PowerSpec 1510 - Review 2022

PowerSpec is far from a household proper name, even amidst gamers who will exist because the PowerSpec 1510 gaming laptop ($1,199), but it'due south a name that rings true in this case. The laptop's specs (an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 graphics carte) are indeed powerful, and when you consider the price, this PC represents an fantabulous value. In fact, one of the only laptops that comes close to matching its blend of price and performance is the PowerSpec 1710, a 17-inch version with identical specs and like functioning, and a price tag that's merely $100 higher. But here'due south the catch: You can only buy it in a Micro Middle store, which are located mostly in the Midwest and on the Due east Declension.

Powerful and Inexpensive, but Kind of Tiresome

Undoubtedly powerful and relatively cheap, the PowerSpec 1510 all the same lacks ane affair that the PowerSpec 1710 mostly manages to pull off: a good-looking enclosure. There is little to adorn the bulky, somewhat tired-looking chassis of this 15-inch rig other than copious amounts of black plastic and a tiny silver border around the ports and the air intake on the rear edge. To add to the blandness, the entire bundle looks bulky. It measures ane.25 by fifteen.25 by 10.75 inches (HWD), making it 25 percentage thicker than its otherwise larger sibling, which measures i by 16.5 by 11 inches. Information technology weighs half dozen.25 pounds, or nigh 1.v pounds less than its larger sibling.

At that place are farther aspects of the design that give abroad the PowerSpec 1510's low price, such as the lack of paint on the port labels. Even in a brightly lit room, you'll take to squint to make out the markings, which are simply etched into the plastic. This exercise is non uncommon on laptops, and about gamers are probably able to identify a port's function by sight, but it's still worth noting, since the PowerSpec 1710 includes clearly readable labels.

The actual port option is generous, especially because the inclusion of two USB-C ports on the left edge and three display outputs (2 Mini DisplayPort and one HDMI). Unfortunately, in that location is no support for Thunderbolt three for connecting a speedy external drive that you lot might be storing your massive game collection on. Fortunately, at that place's adequate infinite across the internal storage—a 1TB hard bulldoze and 250GB NVMe Grand.2 SSD—to store smaller collections. The PowerSpec 1710 does accept Thunderbolt 3 support.

Other I/O options include two USB iii.0 ports on the left edge and one on the right, in addition to an audio input and output, a headphone jack, a gigabit Ethernet port, and a full-size SD card slot.

As unimpressive as the PowerSpec 1510's beefy case might await, it is luckily able to arrange a much more constructive cooling system than the ane in the PowerSpec 1710, which ways that information technology suffers from almost none of its sibling'due south cooling issues. I'll accost the cooling capabilities afterward when I talk about gaming functioning, but just know that if you plan to game on your lap, you should forget about looks and buy a laptop similar this ane that's not going to feel like it's burning a pigsty in your thighs.

Matte Stop

The fifteen.six-inch, full Hd (1,920-by-1,080) display comes with a matte finish to guard against glare from the lights in your gaming den. It's pretty constructive, although I noticed a few more reflections in this screen than I did in the matte display on the PowerSpec 1710. Thanks to In-Plane Switching (IPS) engineering science, colors stay accurate and text remains readable even when you view it from extreme angles. To help reduce the abrasive tearing outcome while playing graphics-intensive titles, the brandish comes with Nvidia'due south G-Sync technology to synchronize the screen'southward refresh rate with the frame rate from the GTX 1070 graphics carte du jour.

The three-zone RGB backlit keyboard includes a numpad and total-sized directional keys, which are two luxuries mutual on larger laptops merely sadly missing from most of today'due south consumer ultraportables. Fundamental travel is good and the sturdy case means that in that location'southward almost nothing keyboard flex, but the switches are slightly wobbly. They're fine for casual gaming sessions while you're traveling, but for more than serious ones at home you lot'll want to connect an external keyboard and mouse.

Although the touchpad isn't clickable, it'southward generously sized, accurate, and quite responsive—and then responsive, in fact, that I did not need to crank upwards the sensitivity using the Windows Settings app like I oftentimes practice. Equally an added bonus, there'southward a fingerprint reader located betwixt the touchpad's correct- and left-click buttons, a feature that's missing from the PowerSpec 1710.

The HD webcam takes loftier-quality video that'south perfectly adequate for streaming your gaming sessions to Twitch. At that place are no built-in IR sensors, however, which means no logging into your Windows account using confront recognition. When it's time to accept a pause from gaming to lookout some YouTube videos, the stereo speakers volition offer pleasingly crisp audio since they're located in the display hinge and angled slightly so they're facing you lot.

