Schenker XMG Apex 15 (Clevo NH57AF1) Laptop Review: Extremely fast, extremely loud

The competitors of the Apex 15 include other 15-inch laptops with a GeForce RTX 2070 and strong CPUs such as the Schenker XMG Ultra 15, the Eurocom Nightsky RX15, the MSI GE65 Raider 9SF and the Asus Strix G531GW. These laptops are cited as competitors in our comparison tables.  

Unlike the XMG Ultra 15, which is rather large and heavy due to its height of 3.8 cm and a weight of 3.5 kg, the Apex 15 - which, by the way, features a slim bezel design - is fairly compact. It has a height of 3.25 cm and weighs 2.7 kg. Its dimensions are similar to those of the Eurocom Nightsky RX15, which also has a similar exterior in general. This is no surprise since both cases come from the barebone expert Clevo. The Apex 15 is based on the case NH57AF1. 

The 15-inch notebook gives a fairly good impression in terms of quality. While the lid is made of metal, the base unit consists of plastic. The workmanship is satisfactory and all elements come together nicely apart from one or two small details. The hinges are unobtrusive as well and the maximum opening angle of around 130° is typical for a standard notebook.

The Apex 15, like most Clevo barebones, does not try to make a bold design statement but has a rather subtle appearance. Only the line design of the lid might give away who this device is designed for. We only found one weak point in terms of stability: the lid. Like with many gaming laptops, the display can be warped quite strongly. The base unit on the other hand hardly gives way under strong pressure.

Ports

Apart from the missing Thunderbolt 3 port, which really is a must-have in this price range, the port selection is very satisfactory. There's a Kensington lock and an RJ45 port, one USB 2.0 and three USB 3.1 gen 2 ports, one of which is Type-C and supports DisplayPort.

Talking of image output: External monitors can also be connected via the HDMI 2.0 port or the dedicated Mini-DisplayPort. If you include the integrated display, you could theoretically have a quad-screen setup. The multimedia offering is completed by two audio jacks (one for headphones, one for a microphone) and an SD card reader, which was kept in the small micro format despite having ample space available. 

As some of the ports are positioned along the back of the notebook and there are only a few connectors in the front half, users will have sufficient space for using an external mouse comfortably.

We would recommend upgrading the network module during configuration in order to receive maximum Wi-Fi range and speed. The Wi-Fi module in our test unit is the Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200. It is not a lot more expensive and covers all modern features such as 802.11ax and Bluetooth 5.0. Please note: The results of the Wi-Fi test displayed below cannot be compared to those of the competition due to the recently updated router (Netgear Nighthawk AX12 instead of Linksys EA8500). The Apex 15 reaches more than 1300 Mb/s, which is a very good result.

Schenker has equipped the notebook with a fair amount of accessories. Apart from a quick-start guide, a DVD with drivers on it, a USB stick with software and a tube of heat-conducting paste, we also found an enormous mouse pad. The device also comes with a 230-W power supply that weighs around 700 g and is 15 x 7 x 3 cm large. 

"Finally a notebook with good maintenance options" - that was the thought that went through our head after a look at the bottom of the laptop. Instead of having to remove the entire bottom cover with numerous screws and clips, the barebone manufacturer chose to include a large maintenance hatch that easily slides open after removing seven Phillips screws. The battery is directly accessible from the outside, which has also become a rare sight nowadays.

Buyers will continue to be pleased with maintenance options once they're inside the case. Thanks to its origins as a desktop chip, the processor can be exchanged if necessary (the GPU, however, is soldered on). The strong cooling system consists of several metal surfaces and two fans with three heat pipes leading away from each. Users can easily exchange the RAM modules and storage devices.

The basic warranty covers 24 months (6 months fast repair). If you want to be on the safe side, you can extend the warranty to 36 months of fast repair.

The device features a classic touchpad with dedicated mouse keys (which feel rather cheap and loud when clicked). The touchpad itself is around 11 x 6.2 cm large and has a smooth finish. Nonetheless, gliding isn't ideal, particularly when your fingers are wet or oily. Apart from that we were quite happy with the touchpad and its precision and gesture support (zooming, scrolling) worked well.  

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Apex 15 is equipped with a matte Full-HD IPS display. Thanks to its 144 Hz, even normal Windows applications feel a lot smoother (cursor movements!). The 15-inch display is just as fast while gaming and has a response time of 11.2 ms (black-to-white) and 17.6 ms (gray-to-gray). This means that even fast games will be displayed smoothly for the most part. Most buyers should be satisfied with this display.

With its CPU socket, the Apex 15 definitely belongs in the category of desktop replacements. The ample number of cores combined with a high-end GPU, a PCIe SSD and at least 16 GB of RAM mean this device should be future-proof for quite some time.

