New Laptop: Sager NP8235

Here is a detailed chronological experience I had with xoticpc while shopping for a new laptop. This review will probably be most helpful for those of you waiting to purchase something during black friday and want to know of possible turn times.

In summary - customer service and the speed of the transaction seems to drop during the holidays. Expectedly so - as they are probably overwhelmed by shoppers wanting a good deal (like myself). The influx in orders, and the fact that it's the holidays and nobody really wants to be working seems to go hand in hand.

My order was *NOT* overseen by one person. It went through about 4 different people. Replies to e-mails and trying to reach the correct person for help was very difficult and getting any return mail took longer than 24 hours.

I will also be counting the total days and total business days that it took to complete the transaction.

11/24/2013: Ordered the laptop via xoticpc.com
11/25/2013: Megan replies back to me after I inform her I would like to change payment type to credit card. We go through a few loops as we have to order via dummy order to input my cc information. I follow the instruction and place a new dummy order.
11/27/2013: Order is changed to processing
11/28/2013: I get a call from a xoticpc sales rep saying my card was declined. This was my fault as I should have called my cc company prior to placing the order. I call my cc and approve the transaction. I e-mail Megan telling her that I have approved the charge and that they should re-process my order. No replies.
12/02/2013: I e-mail xoticpc while cc'ing Megan to figure out what's going on and why my order is still processing. No replies.
12/04/2013: I finally get a reply from Derek S who informs me they are very busy and Donna will be the new person helping me. This was a frustrating part.. when it takes 5 business days to actually finish ordering a product.
12/04/2013: Phase 1 - order goes to Sager.
12/09/2013: Computer being built.
12/11/2013: Computer sent from Sager to Xoticpc for custom modifications.
12/16/2013: Computer arrives at Xoticpc. Received an e-mail from Seth who will be the ones doing the modificactions.
12/28/2013: I send an e-mail to sales ATTN: Seth asking for a quick update on the progress. No replies.
01/02/2014: I get 3 e-mails at the same time telling me my computer went from Phase 4, 5, 6, and 7 all in 1 day.
01/02/2014: I receive UPS Ship notification.
01/08/2014: Received laptop

Total days: 46 days
Total Business days (excluding Xmas and New years): 29 days

I really hope they didn't rush my build trying to meet all their deadlines. We will see once it gets here.


Packaging



The outer box had some cuts and bruises. But the interior box was fine.



The custom wrap has 2 small bubbles, but it's rather minor and i decide to overlook them.





There was a special promotion for the Sager system for a free Batman game, but I did not find any CD's for it. :( The system came with the laptop, power, manuals, and some driver cd's.



First Impression / Build Quality

99% of what i expected. Good built quality, wrap is good other than the bubble. Feels solid and a little on the heavier side compared to my Dell 1501. The plastic material is strong and there was no flex whatsoever. The keyboard works fine, and the trackpad is a little different from what i'm used to as its made of the same material of the shell. The display is good with no dead pixels. DVD works and Windows is now installing.







System Performance

Overall I haven't had extensive time to test out all the softwares I use or games - but the system is stable and very fast. Well.. considering i'm coming form a laptop that's 6 years old go figure.


My system specs:

Sager NP8235 (Clevo P151SM1)
Processor Sager - 4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4700MQ (2.4GHz - 3.4GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
Graphics Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 770M (3.0GB) GDDR5 PCI-Express DX11
2x4GB SODIMMS (16GB 1600MHz Ram)
mSATA SSD Drive ( Slot 1 ) 120GB Crucial M5 mSATA SSD
1TB 5400RPM [SATA II - 3GB/s]
Optical Drive Bay 8X Super Multi DVDRW/CDRW Combo Drive
Exterior Finish - Graphic & Textured Wraps
Wireless Network Sager - Intel® Dual Band AC 7260 802.11 A/AC/B/G/N 2.4/5.0GHz + Bluetooth™ 4.0


If you are ordering a Sager and it's going to be shipping directly from Sager's CA office - actual turn time is fast. If Sager needs to ship it to Xoticpc first for custom modifications or to avoid CA tax, this will take a good 5-10 business days. Xotic clearly states this in their order page and they aren't kidding. If you want custom mods that xoticpc needs to perform. Expect delays. Just expect about 15 business days of additional build time.

Overall, I am satisfied with the system, even with all the bumps on the way. There were only minor issues (Delay in order processing / No free game as promised / bubble in the custom wrap). I would order from xoticpc again - but will have better expectations in turn around times.