Review of Sager NP7330 (Built on Clevo W230ST)

Customer Ratings:

I purchased my Notebook from Sager, This notebook has been outstanding since day one. The backlit keyboard really helps when working in areas with low light. I have played numberous Games on this laptop with high Settings and a few Games on Ultra Settings. This laptop does not have any heat issues, and boots up very quickly. I upgraded the Hard Drive to a 250GB Samsung 840, and added (2)Crucial 256GB mSATA Drives in Raid 0, and 16GB Corsair RAM to this laptop. The boot time is around 6-7 seconds from a cold start. The Display (1920x1080) is amazing. I highly recommend this laptop for Gaming, Multi-Media..etc.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Obviously your already know what comes inside, that's why you're buying it. In addition the ease of access for hardware upgrades and installation makes it very easy to do just that. So as far as hardware goes, it's up to you, do you want a great little system that packs a punch, then this is for you.

I bought my system from LPC-Digital, Larry is fantastic. You get personal customer service and Larry will beat any other companies price, he did for me. You can see his level of support from other customer's over at Notebook Reviews.

Not all is great though and there are some things I'd like to point out. The screen though sharp and with great viewing angles, suffers from some really annoying bleeding on several spots. Thankfully I have no dead pixels.

The trackpad is another area that could definitely use some improvement. Gestures in Win8 are a no go, very hard to register for the most part. I also find it small, had Clevo designed the keyboard to be further up towards the screen it would grant more real estate for a larger trackpad. If you've ever used a Macbook Pro you'll know what a trackpad should feel and work like. If there's one thing Apple does right, this is it.

The laptop feels solid, but it doesn't necessarily scream build quality. The lid flexes and the bottom of the machine is made with what seems like a lower quality plastic. Like and entry level HP or Dell. The palm rest area all feels very solid by comparison.

The speakers sound tiny and lack bass. Yes I know this is a laptop but I've heard better from comparable systems. I must also mention they do sound detailed, so that's nice.

The sleep button is on the F4 key, this is between the volume down key and the mute key. Seriously who thought that was a good layout? Not a deal breaker by any stretch but not a great design either.

Again I don't need to mention numbers and hardware, you know what's inside and what it can do. If you don't google is a few clicks away. So as far as the hardware you don't know, what I do like, for one is the keyboard. I find it very comfortable, the keys are a bit on the stiff side which in my opinion makes up for their short travel. I think it's a great laptop for typing, for a laptop of course.

The price is right as well. I got mine for $1024, that's with Win8, the 750GB HDD and the 7260AC.

That's really it, you buy this machine for two reasons, the hardware inside and the price. You could buy the Y410p and hope Lenovo will release their bay GPU but you'd lack upgrade-ability and resolution. You could also buy the MSI 14 but there's been reports of overheating, you'll sacrifice resolution again and it's more expensive as well.

If you can live with the quirks I'd highly recommend the system. Plug in a couple of xbox controllers and the living room TV can be your gaming room very easily. Close it and it can be your school laptop, highly portable. Load up Lightroom, Photoshop or whatever it is you need, it can handle it.

EDIT: I've found that two finger scrolling works significantly better in Ubuntu 13.04. A lot more response then on Win8.