MYTHLOGIC Pollux 1400: Clevo's W150HR Tested
by Jarred Walton on August 23, 2011 12:00 AM ESTBattery Life and Power: Not a Strong Showing
We’ve reviewed so many Optimus enabled laptops during the past year that we generally know what to expect. For our battery life tests, the discrete GPU should never have to activate, leaving all of the graphics duties to the Intel IGP. Even without the dGPU coming into play, there are still differences between laptops, and unfortunately this is a weak spot for the Clevo W150HR. We calibrated for 100 nits on the LCD, which came out to a setting of 28% in Windows’ power settings (two steps up from minimum on the LCD brightness scale). We also tested both the Bigfoot-equipped W150HR and the Intel 6230-equipped W150HR in the Internet test (the WiFi connection is turned off for the Idle and H.264 tests). Keep an eye on the Dell XPS 15, as that’s roughly where we’d like to see the W150HR in the charts.
As we were saying, the results are less than impressive. When Toshiba’s X775 can pack in a 17.3” LCD and a GTX 560M GPU with a paltry 48Wh battery and still come out ahead in the idle test, that’s not good. Looking at the Dell XPS 15, with a 56Wh battery and a similar LCD it manages to best the W150HR by 36% at idle, 13% in the Internet test, 14% in the H.264 test. Accounting for battery capacity, the only Optimus laptop that does similar/worse is the Compal PBL21. (There was a flaw with the H.264 playback result on the Alienware M14x, where a recent Optimus profile update switched MPC-HC to running on the dGPU by default; it did much better in the other two tests and should be around the level of the XPS 15 in the H.264 test.)
Calculating power draw, we get a minimum idle power use of 14.4W for the Clevo W150HR, which is far higher than most similar notebooks. The XPS 15 idles at 9.6W, the Alienware M14x at 9.7W, and even the behemoth Toshiba X775 sits at 10.0W. The Compal PBL21 incidentally is also at 14.9W—anyone else get the impression that major OEMs are better at optimizing laptops for battery power than ODMs like Clevo and Compal?
Also worthy of note is the Internet test with the two different WiFi adapters. We already posted our full review of the Bigfoot 1102, where we came to the conclusion that it was a better WiFi solution than Intel’s Advanced-N 6230 and very competitive with the Intel Ultimate-N 6300. We were curious what sort of difference we’d see in battery life, like many of our readers, and the result puts the Bigfoot 1102 in an even better light: better throughput, substantially better latency, and lower power use compared to the Intel 6230. We disabled the Bluetooth support on the 6230, but it might still draw power, as our calculations peg the BF 1102 notebook at ~15.4W during the Internet test compared to ~16.4W for the Intel 6230 notebook. 1W is a huge difference for just a change in WiFi adapter, and we tested with the same battery; however, we did not test in the same chassis so the Intel notebook might simply have a few other components (e.g. the CPU and chipset) that are drawing slightly more current.
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chinedooo - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - link
my hp dv6t blows this thing outta the water. Its thinner lighter, and the 6770m is a better card than the gt 555bji - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - link
The HP dv6t is several hundred dollars more expensive at a comparable configuration, and I don't know if the screen is as good as the Clevo (not saying it isn't, I just know that the Clevo screen is one of the best, and I don't know anything about the HP). So I wouldn't say it 'blows the Clevo out of the water', it's better in some areas and worse in others (like price).That being said, the Clevo sucks for many reasons (see my previous comment) so it may be that in useability the HP does blow the Clevo out of the water; I don't know as I have never used the HP.
lolthisisfunny - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - link
Just made an account so I could tell you that you are way wrong. The dv6t has REGULAR 30% coupons that bring the price of a 6770m laptop to as little as 800 bucks.I used to have a dv6t, sold it, but for 1000 bucks with tax I got:
1080p matte screen
quad core 2630qm
amd 6770m
You won't find a better deal for raw specs anywhere else.
This mythlogic costs 1637. LOL
bji - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - link
You are right, that is a better price. However, is the screen the same quality as the Clevo's screen?JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
Take your dv6t price, add $250 for the 120GB Intel SSD, another $150 to upgrade the CPU from the 2630QM to the 2720QM, and an additional $120 to upgrade from the AUO B156HW01 v1 to the v4 -- both are matte, but the v4 is 95% NTSC gamut with slightly better viewing angles and better overall color.You're at $1674 for the basic setup, minus a 30% coupon (if you wait around for one to show up), and you still have to pay $250 for the Intel 120GB SSD since you can't configure it from HP that way. Or, you can take the Clevo, drop the SSD, downgrade the LCD and CPU, and you'd be looking at closer to $1200.
Basically, it's the same price minus the 30% coupon you mention, which isn't always available. As for the graphics... well, that's a whole different can of worms. 6770M is faster than GTX 540M, but against the 555M it's a toss up. NVIDIA's Optimus versus AMD's discrete graphics however ends up woefully lopsided in favor of NVIDIA, unless you don't care about battery life?
