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Used for: 6–12 months
You will want a cooling stand in summer
Runs hot in a warm room, so a cheap cooling stand has become part of the setup
Used for: 3–6 months
Cheapest way into proper gaming
Does far more than the price suggests it should
Used for: 3–6 months
Sturdier than it looks
Battery barely stretches to two hours
Four months of daily use and no complaints beyond the battery
Used for: 1–3 months
An enormous amount of laptop for under eight hundred
My first proper gaming machine and I keep being surprised by what it manages. Older titles run maxed out without the fans even waking up, and the newer ones are perfectly playable once you stop insisting on ultra everything. It is plastic and it looks plastic, which I knew going in. The lid gives if you press it and the whole thing creaks slightly when you pick it up one handed. None of that matters at this price, because the parts that count are the ones they spent the money on!
Used for: 1–3 months
144Hz makes a real difference
Trackpad is nothing special
The high refresh screen is the best part of it, and I use a mouse anyway so the trackpad hardly matters!
Used for: Less than a month
Screen is much better than expected at this money
Loud, hot, and the battery is a formality
First impressions after setting it up for my own use rather than gaming, which may be an odd way to buy one. The screen surprised me most. Fast, bright enough, and far better than the panels I remember on cheap laptops. The keyboard is decent with a number pad, and the red backlight is less garish than the photos suggest. What you have to accept is the noise and the heat. Load it up and the fans go from silent to obvious in about a second, and the strip above the keyboard gets warm to the touch. Unplugged it is a two hour machine at best. Loud, hot, tethered, and still worth the money.
Used for: 3–6 months
Handles everything my daughter plays
Not a machine for a quiet room
Great value, but you can hear it working from the other end of the house!
Used for: More than a year
Has survived two school years of hard use
Fans have got louder over time
Bought for my son when he started secondary school and it has survived 18 months of hard use, though the fans are noisier now than they were
Used for: More than a year
Still plays everything the kids ask of it
Bought as the family gaming machine and it has earned its keep several times over. Between two teenagers it gets used most evenings, and in two years the only thing that has needed attention is the dust in the vents, which comes out with a can of air twice a year. It still runs the games they care about at settings they are happy with, and the 144Hz screen is a genuine advantage in shooters. The honest warnings: it is loud when it is working hard, the battery is good for about ninety minutes away from a socket, and the underside gets hot enough that lap use is out. All of that is the trade for the price, and we would make it again.
Used for: 3–6 months
Upgrading the memory turned it into a different machine
Comes with a single stick, so it starts slow
Worth saying plainly: buy a second memory stick at the same time. Out of the box it is running on one stick with eight gigabytes and it stutters in anything modern. Four months on, with sixteen gigabytes in dual channel, it holds a steady frame rate in everything my son plays and the stutters are gone. Twenty pounds and a screwdriver. Everything else about the machine is honest for the money, the screen is quick and the keyboard is fine.