The P950HR is a thin 15 inch gaming laptop from Metabox and features Nvidia’s Max-Q
1070 graphics, we’ll take a look at what the laptop has to offer and see 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 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 with the option of upgrading and
adding in a 2.5 inch drive.
For the graphics we’ve got Nvidia’s Max-Q 1070 in combination with a 15.6 inch 1080p
60Hz IPS panel, but this can be upgraded to 120Hz or 4K, and we’ll talk about this more
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 interior.
It’s basically the same as the P950HP which I’ve reviewed previously, with the main
difference being that there are better graphics here.
The physical dimensions of the laptop are 38cm in width, 25.2cm in depth, and just 1.8cm
in height, so it’s quite thin for the specs inside.
The bare bones weight of the laptop is advertised as starting at 1.9kg, but this will of course
change depending on your selected components.
In my own testing I found this one to weigh just under 2.1kg, and just under 2.9kg with
the power brick and cable for charging, so it’s fairly portable.
As mentioned the screen here is a 15.6 inch 60Hz 1080p IPS matte panel, no G-Sync available
available with this model unfortunately.
As an IPS panel the viewing angles were great on all angles, no noticeable issues there.
I’ve also measured the colours produced by the screen using the Spyder 5 Pro, and
my results returned 63% of sRGB, 45% of NTSC and 47% of AdobeRGB, so in terms of colour
reproduction it’s on the lower side compared to other laptops I’ve tested.
It’ll be fine for gaming, but I’d probably want something a bit more accurate for content
creation.
I’ve also performed my usual backlight bleed test, which involves having the screen completely
black in a dark room to help emphasize any bleeding.
I then take a long exposure photo to display any bleed, so this is a worst case scenario
test.
There was a little bit noticeable towards the bottom right corner, however nothing else
was visible to my eye, and there were no issues under normal lighting conditions, but this
will vary between laptops.
While moving the display there was only a little bit of flex, overall it was fairly
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 not too bad with good lighting.
The microphone also sounds really good, but you’ll be able to judge both for yourself.
The keyboard seems similar to other Metabox laptops I’ve tested, it’s nice to type
with and I had no problems using it, overall I'd describe the key presses as a little mushy
feeling.
There’s RGB backlighting which can be controlled in three different sections through the included
software.
There was a little bit of keyboard flex while pushing down fairly hard, but overall it felt
pretty solid due to the metallic body 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, and there’s a fingerprint
reader on the top left corner.
Moving onto the available I/O on the left there’s the power input, HDMI port, two
mini DisplayPort 1.3 outputs, two USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C ports, and two USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A
ports.
Over on the right there are 3.5mm headphone and mic jacks, a third USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A
port, full sized SD card reader, ethernet port, and kensington lock.
There’s nothing on the front other than some status LEDs, and nothing on the back
other than some air exhaust vents.
Up on the lid there’s the Metabox logo, and the dotted area above lights up white
while the laptop is powered on.
Both the lid and the interior show fingerprints fairly easily, but they’re easy enough to
wipe away.
Underneath there’s heaps of air intake space 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 acceptable, there's
not really any bass, overall they’re a bit tinny but they still sound fairly clear even
at higher volumes.
Powering the laptop is a 55 Watt hour 4 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 43 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 54 minutes.
Overall I thought the battery life was pretty fair considering the specs and size of the
laptop, for comparison this is only slightly behind the Dell 7577 gaming laptop but it's
got a more powerful GPU and is much thinner.
During normal use with an ambient room temperature of 25 degrees celsius, the CPU and GPU idled
quite low, and here are the external temperatures of the laptop where you’ll actually be putting
your hands, sitting around 30 degrees.
With the CPU and GPU maxed out for half an hour using the heaven benchmark and Aida64
at the same time with the same room temperature using the automatic fan profile, the CPU and
GPU reached their highest temps, however I don’t think the results are too bad for
a full synthetic load.
The keyboard area gets into the high 40s while right at the back peaks at 50 degrees.
By manually maxing out the fans we’re able to drop the temperature a little, however
this increases total system noise, as you’ll hear soon, and the keyboard area also appears
to drop down a couple of degrees.
