Schenker Technologies XMG U727 (Clevo P870KM-GS) Laptop Review

The 2017 version of the XMG U727 is based on the 870KM GS Barebone from Clevo, which is identical to the 2016 version (Clevo P870DM3-G) – including the physical ports. For this reason, we did not take a new set of photos, but reused the ones we shot during our previous review. 

At almost 5 kg (~11 lbs) and 4.7 cm (~1.85 inches) thick, the 17-inch notebook is still one of the heaviest and thickest gaming notebooks on the market. Nearly all GTX 1080 competitors - such as the Acer Predator 17 X (4.3 kg/~9.5 lb)), the MSI GT73VR 7RF (4.1 kg/~9 lb) and the Asus G701VIK (4.0 kg/~8.8 lb) - are both lighter and slimmer. These laptops come with a regular notebook CPU and are not as readily upgradeable and as easy to maintain.

The display panel is an old acquaintance as well: the G-Sync certified 4K panel from AU Optronics (model B173ZAN01.0) had already delighted and impressed us last year.

Compromises are only necessary when it comes to the response times: 28 ms for the black-to-white and 44 ms for the gray-to-gray response are not exactly impressive when compared to 120 Hz notebooks (TN panels are generally much faster). OLED panels - like the one Dell uses for the Alienware 13 R3 - are of course much faster still.

We will start our performance evaluation with some screenshots depicting detailed information about the processor, the motherboard, the RAM, and the GPU.

Another advantage is the faster clock speeds. While the top notebook CPU Core i7-7820HK tops out at 3.9 GHz, the Core i7-7700K reaches up to 4.5 GHz. The reason why many competitors (Acer Predator 17 X, Asus G701VIK, MSI GT73VR 7RF ...) are still able to keep up with the review laptop when it comes to the CPU benchmarks has to do with overclocking. Since the user can select the multiplier freely, the Core i7-7820HK can reach up to 4.0 GHz or more and thus only trails the faster Core i7-7700K by 5 to 11%.

The Turbo is utilized very well when it comes to both single and multi-core loads. The Kaby Lake processor never dropped below 4.4 GHz, even after prolonged periods of stress. A 30 minute test using our brand new Cinebench R15 loop resulted in very consistent scores.

Although the overall system performance is of course top notch, the notebook did not score quite as well as expected when running the PCMark benchmarks - our configuration trailed the competition in both the Home and the Work sub-tests. The PCMark 7 score of 7864 on the other hand is good enough for second place right between the Asus G701VIK (7903 points) and the Acer Predator 17 X (7667 points), both of which also utilize an NVMe SSD. Subjectively, the system is pleasantly quick and impresses with very fast load times. 

The secondary solid-state drive is faster still with read and write transfer rates of 3002 MB/s and 2066 MB/s, respectively. The 512 GB version of the Samsung 960 Pro that Schenker uses is currently the fastest storage option available. Users requiring even more space (movie collections, etc.) are going to appreciate the 2000 GB 5400 RPM Seagate Barracuda hard drive, which offers a great price-to-performance ratio.

To justify the rather steep price, Schenker Technologies of course, make use of the most powerful laptop GPU at the time of writing. The difference between the GTX 1080 and the GTX 1070 is not quite as pronounces as it is between the GTX 1070 and GTX 1060. Gaming aficionados who want to use 4K at high settings cannot avoid the top-end GPU, however. As shipped, the Pascal-based GPU is not overclocked, so the XMG U727 slightly trails other GTX 1080 laptops with standard overclocking activated. The Asus G701VIK, for example, was about 7% faster when running 3DMark 11 and the 3DMark 13 Fire Strike test.

The XMG U727 utilizes the automatic Turbo of the GeForce GTX 1080 quite well. When we ran Unigine Heaven 4.0 Benchmark, the clock speed levelled out at 1660 MHz, which is right in the middle of the official Turbo range from 1582 to 1771 MHz. Under optimum conditions, the DirectX 12 GPU can top out at over 1900 MHz (GPU-Z render test).

Since we have encountered frequent criticism for our stress test - full load with FurMark and Prime 95 does indeed not simulate a very realistic scenario - we have now added a gaming test to our arsenal. To determine how a system reacts under load for extended periods of time, we run the open-world game The Witcher 3 Notebook Benchmarks (1920x1080, ultra) under controlled settings and record the clock rates, the temperature, the power consumption, the noise level, the battery performance and the frame rates with the notebook on external power. The last setting is shown below as a graph.

Aside from the initial period, during which the GeForce GTX 1080 runs at a slightly higher Turbo speed with frame rates of 70 to 74 fps, the notebook comfortably managed 60 to 70 fps during our test, which means that throttling is not an issue. When the XMG U727 runs on battery power, the performance decreases by about 30% and the frame rate drops to 57 fps. The GeForce GTX 1080 can handle most games at a resolution of 3840x2160 pixels and at high to maximum details. Only when we played games that are not optimized all that well - for example “Mafia 3” - the GPU was unable to cope with 4K.

When idling, the laptop is surprisingly quiet. The fans are not spinning at all most of the time, so it is only the gentle swooshing sound of the HDD which is audible. Once the HDD turns off, the system  is almost silent. We did not encounter the rapid spooling-up of the fans during idle that many Clevo Barebones are afflicted with. When subjected to low loads (web, video), the notebook quite frequently reaches 40 dB(A), however.

Users will not necessarily notice the high temperatures inside: 48 °C (~118 °F) on the top and 56 °C (~133 °F) on the bottom are certainly acceptable, given the huge amount of power. When we ran “The Witcher 3”, we recorded an average of 37 °C (~99 °F) and 41 °C (~106 °F) for the top and the bottom, respectively. While idling, the chassis remains between 26 and 35 °C (~79 and ~95 °F), which is an acceptable result.

Frequency Comparison (checkboxes are selectable/deselectable!)

Since the laptop utilizes desktop hardware, the power consumption is much higher than that of the mobile-CPU competition. While idling, the XMG U727 requires between 32 and 51 watts - the MSI GT73VR 7RF needs 29 to 40 watts and the Asus G701VIK only draws 24 to 38 watts. Laptops with Nvidia's Optimus technology (dynamic graphics card switching) remain under 30 watts on average. The draw of 350 watts at maximum load explains why Schenker had to include such a large and heavy (1.3 kg / 2.9 lbs) 330 watt power adapter. When running 3DMark 06 and “The Witcher 3”, the notebook required about 138 and 279 watts, respectively.

Considering the information we have provided thus far, it should not come as a surprise that the battery life is extremely modest. With a 3D run time of 1 hour and 37 minutes with the display at maximum brightness and an idle run time of 3 hours 42 minutes at minimum brightness, the XMG U727 does not exactly cover itself with glory. The 17-inch laptop lasted only 2 hours 48 minutes during the WLAN test - the competitors last at least 3.5 hours or longer.