Fusion Series: 14" Matte; Better than you think

[kostalasa]

Recently purchased the Fusion 14 featuring Intel® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor i5-8265U and NVIDIA® GeForce® MX250.

I decided to go with a fast SSD, 512GB ADATA SX6000 Pro PCIe M.2 2280 (2100 MB/R, 1500 MB/W), as they are reasonably price and increase the performance exponentially.

Overall Fusion is an incredible little laptop with superb display, one of the best I have seen on 14'' laptops ever, crystal clear, HD videos, no lag when playing video games. I am also surprised how clear the fonts and text appear besides the higher resolution 1920x1080 . I got an additional 15'' laptop where it's impossible to read fonts /text unless you increase font scale to 125%; but that's not needed on this "tiny" laptop.

I quite like how light it is and the long lasting battery.

The sound benefits from the sound blaster effect; saying that, additional speakers are recommended.

The video card is -of-course- basic but not bad for overall graphics, such as Photoshop or image /video processing. This is NOT a gaming laptop, thus I think the graphics card is not too bad.

What I am struggling to comprehend is the absurd price difference to upgrade to an i7 processor (around 125P); just don't get it why PC Specialists overpriced the i7 version, I mean yes, it comes with a 2666MHz RAM, but still it's the most expensive 14'' laptop at the end of the day.

Lastly please note that it comes only with one memory module with a max memory up to 16GB.

If you are looking for a small and light laptop it's brilliant.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Awesome! Really pleased you’re happy.

what was the price increase so the i7? It shouldn’t be too much more.

 

[kostalasa]

Awesome! Really pleased you’re happy.

what was the price increase so the i7? It shouldn’t be too much more.

The price difference between the two Vortex seems to be 125P compared with 85P for upgrading the processor on 14'' Lafite IV, that's an additional ask for 40P. On 14" LAFITÉ PRO the difference is 71P increasing the gap to 94P. Even by just filtering by screen size (14'') it's clear that the i7 Fusion IV is overpriced with no clear justification?

 

[Oussebon]

The Vortex has a different series of CPUs altogether.

As for the -U series CPUs, 2 things:

1) the motherboards come with the CPUs afaik, I don't believe PCS installs them. So it depends what price they get charged for the while package, not just the processor

2) The MSRP difference between an i7 10510U and an i5 10210U is over 100$

Product Specifications

quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.

ark.intel.com

Intel® Core™ i7-10510U Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.90 GHz) Product Specifications

Intel® Core™ i7-10510U Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.90 GHz) quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.

ark.intel.com

Given the 1:1 ish exchange rate you frequently see in PC components (if we were looking at just the CPUs, and not the motherboards) then a £100 price difference is about what you'd expect based on Intel's pricing. Thankfully the actual difference usually seems to be lower!

 

[ROBNET54]

Hi, congrats on the purchase!! I myself I am pondering the purchase of a Fusion IV ( 14" or 15"). Some users have reported issues with the USB Ports (All fresh USB ports are hard to use, it takes several insertions -about 5/10?- to get the ports smooth) & the touchpad ( really difficult to use - jerky, jumpy, hard to position, etc).
Since you have had the machine for over 3 months, I wonder if you could update your assessment and comment on the issues above. Your opinion will be greatly appreciated & will help me !! Thanks in advance!!

 

[kostalasa]

Hi, congrats on the purchase!! I myself I am pondering the purchase of a Fusion IV ( 14" or 15"). Some users have reported issues with the USB Ports (All fresh USB ports are hard to use, it takes several insertions -about 5/10?- to get the ports smooth) & the touchpad ( really difficult to use - jerky, jumpy, hard to position, etc).
Since you have had the machine for over 3 months, I wonder if you could update your assessment and comment on the issues above. Your opinion will be greatly appreciated & will help me !! Thanks in advance!!

Hello

I haven't noticed any issues around USB ports; the touchpad is indeed jerky and I would recommend using a mouse, saying that I got used to it after some time. Overall the hardware specifics are pretty good. Please note that the Graphic Card gets hot, thus you need a cooler and even with it the system may occasionally overheat.

I also noticed issue around BIOS and SSD drives; once every 20 reboots the BIOS fails to recognize the SSD and I need to power off and try again. I might send it to the service for PC Specialists to check it; until now I have had this glitch three-four times.

 

[ROBNET54]

Hello, thanks for your feedback !! It is really helpful. It seems that the 14" chassis has definitively a few quirks, as other users have reported overheating in connection with the Graphics Card as well. Maybe the very compact form factor contributes to all the reported issues.
Which SSD drive did you get? PCS has quite a wide brand & capacity on offer..