As for the fan noise produced during these tests I’ll let you have a listen.
Overall I thought the temps were alright, not the best but not bad considering how thin
the laptop is.
No CPU throttling was observed during any tests, however the graphics card only seemed
to run at around 1250MHz whereas it should be capable of boosting higher according to
the specs.
It started out this way regardless of the temperature, so it didn’t seem to be thermal
throttling, and the power settings were all maxed out.
I could boost it a small amount by overclocking, but not really enough to make a big difference
in my unit.
Finally let’s take a look at some benchmarks.
All games were run at 1080p 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 for the 1% lows, but you’ll
need to drop the settings down a bit if you’re after high average frame rates.
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, but we can still
average close to 60 FPS at max settings and it runs well.
As usual CS:GO runs great, well above the refresh rate of the display, if this is one
of the games you play all the time then you could definitely consider looking at the 120Hz
screen upgrade.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was tested using the replay feature.
Even at ultra settings the average frame rate is pretty good, but the 1% lows are a bit
lower compared to the other settings, but this can of course vary greatly depending
on what’s going on in game at the time, so take these results with a grain of salt.
Shadow of war with the built in benchmark ran quite well, averaging over 60 FPS even
at max settings.
Battlefield 1 felt nice and smooth regardless of the setting level used, even at max settings
the 1% low frame rate is fairly high.
The Witcher 3 averaged a fair bit lower on ultra settings compared to the others here,
but it felt nice and smooth at high settings or lower, although you don’t really need
a high frame rate to enjoy this game.
Watchdogs 2 is a fairly resource intensive game, and from my experience this is another
one that you don’t really need a high frame rate to play.
I found it to run well regardless of the settings used, as shown here we’re getting similar
results at the top three setting levels.
Rise of the Tomb raider was tested with the built in benchmark tool and again the averages
are a fair bit above 60 FPS at all settings.
Ghost recon is another fairly resource intensive game and was tested with the built in benchmark,
and we can reach 60 FPS at very high settings or lower.
DOOM performs mostly the same regardless of the setting level used, and even with ultra
settings we’re getting fairly high frame rates here with Vulkan.
As we’ve seen most of these games run pretty well, a bit better than a 1060 in most cases
as you’d expect, but not quite as good as a full 1070, though of course this depends
on the game.
Depending on your game the 1080p 60Hz panel may be enough, but you also have the option
of upgrading to a 120Hz panel which could be beneficial if the games you play like CSGO
or Overwatch can take advantage of it, so it’s great that the options there.
Generally I think the 1060 makes better sense with a 1080p 60Hz screen while the 1070 better
matches a 1080p 120Hz or higher screen, and as the 1070 Max-Q is in the middle of those
it’s harder to say, so I’d suggest picking based on your personal preference.
Now onto the benchmarking tools..
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 results from their newest Superposition benchmark.
For the final graphics benchmarks I’ve also run Firestrike and Timespy from 3DMark, as
well as VRMark, and got these results.
I’ve got more detailed videos comparing the results with a 1060 and 1070 laptop if
you’re interested, check the links in the description.
In Crystal Disk Mark the 256GB SATA3 M.2 SSD performed around 560MB/s in sequential reads
and 260MB/s in sequential writes, so fairly typical for a SATA3 based SSD, but a little
lower on the writes compared to the reads.
Here are the results of the SD card reader, it basically maxed out my card which was a
first, so it seems fairly decent.
With this exact hardware the laptop comes in at $2,119 AUD at the time of recording,
so about $1,620 USD with all taxes included for my international viewers, but this will
of course vary based on your final hardware selection.
So what did you guys think of the P950HR gaming laptop from Metabox?
I thought it was pretty cool that you can get a Max-Q 1070 in such a thin laptop for
this price, although it looks like the same graphics option is starting to appear in a
number of thin 8th gen laptops making their way into the market at the moment, in any
case this is a trend I can get behind.
Despite being fairly thin and light, the battery life was quite good compared to other thicker
and less powerful laptops I’ve tested.
Let me know what you guys thought down in the comments, or simply leave a like or dislike
on the video to quickly let me know what you thought.
Thanks for watching, and don’t forget to subscribe for future tech videos like this
one.