We tried to find out how the turbo fares with the help of our Cinebench loop (see graph). The fact that the clock rate dropped slightly after the initial round is quite normal. During Cinebench R15, the Ryzen 9 3900 clocked at 3.4-4.2 GHz under single-core load and at an average of 3.6 GHz when all cores were under load. That's a decent result. (The clock rate dropped to 2.8 GHz with the Control Center set to entertainment mode.)

The potential of this device becomes even more apparent during the remaining obstacle course of benchmarks. The multi-core Cinebench R15 places the Ryzen 9 3900 at around 50% above the Core i9-9980HK (Eurocom Nightsky RX15) and 90% above the Core i7-9700K (Schenker XMG Ultra 15). The advantage compared to the i9-9880H is 75% (MSI GE65 Raider 9SF) and 100% (Asus Strix G531GW). If you require a lot of processing power, you're in the right place. 

As expected, the Apex 15 is number one in our list of comparison devices when it comes to system performance. It reached 6883 points in our PCMark benchmark, which is 18% more than its competitors. However, Schenker and Clevo could further improve the boot process as it's a little slow for a laptop equipped with an SSD.

Our test unit has been equipped with a 1000-GB Samsung SSD 970 Evo Plus. The M.2 drive does a good job both when reading and writing and can eclipse several 1-TB competitors - at least on paper (e.g. the Intel SSD 660p).

In line with our high-end CPU, this device also features a high-end GPU. The surcharge for switching from an RTX 2060 to an RTX 2070 is definitely worth the extra money. While the former is primarily made for Full-HD displays, the latter is often powerful enough for QHD and 4K displays. It also has 2304 shader units rather than the 1920 found on the RTX 2060 and 8 GB rather than 6 GB of GDDR6 VRAM (storage interface: 256 vs. 192-bit).

The base clock rate of the Turing chip is 1260 MHz. However, thanks to the automatic GPU boost, the chip reaches considerably higher clock rates in practice. The chip in our test unit settled down at around 1680 MHz during the Unigine Heaven benchmark and also offered a similar result during our benchmark with The Witcher 3, which we run at maximum details for around 60 minutes. The relatively constant frame rates in the lower graph show that the GPU performance remains the same over long periods of load.

We did not notice any anomalies during our benchmark check. The 3DMark 11 and the current 3DMark tests place the Apex 15 at the top of the comparison field in most scenarios. It's a shame that Schenker hasn't (yet) included the faster Super version of the RTX 2070 as an option. 

The RTX 2070 can display every game smoothly at maximum settings in native resolution. Even demanding games such as Borderlands 3 are a piece of cake for this chip and frame rates reach over 60 FPS on average. Games that are less demanding or more optimized, such as Doom Eternal, can really make the most of the 144-Hz screen. 

The Apex 15 has set a new negative record in terms of system noise. We measured 62 dB(A) during The Witcher 3, which is the highest value we have ever measured in this scenario. The noise level is very loud, even when using a headset - buyers will have to have strong nerves. While the device is quieter in entertainment mode, we personally still find it too loud (around 50 dB(A) after the BIOS-update). 

We would highly recommend using the quiet mode when working in idle. Otherwise, users will be confronted not only with a loud basic noise level but will also have to deal with occasional exaggerated rpm increases that cause higher noise levels than many gaming notebooks produce under maximum load. The quiet mode makes the Apex 15 more or less bearable while idling (35 to 39 dB(A)). 

Clevo really should take another close look at power management and cooling fan behavior. The way it is now, the Apex 15 feels like a device in the alpha or beta stage of development - not like a finished product (upon inquiry, Schenker promised improvements).

Looking at the components, it's the CPU in particular that really works up a sweat. While the GeForce RTX 2070 reaches no more than 77 °C under maximum load, the Ryzen 9 3900 gravitates towards 90 °C despite throttling to around 2.2 GHz. These results lead us to conclude that the Ryzen 9 3900 is too strong for this notebook and cooling system. It is the sole component responsible for the bad results in terms of emissions (we can't even imagine what these might look like with the Ryzen 9 3950X). We would therefore recommend buyers to stop at the octa-core Ryzen 7 2700X. The 12 and 16-core models are more suited for the case of the XMG Ultra 15.

Don't have too many expectations for the sound system, either. Compared to the XMG Ultra 15, which offers fairly good audio for a notebook, the Apex 15 lacks bass and also mids and highs (linearity etc.).

Whether you put the blame on Clevo or AMD - the power-saving mechanisms of the Ryzen 9 3900 are modest to say the least. This becomes particularly apparent when looking at consumption while idling (total system). 60 W is a lot even for a gaming notebook with a desktop CPU. Intel devices usually consume a lot less. The XMG Ultra 15, for example, consumes a meager 40 W (Core i7-9700K). At least the consumption levels are fairly normal under load. 141-259 W is not that different to the XMG Ultra 15, which loses out due to its number of CPU cores.

Let's not talk about the battery life. Even under perfect conditions (no load, minimum luminosity) the 62-Wh battery hardly lasts an hour. A larger battery would only make a small difference due to the high idle consumption.