AVADirect's Clevo B5130M: GeForce GT 425M with a 15.6" 1080p Chaser

Conclusion: 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.