The P641HK is a 14 inch gaming laptop from Metabox, we’ll take a look at what the laptop
has to offer as well as how it performs through a series of gaming benchmarks to help you
decide if it’s a laptop you should consider.
Inside the box we’ve got the laptop itself, manual and warranty information, power brick
and power cable.
To start let’s look at the specs of the model I’ve got here, as you can configure
it a bit while ordering.
There’s an Intel 7700HQ quad core Kabylake CPU which runs at 2.8GHz and can turbo up
to 3.8Ghz.
I’ve got 16GB of DDR4 memory running at 2,400MHz here, but the two slots can support
up to 32GB.
For storage there’s a 256GB SK Hynix M.2 SATA SSD and a 1TB Seagate 5,400 RPM hard
drive installed.
For the graphics we’ve got Nvidia’s 1050 Ti in combination with a 14 inch 1080p 60Hz
IPS panel, and we’ll see how this performs later in the benchmarks.
For the network connectivity there’s a gigabit ethernet port, and Intel 3168AC WiFi which
supports up to 802.11ac, as well as Bluetooth 4.0, but this too can be upgraded.
The laptop has a black matte look to it on the both the outside of the metallic lid and
the plastic interior.
The physical dimensions of the laptop are 34.9cm in width, 24.7cm in depth, and 2.54cm
in height.
The total weight of the laptop is advertised as starting at 2.0kg, but this can of course
change depending on the selected components.
In my own testing I found it to weigh just under 2.1kg, and just under 2.7kg with the
power brick and cable for charging, so it’s fairly portable.
As mentioned the screen here is a 14 inch 60Hz 1080p IPS matte panel, no G-Sync available
here.
I’ve also measured the colours produced by the screen using the Spyder 5 Pro, and
my results returned 98% of sRGB, 71% of NTSC and 76% of AdobeRGB, so in terms of colour
reproduction it seems decent.
I’ve performed my usual backlight bleed test on the display, which involves having
the laptop show a completely black screen in a dark room to help emphasize any bleeding
around the edges.
I then take a long exposure photo with my camera to help display any bleed, so basically
this is a worst case scenario test.
To be honest I could notice some of the bleed in a normally lit room, so the worst case
scenario test wasn’t really needed, unfortunately it’s pretty bad in the unit I’ve got here,
although this will of course vary from laptop to laptop, I think I was just unlucky here.
I’ve asked Metabox what their policy is regarding backlight bleed, and they said if
you’ve got out of the ordinary bleed you can contact them for support, if it’s really
bad I suspect they’d be able to replace it.
Again this does seem like bad luck, as the 10 other laptops I’ve tested were all fine.
While moving the display there was only a little bit of flex, overall it was pretty
sturdy owing to the hinges that were placed on the left and right corners, and you can
open the laptop with one finger no problems, demonstrating a fairly even weight distribution.
Above the display is a Full HD camera capable of 1080p video.
Although the camera does look a bit grainy, it’s definitely noticeably better than all
of the 720p webcams I’ve tested.
The microphone also sounds really good, but you’ll be able to hear that for yourself.
The keyboard seems the same as other Metabox laptops I’ve tested recently, it’s nice
to type with and I had no problems with it.
There’s white LED backlighting available which can be adjusted through 5 brightness
levels, but no RGB with this model unfortunately.
There was a little bit of keyboard flex while pushing down fairly hard, but overall it felt
pretty solid and this wasn’t an issue while typing normally.
I also found the touchpad to work pretty well, it’s got a light matte surface and there
are physical left and right buttons which weren’t too clicky.
Moving onto the available I/O on the left there are two Mini DisplayPort 1.2 outputs,
hdmi 2.0 port, USB 3.0 Type-A port, USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port, and three 3.5mm audio jacks
for headphones, mic and SPDIF.
Over on the right there’s a full size SD card reader, two more USB 3.0 Type-A ports,
gigabit ethernet port, and kensington lock.
There’s nothing on the front other than some status LEDs, and nothing on the back
other than a couple of air exhaust vents towards the corners and power input in the center.
Up on the lid there’s the Metabox logo and some lines with a mirrored finish on the sides.
Both the lid and the interior show fingerprints fairly easily, but they’re easy enough to
wipe away.
Underneath there’s some air intakes to keep everything cool, as well as some rubber feet
which both help prevent the laptop from moving around on flat surfaces when in use, and also
rise it up slightly to help let cool air in.
The speakers are found underneath the display, and I found them to sound pretty good, they
have a little bass and still sound clear even at higher volumes.
Powering the laptop is a 45 Watt hour 3 cell battery, and with a full charge and just watching
YouTube videos with the screen on half brightness, keyboard lighting off and background apps
disabled, I was able to use it for 3 hours and 2 minutes with just the built in Intel
graphics.
While playing the Witcher 3 with medium settings and Nvidia’s battery boost set to 30 FPS
the battery lasted for 40 minutes.
Overall I thought the battery life was pretty fair considering the specs and size of the
laptop.
During normal use with an ambient room temperature of 25 degrees celsius, the CPU idled at 48
degrees celsius while the GPU idled at 47 degrees celsius, and here are the external
temperatures of the laptop where you’ll actually be putting your hands.
It did feel a little warm getting up to 36c in some places, but it wasn’t too bad.
