Schenker M505 (Clevo W650SC) Notebook Review

The new display is another feature that needs to be praised. Instead of the LG Philips LP156WF4-SPB1 the M505 employs an AU Optronics B156HAN01.2 (the XMG A505 sends it regards).

Although the old model already convinced with its high contrast and a relatively low black value, the successor comes off with a small advantage in these categories. Our measuring instrument established 1,250:1 and 0.22 cd/m² in comparison to the old model’s 930:1 and 0.33 cd/m². The slightly lower illumination (86 vs. 90%) and a 10% lower brightness (268 vs. 296 cd/m²) are in our opinion negligible.

As mentioned before, the components are highly similar to those of the predecessor. To allow a smooth everyday experience with Windows programs, we set up the M505 with a midrange processor and a 250 GB solid- state drive. The package is rounded off with 8 GB DDR3-RAM and a 750 GB HDD spinning at 7,200 rpm.

The Core i5-4210M is a 2.6 GHz dual-core model. Equipped with Turbo Boost and Hyperthreading it can reach up to 3.2 GHz and work with eight threads simultaneously. 3 MB L3-Cache is quite impressive (4-8 MB @Core i7) for a dual-core.

But let's get back to the CPU. During the test with Cinebench R11.5, the Core i5-4210M showed an ideal turbo usage of 3.2 GHz with single-core load and 3.1 GHz with multi-core load. Even under extreme conditions, simulated during our stress test with the tools FurMark and Prime95, the turbo is still active (~2.8 GHz). The benchmark values are only a logical result of this behavior. Although the Core i5-4210M cannot keep up with its quad-core brothers in the multi-core scenarios, the dual-core is sufficiently fast for standard tasks such as MS Office, video or web. For games, the graphics card is the limiting factor.

Those who include an SSD can expect an extremely high system speed. Our test device does not have to fear comparison to more expensive gaming notebooks in PCMark 7: 5,462 points are quite something for a multimedia laptop. The quad-core option would probably add a few hundred points.

The 15-inch device can be equipped with a 2.5-inch hard drive and additionally an mSATA-SSD. For the latter, Schenker relies on Crucial (M550 and MX200) and Samsung (850 EVO). In terms of price-performance ratio, any of the three models would make for a solid choice. Most of the time the competing products' only difference is a few bucks. Our test model ran with the 250 GB version of Samsung's 850 EVO. 511 MB/sec sequential read and 496 MB/sec sequential write in the AS SSD benchmark put the mSATA drive among the strongest competitors there are. For even higher values a notebook with a RAID system (e.g. see the MSI GS60) or an SSD based on PCI-Express (Schenker XMG U505) is required.

While the high-end model GeForce GTX 980M and GTX 970M outshine their predecessors by far due to their new architecture (Maxwell instead of Kepler), Nvidia settled for tuning the clockspeed for the low-priced chips. The effects on the Schenker M505 are especially insignificant. In practice there is almost no difference between 902-1,084 MHz (GTX 850M) and 993-1,124 (GTX 950M). The main issue of the midrange GPU is its small memory interface. A 128-bit bus is not enough anymore for gamers, especially since barebone manufacturer Clevo equipped the GTX 950M with DDR3 instead of the modern GDDR5. The 2 GB memory will also be a bottleneck in the future.

Despite all this, the GeForce GTX 950M cuts a good figure as an all-round GPU for a multimedia notebook. As long as the M505 does not come in contact with extremely demanding 3D programs, the DirectX 11 chip is powerful enough to cope with the load. The benchmarks make it clear that the performance is similar to the level of the GTX 850M. Advice: Bargain hunters should take advantage of the clearance sale of the M504. While being phased out, this model costs 200 Euros (~$219) less despite similar hardware. Thanks to GDDR5-VRAM, notebooks based on the GTX-860M are yet another economical and faster alternative.

Those who do not require maximum details and multiple anti-aliasing in every game should get along just fine with the GeForce GTX 950M. Aside from a few extreme cases such as Assassin's Creed Unity, Watch Dogs, Ryse: Son of Rome and Dragon Age: Inquisition, medium to high settings in the native resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels are possible. More frugal and/or older games (e.g. FIFA 15, Sims 4 and F1 2014) can be played in all their graphics glory.

The noise generation has barely changed in comparison to the M504. This comes as no surprise as the devices are almost identical. When the notebook is under no or nearly no load the system works rather quietly. Admittedly the tested HDD (Western Digital Black) is always drawing attention with its constant rustling and clattering, but after a long rest period the hard drive as well as the fan shut off completely, muting the M505 altogether. The Clevo barebones' typical and annoying speeding up of the cooling system, which we have noticed quite often in the past, has become a rather rare occurrence. The 3D mode is the biggest negative.  An average of 44 dB(A) in 3DMark 06 and up to 50 dB(A) under full load are quite a lot for a multimedia notebook. Other all-rounders prove to be quieter.

Unsurprisingly the power consumption complies with that of the predecessor: 11-18 watts in idle mode and 70-105 watts under load are acceptable for an all-round notebook. With 120 watts, the power supply appears to be sufficiently dimensioned (at least for the use of a dual-core CPU).