigger isn't always better for some. Personally I think this would be a incredible secondary laptop to take on the road without sacrificing any performace, you wan't a bigger screen just plug it into a larger monitor or HDTV with a HDMI cable and your good to go. Is it perfect? Nope, but it's plusses far outweigh it's negatives in my eyes.
Only wish was a backlit keyboard then it would be almost perfect.

[edit1754]

If only they could source the same 11.6" display that the Macbook Air uses. The contrast in that display is far better than any other 11.6" display I've seen.

or better: Make it 12.5" and use the X220's IPS display.

[JTF2]

The Alienware M11x was a MAJOR success for Alienware during the first year it was announced because it was the first notebook in this category, but subsequent sales have shown this is a niche market (people who want to game and are willing to make some sacrifices in exchange for extreme portability). The bean counters at Dell have decided to force Alienware to abandon the M11x because current sales figures suggest that "most" serious PC gamers are willing to sacrifice "a little" and buy a 14-inch or 15-inch gaming notebook for around $1,000 but fewer gamers are willing to spend $1,000 on an 11-inch gaming notebook with a low-res screen and tiny keyboard.

I fall into the latter category, I'd likely never buy this laptop. However, it's exciting to see products like this come out, what it says for the 'larger' end of the portable laptop gaming market is that there's no reason we shouldn't be seeing good specs, a good screen and portability in the form factor we want.

[invisible]

Are the USB 3.0 ports native, or supplied via a third party chip? That might be an important distinction to some.

[HTWingNut]

The keyboard is odd and out of place with the small arrow keys. Compared withe my Asus Eee 1215b, they are pretty much identical size, but the Asus keyboard runs the entire width of the machine. Clevo has a habit of having these smaller keyboard islands.

Owning this laptop, I can say that I would much prefer it to be a 13". It would offer several advantages. For one, potentially better cooling, idle at 60C is just too hot, although it does keep the the rest of the system isolated and cool from the hot components. They could include GDDR5. Not a huge deal breaker, but the M14x version that comes with GT 650m with GDDR5 seems to have a 15% advantage and it increases as the resolution increases.

But one of the biggest pet peeves of this machine is the screen. The 11.6" isn't horrible, but it's average at best, and unfortunately there are no better LVDS 11.6" screens available. At least at 13" you would have options, and options for a nice 1600x900 screen.

That being said, the 11.6" does mange 1080p games quite well if you sacrifice some detail. It blows the snot out of my HP DV6z, like twice the performance. I like it so far. Just wish battery life was better as were the screen options.

Oh, and HM76 supports USB 3.0 natively: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/...set-brief.html