A few days ago I posted about buying an Exsurf T160R laptop (here: furry.engineer/@notthatdelta/1…)
If you're scratching your head, no worries - I'd never heard of this laptop brand either. Well, it showed up today and I decided to dig in! I'm going to make a short thread about the experience so far.
#laptop #teardown #computer #computers #hardware
🧵
I bought one of those off brand laptops a couple days ago. It's a T160R from a company called Exsurf, which I have never heard of before. However, I can't find *any* reviews for this thing (the model number turns up a large variety of laptops with differing specs). Supposedly it comes with an AMD 7840HS, 780M integrated GPU, 32GB of DDR5, 1TB NVMe, and a 1920x1200 IPS display.I'm skeptical, especially given the price, but I like to live dangerously. I did charge it to my credit card, so I always have the option for a chargeback if they ship me a box filled with rocks or something.
I may use this as an excuse to do a video review and teardown, if that's something folks would be interested in!
#laptop #computer #computers #gamble
Delta Sierra
in reply to Delta Sierra • • •So, initial thoughts: it's a hefty machine, but thanks to the plastic housing it feels cheap. The manufacturer label on the bottom adds to the cheap feeling; it's looks like something you could whip up on a home printer or label maker. That said, the finish at least looks nice, and it's well-protected with your standard plastic wraps and a soft insert between the screen and keyboard.
Also included was a 100W PD USB-C charger from a brand I've never heard of, and a 32GB USB drive. Nice bonus on the USB drive! I initially thought this might be a Windows 11 recovery USB, but it's literally just a blank preformatted drive.
So, not outstanding, but not bad either. At least it has some heft at about 6lbs.
Delta Sierra
in reply to Delta Sierra • • •Let's open it up! Nothing too crazy here: standard fare keyboard which at least feels nice (not much key travel compared to my older System76 laptop, but it's better than say a Surface 4 laptop). I don't feel a lot of flex in the housing when typing, so at least it's sturdier than it looks.
The trackpad really stands out here - it's absolutely massive and measures 3.75" by 5.25" (with a little space lost to the fingerprint reader).
Decent range of features otherwise, with the fingerprint reader and physical camera cover.
BIOS is easy enough to access, and shows the advertised specs (something I was a bit worried about given the price). The screen is also very bright and has decent color. Note that I don't have an eye for "perfect color reproduction" (plus we're just in the BIOS) but I can already tell this is adequate for my needs.
Delta Sierra
in reply to Delta Sierra • • •No pictures in this post, just some technical data!
Rather than fiddle with a Windows 11 setup, I just booted straight from a Linux Mint live USB. That let me confirm Linux is seeing the same advertised hardware (7840HS with 780M GPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 1920x1200 display resolution).
One note here - it looks like the GPU is set to use 6GB of RAM, so I only have 26GB available for the OS (I see 2x 16GB sticks at 5600MHz though, so that's good).
I ran a few benchmarks between this machine and my work laptop, which has a 8840HS and 32GB of RAM. I expected to see similar performance, and I did - the Exsurf consistently reported about 10% less performance than my work laptop. That tracks with online benchmark comparisons between the 8840HS and 7840HS. I used hardinfo and sysbench for these tests, as I can't install too much on the work laptop.
Delta Sierra
in reply to Delta Sierra • • •Now, let's *open it up*. The bottom housing pops off easily enough after removing the screws (a spudger was necessary for the front seam).
As expected, this thing is mostly battery. A nice 6000mAh battery takes up about half the interior space (also as advertised). It's a generic brand, but it did come with about a 65% charge as reported by Linux Mint.
Cooling looks pretty solid, with two fans and heat sinks drawing heat away from the 7840HS. Nothing special here, but it's nice to have a dual fan cooling solution. I did note that the exhaust vents are mostly covered with the lid closed, so you might run into heat issues if you're doing some rendering or compiling with the lid closed.
The bottom housing has a nice little insulating pad over the top of the heat sinks and the CPU, which presumably will cut down on heat transfer if you actually set this on your lap. Good luck!
Finally, the RAM was interesting - 2x 16GB DDR5 sticks as advertised, but with a single-sided setup I haven't seen before.
Delta Sierra
in reply to Delta Sierra • • •And that's it so far! A couple more notes:
The fans seem a bit loud at idle, but it's quiet up here today (no wind). So that may just be my skewed perceptions. I'll follow up once I actually put a serious sustained load on this thing.
The hinge is a bit weak. It opens easily enough and holds position fine, but if you shift the laptop around (eg, by picking it up and moving it to a new location) the screen wants to flop backwards. Will have to watch this.
I'm not a fan of the WiFi antenna mounts being in the bottom housing. That's a little lazy and will probably result in subpar signal quality (I was getting 77% from my WiF AP about 12' away - not terrible, but not great either).
I'm feeling pretty good about this so far! Now to wipe that pesky Windows 11 install and throw Mint on here. Then it's game time!
Suda synth mode
in reply to Delta Sierra • • •Pretty surprised everything appears to check out. For the price, I was expecting something of a huge caveat somewhere with the hardware. The chassis definitely looks more like a Lenovo or possibly Dell style but made of cheap plastic. Understandable as I think Lenovo and Dell for these style laptops the to go with magnesium alloy which would bump the cost quite a bit more.
Maybe it's the photo angle but the screen does appear to have more of a vignette at the edges, which is more in line with expectations. The screen isn't uniformly lit across the whole display. Likely a cheaper but still widely produced 60Hz TN panel, so no fancy HDR or fast refresh or anything. It's a basic consumer laptop so it makes sense.
But yeah, I'm fairly certain they found a good supplier for some decent components and stuffed them in a rebranded cheaper case. That was quite a deal at just the right time with pricing now getting outrageous for anything NAND related.
Suda synth mode
in reply to Suda synth mode • • •Delta Sierra
in reply to Suda synth mode • • •@sudaksis I'm surprised too! It feels low-spec but it's surprisingly capable. I installed the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot and ran a quick benchmark; 60fps on ultra settings @ 1920x1200). Cyberpunk holds a consistent 30fps @ 1920x1200 on Medium with no upscaling, and hovers right around 45fps on Medium with FSR 3.0/Balanced. It's not going to replace my desktop, but still not bad.
There's definitely a slight vignette around the screen, but it's really only noticeable with large patches of solid color (that grey in the BIOS makes it really obvious). That said, I do believe it's really IPS as advertised because the viewing angles are very good. 60Hz refresh rate of course, but that's fine by me.
I actually hate this style charger for 2 reasons: they take up a ton of space on power strips, and they're so heavy that they often fall out of worn outlets like you find in hotel rooms or on planes. Luckily I have two other 100W PD chargers that will do 20V @ 5A, so I'll just travel with one of those instead.
Suda synth mode
in reply to Delta Sierra • • •Delta Sierra
in reply to Suda synth mode • • •@sudaksis it's about 2 5/8" by 2 5/8" by 1 1/2", so a bit larger than the Steam Deck charger IIRC. But the real issue is weight; I don't have a scale for fine measurements but I'd estimate it weighs close to 1lb by itself! I wouldn't trust it to stay plugged in to any outlet that's not in perfect condition.
Although I did try it on my power strip in my office, and it fits fine there (that one has the sockets oriented perpendicular to the strip, and there's clearance to plug things in on either side). Would still eat up a second plug on a power strip where the sockets are parallel to the strip though.
Delta Sierra
in reply to Delta Sierra • • •Okay, so a few more updates:
Fans aren't that loud, even under heavy load. It was just unusually quiet in my office. No points deducted here.
As predicted, the WiFi is... not great. Speeds are fine but the range is really subpar with the antennas mounted in the bottom housing. Still usable but I may try to tinker with this a bit. Maybe I can run at least one up into the lid if there's room?
The exhaust vents are really not optimal. They blow directly into the hinge with the laptop open, and so the airflow is restricted. Not the worst thermals in the world but I expect to see some thermal throttling on a longer game session. This is my least favorite aspect of this laptop.
Game performance (Linux Mint 22.1, GE Proton10-26, launched through Steam):
2013 Tomb Raider reboot: 60fps @ 1920x1200 Ultra
Cyberpunk 2077: 30fps @ 1920x1200 Medium no upscaling, 45fps Medium with FSR 3.0 set to Balanced.
I'll try installing and testing some more games tomorrow, including some non-Steam and native Linux stuff!
Delta Sierra
in reply to Delta Sierra • • •Some more performance updates:
Furmark 2 1670 @ 27fps (default settings). I couldn't get a comparison against my work laptop (the benchmark ran, but showed a score of 641 @ 11fps), but my daily driver laptop equipped with a GTX 1650 got 2451 @ 40fps. Both tested laptops are running Mint 22.1.
BG3 runs well at Medium settings, FSR 2.2 enabled and set to Balanced. Unfortunately BG3 doesn't have a framerate counter, but I'd estimate 50-60fps there. Definitely playable.
Horizon Zero Dawn's benchmark shows 32fps at Ultimate Quality with no upscaling.
Not too shabby!
controlc
in reply to Delta Sierra • • •I've only used one of those keyboard+numberpad keyboards on a laptop once. I couldn't balance the laptop on my lap and centre the keyboard for typing. Worse the screen was not centred. It's such a strange design choice to me.
I look forward to the rest of your review.
Delta Sierra
in reply to controlc • • •@controlc Just finished, but I forgot to use threaded mode on my first post so it may be a bit wonky (sorry about that).
Overall I think it was a solid buy, and should serve well as a travel laptop once I put it through some testing at home.
I actually think they did okay with the numberpad here (as long as you're using it on a desk, that is). The laptop I'm writing this review on has a numberpad with keys that are 80% the size of the rest of the keyboard and it's a true nightmare to use haha.
🌴 Seph 💭 👾
in reply to Delta Sierra • •@Delta Sierra Well, that's an interesting picture. Why? Because this...
is my Lenovo Idea Pad Flex 5 from a couple years ago.
Delta Sierra likes this.
Delta Sierra
in reply to 🌴 Seph 💭 👾 • • •🌴 Seph 💭 👾
in reply to Delta Sierra • •Delta Sierra likes this.
Delta Sierra
in reply to 🌴 Seph 💭 👾 • • •@vextaur I highly suspect this is a rebranded Auusda, but I have no idea how Auusda relates to other manufacturers.
I agree with you though that these probably share a lot of (unbranded) parts with one of the "big" manufacturers.
🌴 Seph 💭 👾
in reply to Delta Sierra • •Delta Sierra likes this.
Delta Sierra
in reply to 🌴 Seph 💭 👾 • • •@vextaur fair point, I should have been more precise: "companies that are familiar to US consumers" fits the bill I think.
In any case, time will tell how well this machine holds up. I'm cautiously optimistic at this point!
🌴 Seph 💭 👾 likes this.
🌴 Seph 💭 👾
in reply to Delta Sierra • •Delta Sierra
in reply to Delta Sierra • • •