Hi Guys,
Here's my review of my Cosmos II 15.6" laptop. I have had it for just over two months now.
The Spec:
Chassis & Display
Cosmos Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 850M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
1st Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7260 (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Total: £741
---------------
Ordering Process:
Ordering was quick and simple. I took advice from members on this forum and altered a few parts of the laptop after ordering but before it went into production. The website is really easy to use too! It took a while to come though. The lead time was about 15 working days when I ordered. It took slightly longer than this but I was very impatient with it being my first laptop which made it worse. I would say however once it gets out of the pre-production phase, the build progresses quite quickly.
First Impressions
First impressions were good. The case is plastic but it neither looks nor feels cheap or tacky. The build quality feels sturdy and there is very minimal flex in the keyboard which some people have mentioned in other reviews. The screen is reasonably nice too. It's not "wow!" however it's certainly not bad. I'm not sure you can ever be wowed by a matte screen though, but it is definitely more practical than a glossy screen. The computer is fast and responsive and easily rivals my mid-range desktop.
Two months on...
Houston we have a problem! Basically whenever I go to open a program that I have set to use my 850M graphics card the laptop would panic and shut down. For this reason I have yet to play any games on the laptop yet. I am in the process of sending the laptop back to PC Specialist for a repair, which is simple and easy to do. I wish I had now taken the silver warranty as I will have to pay to return the item unfortunately. My initial thinking was that if something was to break it would probably happen in the first month. TBH, it probably did, I might have had the problem from the start, however because I didn't use my 850M GPU, I didn't notice! I'll update this section after the repair.
Conclusion
I would highly recommend this laptop and PC Specialist. The problem with the laptop has not tainted my views on PC Specialist because their customer service is excellent!
Here's my review of my Cosmos II 15.6" laptop. I have had it for just over two months now.
The Spec:
Chassis & Display
Cosmos Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 850M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
1st Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7260 (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Total: £741
---------------
Ordering Process:
Ordering was quick and simple. I took advice from members on this forum and altered a few parts of the laptop after ordering but before it went into production. The website is really easy to use too! It took a while to come though. The lead time was about 15 working days when I ordered. It took slightly longer than this but I was very impatient with it being my first laptop which made it worse. I would say however once it gets out of the pre-production phase, the build progresses quite quickly.
First Impressions
First impressions were good. The case is plastic but it neither looks nor feels cheap or tacky. The build quality feels sturdy and there is very minimal flex in the keyboard which some people have mentioned in other reviews. The screen is reasonably nice too. It's not "wow!" however it's certainly not bad. I'm not sure you can ever be wowed by a matte screen though, but it is definitely more practical than a glossy screen. The computer is fast and responsive and easily rivals my mid-range desktop.
Two months on...
Houston we have a problem! Basically whenever I go to open a program that I have set to use my 850M graphics card the laptop would panic and shut down. For this reason I have yet to play any games on the laptop yet. I am in the process of sending the laptop back to PC Specialist for a repair, which is simple and easy to do. I wish I had now taken the silver warranty as I will have to pay to return the item unfortunately. My initial thinking was that if something was to break it would probably happen in the first month. TBH, it probably did, I might have had the problem from the start, however because I didn't use my 850M GPU, I didn't notice! I'll update this section after the repair.
Conclusion
I would highly recommend this laptop and PC Specialist. The problem with the laptop has not tainted my views on PC Specialist because their customer service is excellent!
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