CyberpowerPC's Compal NBLB2: Affordable Gaming
by Dustin Sklavos on December 21, 2010 5:50 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- AMD
- Intel
- CyberPowerPC
- Compal
Another Good 15.6" 1080p Screen
The other big reason we wanted to get our hands on the Compal NBLB2 was the screen: the notebook comes with a 1080p, LED-backlit screen standard: none of that weak 1366x768 stuff here. This is the third one of these we've seen recently and at this point it's fairly clear to us that if you want a halfway decent picture from your notebook, 1080p is just the way to go.
Once again, the 1080p screen ranks near the top of our list. While the color gamut and accuracy aren't among the best, they're not terrible either. Contrast is pretty stellar, though, and again the overall image quality is subjectively attractive. It seems like there's also much less fussing over finding the "sweet spot" with these 1080p panels.
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Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
I think that really depends on where your priorities lie.If gaming and budget are top priority, the NBLB2.
If a slightly better screen, slightly better battery life, and slightly better connectivity are important, the B5130M.
If the best battery life is what you're after, we haven't tested the ASUS but imagine it's probably going to do better than the B5130M.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
Wow, I hope Dell brings back the 1080p LCD soon; maybe it's just a temporary thing due to demand? (And if that's the case, you'd think they would realize that a good LCD *can* sell lots of laptops!) As for the rest, speak for yourself... *I've* tested the ASUS N53JF; I just haven't finished writing the review yet. ;-) So, um, SPOILER ALERT!Battery life with a 48Wh battery comes to 271 idle, 233 Internet, and 139 for H.264 playback. That's better than the competition (despite having a smaller battery) in two of the tests. Performance elsewhere is in line with the other i5 + 425M configurations we've tested. Here's the kicker, though: The 1080p LCD sucks. Not sucks as in it's worse than 768p, but sucks as in contrast is 233:1. That means that unfortunately, all the 15.6" 1080p LCDs aren't great; only some of them are. Also, the Dell XPS 15 still has by far the best sounding speakers; ASUS has some Bang & Olafsen tech supposedly, but they just don't sound that great -- they really overemphasize the highs, to the point where a lot of MP3s sound like they have tons of static. Anyway, the full review should hopefully be up this week.
debacol - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
Whats the price of a Dell XPS 15 with the equivalent 640M CPU and 1080p screen? I have a feeling its a bit north of $1,100.Dug - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
I think this is a great improvement over the last review. Easy to read and very informative. Keep up the good work.mattgmann - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
My only question concerns hard drive space. Is there a second slot to add an SSD, or can the optical drive be replaced with an ssd? I really need to have room for data on my next laptop, so a lone SSD isn't going to cut the mustard. I'd be cool though if adding a second drive meant losing the optical drive.I am super impressed with the hardware in this lappy. I need a new laptop capable of doing some of my production work (mostly web stuff, but also lots of flash and photoshop/illustrator work) while I travel. I'm quite intrigued by the i7 640m.
The build quality looks to be a little on the cheap side, but I'm not one for style anyway. I configured a system on cyberpowerpc without an operating system and slid in at ~1100, well within my budget. The Dell XS 15 isn't available with the i7 640m, and similarly configured systems were much more expensive.
debacol - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
I have an old Compal IFL90 and have been using it heavily for about 4 years. I haven't had a single issue with it at all. So even if the build quality doesn't "feel" as great as other laptops, at least from my personal experience, that "feel" hasn't translated into poor reliability.I use my laptop for light gaming and very heavy photoshop use (ie: always working with 300dpi 200+mb files).