1
00:00:00,399 --> 00:00:08,960
normally I would look at a product as complex as a laptop from a new player

2
00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:10,679
and draw either of these conclusions one

3
00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:15,440
that they've simply rebadged someone else's probably mediocre b-level design

4
00:00:13,719 --> 00:00:19,880
unless they paid huge money for an exclusive or two that they did a

5
00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:25,519
horrible job on it due to their inexperience EVGA has the potential

6
00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:29,640
though to be different while they have done and continue to pretty much apply

7
00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:35,440
colorful boxes and stickers to third party designs like oh I don't know this

8
00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:37,719
one they also have a deeply experienced

9
00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:42,920
motherboard electrical and software design team giving them way more

10
00:00:40,239 --> 00:00:49,440
applicable engineering street cred than someone like Razer who surprised think

11
00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:53,160
everyone over the last four years by bursting onto the scene and

12
00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:58,680
demonstrating that there is still room for a newcomer to shake things up in

13
00:00:55,199 --> 00:01:01,480
this category but is EVGA walking down

14
00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:06,159
that same path to success ESS or is it all just theoretically I guess it makes

15
00:01:04,479 --> 00:01:15,120
more sense than it at first glance appeared to there's only one way to find

16
00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:23,320
out Intel skull Canyon knck features a

17
00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:28,400
sixth generation core i7 quad core processor and Thunderbolt 3 learn more

18
00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:34,920
at the link in the video description opening up the sc7 we get

19
00:01:32,079 --> 00:01:40,399
pretty much the entire guts laid out before us with none of the configurable

20
00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:48,079
or upgradable components trickily hiding under the keyboard or anything like that

21
00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:50,840
my config has a 256 gig sm951 NVMe SSD

22
00:01:48,079 --> 00:01:55,200
accompanied by a 1 TB hard drive notably a 9mm thick one haven't seen one of

23
00:01:52,680 --> 00:02:01,039
those in a while it's got an Intel 8260 ngw wireless card and a 74 1/2 WTH hour

24
00:01:59,159 --> 00:02:05,399
battery which is well positioned for reducing sweaty Palm syndrome directly

25
00:02:03,479 --> 00:02:11,120
under the touchpad which is fortunate cuz the top of the laptop does get quite

26
00:02:08,119 --> 00:02:14,400
toasty up towards the screen moving on

27
00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:16,560
to the rest unlike this Sager unit that

28
00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:23,200
we reviewed a while back that featured a desktop gtx980 video card a desktop core

29
00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:28,640
i76700k four sodium slots for memory expansion and all the cooling to go with

30
00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:31,519
it EVGA has gone for a purely mobile

31
00:02:28,640 --> 00:02:36,800
device-based design around a 45 wat core i7 6820 HK BGA CPU so that means it's

32
00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:41,560
soldered directly to the motherboard with a mere two sodium slots though

33
00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:47,239
thanks to DDR4's improved density they've packed 32 gigs of 2666 MHz RAM

34
00:02:44,920 --> 00:02:51,640
into them and even gone as far as to bake the

35
00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:53,959
gtx980m mobile GPU directly onto the

36
00:02:51,640 --> 00:03:00,920
main board rather than opting for an mxm add in card this seems to have directly

37
00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:04,000
contributed to the SC 17's Slimmer than

38
00:03:00,920 --> 00:03:05,560
most 17-inch gaming notebooks design the

39
00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:10,720
size of which should be pretty easy to gauge looking at the relative size of

40
00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:17,560
the two a type USB 3 and single C type USB 3.1 and headphone jacks on the right

41
00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:24,000
as well as the Intel gigabit Lan HDMI 1.4 normal mini DisplayPort and g-sync

42
00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:28,640
ready mini DisplayPort on the left all right then while it is

43
00:03:25,920 --> 00:03:34,040
slimmer and than many other 17-inch class gaming behemoth

44
00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:38,640
it's still bigger and very dense feeling

45
00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:41,840
compared to an aor X7 why well first and

46
00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:44,400
foremost because EVGA has chosen tank

47
00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:48,040
like construction over portability and while they seem to have brw forced it a

48
00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:52,760
little I mean that bottom cover has to be the thickest that I have ever seen

