AVADirect's Clevo P170HM with GeForce GTX 485M: High-End You've Been Waiting For
by Dustin Sklavos on February 28, 2011 7:15 PM EST1080p Remains Better
We had a great run of quality 1080p panels for a while, right up until the ASUS N53Jf went and boned everything. Even still, the N53Jf's screen offered better quality than the 1366x768 panels we review tend to have. The P170HM sports one of the lesser 1080p panels we've seen, generally landing in the middle of the pack.
The essential problem with the P170HM's screen is that it's simply too dim. The low maximum brightness results in a fairly poor contrast ratio, but on the flipside, the color accuracy and gamut are among the better we've seen.
Unfortunately, viewing angles are less than ideal. The P170HM's screen suffers from "sweet spot" issues; it's very hard to find just the right angle to keep the top or bottom from getting washed out. This shouldn't be a major problem unless you're playing something like Doom 3 or Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but it only serves to underline the continuing problem of cheap TN panels plaguing the market.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
28 Comments
View All Comments
7Enigma - Tuesday, March 1, 2011 - link
Possibly because this is a gaming notebook?SteelCity1981 - Monday, February 28, 2011 - link
ver impressive especially when it goes head to head with the 980x and even beats the 980x in some benchmarks.FXi - Monday, February 28, 2011 - link
I can live with some glossy - don't mind the screen being that way if "some" antiglare coating was applied to the glossy part (sort of like camera lenses). But the lack of displayport is a major oversight these days. I bet longer term owners will end up a bit disappointed in this oversight.And why send a "test" notebook without the 2920 in it? /sigh Well guess it wasn't needed, judging from the scores, but it's what should have happened anyway.
2920 and 485m sli would be incredible.
mczak - Monday, February 28, 2011 - link
then it'll look much less impressive. Just marginally (if at all) faster, and (afaik) much more expensive.JarredWalton - Monday, February 28, 2011 - link
That's coming as soon as we can test it....Lunyone - Monday, February 28, 2011 - link
Is it me, or is ther mobile 5870 GPU missing in over 1/2 of the graphs?? Is this by design or is this because the 5870 wasn't tested on the given games listed?? One could consider this a marketing plot or something like that, but just would like some clarification on it before I label this as a marketing stunt.JarredWalton - Monday, February 28, 2011 - link
The last time we had a 5870 was before we added Mafia II, Metro 2033, and (I think) StarCraft II to the benchmarking suite. Anyway, we'll have the 6970M reviewed soon enough....PlasmaBomb - Tuesday, March 1, 2011 - link
We patiently look forward to that review...carage - Monday, February 28, 2011 - link
Once again, no Express Card slot...jcandle - Tuesday, March 1, 2011 - link
It would be nice to see this nvidia card inside more notebooks that seem less cheaply made. With the move to a single graphics option I was surprised the new Alienware M17x R3 didn't include an option for the 485m. Its certainly not an issue with cooling. I have a M6500 and it already has a 100W graphics adapter in a similar cooling configuration.And slightly OT... anyone else see the notebook and think they could slap together a better product with a shorty 1U with a notebook keyboard and monitor slapped on top. Honestly, if you moved the PSU outside, added a battery in its place, and were willing to sacrifice your eardrums, it could be a workable solution in similar brick sized form factor and tonnage.