PC Specialist Laptop Review

Enigma IV Review

A week ago, I received my custom built laptop from the fine people at PC Specialist.  It was a long and arduous wait (only 11 days) but when you look forward to something, the minutes turn into hours and the hours into days.  In fact, when I emailed about the time it was taking to be built (nearly a week compared to the 1-3 days stated on the website), they emailed me back, saying it was going straight to testing and I received the laptop within two days.  That is Amazon style customer service there folks.

I have no need for branded goods.  The premium 'tax' you pay is often not worth the hit on your wallet.  All you need for a good laptop is a fast processor, a decent amount of RAM and a good graphics card, integrated or discrete.  Apple MacBooks, or Chromebook Pixels are all fine and dandy, but you can much the same specifications if you just custom build the laptop.  Of course, I don't have access to the Retina Display of the Macbook Pro, nor do I have the wonderful touch screen or the resolution of the pixel, but the internals are the same if not slightly better (aside from the SSD drive of course).

Anyway, let's analyse the specifications.

I opted for a standard H.D resolution of 1366x768.  It is fine for me.  Everything in life is a trade off, and if having slightly fewer pixels on the screen means a slightly increased battery life, then it is a deal worth making.  I have no need for a full H.D screen as I have no need for photo-editing nor video-editing.  The screen quality is indeed good, if a little dull.  For some reason, in reviews like this, viewing angles are classed as important.  It's the same with smartphones and tablets.  I don't know anyone who views their device at any angle other than straight ahead.  So when I say viewing angles on the Enigma IV aren't spectacular, I don't care!  Watching YouTube videos is a dream as they load almost instantly, even at 1080p resolution.  And with YouTube partners' production getting more and more professional, having a good video experience is essential to anyone laptop.  You don't want to be waiting for 10 minutes for a 5 minute video to buffer!

My budget was reasonable.  I don't have the luxury of splurging over £1000 on a laptop, so I opted for a traditional hard-drive at 7200rpm rather than an SSD drive, most of which are still very expensive.  It has 4 GB of DDR ram, a core Intel I5 3230m processor clocked at 2.6 GHz with a turbo speed of 3.2 GHz   And most importantly, it has an Nvidia Geforce GT 650m graphics card with 2 GB of video ram.  Being able to play Call of Duty, Deus Ex and GTA IV at maximum settings is a beautiful thing.  Not a single glitch.  They run butter smooth with consistently high frame rates.  The Enigma IV can handle H.D video without a problem.  I haven't run any official benchmark tests, but my own experiences are sufficient.  Even with multiple programmes open and running, I haven't experienced any slowdown.  I expect this to change as I add more demanding games like Far Cry 3 and Dead Island, but as far as things are going now, it runs beautifully.

The sound is great too.  It is thick, vibrant and full of bass.  When you listen to as much music as I do (as a part time hobby I try to transcribe guitar parts, so sound is very important to me) sound is very important.  I have no complaints here.  I played the new Lynyrd Skynyrd album as an audible benchmark and it sounds impressive.  The dry as a bone Telecaster guitar tone sounds sumptuous here.  The bass is loud, full, thick and powerful.

In terms of connectivity, it has 2 3.0 USB ports and 1 2.0 USB port.  I have connected a mouse for my gaming needs and can connect any peripheral I need, such as a cooling stand, printer, even an external monitor.  It has an HDMI port alongside a VGA port, so when I want to stream a movie on Netflix but watch it on a widescreen TV, I can.  The Enigma IV has wireless connectivity, with surprisingly good reach.  In my house, I am as far away from the wifi router as possible, yet, despite this, my internet speeds are fast, pages load seamlessly and without interruption, and my downloads occur without a hitch.

I cannot efficiently express how much I love the design.  It possesses a simple, clean look with a nice finish.  No logos, labels or any of the other bits of nonsense with which other O.E.M's like to pepper their equipment.  Even the spec stickers are optional!  The webcam is fine for Skype and video calling in general.  As long as you don't expect to shoot high quality portrait shots, you should be fine!

The Enigma IV is a great laptop.  No, it is a superb laptop.  And at the price I paid for it (just over £500 excluding VAT), I cannot complain.  It boots up in 10 seconds, and I can go from switching on the device to playing a graphically demanding game in 30 seconds.  That is a superb reflection on the work PC Specialist has done here.  I had some problems with my Windows 8 activation key as the letter B was sometimes confused with the number 8, and aside from the 85p a minute premium rate number, tech support was great. Within 30 minutes I was installing Libre Office, my Steam games, the Chrome browser and various other bits of software.  I don't like the Metro UI in Windows 8, but PC Specialist don't do operating systems.  If they did, I'd buy it!