Review Sager NP5160 laptop

Not a famous brand, no attractive design, but Sager NP5160 has an excellent performance and heat dissipation capability.

Sager was originally an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) based in California, USA. This brand is quite new in Vietnam but in the world this is a manufacturer of gaming models that are highly appreciated.

Sager NP5160 is one of the company's latest gaming laptops with integrated second-generation Core i and Geforce GT 540M discrete cards.

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Sager NP5610. (Photo: Tuan Hung).

Tested, Sager NP5160 (aka Clevo W150HNQ) comes equipped with a 15.6-inch standard Full HD microprocessor Intel Core i7-2630QM clocked at 2 GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive with a speed of 7,200 rpm, Nvidia Geforce GT 540M graphics card with 1GB VRAM capacity with up to 2 USB 3.0 ports.

Sager NP5160 is only available in the domestic market in the form of portable, this model price is about 24 million VND.

Here are some detailed reviews on this model:

Part 1: Design, keyboard, Touchpad
Part 2: Screen, performance
Part 3: Sound, heat sink, battery life
Part 4: Compare with some other models

General assessment.

* Advantages:

- Highly configurable with very attractive prices.

- USB 3.0 connection port.

- Good heat dissipation ability.

- Full HD standard screen.

* Defect:

- Little known brand

- Speaker sound quality is not good.

- Designs are not special compared to gamer users.

- The radiator slot is not reasonable.

Part 1: Design, keyboard, touchpad

Design

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The plastic ball etched shell still sinks. (Photo: Tuan Hung).

Design is not a strong point of Sager NP5160, this model has hardware configuration towards users who are gamers but the style is not "pitiful" but quite simple.

The cover of the fingerprint-friendly glossy plastic machine is reported by the manufacturer to be able to resist scratches and print in mesh form. The Sager logo is also a bit small, not creating an impression on viewers. It is also quite thick about 2.8cm and weighs 2.5 kg.

However, the inside of the machine with a scratched aluminum cover on the side is quite a plus point. This design not only helps users feel comfortable to keep their hands from slippery but also increases the ability of heat dissipation when used. The handset in the hand is sturdy and definitely feels reassuring.

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Next to the left of the machine with USB 3.0 port.

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Right next to the DVD optical drive.

Sager NP5160 is fully equipped with connectors from VGA, HDMI, eSATA, USB 2.0 to the latest USB 3.0 standard. However, for this connection to be backward compatible with the old standard, users need to install the driver attached to the device.

One drawback in the connection port design is on the left side of the heat sink slot located just below these ports, so when connecting devices such as cables, USB is easily susceptible to hot heat vapor.

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Keyboard on Sager NP5160.

Like most other 15.6-inch models, the NP5160 has a keyboard equipped with a separate numeric keypad. However, this key sequence is designed in close proximity to the keyboard with four alternating navigation keys so it will be difficult to get used to at the beginning.

Using the familiar chiclet style recently, NP5610 gives the experience of good keys, moderate bounce and key depth, not too excellent but easy to get used to and create a comfortable feeling when using.

As a laptop for gamers, NP5610 is not equipped with separate multimedia shortcuts, but only the shortcut keys Wi-Fi, turn off the sound and turn on eco mode.

Interestingly, this model also has a key to switch between a discrete graphics card and an integrated graphics chip to use for gaming or just surf the web simply to increase performance and battery life.

Part 2: Screen, performance
Part 3: Sound, heat sink, battery life
Part 4: Compare with some other models

Part 2: Screen, performance

Screen

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Machine screen.

Equipped with 15.6 inch screen size but Sager NP5610 but the resolution is up to Full HD 1,920 x 1,080p. When surfing web and images smaller than normal, users will encounter difficulties when monitoring, icons or keys on the screen also have a similar situation due to the resolution is too large.

However, this screen creates a " very " feeling when watching HD movies and more and especially playing games.

Due to the use of mirror technology, the device has a shadowy condition when there is a strong light source behind or bright outdoor use. However, the viewing angle of the device is quite good, in about 60 degrees compared to the perpendicular image is still almost no discoloration.

Performance performance

Sager NP5160 (also known as Clevo W150HNQ) equipped with the configuration including 15.6-inch standard Full HD microprocessor Intel Core i7-2630QM processor with 2 GHz speed, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive speed 7200 rpm, Nvidia Geforce GT 540M graphics card 1GB VRAM capacity.

