The Secret Laptop Club 

Who's already a member of the club? what do you use?

*looks at bank account* Looks like the secret laptop club will be continue being a secret then

WOW! Can’t believe you covered this. AWESOME!

That's a really cool gaming laptop

Thanks for the advise

You just broke the first rule of secret laptop club..

My wallet: All right, then. Keep your secrets.

I have had an eluktronics laptop for 3 years now. I was looking for a gaming laptop so I could take it with me while I had to travel for cancer treatments and a family friend recommended this brand to me. 3 years later the laptop and I are both alive and kicking.

“I don’t use these laptops” -has a stack of 5 of these laptops

"The 1st rule of laptop club is not to talk about the laptop club"

Dave calling his Discord subscribers "sweaty laptop nerds" never gets old

90% : valuable information 10% : sweat

What needs to be pointed out is that: Even if performance betweek Eluktronics and Razer is only 5% on the same Spec, the price difference is basically 30-50% in comparison :)

Others youtubers : “fancy opening”, .... Dave : “okay,.....” Owh god, i like this guy hahha

These laptops are like the flagship killers of the laptop sector

I'm a member of the broke club, anybody else?

I just realized, dave sounds like sykkuno with good communication and less anxiety

Hey Dave, I am a big fan of your channel and I need your assistance, could i get any of your old laptops you aren't using?

Me a sweaty laptop nerd: pshhhhh, dumb sweaty laptop nerds

"don't get swayed by the sweat" make that a t shirt please Dave.

I think it would have been really helpful to include the prices next to each device when comparing fan noise and fps. You said you prefer the razer because performance is close enough that aesthetics wins out, but how much more are you paying for that design?

Why would one care about what the under side of their lap top looks like? Cooling performance should be the priority.

Almost all of his videos start with an Ok or Alright 😂

“Don’t be swayed by sweat” love it

"Don't be swayed by the sweat." - Dave 2D

These genuinely look so nice. So sleek looking and minimalist with amazing specs. Chinese computer makers are the dark horse of the world

Clevo (the OEM of these keyboards) has an amazing business strategy. They simply let resellers focus on the high-risk work of business development, marketing, servicing. While they use that reach to negotiate with large vendors like Intel and nVidia to get the components in their devices for cheap

this is the kinda laptops we want, we people to know.

I appreciate how clean D2D's thumbnails are. They don't give me headaches. Love this video. Very informative. I thought these laptops were just Clevos that have been rebranded. Might consider buying these the next time I need a gaming laptop.

Clevo : Joke I Am To YOu!? Everyone: si

I actually love the look of these brick-like laptops.

You're doing a great job Dave keep it up.. and also surprise us by looking even more younger after 10 years. May you and your family stay fit👍

I'm on the XMG FUSION 15 / Core i7 / 64 GB RAM + 2070 Max Q. After some time you'll get used to the keyboard completely. The fan noise is no problem for me. Love this laptop :)

I've been using one of those secret laptop club, and I love it! A desktop processor in a laptop, a very worth portable powerhouse.

Tong Fang is a brand name coming out of Tsing Hua University associated businesses. In China, it's called Tsing Hua Tong Fang. It's quite a reputable brand name in China. Until this video, I do not know they work with these "boutique" brand names to create these "secret club". Anyway, if you search on Chinese online stores, you can find similar spec machines that's half price of a Razer Blade Pro. For me (live in HK), I would probably NOT go for it because of the support issues that may arise. I'd also have a big question mark on the Chinese - US arguments that may impact US software (Windows) running on Chinese hardware although, on the surface, it should be ok.

Im using a Metabox Alpha from 2014. They use Tong Fen bases and I can vouch for the cooling. While metabox choose decent enough specs, the cases have enormous fans, it keeps really cool, but its insanely loud. The looks are utilitarian but its fine if all you care about is longevity and performance.

Dave: *Vents everywhere* Me: Hm, sounds like the imposter is gonna be happy

Anyone else get anxiety thinking about how those lights could fall over and shatter?

