[REVIEW] Illegear Prodigy Laptop (i7-9750H, GTX 1660TI)

[genexis_x]

[UPDATE: Revisited, verdict changed]

 

Welcome to my 11th review in LTT forum. I will be reviewing the Illegear Prodigy laptop. Main specs of the laptop are as below:

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i7-9750H
GTX 1660TI 6GB

16GB 2666MHz RAM (dual channel)

512GB NVMe M.2 SSD

144Hz IPS

Intel 9560

W10 Trial

Kryonaut paste and display colour calibration included

 

Based on Tongfang GK5CP6X chassis

This is a quick review; thus, not everything will be covered in here. Also, this review will mainly focus on thermals instead of performance.

 

Product page: https://store.illegear.com/portable-performance/189-illegear-prodigy.html

 

Part 1: Build quality, input devices

Build quality is good overall. The lid has metal brush on it, as a result applying pressure on the middle of the lid cover don’t result in much flex. Twisting the lid is possible but the flex isn’t too bad. The hinges feel well tuned – only a bit of wobbling. You can open the lid with single hand.

 

The body uses all plastic build (soft touch). Despite that, there is little to flex on the entire keyboard+palm rest. There is some flex at the camera area (the camera is a ‘nosecam’ BTW) when being pressed in.

 

The membrane keyboard has a bit of mushiness but remains clicky. Key travel is ~1.5mm, actuation force is 55-60g. You can set the effect, brightness and speed of the keyboard lighting via Illegear Command Center.

 

The Precision clickpad has plastic surface but wet fingers don’t result in rough surface. Movements are quite precise. However, the L/R clicks has loud noise and requires some force when pressed in which feels a little cheap. You can disable the clickpad by double tapping the left top corner of the clickpad. The clickpad is aligned slightly to the right of the keyboard space bar to make it more centered.

 

Part 2: Display, Audio, Battery

The display is a 144Hz IPS panel from LG (LGD05C0, which is very common panel). Movements in the display feel smooth. It gets bright enough and colours are vibrant. Contrast is OK.

 

The 2 down firing speakers has good enough audio only if you tune the audio via Sound Blaster software.

 

Example of a tuned audio profile: Bass 0, treble 6, surround 80, crystalizer 50, bass 20, smart vol 70 dialog+ 70. Volume is a bit soft/quiet.

 

I don’t have time to test the battery life, however don’t expect much from the 46.74Wh battery (there is optional 63Wh upgrade which sacrifices 2.5 inch bay).

 

Part 3: Cooling performance

The cooling design consists of 3 heatpipes with 2 shared on CPU+GPU (1 doesn't stretch to GPU fan, same with Onyx). The heatsink is stretched to both left and right.

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 Notes on all thermal testing: 

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PL1 – 60W, PL2 – 75W

BIOS N.1.00, EC 1.05.10

GPU driver tested is 430.64

BD PROCHOT for CPU is 95C

Test is conducted in an A/C room (ambient 22C)

Game mode and equilibrium mode are used (turbo mode in some tests)

Laptop is plugged in. The fans take a while to speed up when load is applied

Max fan noise is ~55dBA

Undervolt profile: CPU core+cache -100mv. You can undervolt GPU if you want, but it takes time. Blue highlighted part is the undervolted result.

 

Results:

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CPU temp - Cinebench R15 multi core (1 run)

Max 92C, 71-74W ~1120cb

Max 92C, 74-75W, ~1190cb

~54dBA

 

CPU temp - Aida64 FPU 60W

Max 88C, 2.9-3GHz

Max 88C, 3-3.1GHz

~48-52dBA

 

GPU temp - Unigine Valley (extreme HD profile)

Clock speed fluctuates: at least +100MHz higher than boost clock (1590MHz)

Max 74C, ~80W

~48dBA

 

GPU temp - Unigine Valley (extreme HD profile with turbo mode)

Clock speed fluctuates: at least +200MHz higher than boost clock

77-81C

~48-51dBA

 

FPU + Valley (extreme HD) with max fans

CPU (UV): Max 95C, 2.7-2.8GHz, 41-42W

GPU: Max 79C, clock speed at least above boost clock, ~80W

 

CSGO - 1080p all max, Mirage, no bots

CPU (UV): Max 95C, 3.6+GHz, ~40W

GPU: Max 79C, clock speed fluctuates: at least +100MHz higher than boost clock, ~80W

Max fans

(will start thermal throttling after a while)

 

Apex Legends - 1080p all max, 6GB budget, 90 FOV, training map

CPU (UV): 86-95C, max 4GHz with some rare dips, 30-40W

GPU: Max 77C, clock speed fluctuates: at least above boost clock, ~80W

Max fans

 

Time Spy (Turbo mode, 1 run):

Score: 5962, Graphics: 5925

 

Fire Strike (Turbo mode, 1 run):

Score: 13564, Graphics: 15412

 

The chassis does get warm while under load, but not burning hot.

There is noticeable uneven core temp, therefore CPU peak temp might be higher.

To get best performance+thermal result for GPU, you need to undervolt GPU and use turbo mode.

In Illegear Command Center, there are 3 modes to choose from: Turbo, Game or Office mode. Turbo mode increases TDP/power consumption of GPU to allow faster GPU clock speed. Office mode gives you access to control fan speed but has a 35W CPU power limit. There are 4 power profiles: High performance (same with Windows), Game, Equilibrium, Power saving. Basically, just keep it to game mode and equilibrium.

 

The included power adapter is an 180W unit from FSP. Take note that temps might be a little higher when running dual channel memory.

 

Part 4: Miscellaneous

The laptop is thin and light – 1.75kg (which is very light for a gaming laptop) and 18.5mm thickness. The footprint is also relatively small.

