Today marks the day that my first ever brand new laptop arrived!
I ordered the Fusion IV 15 from PCSpecialist. This is also known as the MECHREVO CODE 01, Schenker VIA 15 PRO, TongFang PF5NU1G (OEM model name), as well as several other names from other "manufacturers" (rebranders) such as Eluktronics.
- Contents
- My specs
- Initial impressions
- CPU and cooling
- Display
- Webcam
- IR camera
- I/O ports
- Battery
- Gaming
- Speakers
- Keyboard
- Trackpad
- Networking
- Noise and Thermals
- Renoir Mobile Tuning
- BIOS
- Other oddities
- Summary of Pros and Cons
- Footnotes
I chose a mid-range config of this laptop.
| Component | Choice |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 4600H |
| RAM | 1x 8GB 2666 MHz1 |
| SSD | 512GB M.2 SSD |
The laptop has a magnesium alloy build, which does get cold when left alone, giving you that satisfying coldness at the start of the day. The metal construction also makes it feel sturdy and rigid. The display has minor flex, but nothing considered abhorrent, and also has very little wobble, unless you're trying to simulate a magnitude 7 earthquake by shaking it back and forth.
One exception to the good build quality is the bottom panel. It flexes a fair amount in the centre. The display also does this when closed, but that's to be expected with how thin the panel is (approx 5mm).
It's worth noting that there are two plastic sections on either side of the chassis towards the front. These are for the WiFi antennae. You have to touch them to tell that they aren't part of the magnesium chassis.
The CPU is amazing. This laptop has a max TDP of 54W, compared to other laptops' 35W or 25W. The cooling system is very effective. Even during benchmarks with Renoir Tuning Utility (max temp set to 95), I never reached 90 degrees. During normal usage, the fans are silent, and the CPU tends to stay around 40-50 degrees.
In Cinebench R20, I managed to hit scores up to 3402. The CPU ran all cores at 3.93-3.99 GHz. The TDP maxes at about 53 to 54W on CPU core + SoC, or a total of 56.5W on the whole package. The laptop never exceeded 90 degrees.
Out of the box, the display was bloomy and oversaturated. After adjusting the calibration slightly and enabling 'Gaming' display mode in the gaming utility, the display looks much better. The panel is 300 nits and covers 100% sRGB, but different manufacturers use different panels, so your mileage may vary.
The bezel sizes are very similar to that of a modern (2019/2020) MacBook Pro. I haven't measured them exactly, but they're about 0.7mm on the sides, and 12-14mm on top (to cater for the webcam and IR camera).
There are colour correction profiles for the Sharp display (what I have) on Baidu, but you need a Baidu account to download them. I couldn't manage to set up an account in the UK with them.
The webcam is 720p (not 480p as some say), so not the best, and ends up being grainy, blurry and all around terrible. I don't use the webcam, so I don't mind, but others who are doing more online video conferencing may.
"WHAT??" was my reaction when I heard this. Nowhere on PCSpecialist's website did it state this came with an IR webcam, so I was very impressed. The IR webcam allows for Windows Hello facial recognition. It's slightly offset to the right from the centre and, when on, activates a red LED directly adjacent to it.
In my experience so far, the laptop recognises my face in under a second, and takes me straight to the desktop.
As it uses an IR floodlight, it can recognise me even in complete darkness.
Left:
- 1x kensington lock
- 1x USB 2.0
- 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1
- 1x micro SD card reader
- 1x spring jaw style ethernet port
- 1x 3.5mm combined headphone and microphone jack
Right:
- 1x USB C (USB PD input at 90W, USB 3.2 Gen 1, NOT DisplayPort)
- 1x DC in jack
- 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1
- 1x HDMI 2.0
This caters fully for my needs, and beats a lot of thin notebooks and ultrabooks available.
I wrote the first 2 paragraphs on the first day of owning the laptop. The battery life has improved significantly since then. See the Battery stats section below.
