Review Clevo W230SS (Schenker XMG P304) Barebones Notebook

The W230SS barebones is around 3.5 centimeters (~1.4 inches) thick and therefore right in the middle between the Alienware 14 (~4 centimeters; ~1.6 inches) and the thin gaming rivals Razer Blade 14 and Gigabyte P34G with around two centimeters (~0.8 inches) each.

It is similar in regard to the weight; 2.1 kilograms (~4.6 pounds) are pretty close to the latter notebooks (1.8 to 1.9 kilograms; ~4.0 to 4.2 pounds) while Alienware's 14 falls behind in terms of mobility with a weight of 2.9 kilograms (~6.4 pounds).

The quality of the XMG P304 leaves a decent to good impression. The plastic surfaces are well integrated but cannot match the quality of the three rivals. We are not so sure about the decision to rubberize the display cover. The Soft-Touch finish feels very good but quickly attracts fingerprints. The silver-gray surfaces on the inside and the matte black bottom on the other hand, are not as susceptible to dirt.

We also like the design of the notebook. Several color and shape transitions create a modern appearance. Other Clevo barebones like the P150SM, W355STQ or W650SR are much simpler.

The XMG P304 leaves a good impression in terms of stability. Thanks to the slightly thicker chassis, it is pretty pressure resistant. Only the lid could have been more torsion-resistant. It can be opened with one hand (only slight movement of the base unit) but the hinges are strong enough to compensate light vibrations at the same time.

Software

As usual with Schenker, you get a very clean installation. Annoying bloatware is not preloaded, just like unnecessary manufacturer tools. Clevo only installs an application called Control Center, which lets you choose between different operating modes like Silent, Energy-Saving, Performance and Entertainment. The three available tabs include settings for the display brightness or the volume, for instance.

Accessories

Standard equipment includes a 325 g/11.5 oz 6-cell battery and a 120-Watt PSU with a weight of 462 g/16.3 oz (147 x 74 x 26 mm; ~5.8 x 2.9 x 1.0 inches). Otherwise, there was just a driver DVD in the box of our pre-sample.

Warranty

The 24-month standard warranty can be extended to three or four years. Schenker promises a Pickup & Return service as well as an Instant Repair, even though the latter is not available for the whole warranty period.

Keyboard

Clevo uses different keyboards for its barebones. While some notebooks have very crowded keys (compare the XMG P703), the W230SS has a chiclet keyboard. The island style layout, the rounded corners and the clear lettering minimize typos and ensure a convenient handling.

Apart from the narrow F-row all the keys are at least 14 x 14 millimeters; even the arrow keys have a decent size. Great: Contrary to the non-chiclet version, you get a full-size Return key and there are no deviations from the standard layout.

Clevo integrated a number pad into the main keyboard, which can be used via Fn key, to compensate the missing separate numeric keypad. Fn also enables some special features like the activation and deactivation of the touchpad, sound, display, webcam, wireless module as well as the illumination.

Illumination? Yes, that is correct: The XMG P304 is equipped with a backlit keyboard. The white illumination is evenly distributed and can be adjusted in two steps. The keyboard functions well, most inputs worked perfectly.

Processor

Besides the graphics card you also get an updated processor. However, the new quad-cores with a 10 at the end of the designation are hardly worth mentioning. Intel only raised the nominal clock by 100 MHz compared to the 00-chips. Instead of 2.7-3.7 GHz (Core i7-4800MQ), the reviewed Core i7-4810QM runs with 2.8-3.8 GHz. Thanks to the high clocks, the quad-core processor is one of the fastest notebook CPUs on the market.

Six MB L3 cache are similar to the less expensive quad-core siblings i7-4700MQ (2.4-3.4 GHz) and i7-4702MQ (2.2-3.2 GHz), whereas the Core i7-4910MQ (2.9-3.9 GHz) is equipped with eight MB L3 cache. Intel specifies the TDP with 47 Watts. Similar to its siblings, the processor is produced in 22 nm and supports Hyperthreading, which means the CPU has four virtual cores and can execute up to eight threads simultaneously.

The integrated DirectX-11 GPU HD Graphics 4600 is used by the XMG P304 as well. Nvidia's Optimus technology switches between the integrated and the dedicated GPU depending on the application. The automatic switching ensures high performance and moderate power consumption.

One of the biggest improvements is certainly the graphics card. Instead of the GeForce GTX 765M, which is still based on the Kepler architecture, the W230SS barebones is equipped with the GeForce GTX 860M and the new Maxwell technology (GM107 chip).

While the manufacturing process remained the same (28 nm), the power efficiency was significantly improved. Despite less shader units (640 vs. 768 CUDA cores) and transistors (1,870 vs. 2,540 million), the GeForce GTX 860M is supposed to be faster. Early benchmarks even indicated a higher performance than the GTX 770M, which has 960 CUDA cores and 3,072 MB GDDR5 video memory (128-bit interface). The GTX 860M is very similar to the GTX 765M with 2,048 MB GDDR5-VRAM and a 128-bit memory interface. 

