Surprisingly sturdy and balanced, but slightly noisy entry-level gaming laptop.
For those who do not know who Haier is. It is a Chinese company better known as a home appliance manufacturer. Until recently, she did not seem to pretend to be on the market of serious laptops, but this year she decided to try her hand. For those who, like us, have doubts about the success of this project, we note that the Haier base contains models from a much more famous Clevo, which, apparently, helps in the design and layout of machines.
What’s this?
Actually, what is the GG1500A. According to its characteristics, the car is quite balanced. At the heart, as already mentioned, is the GTX 1650 Ti with 4 GB GDDR6. You can find fault with it for a long time in terms of power and storage capacity, but let’s be honest: this is one of the most affordable cards that is capable of at least something in modern games in Full HD resolution.
Further. They were paired with her Intel Core i5-10200… Again, this is a very logical quad-core for such a card with eight streams at a frequency of 2.4 to 4.1 GHz. Theoretically, it should not limit the video chip, plus all office programs, Windows itself, and even 3ds max from Photoshop will remain more than efficient.
The weak point in our configuration is RAM. This is only 8 GB DDR4 at 2933 MHz. Here, however, I will make a reservation: in this price category, everyone’s memory is recruited in this way, but this does not negate the fact that in the future it is still worth buying another 8 GB bar in order to get all the advantages of dual-channel memory.
But with the drive, Haier did not miss. It’s 500 GB from Samsung on an NVMe interface and with read / write speeds of 2.4 and 1.1 GB / s. Likewise with communication modules. Yes, there is standard gigabit on the LAN, but WiFi is of the sixth version and can accelerate to 866 Mbps.
By the way, everything is normal for a laptop with an external strapping. On the right side are LAN and a pair of USBs, one of which is Type-C. On the left – two more USB, headset outputs and an SD card slot. Well, on the back – HDMI 2.0 and Mini DisplayPort.
Consider
Now let’s talk about how all this is packaged. Haier’s delivery set is about the same as for laptops and for 100 and even for 150 thousand rubles. A cardboard box, a 400 g 120 W power supply, and a set of instructions. The laptop itself looks more than normal. Even so: if we did not know that this is one of the most budget options on the market, then we would not have guessed about it right away.
This is a really very strong car that does not bend, does not bend and does not seem to squeak. Even the screen here sits on a strong hinge, which confidently fixes the position and opens up to about 130 degrees. The budget is given out by exactly two things: too smooth plastic and a very thin bottom cover. If you press the latter, you can even block one of the cooling fans. The rest seems to be in order.
There are practically no complaints even about the keyboard. It is a full-size panel with a hard backing, vibrant, color-customizable backlighting and no blockages in the left play area. The only thing I didn’t like about it is the Shift that is too short for gaming and the softness of the keys without an obvious click on the actuation, but this is a matter of habit. By the way, the touchpad is also pleasant here. It is healthy and properly recessed into the body so that your finger does not fly out of the touchpad.
But the screen is the most common here. This is a 60 Hertz WVA matrix with only 60% sRGB coverage, and this is noticeable even by eye. In the pluses, however, we will write down several points at once. First, the brightness of the matrix is normal: 280 cd / m2
Inside
Now let’s tell you how it all works, and start with the insides. Under the lid, the laptop looks more than decent: a normal motherboard, neat soldering, all the wiring is pressed with adhesive tape. The slot for the second memory strip is freely available here, so there will be no problems with the upgrade. Unexpectedly, there is also a compartment for a 2.5-inch drive.
The cooling system also looks absolutely adequate. Two heat sinks, four pipes, three radiators and two turntables. I only disliked the method of cooling the SSD: the heat from it through the thermal pad is taken directly to the bottom cover of the laptop itself, and in operation the right side is seriously warmed up.
I didn’t really like that the laptop likes to make noise. He finds any reasons for this: even unpacking updates for Windows is already a reason to start the fans. And this despite the fact that there is no talk of any serious temperatures – the engineers were reinsured. Judge for yourself: in Prime95 the processor reaches only 80 ° C at 2.9 GHz, in 3ds max we are talking about 78 ° C at 3.5 GHz. In games, everything usually stays at the level of 72-75 ° C and occasionally finishes up to 80 ° C. Likewise with a video card. It practically does not heat up at all: 70-72 ° С at 1700-1800 MHz.
That is, where so much fuss on the fans comes from, you cannot understand. The only thing that pleases: the nature of the noise and its volume are not particularly annoying. The maximum we measured on this laptop is 43.7 dB, which is usually described in any tables as “quite an audible conversation.” That is, if you play with headphones, you will not hear anything at all. You can also get a little confused and tweak the fan schedules. It is clear that this should have been done at the factory, but the corresponding program is included, and it works.
Now let’s talk about performance. There are no surprises here, but the main thing is that you can play almost anything, and not always we are talking exclusively about low settings. Valhalla allows you to set an “average” preset without falling into friezes. You can also play with the same Watch dogs legion and even the third Hitman… “Cyberpunk” as a whole is also on – however, at the minimum salaries, but the minimum salaries on a computer look much better than the first versions of the game on PS4.
However, if you cool down the ardor a little in terms of AAA projects and look at those games for which the 1650 Ti and its predecessor 1050 were created in due time, then it will be generally good. Apex legends comes with an average frame rate of about 100 frames, the same gives League of legends, and even “Tarkov” shows about 50 frames. But here you need to make a reservation: 0.1% is negligible, and friezes are found with every reload of the location. And the acute shortage of RAM is to blame for this: put another memory bar here, get a two-channel mode – and at least it will be possible to raise 0.1% fps and the overall loading speed of games.
What is the bottom line of all this? I am speaking accurately, but during the week of tests the only serious question for the GG1500A is “Why are the fans set up incorrectly?” Otherwise, oddly enough, everything is really normal. No overpricing: it has a good build, a normal keyboard and a decent screen, albeit with a very modest color coverage. There are normal speakers here, the cooling system does not allow overheating, all the necessary ports are in place, and they all work. Of course, it is impossible to make predictions: maybe, over time, something will go wrong – we cannot verify this. But if you look at the new laptop and take into account that this is the cheapest laptop on the 1650 Ti, then it really is made more than normal. Let’s put it this way: more expensive brands in such ranges take a lot more liberties than Haier.
Specifications
Haier GG1550A
Display: 15.6-inch (WVA, 1920×1080, matte)
CPU: Intel Core i5-10200H (Comet Lake, 4 cores, 8 threads, 2.4-4.1 GHz, 45W)
Operational memory: 8 GB DDR4-2933 MHz (Samsung M471A1K43DB1)
System drives: 512 GB SSD NVMe (Samsung MZVLQ512HALU-00000)
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti (1350-1485 / 12,000 MHz, 4 GB GDDR6)
Networks: 1 Gbps (Realtek RTL8168 / 8111), WiFi 802.11ax (Intel AX201)
Connectors: HDMI 2.0, Mini DisplayPort, USB 2.0, 2x USB 3, USB 3 Type-C, 2x 3.5mm jack, SD card reader
Dimensions (edit): 35.6×23.8×2.19 cm
Weight: 1.9 kg
Price July 2023: 60,000 rubles ($ 810)
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