Review: XMG P303 Pro

Conclusion

...though this is among the most powerful 13.3in laptops on the market today, it carries a familiar caveat: if you're searching for maximum performance in a compact form factor, be prepared to make a compromise or two.

Gamers in the market for a powerful and portable laptop will find plenty to like in the XMG P303 Pro.

Armed with a quad-core Intel Haswell processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M graphics, it packs a far bigger punch than the subtle 13.3in frame suggests. Factor in a fantastic IPS display, and you're left with about as much gaming potential as you're likely to find in a laptop of this size and at this price point.

In-game performance is of course where the P303 excels, yet users seeking an all-round workhorse may find the system a little too rough around the edges.

The uninspired keyboard, limited battery life and bothersome fan noise combine to detract from the overall package, and though this is among the most powerful 13.3in laptops on the market today, it carries a familiar caveat: if you're searching for maximum performance in a compact form factor, be prepared to make a compromise or two.

The Good

Strong HD gaming performance
Fantastic 1080p display
Wide range of configuration options
Easily user upgradeable
No bloatware

The Bad

Bothersome fan noise
Uninspiring keyboard
Sub-four-hour battery life
Can get quite warm

HEXUS.awards

XMG P303 Pro

HEXUS.where2buy

The XMG P303 Pro gaming laptop is available to purchase from Schenker Notebooks.

HEXUS.right2reply

At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.

HEXUS Right2Reply

[03/09/2013] XMG issued the following right2reply:

- Our customers are now able to take full advantage of the work that the XMG R&D team have completed regarding new fan table design for the P503. They are currently working on the same improvements for the P303 and expect them to be available later in September (exclusive to XMG/Schenker customers).

- Battery life is in excess of 4 hours when browsing the internet/office productivity. When playing 720p movies it does of course decrease, but is still very good considering the small form factor and performance. For those more power conscious, we have Dual Core CPUs available which offer a lower power consumption which in turn will help increase battery life.

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on seeing the back open my first thought was that the cpu and gpu share 1 heatpipe and fan. This kind of engineering led to GPU throttling for heat reasons on some of the smaller alienwares. I'm not sure they could have squeezed an alternative in but it my be worth more investigation if you're tempted by this.

imshimaru
on seeing the back open my first thought was that the cpu and gpu share 1 heatpipe and fan. This kind of engineering led to GPU throttling for heat reasons on some of the smaller alienwares. I'm not sure they could have squeezed an alternative in but it my be worth more investigation if you're tempted by this.

They have one heatpipe each, but they are linked. There's a similar setup in my laptop which is the 11.6“ predecessor to this one and I can tell you that these things run hot! Even now I've applied a bios that undervolts the GPU (so less heat generated) I'm getting temperatures of 80-90C on the CPU when it's under full load. I don't know what the GPU did run at but now it tends to top out at 65-70C.

Unfortunately on release Clevo systems seem to have issues, for instance I bought this about a year down the line from release and it's had about 50% extra battery life added through bios updates, along with a smoother fan profile and better performance as it doesn't disable turboboost on the CPU when the dGPU kicks in. Heck we even found an IPS display for it since 11.6” TN LVDS displays are pretty naff.

The turboboost thing isn't an issue on this particular Clevo, and you can undervolt the CPU a little since this is a Haswell system, but you'll be waiting a while until the fan profile and battery life get improved.

I also have the previous iteration like CampGareth, the w110er. All of his points are spot on. The weakest part, which the new w230st addresses (the screen) sounds great. CampGareth- where did you find and IPS for the w110er? I thought the video connection prevented a different type of screen? would LOVE to swap out for a nice 11" matte IPS. then this little beast would be close to perfect!