Walmart gaming PCs.

[lumacman]

so this is a thing... I havent bought a prebuilt system in decades, but... it looks interesting. 

https://news.theinventory.com/walmart-and-esports-arena-squad-up-with-the-new-overpow-1830104834

 

Out of seemingly nowhere, Walmart—yes, Walmart—has entered the PC gaming space with the release of its own private line of gaming laptops and desktops, designed by Esports Arena.

While Walmart isn’t usually thought of as a high-end brand, or really thought of as much of anything in this particular market, all of its new Overpowered computers are decidedly well-specced. Laptops start at $999 for a 15", 144 Hz display, a GTX 1050, and a 128GB SSD paired with a 1TB HDD, and go up to $1,699 for a fully loaded 17" model. Interestingly, they all claim to have “mechanical” keyboards with full RGB lighting. We’re getting some in to test soon, so keep an eye on The Inventory for hands-on impressions.The desktops actually skew even more expensive at $1,399-$2,099, but even the cheapest among them has a GTX 1070 onboard, so they all have serious horsepower under the hood. We still don’t know anything about the fit and finish, or how quietly they run, so stay tuned for more impressions. It’s safe to say that we’ll be seeing some decent Black Friday deals in the PC gaming space, so the thought of high-end hardware fully under Walmart’s control heading into the holiday season has some really interesting implications.

Edited October 31, 2018 by lumacman
format corrections

[genexis_x]

From what I know, the 15 inch laptop is TongFang GK5CN5Z/6Z while the 17 inch one is TongFang GK7CN6S.

[Zando_]

Why the heck are there pufferfish and bomb emoji in the advertising... do they think gamers are attracted to pufferfish or something? I get MSI's use of dragons and stuff, but this is plain goofy: 

 

 

It's got "serious memory" too, so you can "unlock a new level of gaming". Oh and it's "Fast. Really Fast"

 

lol, this marketing style cracks me up wherever I see it. It's like they threw some "gamery" adjectives in a blender and then played mix and match to make it sound cool. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Why the heck are there pufferfish and bomb emoji in the advertising... do they think gamers are attracted to pufferfish or something? I get MSI's use of dragons and stuff, but this is plain goofy: 

- Snip -

Wait.. that's a puffer fish? I honestly thought that looked like HIV at first glance

[lumacman]

i know it kinda reminds me of the intro in the razer phone vid. has to have RGB and stuff. 

[Crunchy Dragon]

Quote

 Laptops start at $999 for a 15", 144 Hz display, a GTX 1050, and a 128GB SSD paired with a 1TB HDD

Count me the crap out, 1k is way too expensive for this. At that price point, you should have at least a GTX 1060 and a 250GB SSD.

[genexis_x]

2 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

At that price point, you should have at least a GTX 1060 and a 250GB SSD.

It has good quality display, thin bezels, mech keyboard (TongFang in house) and 2kg weight. Remember there is low weight tax in laptops especially those with powerful hardware

[Crunchy Dragon]

29 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

It has good quality display, thin bezels, mech keyboard (TongFang in house) and 2kg weight. Remember there is low weight tax in laptops especially those with powerful hardware

I still wouldn't pay that much for the hardware.

[markr54632]

On 10/31/2018 at 11:04 AM, Crunchy Dragon said:

Count me the crap out, 1k is way too expensive for this. At that price point, you should have at least a GTX 1060 and a 250GB SSD.

You're going to have to make alot of concessions to get a 1060 at the 1000 price range.

 

I'd rather have a 1050 that doesnt thermal throttle than a 1060 in a super budget laptop that thermal throttles and has a poor quality display panel.

[genexis_x]

2 minutes ago, markr54632 said:

You're going to have to make alot of concessions to get a 1060 at the 1000 price range.

Not a lot actually. Dell G5 with 1060 GPU is under 1k USD. However, you get low sRGB display and bulky chassis

[markr54632]

4 minutes ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Not a lot actually. Dell G5 with 1060 GPU is under 1k USD. However, you get low sRGB display and bulky chassis

The display in the g5 is absolutely garbage. What is the point in having a 1060 if the display looks that poor? The hinge is sketchy at best and you still have to contend with Dell's wonderful incompatibility with aftermarket chargers. To be fair it has gotten better than in the past, but after soldering enough charging ports in it is enough to keep me from ever buying dell again.

[lumacman]

so it looks like the crew will be reviewing a desktop. I am currious about what they find, however I was hoping they would look at the laptop line as well. 

[RobFRaschke]

So, I work for Walmart. I'm not in any way affiliated with their in house PC program, the corporate sales team, corporate marketing, or even an in-store electronics department, I first found out about this from the WAN show actually.

I have been building my own PCs since the 90s, have an IT degree, and have built my most recent PC in the last 3 months, and have been building PCs on the side for people for about 15 years. Which may be a whole different problem in potentially now being a conflict of interest with my employment at Walmart, but I'll burn that bridge when it comes up.

 

So I probably have a unique perspective on this particular new product line. And I'm completely fine with it for the time being. I'll absolutely be digging into one if we get them in store at my location to see what kind of components are included and how the build quality is, which will definitively be the final word on them for me, unless an online reviewer beats me to it and shows me the guts. However I think the perspective people likely aren't thinking of in a lot of the preliminary coverage of this is the raw buying power of walmart. It's unbelievable, truly. And I'm beyond certain that Walmart is not having these built in house at some new warehouse, but they're badge engineering of an OEM product, on both the laptop and desktop side. I'm also certain that with all of Walmart's ideas and drive to differentiate itself from all it's competition, that they won't be OEMs that are available currently in the US. As has been noted the TongFeng OEM for the laptops, they are available, but not widely and certainly not in any other big box stores to the best of my knowledge. So Walmart has found an OEM, likely with the help of the eSports Alliance, and offering them a huge foot into the US market, and with likely very large order quantities. 

 

All further evidence not being seen yet, I think there's pretty good odds that the guts are going to be pretty up to par with any other pre-built from a non-botique builder, which seems perfectly fine to me. If you want something more than that, you know exactly what you want and you build it yourself or get it from a botique or custom PC builder.