I've honestly been staying away from them because the price seems too suspiciously cheap...

Just remember there will never be a “good time” to buy. Even when they make the 3000 series gpu’s for laptops they will be the equivalent of the 2000 series once the 4000 series comes out and that will continue to happen until competition just makes them lower the price enough to make them go bankrupt along with the competition

Please make a new recommendation list for laptops for creatives!

Me: Has no money to buy any of these laptops. Me: still watches video

And reddit.com/r/sweatylaptopusers is created 👍

I have one of those from a couple of months, coming from 2 asus rog of 2000 euros that always have defect (2 motherboard and battery fault last one, display 3 times first one). I choose to change and give a shoot buying the equivalent of max 17 here in europe (pcs vyper 17) and oh boy i love it. Design is just awesome, seems like a business laptop, magnesium feel sturdy, much more rigid than any other laptop i had before, glass touchpad, good screen (on par with my older rogs), but 4 things are to say that you dave lost here. My laptop has mux switcher, i can be fully nvidia or even fully intel gpu, and that's the biggest thing, it have big performance hit in games, and it have big performance hit in battery life (in integrate gpu mode i cover 9 hours with browsing and office, NINE, with that 92wh battery, is like having a different type of machine). Then go back home and enable again optimus (6 hours of battery life with the same use) or nvidia only gpu mode (allows better performance, dsr, fast sync and many other things that you can have only when display is connect ed to nvidia). Even the keyboard is good one, key actuation is precise (much more than rogs that are a bit mushy) but as you said need some weeks to type good cause keys are a bit too narrow one from another, and lacks nkey rollover (the real problem is this, not the way to have to adapt to key size and space). But for the rest in every aspect this laptop is a beast, is reliable (right asus? when you will be reliable in time?), no sw problem, my 10875h pushes out 4200 points on r20 compared to 3500 3600 of msi and other razer laptops, and 2070 super 115w is a real deal. All of this for what price? 1800 euros, basically HALF the price of a less performant (and less reliable i will say) razer or msi gs/zephyrus series. You will loose something in the switch for them? For my actual experience absolutly not, having one of those you understand how are detailed every single aspect of those pc, from the heatsink layout, to every other aspects of the case (and perforated bottom cover and side cover is just a big pro compared to closed ones... If you remember that recently for example asus was accused to fall back in performance many laptops cause of closed vents).

Another benefit is they don't overheat like some other brands, ahem.

XMG's laptops at least in germany are known as the best ones you can get. Period. All the positive points youve mentioned are correct. I once bought an xmg and would do so again, if I would get into gaming again.

The price to value ratio you're getting with these laptops is pretty great imo. Just even having the peace of mind in knowing you stretched your dollar as far as it can go is what sets these apart from the rest. I'm not loaded with cash by any means but if I wanna spend my hard earned money on a laptop then I'm definitely going with this. Serves me no purpose as a consumer to pay more money and knowing some of that is going to advertising where there is 0 value in return for the product I'm getting. But to each they're own. Just sharing where my priorities are at.

These are what the Walmart EVOO/Overpowered laptops were.

Dave: "Secret Laptop Club" Me: Sees my laptop in the video :O I'm running an Eluktronics Mag-15 with a 1660ti, btw

You forgot to talk about the warranty. Their service center are not as widely available as the other brands.

I'm just surprised everytime I watch Dave because he doesn't have a written script and instead comes up with things to say on the spot which is something not everyone can do.👏👏

i just noticed, he has the youtube "lofi for studying/relaxing/coffee break/bomb defusing beats" at the end

Great video. I spent months trying to find the right laptop for me and went for the XMG. I wanted great gaming on a budget and this gave me the best for my money. Not too concerned about keyboard and in my opinion the aesthetics are suitable for a work meeting which was my bare minimum. Cheers for shedding your own light on these!