Wireless connectivity includes 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1. Oddly, there'south a SIM card slot on the left border. There'south no cellular modem, though, so the useless slot is maybe a vestige of the capabilities of whichever laptop this case held earlier PowerSpec chose it. Note that you cannot customize the laptop before you buy information technology; as with the PowerSpec 1510, there's only one configuration.

PowerSpec includes a one-year parts and labor warranty.

Graphics Horsepower

The PowerSpec 1510 has enough graphics horsepower to give y'all a polish and immersive gaming experience, even if yous play the latest titles on their highest-quality settings at the maximum resolution (one,920 by 1,080) that its screen supports. I recorded frame rates of about 100 frames per 2nd (fps) on our Heaven and Valley game simulations running at Ultra quality and maximum resolution. We generally regard 30fps equally the minimum and 60fps equally the comfortable level, so the PowerSpec 1510 has a significant cushion in example your favorite games are more than demanding than our tests.

Our 3DMark criterion tests, which spit out proprietary scores, are further evidence of the PowerSpec 1510's gaming prowess. The laptop achieved a all-time-in-class score on the grueling Fire Strike Extreme test (seven,819), far outpacing its similarly priced competitors, which mostly are equipped with GTX 1050 Ti GPUs. In fact, all of its gaming benchmark results are best-in-class, edging out even the identically powered PowerSpec 1710, in part because that car has more pixels to ability.

Even better, I noticed none of the estrus problems that I experienced with the PowerSpec 1710, with its instance lesser that reached temperatures in backlog of 100 degrees when I tested it. The PowerSpec 1510's fans did spool upward considerably during the gaming tests, just the bottom and sides of the example were comfortably warm to the touch. That should offering quite a bit of headroom if you plan to overclock the GPU, which y'all can do using the pre-installed software.

The major thing you lot won't get from the GTX 1070 in this laptop is good 4K gaming performance if y'all determine to connect an external 4K display. For that, you'll need a machine with at least a GTX 1080.

When it comes to everyday calculating, the PowerSpec 1510 is again a solid performer thanks to its Intel Core i7-7700HQ running at 2.8GHz. But all of its competitors have the same processor, then the PowerSpec 1510'south reward hither is much smaller. It posted a class-leading score of 3,532 on the all-encompassing PCMark viii tests, which measures tasks similar discussion processing, videoconferencing, and web browsing. That'due south just a few points higher than near of its competitors, like the Asus ROG Strix GL53V (3,507).

Meet How We Examination Laptops

The gaps are similarly narrow on the specialized multimedia tasks like video encoding using Handbrake and editing images in Photoshop. The PowerSpec 1510 is great for these tasks (especially our series of Photoshop filters, which it practical in just longer than three minutes), but it's not materially faster than whatsoever other gaming machine with the same CPU.

The aforementioned goes for bombardment life, with a fourth dimension of 4 hours and 57 minutes on our video-rundown examination. That isn't horrible (the Lenovo Legion Y520 lasted for only 3:35, for example), but it ways that yous'll mostly be using the PowerSpec 1510 while it's plugged in.

Get Thee to a Micro Center

If y'all don't heed a stodgy case pattern, you tin get similar operation out of the PowerSpec 1510 as you'll get from its larger and more stylish cousin, the PowerSpec 1710. The PowerSpec 1510 is also a better pick if you programme to overclock the GTX 1070 GPU, since its case handles heat much better than the larger laptop. Ultimately, though, the price difference betwixt the two models is so small-scale that the meliorate-designed PowerSpec 1710 is fifty-fifty more than of an fantabulous value and therefore a better choice for most coincidental gamers.

The fact that no other manufacturer comes close to offering the combination of price and features that these ii laptops boast bodes well for PowerSpec's time to come in the gaming laptop marketplace. That's bold, of course, that the company manages to continue the prices this low in an era of GPU shortages. At nowadays, one thing is clear: If you're in the market for a midrange gaming laptop and are lucky enough to live nigh a Micro Center (the only place these laptops are sold), you should probably get buy one (or the PowerSpec 1710) right now.

Other options: Spend significantly more than money for a gaming laptop with equivalent horsepower, such as the Alienware xv R3, or choose a machine with a slightly less powerful GTX 1060, such every bit the Acer Aspire V17 Nitro.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/laptops/19785/powerspec-1510

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