Schenker XMG P507 (Clevo P651RP6-G) Notebook Review

The case has not changed much. Let us start with the most important fact: Depending on the selected graphics card, the 15-inch chassis is - just as its predecessors - either 2.5 or 2.9 cm high (~1 or 1.14 in). The slimmer variant with GTX 1060 is mostly made of metal (lid, underside, palm rests), which gives a very high-end impression.

The Barebone manufacturer Clevo, who had not in the past done such a good job in terms of design, has given the P651RP6-G chassis quite stylish lines without making the 15-inch device look too fussy. The laptop still looks discreet and lacks - unlike other high-end notebooks - excessive embellishment.

In our opinion, the compact build and the passable weight are the biggest highlights. With a weight of about 2.8 kg (~6.2 lb), the XMG P507 can still be easily carried around. Many 15-inch gaming laptops, for example the Acer Predator 15 or the Alienware 15 R2 exceed 3 kg (~6.6 lb). However, there are also slimmer and lighter rivals such as the MSI GS60 or the Gigabyte P35X v5, which, however, can quickly reach the limit of the cooling system.

Overall, we liked the chassis. You can hardly complain about the build quality and stability of the base unit. Only the lid could be significantly more rigid. In addition, twisting with two hands generates unpleasant noises, which reduces the quality impression somewhat.

The main problem of the Barebone is and will be the screen bleeding. Our new test model also showed lighter areas along the edges, which might not only be linked to the panel itself but also to the construction of the lid. Clevo should improve this - at the latest in the next generation. Some buyers might send the XMG P507 back for that very reason, since screen bleeding can be very annoying in practice (e.g. when watching videos). However, other manufacturers also struggle with this flaw. It is often a matter of luck whether and how intensively a display suffers from screen bleeding.

In terms of connectivity, the P651RP6-G Barebone cannot be criticized. Although the interface layout could be somewhat more convenient (most of the ports are on the right side), the number and variety are absolutely convincing. For example, the XMG P507 delivers three audio jacks, a SIM card slot and as many as five USB-ports, which is very respectable for a 15-inch device. Furthermore, two of the USB ports conform to the USB 3.1 Type-C standard (however, without Thunderbolt).

There are as many as three digital videos-outs in the form of HDMI 2.0 and 2x mini DisplayPort 1.3. Thanks to cutting-edge interfaces, a quad screen setup including notebook display and 4K output can be driven at 60 Hz. The ports that we have not mentioned as yet are depicted in the photos.

Apart from many supported formats (SD, Mini SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC and RSMMC), the performance of the card reader is not outstanding. Just under 86 MB/s in sequential reading and 77 MB/s when moving many .JPG images are typical for a gaming notebook. The XMG P506 predecessor achieved very similar results with our reference card. The MSI GT62VR proves that a higher performance is possible with 190 and 140 MB/s, respectively, in this test.

A module from Intel provides wireless networking. The Wireless-AC 8260 costs only 10 Euros (~$11) more than the standard adapter Wireless-AC 3165. The main differences are the number of antennas (2x2 vs. 1x1) and the maximum transfer rate (867 vs. 433 MBit/s). In our router test, we measured an acceptable 456 MBit/s in sending and a good 642 MBit/s in receiving. The MSI GT62VR achieved 559 and 630 MBit/s, respectively. Schenker even sells a Wi-Fi model from Qualcomm Atheros (Killer Wireless-AC 1535) for 20 Euros (~$22).

The XMG P507 does not neglect security. For example, a fingerprint sensor sits between the two touchpad buttons. A Kensington lock slot is on the right side and a TPM-2.0 chip completes the bundle.

The scope of delivery is more than that of most notebook vendors. Apart from an XMG sticker (the chassis is already branded on the lid and the display frame) and a cleaning cloth, there are also a 16 GB USB thumb drive with drivers and several screws for the hard drive mounting brackets in the box. Anyone ordering an operating system will also get a system recovery DVD.

The maintenance of the XMG P507 is a mixed bag. On the one side, we regret that there is no  “genuine” maintenance hatch and you have to remove the entire underside (which takes a long time due to the number of screws). On the other hand, you can upgrade many components and easily clean the device, once you have gained access to the inside. Regardless of whether Wi-Fi module, storage devices or RAM (two of four RAM slots are beneath the keyboard), you can reach all components with a little effort.

It is convenient that the cooling systems of CPU and GPU are separated. While the Core i7-6700HQ has two heatpipes and a fan, the GTX 1060 uses a total of three heatpipes and two fans. However, it is a pity that the battery is only accessible from inside. Unfortunately, this is becoming increasingly common in the notebook range.

As far as warranty is concerned, Schenker offers either 24 or 36 months Pickup & Return service. Optionally, the included 6-months quick repair can be expanded to the half or the whole warranty period.

As we have already mentioned, the display has been taken directly from the predecessor. The LG Philips LP156WF6 (LGD046F) is a matte 15.6-inch model with IPS technology. It performs well in most categories. The contrast is high at 960:1 and most users might also be satisfied with the brightness (~290 cd/m²) and black value (0.3 cd/m²). As long as you do not use the display in direct sun, it even remains legible outdoors.

The viewing angles of the XMG P507 are on the typical IPS level. Changes occur only at very flat angles, which you will actually never come across in everyday use; if at all.