Good video ❤️ from India...👍

Can we please have system 76 review video? Thanks!

clevo too please make a complete video about clevo ones with desktop cpus,from mx250/mx350 equipped with i9 9900/9900t/10900/10900t, the NBXX series, all the way up to rtx2070 versions and compare them to current brand's models ,price-wise....for 1% low smoother gaming plus productivity.

"Don't be swayed by the sweat" - Dave Lee

I ordered my XMG yesterday ! I am upgrading from a 2013 Lenovo. Quite a leap, very excited.

i love this review about those underrated laptop. Thank you so much for making such an honest review ^_^

Why did you only mention Tongfang laptops and not the Clevo ODM laptops? Tongfeng is chinese while Clevo is taiwanese based, Sager is a good ODM of these Clevo laptops in North America.

Amazon prime day tmr. Should I get the 1200 Acer Predator Helios 300. Intel core i7 and rtx 2060?? Thoughts

Just a warning to anyone interested in these.. Totally anecdotal, but relevant. Customer service was great with Eluktronics, but I had a few serious issues with my P950HR: -Keyboard failed four times due to bad chassis design (happened with many devices, not just mine). -USB issues caused bad performance with VR. -Screen cable broke after a couple years, which was replaceable. Other than that, it was a great laptop. But I don't think they should be as hyped up as they are.

Dave: Posts Me: C L I C K S

"Don't be swayed by the sweat" Best quote I ever heard in long while

It’s a brand formed by Tsinghua University in Beijing, former called Tsinghua Tongfang.

I just ordered a Tuxedo Pulse, a Tongfang with Ryzen and with Linux preinstalled.

Illegear is most common in SEA countries like Malaysia, since I'm using the Ionic Series.

Such a reasonable and calm reviewer, so easy to listen to.

Both your shirt and jacket are from Adidas Hmmm I smell a sponsor 😂 Jk love you Dave

I think the tongfang laptops are some of the best looking out there I completely disagree. How often are you going to be looking at the bottom vents? Lol

Rich, particular about aesthetics and ambience. How much of your audience do you think are the same type of buyer as you? Not me that's for sure.

I actually got drawn to these because of your earlier review on the MAG 15 "The Impossible Gaming Laptop". I have the Illegear Selenite Pro (which I think would have been the Mag 17) and it was one of the earliest 17in thin and light laptops to get the RTX2070 Max P variant at the tail end of last year. I don't care too much about the design aesthetic aside from the ridiculously small size and weight (For a 17 inch), but the price point was what made it so attractive because they accepted a 2 year instalment plan where others only accept 1 year. The company also did make its own original custom 15in laptop that's only 1.5kg. These laptops do have loud fan noise and soft speakers though and the 240hz screen isn't free from ghosting, and the nose cam is just tragic. These laptops tend to be good for long term too. They can still even service an older, clevo-based laptop I bought in 2014.

"Don't be swayed by the sweat." -Dave Lee 2020

XMG user here. Another advantage might be the customer service of these smaller brands; as far as I know XMG has one of the best. When my SSD failed within the warranty they sent me a new one (with an even bigger storage capacity) to swap it myself - fast and clean, I loved it!

Any chance you could do a new review on the xps 13 9300 and the x360 spectre 2020 versions?

I just took a 2013 Sager out of retirement because my xps 15 bricked itself outside of warranty. Knocking on wood it lasts until i build a custom pc.

One thing you forgot to mention, which is a huge deal for many people that use these, is the large port selection. 2 to 4 USB-A's, USB-C, SD cardslot (which is rare these days), dedicated head- and microphone jacks, and some even have an ethernet port. Many _'premium brand'_ laptops have very few if any ports these days, and if you use your laptop on the go a lot then dongles are basically a no-go.

I picked up the 17" Version of the Legion 4800h, 2060RTX ...

Because Dave 2D wasn’t paid to cover them previously in his videos :^)

I heard of xmg and they seem pretty nice. But to make me buy it they need to release variant with either radeon rx 5000 series graphics or rx 6000 when those come out.

