PC Specialist UltraNote X15 Sup Notebook

PC Specialist is best referred to as a maker of desktop laptops, however has recently branched out into manufacturing laptops. though the UltraNote X15 relies on AN ready-made chassis from barebones portable computer maker Clevo, it is a amazingly durable and engaging all-purpose portable computer. we have a tendency to were significantly affected by the fifteen.6in screen, that features a Full HD resolution of one,920x1,080. it is a matt instead of shiny show, therefore can suffer less from distracting reflections than a screen with a shiny end.

The show is additionally of a higher quality than most portable computer screens. Our standardisation device showed it to own a distinction quantitative relation of 907:1, and able to show sixty eight.1% of the sRGB color gamut. There was lots of detail in our low-contrast check pictures and, though the color gamut coverage is poor by the standards of current desktop monitors, it's smart for a portable computer and hues looked correct to our eyes. we have a tendency to did notice a rather heat yellow tint on some pictures, however it wasn’t therefore marked on perceptibly have an effect on our plain white check image.

If you wish to attach the screen to AN external show, there square measure each VGA and HDMI outputs offered. The chassis additionally has four USB ports, 2 of that square measure USB3, 3.5mm mic and earpiece ports, a memory card slot and a DVD-RW drive. there is additionally a Gigabit LAN port, one thing that laptops of this value usually lack, likewise as standard-issue 802.11n Wi-Fi. The portable computer is supplied with a 500GB fixed disk, which supplies you an honest quantity of storage for computer code and information. The constitutional speakers square measure positioned on the bottom of the portable computer. They place out an inexpensive quantity of volume while not distorting, however there is not any bass to talk of and also the mid-range could be a bit fuzzy. you will need to attach external speakers for music, as these speakers square measure solely extremely up to enjoying system sounds and also the odd YouTube video.

The keyboard is suitable however could be a great distance from being the most effective we’ve encountered on a portable computer. It's ordered out well and features a full numeric input device, however the sq., flat keys do not have abundant travel, which may create them uncomfortable to use, significantly if you tend to hit the keys laborious once typewriting. the complete chassis additionally makes a uninteresting clunking sound if you create laborious keystrokes. To its credit, though, we have a tendency to were able to accurately type on the keyboard among minutes of setting out to use it.

 The portable computer features a little touchpad, that we have a tendency to still found correct and comfy to use, albeit the articulatio plana rest on either facet becomes amazingly heat once the portable computer has been in use for AN hour roughly. it is also positioned rather too way to the left of the portable computer for our tastes.

This version of the UltraNote X15 is supplied with a two.5GHz Intel Core i3-3210 processor, creating it one amongst the a lot of powerful sub-£500 laptops we have seen late. It did well in our benchmark tests, manufacturing AN overall score of 44; that is enough to run any commonplace desktop application and keep multiple programs and tabs open with none perceptible slow-down or loss of performance. albeit it solely has 2 cores, the chip even did well in our multitasking check, with a robust score of forty one. The portable computer has 4GB of RAM, which may be upgraded to a most of 16GB.

The X15 is not engineered for vice, though, with solely AN Intel HD Graphics 2500 on-chip GPU. whereas our commonplace portable computer game check, Dirt disagreement at a resolution of one,280x720, 4x AA and top quality, solely ran at fifteen.3fps, dropping the standard to immoderate Low brought that up to thirty-nine.6fps. the sport isn’t as pretty at detail settings this low, however it shows you will be able to run older titles.

While most laptops keep company with annual come to base (RTB) assurance, the X15 has laptop Specialist's commonplace Silver assurance, which supplies you one year's collect-and-return assurance inclusive  of each elements and labour, and an additional 2 years' labour-only RTB coverage. It's a powerful assurance.

Apart from the marginally unresponsive keyboard, our solely real grievance concerning the X15 is that it's somewhat poor battery life. It solely lasted for four hours and twenty four minutes in our lightweight use check. This, at the side of its comparatively massive size, makes it higher suited to getting used round the home instead of for computing on the move. If you wish one thing that provides you a lot of operating time far from mains power, the most effective get winning Toshiba Satellite C50-A-156 is equally powerful, considerably cheaper and features a longer battery life, though it cannot match the UltraNote X15's Full HD show.