I've not had much of a time to test the battery, but as of writing this, I am at 93% with an estimated 8h remaining. This is with Windows set to max performance, 50% brightness, and performance mode enabled in the gaming centre, along with Chrome, Discord, Paint.NET, and Microsoft Teams all open, and I'm downloading a game in Steam and reinstalling a bunch of my apps. I'm sure I could get this even higher by closing background tasks, decreasing brightness, and more, but I'm lazy.
Moving to 'Better Battery', Standard mode in the gaming centre, and closing most background processes, I achieved a power draw of about 6.5W, equating to an estimated 12h remaining battery from 92%. Min brightness, Battery Saver, and disabling the keyboard backlight reduced draw even further to 4.1 to 4.9W, resulting in an estimated remaining time of 16-20 hours! Fuck me, that's a long time...
The 92 Wh battery certainly provides a lot of runtime for most use cases. When using the laptop at school, I only end up needing to charge it about once per week.
The fact that my system has a 4600H rather than a 4800H does definitely improve these figures.
Conditions: 100% brightness, only Microsoft Teams open in foreground (Discord, Steam, and more in background), viewing PDF.
The 90W charger that came with my laptop can charge from about 75% to 100% in about 30 minutes, or 0% to 100% in about 1h 45m, which is impressive based on the size of the battery (92Wh).
I managed to test up to 60W via the USB C port using my portable power bank. The charging seemed to cut out every 5 mins or so for a few seconds, but I'll put that down to my power bank as no issues similar to this have been mentioned by other users. USB C charging with less than 90W over USB PD will not work. It will begin charging, then cut out every few seconds. It will work with most chargers when the laptop is turned off and plugged in. There are some known working/not working chargers listed on the r/XMG_gg subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/XMG_gg/comments/jx3220/validated_usbc_chargers_for_xmg_schenker_laptops/.
This. Is. Not. A. Gaming. Laptop. Don't buy this if you want to spend a lot of time gaming because it isn't made for that!
I have tried running Rainbow Six Siege and Overwatch on this laptop. They run and they do play ok, but they're not running anywhere near their best.
Running the game at the lowest possible settings, 720p, T-AA with render scaling of 50%, I managed to get a stable 40-60 fps in a Training Grounds mission. The average fps was approx 47, which allows me to play the game, albeit not at my best. Stick to playing this in a squad that can keep you safe.
I managed to get around 55-60 fps running the game at 1080p and 50% render scaling, and at 720p with 100% render scaling.
In the end I switched to running at 720p with automatic scaling. I found upscaling from a lower resolution looked far better than running at 1080p with a low render scaling.
Note that when in big fights, I often saw dips to about 30 fps, as well as stutters. This would likely be far less common with more and dual-channel RAM.
The speakers on this laptop are trash. They're usable, but you won't want to watch any movies, TV shows, YouTube videos or listen to music if at all possible.
I would recommend Bluetooth earphones but judging by the state of Bluetooth on Windows 10... I can't really recommend these either. Thankfully, the laptop has a headphone jack, so wired headphones are still the way to go for the moment.
The keyboard is surprisingly nice to type on. The keys have a sharp tactile feel when you press them instead of being soft and mushy.
If you type aggressively like me, you will find that they make a bit of a clacky sound in addition to the satisfying 'thud' when the key is depressed fully against the base.
There is basically 0 keyboard flex.
The backlight offers three levels: off, too dim to use, and bleed central. The backlight shines both around and through the keys, but at most seating angles you will end up with a line of sight directly at a row of LEDs.
The most frustrating thing is that the keyboard backlight automatically switches off after 1m of inactivity and reactivates about 1 second after you press a key. I understand that this is a power saving measure, but it can get frustrating when scrolling through webpages doing research and then going to write it up.
There is a Caps Lock light, but it's almost invisible with the backlight on.
