Schenker W724 (Clevo P370SM-A) Notebook Review

Although Schenker also offers 17-inch notebooks with IPS screens (e.g. XMG U705), the W724 is only available with a TN panel). Despite the comparatively stable picture, the Chi Mei N173HGE-L11 has a hard time against an IPS product when you look at the viewing angles and the color accuracy. The CalMAN screenshots below show a strong blue cast ex-works, which can fortunately be removed with calibration or the use of our ICC file. The grayscale, gamma value and saturation also benefit significantly from calibration.

Other issues of the panel are the slightly grainy picture impression and the second-class brightness distribution. We can see some screen bleeding at the edges, and it is annoying that the display illumination shines through the panel and the notebook frame, particularly when you consider the over 2000 Euros (~$270) price tag. Speaking of annoying: It is a known fact that the Chi Mei N173HGE-L11 has issues with Nvidia laptops without switchable graphics, and there will be thin horizontal stripes on dark backgrounds – we reported this back in 2013 (XMG P723).

TThe Schenker W724 is without a doubt a device from the desktop replacement category. In addition to the connectivity, upgradeability and expandability, respectively, the performance does not have to hide behind a ‘real’ PC.

The utilization of the automatic Overclocking is limited in the case of the Schenker W724. 3.6-3.8 GHz in single-core scenarios roughly correspond with the maximum Turbo Boost of the i7-4810MQ, but the clock will drop from 3.4-3.6 to 3.2-3.3 GHz when you stress multiple cores for a prolonged time. However, there is definitely no throttling during standard Windows tasks and gaming. This phenomenon is (similar to many other notebooks) limited to maximum load, where the Core i7-4810MQ only manages around 2.0 GHz.

Still, the CPU performance of the Schenker W724 is excellent despite some Turbo issues. The high-end device manages 696 points in the Cinebench R15 Multi-Core test, which is a  few percent ahead of many competitors that have either less-expensive CPUs or bigger Turbo issues. Only the Core i7-4980HQ of the MSI GT80 manages a small advantage, but this is not noticeable in practice. The notebook ranking is very similar in the Single-Core test (see table).

The combination of a solid-state drive, dual-GPU, quad-core CPU and a decent amount of memory results in an excellent system performance. 6171 points are enough for the Schenker W724 to secure a top spot amongst the high-end and gaming notebooks. The Aorus X7 Pro is on par with 6141 points, while the MSI GT80 managed more than 6600 points thanks to the four SSDs in a RAID-0 configuration.

The primary storage solution of the review unit is the 500 GB version of Samsung’s 850 EVO. We selected the ‘small version’ since mSATA-SSDs have hardly any performance disadvantages compared to their 2.5-inch siblings and the additional price is not too high. You can only see small differences when you compare the results with the predecessor. The Samsung 840 EVO (Schenker XMG P724) has already scratched the 500 MB/s mark in the sequential write test of the AS SSD benchmark. The access times and the performance with small files are very similar. However, this is not a criticism, since the 840 EVO had been already one of the fastest SSDs on the market. The mSATA drive is accompanied by a 2 TB hard drive; Samsung's SpinPoint M9T manages sequential transfer rates of almost 130 MB/s, which is a very good result for a conventional hard drive.

If you plan to use the Schenker W724 mainly for gaming and not for professional tasks, you should avoid the Quadro K5100M and select one or two GeForce GPUs instead. Unlike the GTX 880M, which is not up to date anymore because of the Kepler technology, the models from the 900-series are based on the Maxwell architecture and consume less power or are faster at the same consumption. The choice between the GTX 970M and the GTX 980M is basically a question of your wallet. An SLI configuration of the GTX 980M, for example, costs around 700 Euros (~$795) more than two of the weaker siblings – way too much when you consider the pretty mediocre performance increase. While the GTX 970M has 6 GB GDDR5 video memory (192-bit interface) and 1280 CUDA cores, the GTX 980M is equipped with 8 GB GDDR5 video memory (256-bit interface) and 1536 shaders. Both GPUs are based on the GM 204 chip that is manufactured in a 28 nm process.