GSNorby - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - link
Nice review on the Pollux 1400.I would point out one fundamental difference between the other Clevo customizers and MYTHLOGIC: The Phoenix Upgrade Policy is unique in my experience.
What this policy does is to assure people like me, who often agonize over component choices, that they won't be left in the cold when newer, better components come available. (In my previous experience, that happens about 26 seconds after the sale is final.) With MYTHLOGIC, you can upgrade very inexpensively, for the life of the system.
From their webpage:
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You will be responsible for all shipping and handling charges (to and from MYTHLOGIC), plus our component cost plus 5% (limited to MYTHLOGIC approved hardware). All labor and testing is on us as part of owning a MYTHLOGIC computer.
The PHOENIX Upgrade process also includes your MYTHLOGIC computer going through the assembly, pre testing, software configuration, benchmarking and recovery disk creation quality checklists.
In addition your MYTHLOGIC computer will also receive extra pampering via interior and exterior case cleaning, software updates, driver and firmware updates and a fresh OS install topped off with a brand new Recovery Kit (At your option of course).
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I have never seen this sort of policy offered by any other vendor. It really adds value to the system, and is the difference between investing in a system and paying over and over for the base unit when new stuff comes along.
bji - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - link
The shell and most of the components are identical to several other Clevo models; I bought and sold a very similar Clevo W150HN laptop recently. I bought it because, like the review mentions, it is hard to get better bang-for-the-buck value than with this generation of Clevos. The cost of the entire laptop is not much more than the cost of the constituent parts, and you are getting lots of horsepower and a great display for your money.I agree that the display is just incredible (I also got the 95% color gamut matte display and agree that it is among the best laptop displays available). And the laptop itself was fairly well built.
However, that's just about all that I can say that is good about this generation of Clevos. They run a bit hot and have very annoying fan noise (although it is my understanding that the W150HR has better fan controller firmware and runs the fan quieter and less often than the ridiculous W150HN). The keyboard is TERRIBLE. I know these things are subjective but seriousy, I could not imagine a more flexy, squishy, looser and more awkward feeling keyboard than that on these Clevos. Also they have a really dumb number pad layout that is nearly useless and wastes real estate (from what I understand; I never use number pads anyway but I did find the placement of several keys that I do use like delete and page up/down annoying). The speakers are regarded as some of the worst available on any laptop. And the headphone jack, at least on my unit and running under Linux, was not able to drive my headphones more than maybe 1/2 normal volume at the highest volume setting. The touchpad has a very unpleasant feel and is so super sensitive that just having your palms above it while typing is enough to send your pointer randomly off into no man's land frustratingly often.
Make no mistake, these laptops are ALL FUNCTION, and absolutely ZERO FORM. Meaning, that if you just need raw horsepower in the most ungainly package possible, then these are a really great value. If you care at all about the experience of using the laptop, then move on. These just suck. I was so disappointed that I sold mine after 2 months at a $400 loss. I was lured by the specs and excited to receive it but my excitement quickly wore off in the face of all of the useability issues with the laptop I found myself almost never using it, because it was so unpleasant.
sablar - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - link
I bought the MSI GE620DX which is very similar in terms of specification (555m, 144, 128-bit, 1080p) and in being kind of a budget gaming notebook.Pretty happy with it overall. Mine settles in the low 80C and isn't very loud but I got the i5-2410 instead of i7 version for a good price so that kind of explains it. GPU is clocked higher and around same temp. Also has a good screen. Bad part is the touchpad which is awful with hard-to-press buttons and poor scrolling, you can't open it without voiding warranty if adding RAM or so, Could be an option for those looking at the clevo.
JLM - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
Had three criterea for a laptop. 15.6 inch FHD display. Fast graphics and a solid chassis.Bought an HP dv6t and returned it for a horrible flex on the keyboard and cheap tin-can design and material joins.
Bought an XPS15 and returned it for a whimpy graphics card.
Looked at Alienware and rejected immature design.
Finally bought a Sager (this model) from xoticPC and could NOT be happier. Fast graphics, perfect display, no flex on the keyboard, no bloat, port positioning...
As far as build, better than the HP by far, about on par with the XPS. Design is completely understated and businesslike. Pressing down on all spots of the keyboard there is no flex like the HP...
Best of all, totally understated design. This thing could belong in an office environment no problem.
I bought three years parts and labor warranty and had them put on arctic silver. I guess if it gets too hot they will have to fix it. I can play games with it on my lap. It does heat up on the left side, but doesn't burn.
Highly recommended. Check out the notebook check review as well.
bhima - Thursday, August 25, 2011 - link
I have the 540m MYTHLOGIC version of this machine and its been running strong. You can't beat that 95% gamut matte screen, I don't think I'll ever go back to a crappy base-model panel again.