Just as the previous XMG P506, the successor also aims at the high-end range. Apart from the mandatory components (Core i7-6700HQ, FHD panel), our test model comes with a 16 GB DDR4 RAM in dual channel mode and a combination from m.2-SSD and 2.5-inch HDD. The biggest highlight is Nvidia's brand new Pascal GPU, which is processed in 16 nm lithography (Maxwell: 28 nm) and hopefully brings sufficient VRAM for the coming years.

The manufacturer specifies a TDP of 45 watts, which means that its  cooling requirements are the same as its more expensive Core i7-6820HK sibling with 8 MB L3 cache and a clock rate from 2.7 to 3.6 GHz. Thanks to Hyperthreading, the two 14 nm models are capable of handling eight parallel threads.

As for clock behavior, there are no bad surprises: A short test with Cinebench R15 shows that the Core i7-6700HQ almost always runs close at its maximum Turbo. Depending on the number of cores used, the clock rate is between 3.1 and 3.5 GHz in the XMG P507. The competition shows a similar behavior. As a result all notebooks of the comparison group are on par in the CPU tests.

As expected, the system performance is high. Thanks to a Solid-State Drive, the XMG P507 boots quickly and responses directly when opening programs. The time needed for loading games is also reasonably short. PCMark 7 confirms our subjective impression. With 6138 points, the test model can surpass MSI's GT62VR 6RE by 4%, which achieved 5926 points.

Although a standard SATA III SSD, which limits at about 500 MB/s, is sufficient for most users, the future belongs to PCIe Solid-State Drives. The 256 GB variant of the Samsung SM951 used in our test model performs excellently. About 2000 MB/s in sequential reading and 1200 MB/s in sequential writing (AS SSD Benchmark) deserve great respect and make rivals with standard SSDs look like a fool on paper. For example, our test models of the MSI GT62VR, the Asus GL502VY and the Gigabyte P55K v5 fall behind by over 60%.

The NVMe model is accompanied by a conventional hard drive in 2.5-inch format. The Terabyte Drive Western Digital Blue is quite fast for an HDD - despite a rotation speed of 5400 instead of 7200 RPM. CrystalDiskMark calculated a sequential rate of just under 120 MB/s. In short: Buyers cannot go wrong with this storage device combination and will get a responsive operating system as well as sufficient storage space for their videos, serials and game libraries.

Meanwhile, the clock rates remind us of the GTX 1070. The core clocks at 1405 to 1671 MHz, while the GDDR5 VRAM reaches an effective clock rate of 8000 MHz. Top: Nvidia has so much confidence in its Pascal architecture that the chip clock can climb even higher in practice. According to the render test of the GPU-Z tool, the GTX 1060 achieves a maximum of 1911 MHz. However, the core settles at about 1570 MHz after 2 Unigine Heaven 4.0 runs, which is within the normal Turbo range.

In case you are wondering why the desktop model performs better: Thanks to the more powerful cooling and bigger space, the GTX 1060 had a more scope in our tower PC. On average, it clocks at 1820 MHz in the desktop computer (+16%). Hence, different Turbo usage and correspondingly deviating performance are possible in notebooks depending on the cooling capacity and the cooling reserves.

Let us turn to the most important question: How fast is the GTX 1060 actually? The Fire Strike test of the current 3DMark gives us a first answer. With a GPU score of 11045 points, the 16 nm chip outdoes almost the entire Maxwell family. It performs +15% better than the GTX 980M and +45% better than the GTX 970M. Compared to a GTX 965M, it is even twice as fast. The GTX 1070 performs even better with 17066 points (+55%).

The gaming performance of the GTX 1060 highly depends on the selected resolution. UHD displays with 3840x2160 pixels can quickly overwhelm the newcomer; at least with high details.  “The Witcher 3”, “Assassin's Creed Syndicate”, “XCOM 2”, “Far Cry Primal”, “The Division”, “Hitman” and “Mirrors Edge Catalyst” are not playable in 4K (less than 25 fps). “Batman Arkham Knight”, “Call of Duty Black Ops 3”, “Fallout 4”, and “Rise of The Tomb Raider” also do not run smoothly.

The GTX 1060 is much more comfortable with Full HD. Maximum details and multiple anti-aliasing is usually not an issue here. Only Anno 2205 and XCOM 2 remained under 30 fps with 1920x1080 pixels. Overall, the GTX 1060 performs relatively well, without being able to keep up with the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 top models. The latter is significantly more suitable for fans of high-resolution displays.

In our opinion, Nvidia should announce a GTX 1065 as soon as possible in order to close the  “performance gap”. The performance gain from GTX 960M to GTX 970M was also very big, which was fixed by the GTX 965M. But back to the topic: Compared to the 28 nm chips of the Maxwell series, the GTX 1060 is very powerful. If you consider all FHD/Ultra and 4K/high benchmarks, the Pascal model ranks in between GTX 980M and the previous GTX 980 top model.

A short time after we performed our system noise measurements, Schenker sent us a new EC BIOS, which was supposed to make the fan control  “smoother”. However, we were unable to install it, since the USB ports of the test model did not recognize any USB sticks and the Windows update also failed. To cut a long story short, the XMG P507 might show fewer peaks in system noise in the meantime. The running hard drive is louder than the fan when the system is idling. Ideally, omitting the HDD would give an almost silent noise level.