In August last year, I asked to watch a review video of the 'utopian' laptop from youtuber Dave2D. This is a 'prototype' product of Intel processor, sold in markets around the world under the different brand names and in this case Eluktronics.
Designed by Intel inside and out, optimized for their own components, this product has high performance (especially the heat and battery issues), beating quite a lot of gaming laptops. high-end from other popular brands in the market. This interesting product made me feel really curious, but also told myself that it will never appear in Vietnam because our market is not big enough for Intel to be 'bothered'.
But surprisingly, at the end of last year, VGS (Vietnam Gaming Setup), a community of computer enthusiasts in Vietnam, announced that it would bring this product to our country under their brand. The final product is called VGS Imperium , which I had a chance to get on hand and experience it today.
Unsurprisingly, this product doesn't have too many changes in exterior design compared to Intel's prototype, and according to its subjective assessment, it is not really 'eye-catching'. Laptops, especially those that specialize in gaming, often have aggressive designs, with more colorful details.
As usual, depending on each person's eyes, this is an advantage or disadvantage, the simple design of Imperium also helps us to use it in the workplace without feeling 'overly'.
The entire body is made of magnesium alloy, a material that is rarely used in laptops because it is harder to manipulate than aluminum and plastic. Intel chose this material to reduce weight, although the device is not too small, accompanied by a high configuration (we will find out later) but weighs only about 1.85kg, we can hold it with one hand .
The biggest change of the device is on the logo on the top, which is the logo of the VGS community.
On the device, the first thing we see is a 15.6-inch screen with a fairly thin bezel, FullHD resolution. Aimed at gamers, the monitor has a 144Hz refresh rate with low 3ms latency.
Above we have the infrared support webcam for users to use the feature to open the face recognition device Windows Hello, a feature that is quite 'hot' in new laptops.
Scroll down to the bottom, next to the power button is a button to switch between performance modes, from light to surf the web, office work to high performance to do heavy things like video editing and of course gaming. .
The keyboard of the machine consists of instant keys, not a chicklet, but according to Dave2D surmised that due to the difficult production of magnesium, it had to cut a single large hole for the entire keyboard, but could not cut each tiny hole. Practical experience, this keyboard is still very good, long journey (according to published, about 2mm) and good bounce.
This is a gaming laptop, so it is indispensable to have an RGB-type LED backlight!
Just below is a touchpad with the advantage of being covered with glass, for smooth hand movement and using Windows Precision.
Turn to the sides to learn about the connectors. Next to it is a charging port, HDMI Full-size, Ethernet port, Thunderbolt.
The right side is a USB 3.1, separate microphone and headphone ports.
The left side has 2 more USB 3.1 ports and an SD memory card reader. This is a very full I / O port system for every need, something that's getting lost on new generation laptops (like 'A brand'!).
Wireless connections include Wifi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 with antennas placed on two plastic bands on both sides, as the body is made of metal, so it could interfere.
All Imperium options have an Intel i7-9750H processor with 6 cores and 12 threads, which is one of the most powerful processors today, which means radiating a lot of heat out into the environment. That's not to mention the GPU with two options: Nvidia 1660Ti or 2070 Max-Q, both are not inferior '' in heat generation.
But as mentioned above, because these products are designed and tested by Intel themselves, these machines have good cooling performance to take advantage of the performance of these hardware components. A little closer we can see the system of 2 fans and the fields of heat sink are placed on the side and the back. It also has an 8200mAh battery, according to the announcement, can be used within 10 hours 45 minutes.
VGS Imperium is priced from VND 37.4 million to VND 62.6 million for RAM options of 16/32 / 64GB, SSD 512GB / 1TB / 2TB and 2 GPU options as mentioned above. This is of course not a perfect product, especially for those who want a laptop from established brands, but also a worthy option for those who really care about the issue. performance – which this product proved very formidable.