 

Gallery (credits to @D13H4RD)

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Illegear Command Center:

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Conclusion

Well, the thermal performance is kinda expected considering that other similarly sized gaming laptops also have similar thermal performance, although they did slightly better from what I can tell. I must say the thickness of this laptop is the main issue of high temps. Another issue is the 2 shared heatpipes which you can see under single load (CPU or GPU only), thermals are fine, although Onyx with the same cooling did a better job here. If you really need the lightest yet powerful (for its size) gaming laptop, this will be a decent choice, but you have to sacrifice on thermals. If you want a sub 2 kg gaming laptop, I would suggest getting another model like Illegear's own Onyx.

UPDATE: After a retest, thermals are similar to what you will get in Onyx. If you're shopping for a thin and light gaming laptop and you don't need a RTX GPU, this is worth considering.

 

Pros:

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Well built, well cooled

Very portable for a gaming laptop

144Hz display

Plenty of ports

Priced competitively

Comes with optional battery upgrade (no 2.5 inch bay)

Cons:

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Mediocre cooling under CPU+GPU load

Nosecam (might be not important for some users)

Audio needs tuning

Thanks for reading!

Edited January 9, 2020 by genexis_x
revisit

[ahuckphin]

Kinda of sad this laptop thermals could be better. Wanted to like this laptop because of the membrane keyboard. 

 

Anyway, is there any difference between the 2018 and 2019 command centre apart from the user interface? 

[genexis_x]

4 hours ago, bindydad123 said:

Anyway, is there any difference between the 2018 and 2019 command centre apart from the user interface? 

It's basically the same, only difference I can see is turbo mode (9th gen models only)

[ahuckphin]

4 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

It's basically the same, only difference I can see is turbo mode (9th gen models only)

 

turbo fan speed? or turbo performance? 

[genexis_x]

37 minutes ago, bindydad123 said:

turbo fan speed? or turbo performance? 

Turbo mode - increase GPU TDP - allows higher clock speed due to higher power draw

[Kyraga]

Would a laptop cooling pad help it's thermals? If so, how significant are the changes in temperature.

[genexis_x]

20 hours ago, Kyraga said:

Would a laptop cooling pad help it's thermals? If so, how significant are the changes in temperature.

Will test that out in future

[acceleratorzzz]

Can anyone please tell me part number for 63wh battery

 

Edit: it's GK5CN-00-13-4S1P-0

[hieutran9695]

On 7/10/2019 at 5:49 PM, Kyraga said:

Would a laptop cooling pad help it's thermals? If so, how significant are the changes in temperature.

I think it will do, but maybe the change will be not as much as your expectation.

[alabin77]

got this laptop in Dec 19 after much consideration. much cheaper than asus rog scar with similar specs. display colors accurate enough, keyboard very comfy without making noise, chassis solid plastic/aluminum. battery life decent, software quite lacking. The worst part of this unit is thermal control, with such specs my gaming temp is ard 70cpu 80gpu, thats high version of RPG games.

Using a cooling pad doesnt do much to reduce temp. the only software tweak is voltage control. I tried using speedfan and it wont recognize the fans, anyone tried? something to do with motherboard driver.

[genexis_x]

41 minutes ago, alabin77 said:

I tried using speedfan and it wont recognize the fans, anyone tried?

Most laptops don't support 3rd party fan control software

[SpitfireQG]

I just bought a variant of this laptop locally, which is the Infinity x5, it's a awesome laptop. I haven't gamed on it really yet because of the max temperatures it puts out, my game of choice being the new Call of Duty, having the control center setup the same as the tests here, im jumping around the 70-99c, 99c being my max temp, my gpu was around 71c with a max temp of 79c and this was just within the first 5-10 minutes of playing.

 

From my understanding I keep reading a lot about undervolting and that it's really the goto way to get temps around the 80s well gaming, i've never undervolted before so is there any easy guides out there on how to do it? I see theres also already a undervolt of like .05 or something from factory, will that be an issue to undervolt over it? Theres a lot of videos out there and just not sure which one is the best to follow.

 

Cheers

[genexis_x]

1 hour ago, SpitfireQG said:

From my understanding I keep reading a lot about undervolting and that it's really the goto way to get temps around the 80s well gaming, i've never undervolted before so is there any easy guides out there on how to do it?

Undervolt ≠ Lower temp. To lower down temp, you need to lower down power draw. Undervolted but remain the same power draw will not gain any significant temp decrease

 

https://genexisx.blogspot.com/2019/09/laptop-undervolting-guide-intelnvidia.html

I would suggest starting from -100mv

[SpitfireQG]

Before following the guide, it comes with a undervolt of -0.05, which I believe is what I see in the bios under 'Overclocking feature [enabled] XTU interface [enabled] Core voltage offset [50] Offset Prefix [-]'

 

Is that the factory undervolt? and do I disable that before using your guide to throttlestop.

 

Everything here is very new to me, I just want to get some decent temperatures.

[genexis_x]

3 hours ago, SpitfireQG said:

Is that the factory undervolt?

Yes

3 hours ago, SpitfireQG said:

and do I disable that before using your guide to throttlestop

Just proceed with the steps

[alabin77]

On 5/27/2020 at 12:19 PM, genexis_x said:

Undervolt ≠ Lower temp. To lower down temp, you need to lower down power draw. Undervolted but remain the same power draw will not gain any significant temp decrease

 

https://genexisx.blogspot.com/2019/09/laptop-undervolting-guide-intelnvidia.html

I would suggest starting from -100mv

the info on this blog is really good. detailed and easy to follow