AVADirect's Clevo B5130M: GeForce GT 425M with a 15.6" 1080p Chaser
by Dustin Sklavos on November 23, 2010 12:00 AM ESTConclusion: Good but not Great
At the end of the day, feelings about the Clevo B5130M are somewhat mixed but mostly positive. Jarred was interested in seeing how the notebook would compete with the Dell XPS 15, and unfortunately it has trouble keeping up.
We'll get the bad out of the way first: the build quality still is on the weaker side. This is a Clevo problem, as their notebooks just tend to feel cheap. Clevo clearly spends more time working on the hardware, so design winds up being almost an afterthought. Using glossy plastic in just one place but having that one place be the worst place to put it doesn't really help. Battery life isn't stellar either. And then there's that keyboard. In fairness, it doesn't really flex (which makes the regular part of the keyboard usable), but that 10-key absolutely has to go. It brings nothing to the table, but takes things away.
That said, the screen is among the best we've reviewed and for once that actually means something. The B5130M may be a big chunk of plastic power, but it's still for the most part enjoyable to use. USB 3.0 connectivity is included, and overall performance—at least for our review unit—is excellent. The thermals are frankly stellar compared to other notebooks, too. We might like to see a faster GPU, but odds are good with the kind of thermal headroom the B5130M has that overclocking the NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M may not be out of the question.
Finally getting to really put the Intel Core i7-640M through its paces was useful, too: mobile users looking for a lot of threaded performance can definitely get away with using this fast dual-core instead of trying to track down a machine with a 720QM or better. Of course, with Sandy Bridge coming, soon you'll be able to have your cake and eat it too (we hope).
If Dell had never released the XPS 15, this Clevo unit would probably have garnered an Editors' Choice award. It has a solid value proposition and brings a lot to the table. The problem is that Dell did release the XPS 15, and it consistently does everything else just a little bit better. Dell's 1080p screen may be a $150 upgrade, but the XPS 15 starts with comparable specs and a lower price, and the difference winds up being a wash. Dell also lets you upgrade the XPS 15 with a 740QM or better and offers a faster GPU in the form of the GeForce GT 435M, and the XPS' JBL speaker system easily trumps the Clevo speakers.
Ultimately, we would encourage consumers to comparison shop between the two notebooks. The B5130M is one of the better Clevo units we've tested, and ordering from AVADirect gets you worlds more flexibility with the components you can configure the system with along with the better customer service that can come from going with a smaller vendor. We know plenty of readers disliked the Dell aesthetics, and perhaps the Clevo system will win a few points there.
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JarredWalton - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
Yeah, the base AVADirect model has OS, 500GB HDD, but only 2GB RAM. Setting up equivalent specs XoticPC comes out ahead on this one (though that may always change). In the past, I've compared the two companies and AVADirect always came out ahead, but that's not always the case. Also note that XoticPC appears to charge a bit more on some upgrades, but then AVADirect charges a bit more on others. Not sure on shipping costs or any other factors, but go with whoever gives the better price. :-)gomakeit - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
Since the laptop as configured is $1200 which is mightily close to the Asus G53J that sports a GT460M, I'm wondering what're your thoughts when comparing the two. Is the G53's LCD better than G51 (which was pretty lousy)? I hope you'd do a review on the G53 at some point!gomakeit - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
Of course I meant the non-3D version of the G53 (Newegg prices it at $1450).Rasterman - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
I got my G53 from Amazon last week for 1299 shipped, I have no idea why you would get this Clevo when the G53 exists.Meegulthwarp - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
I was looking for a new laptop to replace my ageing Clevo M860TU (w/ 9600M GT) and this looked like the perfect replacement but I've come away sad. I was really expecting better battery life from this, my biggest complaint with my M860TU is the 2 hour battery life. I was hoping they would improve battery life after 2 years worth of die shrinks and architectural changes. Also the performance numbers don't seem to be much higher than what I'm getting right now not to mention they are 5 - 10 degrees hotter than mine on both idle and load. Can't justify another £1000 purchase just yet it seems.Hrel - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
I wouldn't think you'd be able to justify that purchase until Sandy Bridge. But on the battery life note you can always get an external battery. I got an external Energizer battery, works for all laptops and mp3 players and phones and just about everything. Sure it ads a little bulk but if you carry your laptop around in a bag anyway it's not a problem. And it ads about 6 hours of intensive web surfing to my Dell Studio 1535, on top of the 3 hours I already get.On an aside I agree, I was really expecting better battery life from this. But when you look at load battery life it's comparable to similar systems; I think 3+ hours gaming is pretty darn good. There is an interesting Compal unit over at Cyberpower.com that uses the HD5650 and offers several options. Without OS and with a good CPU you can get it for like 800 bucks, 1080p and all. My friend got one and he plays Civ 5 on it for over 4 hours without needing to plug in. Gaming battery life, I think that's incredible.
TareX - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
I'm impressed by the benchmarks... I'd like to see how it would compare to the Hp Envy 15, which supposedly has a much better GPU (sans Optimus though)SteelCity1981 - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
No doubt that the 640UM is more suited for today's programs then the 720QM as of now. fast speed Dual Core over slower speed Quad Cores are still a lot more favorable with many programs out there, because there are still a lot of programs out there that don't take advantage of Quad Cores yet. But when more and more programs become Quad threaded, the 720QM going to have the advantage every time over the 640UM Dual Core and has more and more programs support Hyperthreading the performance gap will just get wider between the 720QM and 640UM due to the fact that the 720QM has double the amount of Hyperthreading virtual cores then the 640UM does.PlasmaBomb - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
You mean i7 640M - The 640UM is an entirely different processor which runs at 1.2 GHz and Turbos up to 2.26 GHzSteelCity1981 - Thursday, November 25, 2010 - link
Yeah, i mean the 640m not 640UM.