We’re expecting about 20% graphics performance improvement on the Intel Iris graphics (e.g. Zenbook Infinity) over the HD 5000 graphics seen in some Ultrabooks but what if that isn’t enough for you? The Cyberpower Zeuss Hercules offers Intel Iris Pro graphics (HD 5200) with a full-HD display in a 1.9KG package. It looks very Ultrabook-like but could have the grunt to take it into high quality gaming territory. Students, take note!
The Zeuss Hercules is available under other brands around the world (Schenker S413 in Germany for example) and originally comes from the OEM Clevo. I was impressed with the weight, the graphics performance and the screen and at around $1000 it seems fairly priced.
You can check out a review of the German Schenker variant here. My hands-on video is below.
Looks pretty similar with toshiba z830/930
It’s got the grunt, but the keyboard is for shite. Check out the owner’s thread on Notebook Review.
I’m actually expecting 30-50% over the HD 5000 with the Iris 5100. Not only it has higher TDP available for the GPU, but the CPU as well and higher clocked. CPU will add probably another 15-20% or so, just like the differences between 17W and 35W for Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge chips.
I think the huge cache on IRIS 5200 makes the true difference here.
But there’s no way I’d buy a Clevo barebone based laptop just to get an IRIS 5200. Too ugly, too plasticky and not enough attention to details like keyboard and display.
I hear these Clevo based rebranded notebooks tend to have less battery life then other notebooks that have the same hardware and a similarly configured OS.