Sorry, am stating up front this is not a positive review.
Bought: September 2023
Since day 1 out-of-the-box, I have had power issues. Yes, I should have returned it to Amazon that first week but I thought it would be a quick fix. It didn't charge. I had to remove the cover and unplug the battery from the motherboard and reconnect, then it would charge. If I then put the laptop into Nvdia mode, by using multiple monitors or playing a game (DSP or BG3) then it would never charge until the battery was reset again.
I read on the forum here that the battery is the most likely faulty. So, I bought a replacement battery. New battery is better, I now unplug the power lead and re-insert and it charges.
When charge reaches 100% and I'm using the laptop, like on a Teams call, the laptop freezes and crashes. Else it reaches 100% and stops charging and will not charge until the power lead is reset in the socket. I have taken the battery down to 10% and it still doesn't switch into charge mode.
3x times a day on average I have to mess about with the power lead.
2nd Issue: I dual boot with Linux (Mint) which is great, and works really well. Am currently in Safe Boot mode in BIOS because I can't have more than 5 security profiles for secure boot. I have selected erase and reset of these but those settings don't work.
3rd Issue: lockdown of BIOS. I'm an experienced PC enthusiasts, why can't I have full access to BIOS? Full access would enable me fix the 2nd Issue plus I could tweak 'MY' laptop the way I want a Gaming Laptop to operate. Some of us enthusiasts are actually grown up adults!
4th Issue: On this journey of getting to know this laptop, I learnt that the power brick can't supply enough power to the laptop to drive the RTX 3080 and that in times of needs with gaming it will draw the extra power from the internal battery. This means you cannot Game on this laptop all-day. After 'x' amount of hours, when the internal battery hits ~20% charge, you need to stop gaming and let the laptop charge for an hour. Is this truely a gaming laptop ? My previous gaming laptop, Scan 3XS system, never had this feature, although that system was classed more as a Desktop replacement with the weight & size to prove it.
Conclusion:
I feel mislead, cheated and very disappointed by a brand that I have been a fan of for many years. Technology should be driving us forward with AI and automation that makes the User Experience something fantastic but that isn't true here.
Happy to have your feedback and views and to continue to work with Support, who I find very 'off' with customers, but may be a positive experience can be gained in the future.