The keyboard seems to be uneven, as visible in images of the laptop. This is especially the case around the '7' and '8' keys, but is still unnoticeable when using the laptop, unless you run your fingers over it to find it.
The Windows and Fn keys seem to be printed 'fuzzily'. See the image below.
The trackpad uses Microsoft's precision drivers, and supports 3 and 4 finger gestures. My laptop has the plastic touchpad, but it's smooth to use and your fingers glide on it surprisingly well.
Its palm rejection is pretty good, too. You can rub your palm on the trackpad and nothing happens. This doesn't stop you using your thumb with the trackpad when typing.
I tend to hover my right hand as I type to allow for quick switching between trackpad and keyboard, but now that I have a laptop with good enough palm rejection, I might be able to stop my arm aching.
The trackpad supports left and right mouse clicks. The buttons allow the trackpad to depress by about 2mm, never allowing visibility to the interior of the laptop. The trackpad is of the hinge type, so only the bottom half can click. I tend to just use the tap method anyway.
Boy is this thing fast... My laptop has the Intel WiFi 6 card and it is amazing.
My network at home maxes out at 530 Mbps on WiFi (on my phone -- best device in the house for WiFi) and about 555 Mbps over Ethernet (we pay for 500 Mbps). This laptop gets 550 Mbps. I can see no reason to replace this in the near future. By the time you'd want to upgrade it, it'll probably be time to totally upgrade the laptop.
I haven't tried the laptop's Ethernet port, but it feels nice and sturdy for one of the crocodile ports with a jaw. I'm pleasantly surprised.
The laptop is limited to 85 degrees by default. You'll only ever get this high if you're benchmarking or gaming.
The fans switch off entirely when at idle or running light applications. Active web browsing, content consumption, and similar activities will cause the fans to spin slowly, but still barely audible. At higher temperatures (70 to 90), the fans can ramp up very quickly. The fan noise is not the annoying high-pitched type, instead being more a lower pitched whooshing noise.
Yes, there is coil whine (well it's not whine). You won't notice it unless it's completely silent in the room, or you put your ear to the keyboard. It sounds like very high pitched ticking or clicking, almost like a hard drive, in small groups for about 1 to 2 secs.
I did try RMT on this laptop, but it didn't really do much. The 4600H maxes out at this laptop's pre-set TDP in performance mode anyway (54 to 56W). I found the only things to do, if any, were to increase the short boost length, and bump the temperature limit to 95 degrees (although even when running Cinebench I never saw about 90).
I can't speak for the 4800H model in this situation.
This applies to the PC Specialist model only. Other models have more options available in their BIOS.
In the PCS BIOS, you get almost no options. You cannot change the amount of dedicated video RAM, and you cannot even override the boot device.
Some people have said it should be possible to flash the Mechrevo BIOS, but I don't want to risk it.
- Closing lid puts it to sleep, but does not wake it up
- You have to hold the power button for a long time to get it to turn on (4 or 5 seconds)
- Amazing thermal performance: never see above 90 degrees even in Cinebench and using RMT to increase the thermal limit from 85
- Good display. Easily bright enough for indoor usage. Usable outside, though I would prefer it to be brighter.
- Fantastic keyboard to type on.
- Moderately even keyboard backlight (all keys are lit, but there is some leakage and un-evenness).
- Smooth trackpad with responsive gestures, especially as it is plastic.
- USB Power Delivery!
- Easy to remove rear panel.
- Insanely fast WiFi card.
- Display flex when opening/closing lid (not when in use).
- Bottom panel flex under battery.
- Raised keyboard around the 7 and 8 keys (as if something is pushing from behind it).
- Coil whine gets annoying when I'm using the laptop for basic tasks (fans not on).
- Bad speakers.
1 - PCS only sell this laptop with 2666 MHz RAM. They do not offer 3200 MHz - I plan to upgrade to 2x Crucial 16GB 3200 MHz when they're back in stock on Amazon UK.
nice review