While idling it sat at around 36 decibels, and here’s what it sounded like.
With the CPU and GPU maxed out for half an hour using the heaven benchmark and Aida64
with the same room temperature, the CPU reached a maximum of 77 degrees celsius, while the
GPU peaked at 73c, so overall it actually stayed fairly cool compared to other larger
laptops I’ve tested.
The keyboard area got a fair bit warmer, up to 51c in some areas and was noticeably warm
to type on.
With the default fan profile the laptop was sitting at around 51 decibels, and here’s
what it sounded like.
With the fans manually maxed out the CPU and GPU dropped by around 1 and 2 degrees celsius
respectively.
The keyboard area temperature didn’t really change, and the maximum noise the laptop was
making rose slightly to 53 decibels which is pretty standard for a gaming laptop under
full load, here’s how that sounded for comparison.
Overall temps were pretty good, likely due to the 1050 Ti which doesn’t get as hot
as more powerful graphics options, although I didn’t expect the cooling to perform so
well considering the 14 inch form factor, it held up quite well and no thermal throttling
was observed, and I also didn’t notice any coil whine while testing.
Finally let’s take a look at some benchmarks, we’ll first cover some real world gaming
benchmarks followed by tests with various benchmarking tools.
All tests were run at the 1080p resolution with all Windows and Nvidia updates to date
installed.
I’ve tested Overwatch for 5 minutes at each setting level just playing with the bots,
even at max settings we’re able to average over 60 FPS and the 1% lows weren’t too
bad, it was a smooth experience while playing even during intense fights.
Dota2 isn’t too demanding and I’m testing with a fairly intensive replay, and we’re
not seeing too much of a difference between the different setting levels, it’s definitely
very playable.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was tested with the latest 1.0 version using the replay
feature.
We’re not really getting great results in my testing, with very low settings required
in order to average above 60 FPS, although as usual take these results with a grain of
salt as the performance can vary quite a lot based on what’s going on in game.
Shadow of war with the built in benchmark required medium or lower settings to average
60 FPS.
Battlefield 1 felt nice and smooth regardless of the setting level used, as shown by the
fairly even 1% lows which aren’t too low, even ultra settings aren’t too far below
60 FPS.
The Witcher3 averaged a fair bit lower on ultra settings compared to the others here,
and it felt a bit stuttery while playing, as shown by the much lower 1% low results,
it was a lot better at the other setting levels.
Watchdogs 2 is a fairly resource intensive game, and from my experience you don’t really
need a high frame rate to enjoy it, I found it to run well on high or lower settings.
Rise of the Tomb raider is running alright with above 60 FPS averages at medium or lower
settings with the built in benchmark.
Ghost recon is another fairly resource intensive game, and probably not something I’d be
looking to play on the 1050 Ti.
Ultra settings are way too overkill for these specs with the built in benchmark tool, with
60 FPS only achievable at minimum settings.
DOOM performs mostly the same regardless of the setting level used, and even with ultra
settings we’re averaging close to the 60 FPS sweet spot, it felt nice and smooth the
whole time while running, as shown by the fairly high 1% lows.
While most games tested ran at acceptable frame rates at lower settings you may want
to look at getting a 1060 instead for solid 60 FPS gaming with high settings in more graphically
demanding titles, however the 1050Ti is capable of providing an acceptable experience, especially
with lower demanding games such as Overwatch, it comes down to what sort of games you plan
on playing.
Now onto the benchmarking tools, while a useful indicator note that these results are less
practical compared to the real world gaming results previously shown.
We’ll start with the Unigine benchmarks, this is how the laptop performed in Heaven
benchmark with the tessellation set to extreme, and anti-aliasing set to x8, here’s how
Valley benchmark performed with anti-aliasing on x8 at various graphics settings, and finally
these are the 1080p results from their newest Superposition benchmark.
For the final graphics benchmarks I ran Fire Strike and Time spy from 3DMark and got scores
of 6,709 and 2,505 respectively, so about what you’d expect from a 1050 Ti.
In Crystal Disk Mark the 256GB SATA3 M.2 SSD performed around 550MB/s in sequential reads
and 270MB/s in sequential writes, so fairly typical for a SATA3 based SSD.
The 1TB hard drive gets around 110 MB/s in sequential reads and and 100 MB/s in sequential
writes, again pretty typical for a 5,400 RPM hard drive.
At minimum specs, so without the 1TB hard drive and with 8gb of RAM, the laptop starts
at $1,499 AUD, so about $1,180 USD for my international viewers and will of course vary
based on your final hardware selection.
For the exact configuration I’ve got here with the extra disk and ram it’s an additional
$170 AUD.
So what did you guys think of the P641HK gaming laptop from Metabox?
Overall I think it’s pretty nice, it’s got decent specs for the 14 inch form factor,
making it a fairly portable gaming laptop with fair battery life considering the size
for a fair price.
It’s been over a year since I’ve tested a 14 inch laptop and this is definitely a
nice improvement, and a good in between option from the usual 13 and 15 inch options, although
it was a bit unfortunate about the backlight bleed I had in this unit.
Let me know what you guys thought down in the comments, or simply leave a like or dislike
on the video to let me know what you thought.
Thanks for watching, and don’t forget to subscribe for future tech videos like this
one.