We have already mentioned that the additional charge for the GTX 980M SLI over the GTX 970M SLI only pays off for performance enthusiasts. Both 3DMark 11 as well as the Fire Strike test of the new 3DMark show that the GTX 970M SLI in the review unit of the Schenker W724 is just around 20% slower than the much more expensive MSI GT80. A single GTX 970M is roughly 60% slower than the SLI configuration, and a single GTX 980M is beaten by around 30%. The review unit is also 10 to 20% faster than two GTX 880M GPUs. Overall, the results are very similar to the Aorus X7, which is slightly slower in some scenarios because of the Turbo utilization and the driver version.

Even two GTX 970M chips are not always fast enough for gaming in 4K, despite the enormous performance. A combination of high details and 3840x2160 pixels will result in smooth gameplay in some games (“Dirt Rally”, “Fifa 15”, …), but very demanding games like “Battlefield 4” or “The Witcher 3” suffer from annoying (micro) stutters.

The native display resolution is not a problem for the SLI configuration. Even the highest details and anti-aliasing are possible on the Schenker W724. It does not matter if you play “Assassin's Creed Unity”, “Far Cry 4”, “Call of Duty Advanced Warfare” or “Dragon Age Inquisition”: The notebook sometimes even manages more than 100 fps (“Evolve”) in the ultra-setting. All the results from the ultra and the 4K benchmarks show that the second GTX 970M increases the performance by roughly two thirds.

Note: All the following measurements were performed with activated SLI.

The noise development has significantly improved since the last hardware generation. While the GPU combination of the Schenker XMG P724 (GTX 880M SLI) reached up to 55 dB(A) in 3D scenarios, our measurement device shows "only" 47 dB(A) for our review unit of the Schenker W724. The main reason should be the improved efficiency of the Maxwell architecture, so the heat development is reduced. The performance of the 17-inch laptop is particularly good compared to the Aorus X7 Pro and the MSI GT80, which can reach up to 58-60 dB(A). However, we cannot call the notebook quiet, 44-47 dB(A) in 3DMark 06 are clearly audible without ambient noises.

We can also notice optimizations while idling. While the fans of the predecessor were always active, they are now temporarily deactivated, so you will only hear a subtle murmur from the HDD. However, this does require optimal conditions (no load, energy-saving mode, …). The cooling solution usually produces 34-37 dB(A), which is not really good, even for a high-end notebook. The Aorus X7 Pro, for example, manages an average of just 32 dB(A) (36 dB(A) @MSI GT80). A problem is the jumpy fan control: The fans sometimes spin up and create more than 40 dB(A) without any apparent reason, which can be very annoying, especially with light workloads (office, web browsing, …). We had already noticed this issue in the review of the XMG P724, even though the situation is not quite as bad this time. The barebone manufacturer should definitely improve this.

Information about the sound system is available in the review of the XMG P724.

You can clearly see the effects of the missing switchable graphics when you look at the power consumption. While laptops with Optimus usually stay below 30 watts while idling, the Schenker W724 consumes between 32 and 46 watts, which explains the poor battery runtimes. The device is at least more frugal than the review configuration of the XMG P724. Instead of 155 watts (first scene of 3DMark 06) and 326 watts (maximum load), the new model pulled only 122 and 276 watts, respectively, from the socket. The 330-watt power adaptor should be working at its limit with two GTX 980M cards as well as an even faster CPU (up to 329 watts @MSI GT80).

The battery runtimes of the W724 are – to put it mildly – pretty mediocre, despite the large 8-cell battery (89 Wh, 5900 mAh). 1.5 up to 3 hours is reminiscent of the early gaming notebooks, but neither the Aorus X7 Pro nor the MSI GT80 is any better. The result: You should get a single-GPU notebook if you are often on the road.