Watching this on my Eluktronics Mech 15 G2rx. I admit that if I had the money I would have gotten an ASUS or an AERO 15, but since that's not the case, nothing beats this baby at $1400 (special Christmas deal) with an rtx 2070 MaxQ (runs close to the full version though) core i7 9thgen (the high end brands will cost you around $1000 more for the same specs). I actually like the mechanical keyboard it comes with, very responsive on my side, never had any issues typing something I didn't want to (mind however that I use it more for typing than for gaming). Also I get that is not for everyone, but I actually like the clean industrial look (at least on the mech 15... it does look better in person than in the pictures). In my case I got it strictly for work, so I really don't mind the fans when I hit the turbo for my renders (is quite idle in office mode) and, even when I game (I tried a couple), with some good headphones I do just fine. My point is, if you have money buy whatever you want, but for the rest of us (which I will take a guess that is most people) paying a lot less for equal or better performance is only reasonable (and sometimes the only option).

I'm on the XMG Fusion 15 and I love it

I'm from Malaysia and I use the Asian variant of them, ILLEGEAR 1:29. I'm not too sure about performance comparison because I've never had experiences on the well-known brands. But games run smoothly on it, fan noise not too obnoxious and the price was probably about 1000 bucks.

I'm still waiting for Dave to cover some Linux laptops.

Over the last 20 years or so I bought a few Sager laptops in the US and they are pretty decent.

I always want to buy illegear laptop (asia version) but only a few asian tech youtubers have done a review ( a good one atleast). Now that dave has done it i feel comfortable to join this secret club

I've just received the european variant of the mechrevo code 01, and it is an amazing laptop. Absolutely recommend it to laptop enthusiast who are looking for a light workstation, with a 90 wh battery, a 100% rgb display an a ryzen 4000H that performs crazy well.

He is finally back reviewing laptops after a long time. Otherwise, he was busy in making videos of "Lets Talk" 😂

TLDR: "not as pretty, loud cause fans"

YEAHHHH. Im in the console club and Table Pc club. i watch your review to join the laptop club.

"the difference is noticable but not substantial" ??? The "better" alternative is almost twice as expensive! And for what?

People really raved about Sager or a Clevo product over me getting a Zephyrus M15 or 7i for the same price and similar specs. Thanks for the info. In the process of looking for a 2070 gpu laptop that’s reasonably priced, so any pointers would be nice.

What about security? Also, I'm not skilled enough to know if they add a backdoor in their bios update.

Hey! Dave. You look like you got a lot of info on these laptops that you failed to air out because of your 7min video. Please try extending that period of time pleasee!!.

As soon as I saw "secret laptop" I was: Tongfang! (xmg)... But it's true, it's not for everyone, also, the range of models is pretty big, I think that XMG (schenker) has like 6 or 7 models, I was looking to buy one, but just kinda get on hold and waiting for a rtx 30 series mobile to see or amd zen 3 what the mobiles will be, so I decided to go with in around new year.. And yes, I am the one who is mostly for performance benefit, or at least price/performance... The noise doesn't bother me that much, you can configure it plus I think that 17 inch model I am looking for has pretty beefier cooler and can be "silenced" a bit also with undervolting you can silence it a bit better and also due to bit bigger fans, which doesn't have that lower pitch noise that is most disturbing... But I was expecting a bit more in depth review... But from as far as I checked (for the XMG 17), this is the closer to what I'm looking for...

Why don't laptops have standardized keyboards that can be swapped? That would drive up sales significantly!

Didn't know it was a secret. Eluktronics has some of the nicest panels, that's why I got one a couple years ago. I think you reviewed the 15" version Dave.

I saw the laptops and I was like, finally, my time to shine #eluktronicsgang #oldiebutgoodie

I don't like the Laptop branding but Look at least his Jacket Awesome Design.🤪🔥😎💗

I am using a tongfang laptop right now, nice look, excellent performance and it is also cheap (Mechrevo X10Ti-S)