49
00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:57,799
they definitely achieved their goal the machined aluminum chassis has less Flex

50
00:03:55,200 --> 00:04:01,799
with its bottom cover removed than most laptops this size that I've encountered

51
00:03:59,799 --> 00:04:07,599
that are fully assembled and I have never seen a 17-in laptop with a screen

52
00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:12,360
with this little Flex like wholly actual and this approach carries over to

53
00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:17,239
cooling as well with four heat pipes carrying heat away from the CPU and GPU

54
00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:22,160
toward a total of four heat sink fin arrays that are fed by a pair of large

55
00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:27,040
blower style fans they intake air from the bottom of the unit right next to

56
00:04:23,960 --> 00:04:28,960
this beefy rubber heel that pulls double

57
00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:32,240
Duty adding a subtle angle to the keyboard and and cleverly ensuring that

58
00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:37,759
there is enough clearance on the bottom of the device for ample air flow and it

59
00:04:34,479 --> 00:04:40,080
works pretty well I would like for EVGA

60
00:04:37,759 --> 00:04:44,240
to tune their fan ramping logic which can make these sharp adjustments as

61
00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:51,680
often as every 5 to 10 seconds while gaming but at 70° underload and I to 64

62
00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:53,800
on the CPU and about the same on the GPU

63
00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:59,080
while running unen Heaven even while overclocked by 76 MHz I can't really

64
00:04:56,759 --> 00:05:05,600
complain though it should be noted that the CPU got quite a bit hotter at about

65
00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:08,800
90° C with the canned 3.8 GHz all core

66
00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:11,800
overclock and while this use three

67
00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:14,120
screws in place of every nail approach

68
00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:19,039
in spite of evga's efforts to engineer a flatter power brick that slides into

69
00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:25,720
your bag more easily does not improve the tot ability of the sc7 what it does

70
00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:31,520
do is sidestep the Trap that many newcomers and even many multinationals

71
00:05:28,199 --> 00:05:34,639
fall into where they either to save

72
00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:37,319
weight or material cost manag to build

73
00:05:34,639 --> 00:05:43,600
devices out of aluminum and Corning Glass and still have them feel kind of

74
00:05:40,840 --> 00:05:49,479
cheap so I think there's a lot of Merit to this approach especially for a 17-in

75
00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:54,000
gaming device where realistically were you going to be carting it around to

76
00:05:50,919 --> 00:05:56,360
class every day anyway not for the

77
00:05:54,000 --> 00:06:00,560
keyboard unfortunately while I think they did a good job of the touchpad it's

78
00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:04,319
got a slightly heavy click but zero noticeable latency and Flawless

79
00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:10,720
two-handed operation are the highlights here the keyboard tuning needs some work

80
00:06:07,319 --> 00:06:12,840
imh the five level backlight is good the

81
00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:16,400
layout is fine other than using prime hotkey space on the up and down arrows

82
00:06:14,599 --> 00:06:21,160
for switching overclocks instead of page up and down and it's not like there's

83
00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:25,759
key cap wobble or anything like that but the top of each stroke is stiff while

84
00:06:23,479 --> 00:06:30,720
the bottoming out is spongy and the space bar in particular is so mushy that

85
00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:37,759
I actually found myself misfiring fairly frequently let's talk screen now EVGA

86
00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:41,319
puzzlingly equipped the sc7 with a 4K 60

87
00:06:37,759 --> 00:06:44,280
HZ IPS panel from sharp that manages

88
00:06:41,319 --> 00:06:47,960
great color fantastic contrast with a non-distracting amount of motion blur

89
00:06:46,479 --> 00:06:54,360
actually very little backlight bleed as well sounds great lonus why is that

90
00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:56,639
puzzling because the 980m even with

91
00:06:54,360 --> 00:07:01,199
evga's shockingly smooth preconfigured overclock for the CPU and GPU in their

92
00:06:59,039 --> 00:07:05,680
precision software and this is mindbending their full fat Enthusiast

93
00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:09,919
grade BIOS level overclocking features with like mouse support clear seos

94
00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:15,680
button and all that you know just like a desktop just is not really capable of

95
00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:21,039
driving AAA titles at 4K with high details not today and definitely not 2