However, Nvidia allows a very high clock for the Maxwell GPU. 1,029 MHz for the core and 2,500 MHz for the memory are much faster than the older generations. The GTX 765M only runs with 850/2,000 MHz (GTX 770M: 811/2,000 MHz). The core of the GTX 860M can even run with up to 1,097 MHz via GPU Boost. 

We did not test the new features Battery Boost (longer battery runtimes during gaming), GameStream (streaming from the notebook to other devices) and ShadowPlay (Full HD video capturing with buffer).

Schenker equipped our review unit with a 240 GB mSATA SSD in combination with a 1,000 GB hard drive. 

Let us start with the Solid State Drive. The Crucial M500 CT240M500SSD3 is certainly not a bad choice when you look at the benchmark results. 497 MB/s sequential read and 265 MB/s sequential write (AS SSD benchmark) are pretty good, even though other mSATA drives like the Liteonit LMT-256M6M manage higher write speeds (399 MB/s @ Alienware 14). Thanks to the decent performance with small data there is however not a big difference in the overall score. The access time is also excellent with 0.073 and 0.056 ms (read/write).

The conventional hard drive can obviously not keep up with the SSD, but the HGST Travelstar 7K1000 HTS721010A9E630 is certainly a nice addition. Sequential read and write speeds of more than 130 MB/s (CrystalDiskMark) are much faster than most HDDs. Besides the generous capacity, it also works at a fast 7,200 rpm. This means you cannot go wrong with an SSD/HDD combination if you have a lot of data.

Our chart below the verdict shows that the GeForce GTX 860M is surprisingly good with 1920x1080 pixels. It is not always powerful enough for the maximum details and very high anti-aliasing modes, but high settings are usually no problem. Less demanding titles like GRID 2, Tomb Raider and Bioshock: Infinite can be enjoyed with the highest settings.

The GTX 860M is around 40% faster than the GTX 765M and 20% behind the price-performance champion Radeon HD 8970M when we combine all benchmarks. Many results are not up to date anymore (different drivers) and some games got performance updates (for instance Dota 2), so these results should only be a rough assessment. 

It is however pretty clear that the GTX 770M got a more frugal and often faster replacement, and the Maxwell chip looks like a quantum leap over the old GTX 765M in a direct comparison.

The GTX 860M is not particularly suited to the native resolution of 3200x1800 pixels. Battlefield 4 was only playable with low settings in our test (34 fps @ low, 28 fps @ medium). 1920x1080 pixels increase the frame rate by around 400%.

It is bold to put high-end components into a 13-inch chassis, but there are consequences. The biggest drawback is the temperature development.

We can already determine a noticeable warming of the base unit during idle. Almost 33 °C (91.4 °F) at the top and 32 °C (89.6 °F) at the bottom are not a good sign for 3D applications, and our suspicion is confirmed: We can measure more than 50 °C (122 °F) at the back after our one-hour stress test (FurMark + Prime95). An average value of 49 °C (120.2 °F) (top) and 45 °C (113 °F) (bottom), respectively, does not improve the rating, either.

Since the One K33-3E was similarly warm despite the less powerful processor, we can speculate that the GTX 860M does not produce more heat than the GTX 765M. However, the ambient temperature was different (24 vs. 28 °C; 75.2 vs. 82.4 °F), which can affect the results as well.

Speaking of components: While the Core i7-4810MQ almost reaches 100 °C (212 °F) under maximum load, the GPU levels off at 88 °C (190.4 °F). These results should be a bit higher during the summer.

The good battery runtime is another indicator of an improvement coming from the use of the Maxwell chip. An idle runtime of 6.5 hours (minimum brightness, maximum energy-saving features) is neither managed by the Razer Blade 14 (up to five hours @ 71 Wh), the Alienware 14 (up to four hours @ 69 Wh) nor the Gigabyte P34G (up to three hours @ 48 Wh).

Moreover, the XMG P304 does not even have a very large battery. 62 Wh are just decent, a bigger capacity would have increased the runtimes even further.

Almost 5 hours of HD video playback (medium luminance, moderate energy-saving features) are not bad, either. Gaming with the 13-inch device is possible for around two hours without a socket (14-inch competition: up to 1.5 hours). 

Unfortunate: The performance is reduced by around 60% on battery power (tested with Battlefield 4).

Longer battery runtimes, reduced power consumption and more performance: The W230SS barebones leaves a much better impression than its predecessor, thanks to the Maxwell GPU. Clevo did not put any work into the case, but the optimizations are still obvious.

Besides the efficient GeForce GTX 860M (Nvidia will launch an additional Kepler version) we also like the razor-sharp QHD+ display. The glossy panel is really convincing if you can live with the reflections, the limited color space and the mediocre black value. It is bright, has a high contrast and natural colors: This is how we would summarize the picture performance. You should, however, be aware that many elements are extremely small.

Small is also the correct term for the 13-inch chassis. Even though the notebook could be a bit thinner for our taste, it is still very comfortable to carry around. There is also not much criticism with the port variety, input devices, maintainability and upgradability.

The sound and the fan control, in particular, require some improvements. The occasional rpm increase of the fan is not necessary. Users will have to live with high temperature and noise development under load in general, but the XMG P304 is still a good choice for gamers who like to travel.