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Scoring with Windows Experience Index.

With hardware like this, this model reached 5.9 points (taking the low score is clicked due to graphics capabilities) when marked by Windows Experience Index system on Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit). On a scale of detail, the processor achieved 7.4 points, RAM memory was 5.9 points while the graphics capability was 5.9 points and the graphics for the game reached 6.6 points.

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Scoring with PC Mark Vantage.

Continuing to use PCMark Vantage program to evaluate overall strength, Sager NP5610 reached 6,970 points.

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Score with 3D Mark 06.

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Playing games with Full HD resolution, the highest graphic setting, Sager NP5610 easily "downloaded" PES 2011, Call of Duty 7 or NFS Shift 2 games.

Meanwhile, if using the 3DMark06 grading program to test graphics power, Sager NP5610 achieved 6,585 points. This is a grading scale when using discrete graphics cards.

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Microprocessor scoring.

Continue using the Cinebech 11.5 program to evaluate the processor and try OpenGl. The result is quite impressive with processor reaching 4.49 points and graphics card with 25 frames per second.

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Large hard drive.

The hard drive Sager NP5610 uses is 320GB of 7,200 revolutions per minute. In fact the average data readout is 73.7 MB / sec, which is higher than the average of 60MB / sec in 5,400 rpm, but slightly lower than the average of 80MB / sec. with laptops with hard drives at the same speed.

Part 1: Design, keyboard, Touchpad
Part 3: Sound, heat sink, battery life
Part 4: Compare with some other models

Part 3: Heat dissipation, battery life, sound

Radiators

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The bottom of the machine has an exhaust fan to increase heat dissipation.

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The radiator slot design on the side is not really reasonable.

Sager NP5160 uses an exhaust fan on the underside and drains the wind through the heat sink at the side. The heat sink slot design as mentioned above is inconvenient for users when connecting peripheral devices on the left side of the machine.

However, the heat sink is a strong point on Sager NP5160, this model has an internal keyboard cover, and for a scratched aluminum hand that helps to drain heat very well. Along with the exhaust fan on the underside, when the machine must operate at full capacity, the heat is still exited both in the heat sink and aluminum surface.

When testing heavy games like NFS Shift 2 or Call of duty 7 in about an hour, the device is still hot at an acceptable level. When used normally, users can put on their thighs to work comfortably.

Battery life

Sager NP5160 uses 6-cell battery included. The battery is about the same size as the popular models on the market, so it takes about 2.5 hours to fully charge.

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Measure Sager NP5610 battery life.

Experimental open Firefox loads 10 web pages and automatically reloads every 15 minutes, opens an online music player page and gives continuous playback, using headphones instead of the speakerphone and leaving the volume level at 70%. 50% light for the machine to run until it turns itself off (to 5%), this time reaches 2 hours 28 minutes.

While testing the device to run a standard 720p HD movie and play it back continuously until it is off, turn off the Wi-Fi connection, use a headset instead of the speaker and put it at a volume of 70% (negative Windows Media Player program bar to 100%), 50% brightness for the device to run until it turns itself off (with 5% battery level), this time reaches 2 hours 16 minutes.

The test numbers show that the device has an average battery life.

Sound

Sager is designed for gamers but the speaker of the machine has sound quality is not good. The volume is low and the bass is unclear, making this speaker not much effective when listening to music, watching movies or playing games.

Part 1: Design, keyboard, Touchpad
Part 2: Screen, performance
Part 4: Compare with some other models

Part 4: Compare with some other models

Compare with competitors of the same range.

It is difficult to find a model that is configured as Sager NP5160 but costs only about 24 million. Currently on the market Dell XPS L502X has almost the same configuration costing about 31 million.

Of course, Sager cannot compare with Dell in terms of brand and external design. But the performance of the device is not really different from competitors of the same configuration.

Dell XPS L502X also has another configuration model that uses the same graphics card but uses the second generation Core i5 chip and costs about VND 26 million.

Some other models also use graphics card like Sager NP5160 but equipped with lower processor Core i5-2410M, Asus K53SV also cost about 20 million VND. While the Sager laptop model is also equipped with a Full HD standard screen.

A little lower but with the same graphics card option, users can think of Acer models like Aspire 4750G but lower chip Core i3-2310M, RAM only 2GB but good price of about 14 million.

Review previous reviews:

Part 1: Design, keyboard, Touchpad
Part 2: Screen, performance
Part 3: Sound, heat sink, battery life