Not familiar with Schenker laptops? Unless you’ve spent time in
Germany, you probably haven’t. The brand has only just made its way to
the UK, so we took a look at one of its top-end systems to see what it
could do. The XMG P502 can be configured up to an eye-watering £3,000,
but we’ve taken a more sensible approach, opting for a mid-range setup
that costs £1380. You get a lot for your money, including a quad-core
Intel i7 processor, SSD and hard disk storage, Blu-ray playback, a 1080p
display and seriously powerful dedicated graphics.
The Core i7-3610QM runs each of its four cores at 2.3GHz, but it can
use Intel’s Turbo Boost technology to reach a hefty 3.3GHz in certain
applications. It also supports Hyper-Threading, so Windows sees eight
processor cores. This, along with 8GB of RAM, helped the P502 achieve an
impressive 89 overall in our multimedia benchmarks. That’s only 10 per
cent behind a full desktop PC, so you’ll have no trouble running
applications, even heavily multithreaded ones such as video-editing
applications. The only downside to this much power is the way it affects
battery life. The P502 only managed a little over three hours away from
the mains in our light-use test, and less than an hour when playing
games.
As this is primarily a gaming laptop, Schenker has opted for a
powerful dedicated graphics chip. The GeForce GTX 675M is Nvidia’s
second fastest laptop GPU, which has 2GB of dedicated video memory and
access to a further 2GB of system memory should it need it. After
scoring an amazing 113.6fps in our standard Dirt 3 laptop test, we
eagerly cranked our gaming benchmarks up to their maximum settings and
ran them again to put the P502 through its paces. Even at 1080p with 16x
anti-aliasing and all details set to Ultra, it still breezed through
with an impeccable 45.58fps. Our ultra-demanding Crysis 2 test is
normally used to test desktop graphics cards, but the GTX 675 put in an
impressive performance, averaging 23.6fps. Without anti-aliasing, you’ll
be able to play most modern titles at 1080p, and have no trouble
playing at 720p.
A low-resolution screen wouldn’t suit the graphics card, so the
addition of a Full HD display is welcome. Its 15.6in size is a perfect
match for the 1,920x1,080 panel, which makes everything look pin-sharp
without forcing you to squint at unreadable text. There’s more than
enough room to open two documents or browser sessions side-by-side, or
watch Blu-ray films at their native resolution. It isn’t perfect, as the
TN panel suffers from colour shift at anything more than a face-on
viewing angle, but there’s plenty of screen tilt and the matt finish
prevents light reflections becoming too distracting.
In everyday use, the P502 fared very well. You can’t make a gaming
laptop these days without adding a backlit keyboard, and Schenker has
obliged, equipping the XMG P502 with blue LED lighting. Due to the
almost complete proliferation of Chiclet-style keyboards, you might need
a few moments to familiarise yourself with the traditional layout used
here, as there’s very little space between neighbouring keys. However,
each one is springy, with just the right amount of travel and tactile
feedback. We had no problems using it to type this review. There’s also
very little flex in the keyboard tray and you get a full-size numeric
keypad for faster data entry.
The rather compact touchpad felt cramped when navigating the desktop
at 1080p because it isn’t sensitive enough to cover it completely in one
swipe. You can change this on the settings page of the touchpad driver,
but it’s no replacement for a larger touchpad. It’s made of the same
rubberised plastic as the rest of the chassis, but is smooth to the
touch and doesn’t create unwanted friction. Sadly, we’re not too keen on
the placement of the fingerprint reader because it means the touchpad
buttons are half the size they could have been.
Built into an off-the-shelf Clevo chassis, the XMG P502 isn’t the
epitome of style, and neither is it particularly portable. Given its 3kg
weight, without its bulky charging adaptor, The XMG P502 isn’t
something you’d want to carry around on a daily basis. However, it is at
least functional, leaving plenty of room for connectivity around the
sides and rear.
With HDMI, DVI and DisplayPort video outputs at the back, and three
3.5mm audio input jacks on the side, the XMG 502 is clearly intended as a
desktop PC replacement. You also get four USB ports, two of which are
USB3 variants and one doubles as an eSATA port. You also get a Gigabit
Ethernet port, a 4-pin FireWire port and a multiformat card reader.
Finally, a Blu-ray optical drive lets you watch films or install games.
The integrated speakers were developed in partnership with Onkyo. As
well as a pair of up-firing stereo drivers positioned above the
keyboard, there’s also a third bass speaker in the base of the laptop.
We hesitate to call it a subwoofer because it struggles to produce
desk-shaking bass, but it does add a welcome low-end to music and films
that would otherwise be missing without it. Don’t expect home
cinema-quality sound, although the sound is a step up from most laptops.
The mid-range was clear throughout our testing and the high-end was
refreshingly clean, without sounding too sharp.
With gaming laptops from Alienware and Gigabyte costing between
£1,500 and £2,500, it’s easy to assume you must spend a fortune to get
playable frame rates at Full HD resolutions. However, the Schenker XMG
P502 proves that isn’t the case. It’s easily powerful enough to play the
latest games, as well as run any desktop application, yet it costs
significantly less. With some tweaks to the configuration, you could
reduce the price even further, but the system we reviewed represents the
best value. It isn’t perfect, as the Clevo chassis doesn’t have the
same impact as the competition, but you get a fantastic system for your
money.
It's
still too soon in Tim Cook's tenure to make a firm declaration in
either direction, in my opinion. Jobs did run the company for 22 years
over the course of two terms, after all. It was said when he died, Jobs
had reviewed all product plans for the next four years, so his stamp
will be on Apple for a little longer.
