The popular Intel collaboration laptop sold as the Eluktronics MAG-15, XMG Fusion 15,
or Aftershock Vapor 15, are all the same 15” chassis by Tongfang, who are an ODM, or original
design manufacturer, basically the company that actually build the laptop. Now Tongfang
have a new 17” version available which should offer even better performance, here’s what
they told me at CES 2020 and what’s on the way!
Alright so this 17” Tongfang chassis recently started selling through Eluktronics as the
MAX-17, and there is also a 15” version of it called the MAX-15, and these are different
machines compared to the MAG-15. There isn’t actually going to be a 17 inch version of
the Intel collab laptop, so it looks like this is as good as we’re going to get for
now if you’ve been holding out for a larger version.
If you recall from my Vapor 15 review, the GPU thermal throttle limit is set to 75 degrees
Celsius, while the CPU is capped at 90, and this seems to be controlled by the locked
down BIOS. From my understanding, these limits are imposed by Intel to ensure a cooler machine,
but performance is definitely being left on the table.
As a result of this, Tongfang are basically able to better tune the machine how they see
fit without these constraints, as well as offer greater levels of customization. Some
companies like XMG are provided custom BIOS which provide all sorts of additional benefits,
such as undervolting support. This is something that wasn’t an option with the MAG-15, as
from my understanding that BIOS is provided by Intel, so it’s looking like the new MAX-15
and MAX-17 will have more flexibility.
This is good news, because both the MAX-15 and MAX-17 can be specced up to Nvidia RTX
2070 Max-P graphics, so not Max-Q, as was the case with the MAG-15, and if you saw my
video comparing the GTX 1660 Ti MAG-15 against the RTX 2070 Max-Q, it really didn’t seem
like a worthy upgrade due to the previously mentioned thermal restrictions.
Anyway, although the MAG and MAX are different machines, they share a lot of similarities,
let’s compare. I’ve got the Intel collaboration machine, the XMG Fusion 15 in this case, on
the left, and the new 17” on the right, which is a lighter colour. Keyboards look
similar, but the 17” has a numpad. The keyboard on the new MAX-17 is membrane though, while
the MAG-15 does have the edge with its mechanical switches, here’s how typing on both sounds.
You can see the colour difference better on top, though the 17” in this example doesn’t
currently have any logo on the lid. Not really much difference on the bottom, the usual air
intakes towards the back and speakers towards the front on the sides.
The internals look similar, and for the most part they are in terms of 2 memory slots,
2 M.2 slots, and 94wh battery, however the 17” should have improved cooling, they mentioned
that it’s got larger fans and heatsinks, which we can see here, so it will be interesting
to compare them. More on that soon!
The I/O on the left appears to be essentially the same with both laptops, and similar on
the right, except interestingly the 17” has a smaller MicroSD card slot, which I found
a bit strange given the smaller model could fit full size. Same I/O over on the back too,
and it’s good to see that the 17” maintains Thunderbolt 3, during the meeting with Tongfang
they told me we’ll be seeing more of that in future machines.
Now let’s talk performance, we were able to check performance and temperatures with
Prime95 and Furmark running at the same time on both machines. It was only going for about
20 minutes or so, and I’m not sure of the ambient room temp, however the 17” was averaging
around 500Mhz higher overall 6 CPU cores with the i7-9750H, a nice improvement.
To be fair the 17” was running hotter, but that’s mainly down to the thermal limit
being boosted to allow it, but also keep in mind the 17” in this test was using the
more power hungry 2070 Max-P while the 15” has 2070 Max-Q with a lower thermal cap. Although
this was by no means a perfect experiment, it does clearly show that the new model performs
better under heavy levels of load.
I’ve also got a quick size comparison between the new MAX-17 and the older Neo 17 sold by
XMG, or the Mech 17 as it’s sold by Eluktronics, which is another Tongfang chassis. I’ve
got the new MAX-17 on the right here, and we can see it’s thinner despite both being
available with same 2070 Max-P graphics, so it will be interesting to compare the two
properly.
Huge thanks for Tom at XMG for arranging the meeting with Tongfang and sending over all
the detailed specs. XMG aren’t currently selling this new chassis with 9th gen Intel
hardware, but are considering offering it in Europe when 10th gen rolls around, so let
them know in the comments if you want to see it offered by them, otherwise you can currently
get the MAX series from Eluktronics in the US.
It sounds like Tongfang have a lot more cool stuff on the way that I’m unfortunately
not able to talk about or show at the moment, but what I can say is you’ll definitely
want to stay tuned, so if you’re new to the channel get subscribed, and look out for
the rest of my upcoming CES 2020 coverage.