sidneylopsides
Member
I ordered my Inferno on the 4th of January, and unfortunately my build was delayed while new stock of the 120W PSU arrived.
I chose an i7-3630QM, a higher wattage CPU. Most likely I'll never need that much processing power, but it wasn't much more than an i5, so I thought why not! Overall specs include 8GB 1600MHz RAM, a 2GB GT650M GPU and 180GB Intell 330 SSD. You may be looking at those specs and comparing them to other laptops, the top end Macbook pro right now comes with the same CPU and a 1GB version of the GPU, it's a pretty respectable amount of power in a portable compter. It's also pretty good for gaming. The best bit? The Inferno is only an 11.6" machine, it's in the realm of Netbooks when it comes to size.
I wanted a decent laptop that would be able to run games, mainly Eve Online, but also my Steam library. I had a Lenovo netbook already, and was happy wit something that size for browsing etc, but it was woefully underpowered. Even Netflix was too much for it. So I started to research, after looking at various i3 and i5 powered laptops and Ultrabooks in the usual high street chains, I decided to check out some of the bespoke laptop companies I'd noticed in the past, but all in the US. I discovered a few of these used Clevo chassis, so quikly checked for the UK supplier, and bingo, PC Speicialist popped up.
After working out my budget and playing with the configurator for a weeks, I finally decided on my build, aiming to get as much power as a I could afford in the smallest possible machine. I think I did quite well. The i7-3630QM is around 75-80% the power of the i7-3770K in my desktop, and the GT650M about 65% of the HD6850, but with double the RAM. But when it comes to the physical, the Inferno is a fraction of the size, and runs a lot quieter.
The build is great, it's plastic, but good quality. Very solid feeling, very little flex in the keyboard and nice strong hinges for the lid. The top and insides are coated in a soft touch finish, which does feel really nice under the hand. On mine I have found the rear right corner of the lid is peeling slightly, but no one else seems to have reported it. I've only had it 3 weeks and haven't got round to ringing to ask about this.
The port layout is well thought out, one USB 2.0 on the right, for a mouse, with the power jack behind it. The left has everything else, two USB 3.0, ic and headphones, HDMI, VGA and ethernet. There is an SD card reader on the front left.
The screen is better than I expected, the viewing angles are good and the colours are nice and solid. I have tweaked the saturation slightly for a bit more punch. As it's a matte panel it doesn't have the more vivid colours you'd see instantly on a glossy panel, but its not far off. It also has the huge advantage of being able to cope if there's some light around...which is usually like, all the time. Except maybe at night.
I've seen a couple of people saying the trackpad isn't great, but I really like it! It's responsive, fast, the multi touch gestures work when I want them to. It has the same soft touch texture as the rest of the chassis, but that ddoesn't add any resistance to sliding yor finger across it. It's one of the nicest ones I've used.
The keyboard is ok, it's a decent size and a nice layout, but it's a bit spongy. I find that I have to tap harder than I'm used to, otherwise I miss letters occasionally. If there was anything I'd improve on the is machine, it would be the keyboard.
The speakers are typical laptop fare, functional. The THX software gives some nice tweaks that allow you to improve the performance, making it quite comfortable for watching Netflix on.
As I wanted this for protable gaming, I've worked through various games on my Steam library, so far Just Cause 2, Mirror's Edge. GTA IV, Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas etc all play with everything maxxed and no problems. It's super smooth all the time, GTA IV seems to play better than on my PC.
I've played a lot of Eve Online, it seems to look nicer than on my PC, better space distortion effects, like in explosions and warps.
Battery while gaming is easily over 2 hours, playing Eve, browsing and watching videos will last 3 hours or so normally. I don't feel the need to charge it loads, for example, it was plugged in during Thursday evening, I took it off charge and played Eve a bit before bed, then left my phone plugged in to the USB 2.0 port overnight (this is powered for charging, even ith the laptop off), played a bit the next morning and through the day, finally puttign it on charge about 8pm.
So the gaming side is taken care of easily!
Overall I'm very pleased with the laptop, it does what I bought it for, it's small and powerful. The only thing that could be better is the keyboard, and possibly the finish. Those are serious negatives, just the rest of it is brilliant, those bits are just ok.
So I've got a nice unassuming small laptop, that could easily be mistaken for netbook, with just the gleam of the copper cooling fins to give the game away. Inside it's a beast, outperforming many fancier looking, and more expensive machines. And that's exactly what I wanted!
Last edited:
