When it comes to gaming laptop brands, most people will immediately think of Asus ROG, MSI, Lenovo Legion, Dell Alienware or even Dell G Series. In Malaysia, when someone is trying to look for an affordable gaming laptop, they might encounter the brand Illegear.
Illegear is a relatively new system integrator (comparing to the more matured brand such as Lenovo and Asus). Most if not all of their laptops chassis are usually based from an common chassis maker (for this model, they are using the Tong Fang GI5CN5E), what interesting and attracts consumer to their brand is their pricing.
Today we have here a 2018 version of Illegear Raven, their entry model gaming laptop for just RM3,670 (during promotion). Below are the specifications:
Illegear is a relatively new system integrator (comparing to the more matured brand such as Lenovo and Asus). Most if not all of their laptops chassis are usually based from an common chassis maker (for this model, they are using the Tong Fang GI5CN5E), what interesting and attracts consumer to their brand is their pricing.
Today we have here a 2018 version of Illegear Raven, their entry model gaming laptop for just RM3,670 (during promotion). Below are the specifications:
- Display: 15.6" Full HD Anti-glare 144Hz IPS Display with sRGB 100% Wide Color & Wide View
- Processor: 8th Gen. Intel Core i5-8300H (Quad Core, 8M Cache, 2.3GHz to 4.0GHz)
- Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti 4GB GDDR5 with Optimus (Pascal)
- Keyboard: Membrane Keyboard with 4-zone Programmable RGB
- RAM: 8GB DDR4 2666Mhz RAM - 1 X 8GB
- 1st M.2 Solid State Drive: 120GB M.2 Solid State Drive
- 2nd M.2 Solid State Drive: None
- 1st 2.5" SATA Drive: 1TB Seagate FireCuda SSHD
- Wireless Network Card: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 9462
Ordering Process
Placing an order from Illegear is really straight forward, hardware specs are well listed in the hardware customization page. For our unit, we have opt for an upgraded 144Hz IPS display and GTX1050Ti. The SSD comes together with the promotion bundle at the point of us buying. If you paid with cash (online transfer) you may able to get some cashback from the purchasing price.
It takes only 5 working days for Illegear to assemble our unit and shipped it to our doorstep. It comes with 2 layer of packaging box with foam securing the laptop. Kudos to Illegear to make things fast and yet did not cheap out on packing and shipping.
Build and Design
Most of the Raven is made up of solid plastic. At 374(L) x 260(W) x 26(H) mm weighing around 2KG, it does felt abit bulky to carry around but this laptop does feels really solid even though it is plastic. The top panel is smooth with the Illegear logo printed on it.
The LCD panel have some minor flex but the palm rest does not flex at all. The interior look of the laptop does looks abit outdated with the wide chin and bezel.
On the top it does have a wide space for the webcam, their chassis manufacturer should be able to further reduce the gap to make it more modern.
The palm rest is made from plastic as well, but it's brushed texture makes it quite comfortable to rest your palm on. But when you sweat, it will leave a mark on the palmrest and cleaning it does takes some effort to rub off the sweat dirt.
The keyboard is mushy as the unit we have comes with the default membrane keyboard. I personally am not used to a laptop keyboard with numpad beside it. It feels like the keys are very cramped and it takes some time to get use to such layout. On the top of the keyboard there are 2 buttons. On the left, we have the common power button and on the right, we have a fan boost button. Once activated, it will push the fan to it's maximum speed.
The touch pad is using Windows precision driver. However, it is terrible to use with, the palm rejection of the touch pad is almost non existing. During the period of me using, while I type the cursor does move quite often, which forcing me to connect my wireless mouse to it and disabling the build in touchpad. Even with disabling it, it does sometimes re-enable it while I was typing, all thanks to the touch pad on/off switch placed on the top left of the touchpad.
Port wise, I'll say the Raven have them all.
At the rear, it have a Power input, a HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, 2 USB 3.1 Type A port, 1 USB 3.1 Type C port. The Type C port is just a generic USB 3.1 Gen 1 port, it does not support Thunderbolt nor Display Port. Bummer.. but at this price point, I guess it is quite expected.
On the left hand side we have 2 USB 2.0 ports.
And on the right, it have standard size SD card slot, 2 USB 2.0, 3.5mm Audio Out and 3.5mm Audio In.. Yay, but it id quite disappointing for a 2018 year laptop still comes with USB 2.0 ports.
On the front we do not have a port, but we have 2 speakers each at the side and a special window on the center that project a Raven logo on your table, which somehow reminds me of the Honda Type R logo. 😂
With just 4 screws, the bottom maintenance panel can be easily removed for future upgrades. However it does not reveal the CPU, GPU fans and heatpipes for maintenance cleaning. On the back side of the maintenance panel, they had included a metal sheet with thermal pads for the SSD to keep them cool and happy. Nice touch!
By removing the maintenance panel, we have access to the RAM, 2 SSD slots, 2.5" SATA bay, the battery and the subwoofer. Yes, you didn't see that wrongly, it does have a subwoofer. The maintenance panel cover is something I personally really appreciate the most as modern laptop does not provide such panel and they often makes the bottom panel difficult to pry open, while for this Raven, I do see the potential to upgrading this puppy to become more future proof.
The build in battery is just a 46Wh battery, which is totally insufficient for you to feed the 1050Ti GPU while gaming. However for light browsing, you should be able to get around 4 hours of battery life.
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