Imagine that the date is December, 2017, and you’ve just spilled a free-from-your-coworker-as-a-gift sugary-coffee latte, served with extra side of decadence, on your laptop. Not a “whoops, got a bit of liquid on my laptop” kind of spill, but the kind of spill where the lid pops off and half of the cup’s contents immediately find every nook and cranny of your keyboard. You scream, your co-worker screams, and the laptop screams - we all know it is the end. Even before you spend all your free time the next day resurrecting the old workhorse, you know a replacement is needed.
Almost, as if by serendipity, Amazon provides an answer:
As of the time of writing this, you can buy this very model of laptop for approximately the same price new. Back in late 2017, this was around $200 dollars off from online retailers, and perhaps double that if you walked into a local shop. After just a brief amount of research, I clicked the purchase button - and I am not sure what to write after this statement. Part of me wants to say that I spilled coffee on the wrong laptop. Another part of me is glad I got a good deal on so many learning opportunities, which you will note is a very sideways compliment.
To begin, this is a 15.6" laptop hobbled together by HP. A “Power Pavillion,” which basically means they wanted to appeal to the growing market segment of light gaming and productivity paired with mobility, and didn’t want to sully their other branding with a product that didn’t necessarily match that style or quality. Hence “Power Pavillion” - because trying to pass it off along with their “Envy” line would be weird, and there are limits to what they’ll stamp their “Omen” branding on. It’s not like other Pavilion products either, so, we better make those marketing guys earn their paycheck. I bought it because I felt it would be perfect to experiment with, and boy was I right.
Anyway, where to start? Well, let us talk about the discrete GPU, and my general ignorance of mobile hardware. I am not a laptop expert, but I love to learn and love to tinker - that is part of the reason why I bought a laptop with an actual GPU. But the second I learned about “Switchable Graphics” and how I would have to manually designate which hardware for some programs to use to run made me want to plot someone’s demise.
However, to be fair, I have not been required to use this feature for some months now. Whether it is because the programs and games I have been using are smarter about selecting hardware, or the various driver and Windows 10 updates have something to do with this… is beyond me. Currently. Additionally, for reasons still unknown to me, the dGPU sometimes disappears from site and fails to be recognized by Windows. From what I can tell, it’ll go into a sleep mode, but then fails to “wake up.” Waking it up means restarting the system. My cheap workaround is to have a program, such as Steam, GoG Galaxy, or Sapphire Trixx open to prevent the dGPU from going into such a slumber.
(If anyone here has likewise had similar issues, or can explain what may be occurring, I am all ears.)
Despite these glaring issues, my biggest complaint with the system is the HDD included in the system. It may be a glorious terabyte of storage, but it has to be amongst the slowest “spinning rust” available in the 7200 rpm category.
While we’re on the subject of issues, here is a small list of other problems I have encountered that I’ll briefly expound upon:
• Thermal Compound
• Panel
Discussing the thermal interface material is fairly straightforward. I’m a big fan on replacing whatever factory standard sludge comes with just about product that requires a heatsink. Along with the “spinning rust” HDD, I left the stock compound be for a time… until summer hit. Then, while testing out Quake Champions, I began to experience overheating and shutdowns. Fallout 4 caused the same thing. After cracking open the case, and replacing whatever the factory used with Grizzly Hydronaut, my GPU rarely surpassed 80C, which is great for a laptop with this cooling solution.
The panel is actually the reason why I ultimately decided to do a write-up of this thing. About a month ago, I began to experience strange artifacting. At first, I assumed the worst - my dGPU was giving up the ghost (and I haven’t even introduced it to coffee!) and time was running short. However, I quickly deduced that these graphical glitches, artifacts, and other visual oddities were caused by either the panel connection, or the panel itself. With the help of a tech-repair friend of mine, we discovered that a ribbon cable was the cause, and the panel would have to be replaced. $30 dollars later, with another quick Amazon delivery, and a five-minute swap job, and the panel was replaced and everything in working order. Minimal color calibration required, too. Good job, AOC.
Minor inconveniences with quick fixes for those brave enough, or knowledgeable enough, to tackle them. What is the old adage? “You get what you pay for”? Parts of that certainly ring true, in this case. But what you do you actually get for $600 dollars?
Well, strictly from a performance standpoint, you’re buying a 15" portable IPS monitor with hardware that approximates a i5-2500k in performance and a dGPU which stands in league with the GTX 750 TI and Radeon HD 7870. These were products that were new and great in 2012 and 2014, respectively, and they still are stalwart in their own right. Such is the state of mobile hardware: Convenience and form factor always come at a type of premium, with raw performance being a part of the cost. Alternatively, and to put it a much more positive light: Now this type of performance is available in a more efficient, and convenient, form.
And I have no problem advocating the latter stance. Rather, I should say, it has taken me a while to get there, but now I am okay with it. That’s why I am writing this. Because technology has advanced far enough that we’re certainly getting there, and it is still getting there. The argument that it is hard to justify gaming on any mobile platform from a cost-performance standpoint is still a strong one, but it is one that is weakening with time and progress. And if it isn’t the cost the dissuade people, it is the extra little quirks that sometimes come with it - like making sure your system has the proper thermal compound.
But, I am prattling. Let’s return to the question of “What does $600 get you?” Because that is what an entry-level system will cost you. The answer? Quite a bit, if you manage your expectations.
For sheer funsies, I’ve recorded some gameplay footage to share.
The Witcher 3, one of the true tests of any system.
A menagerie of other games, from retro to recent modern.
Some notes: CPU intensive games, whether they are coded like a potatoe (like PUBG) or are just reliant on CPU-hardware to simulate in-game AI (like some strategy/RTS games) are the weakest link. Streaming, oddly enough, is not the laptops weakest point… as long as you are willing to use QuickSync or GPU encoding to handle the workload. That said, these clips were recorded with Windows’ in-game video recording solution, which looks great, but is intensive with noticeable performance hits of 10-20% on framerates.
These games were played at 1080p with graphics to high, with the exception of The Witcher 3, which had a mix of medium-high with all the Nvidia options turned off, and PUBG, which had most of the settings set to low. (And may have been played at 720p so as to not be knee-capped by response times.)
Feel free to look, comment, and critique. If you want me to try to use OBS to record some gameplay for a comparison that you may rather prefer, that can be done. This little review is more of a stream of consciousness than anything else.
So what are my final thoughts? Part of me wishes I would have tossed down more money for a more competent video card; I’m certainly going to expand the range of money I feel is okay to spend for future purchasing. This laptop has seen me through work situations, classes, DnD sessions, and even a LAN party. The amount of utility I get from it kind of disgusts me. (I should go for more walks.) When I feel the need to play games online, and really be competitive, I definitely jump over onto my desktop - playing CS:GO or Overwatch with 150+ FPS on a full-sized freesync monitor is certainly preferable when you want to crush hordes of plebians.
Hm. I haven’t tried to see if I can utilize a freesync monitor with this GPU yet…