96
00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:26,879
to 3 years from now and since there are no g-sync 4K panels that I'm aware of

97
00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:31,520
their decision left them with no support for what is in my opinion the only

98
00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:36,759
technology that NVIDIA provides aside from just putting a faster GPU in there

99
00:07:34,599 --> 00:07:42,680
a desktop grade one that could compensate for a GPU resolution mismatch

100
00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:47,560
like this with smoother animations at lower and highly variable frame rates

101
00:07:45,599 --> 00:07:52,599
they did say that they're working on it at CES but that doesn't help buyers

102
00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:57,560
today which I guess leads us very gracefully into today's conclusion and

103
00:07:55,240 --> 00:08:05,199
the answer to the question that I posed about 6 minutes ago it depends on how

104
00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:08,720
you evaluate success if I were to pick

105
00:08:05,199 --> 00:08:12,199
on what was bad I could say that at the

106
00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:15,039
price I don't think their spec competes

107
00:08:12,199 --> 00:08:19,800
well with the fatter heavier and uglier but significantly faster gaming laptops

108
00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:24,360
that are out there from competitors but if I were to look at what they got right

109
00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:29,560
there is a lot to like here they built a chassis and a unique product identity

110
00:08:26,879 --> 00:08:33,880
around quality and overclockability that I believe they can carry forward for a

111
00:08:31,479 --> 00:08:38,360
couple of years at least without anyone properly competing with it the machine

112
00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:44,360
was Rock Solid in my testing with zero odd behavior and they even avoided most

113
00:08:41,240 --> 00:08:48,200
of the oopsies that first time laptop

114
00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:50,279
makers fall into the 1080p webcams soft

115
00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:54,839
image quality and poor lowlight performance are a bit of a drag but the

116
00:08:52,880 --> 00:09:00,120
speakers on the built-in microphone are both surprisingly good I'm just here for

117
00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:05,160
the food all right jez which means that while I won't be

118
00:09:02,920 --> 00:09:11,160
running out to drop nearly three G's after taxes and shipping on an sc7 I

119
00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:17,240
will have a very close eye on future evj mobile products well done guys Mass drop

120
00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:23,920
is working with high-fi men to bring back their H300 headphones with a

121
00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:26,440
special MD or mass drop Edition so in

122
00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:32,399
their former life uh under solely the high-fi men name these entry Lev

123
00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:37,680
headphones were a whopping $300 the new one is actually very

124
00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:42,560
similar to the older h30s but with an updated and more lightweight structure a

125
00:09:39,880 --> 00:09:47,440
more neutral sound signature and an all black appearance compared to the silver

126
00:09:44,519 --> 00:09:51,880
and black of older Generations the most important thing though the biggest

127
00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:58,320
change is the price they've reduced it to a very low

128
00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:59,839
$99 so you can check that out at

129
00:09:58,320 --> 00:10:05,760
draw. lt- hm- 350 or you can just click the

130
00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:12,600
link in the video description and if you're a little confused cuz you've never heard of mass drop before well

131
00:10:09,200 --> 00:10:15,360
I'll explain it Mass drop takes sellers

132
00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:18,800
and buyers lots of buyers and puts them together the more people buy the lower

133
00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:24,240
the price goes they've got deals on all kinds of stuff knives camping supplies

134
00:10:21,399 --> 00:10:27,800
keyboards headphones for example and you can check it all out again at that link

135
00:10:26,519 --> 00:10:31,279
in the video description so thanks for watching guys

136
00:10:29,839 --> 00:10:34,040
if this video sucked you know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit

137
00:10:32,839 --> 00:10:39,279
that like button or even consider supporting us directly by using our affiliate code to shop at

138
00:10:36,959 --> 00:10:42,680
Amazon by buying a cool shirt like this one or with a direct monthly

139
00:10:40,959 --> 00:10:46,880
contribution now that you're done doing all that stuff you're probably wondering hm gee what should I watch next so click

140
00:10:45,519 --> 00:10:51,040
that little button up there to check out our latest video over on channel super

141
00:10:48,839 --> 00:10:56,440
fun I guarantee you it'll be super and fun oh the laptop battery just died

142
00:10:52,680 --> 00:10:56,440
that's okay we were done anyway