Keyboard and Trackpad
Right from the off, we felt at home with the P503 PRO keyboard, and not necessarily because it's great to use, but rather because we've seen it before. As far as we can tell, it's the same keyboard that's used in Clevo's P150EM, and by relation Scan's 3XS Graphite LG10.
Familiarity can be a good thing, but unfortunately the same criticisms apply. The single-height enter key takes some getting used to and the overall key action is still too shallow for our liking. There's also a bit of noticeable flex throughout the panel, and the location of the Fn key isn't ideal.
This isn't the most enjoyable keyboard we've used, however it does have its positives; the included numpad is nice to see; the entire panel is evenly backlit through three zones and a choice of eight colours; and the status icons above the panel work well, with a dedicated indicator to show when the Nvidia GPU is being used. Stating the obvious, our preproduction sample has a QWERTZ German keyboard layout, but fear not, UK models will of course ship as QWERTY.
Anyone who's used various modern-day laptops will testify to the fact that trackpads can be hit or miss. In the case of the P503 PRO, it's a bit of both. The pad - powered by Sentelic - is reasonably well-sized and both tracks well and responds efficiently to multi-finger gestures. The problem is that it sits surprisingly low down, resulting in a high surrounding edge that makes the pad feel awfully constrained. Edge-swipe gestures feel uncomfortable as a result, and in everyday use you're forever hitting the side walls.
It's handy having a fingerprint reader integrated between the tactile buttons, but really, you're going to want to plug in an external mouse for any prolonged use.
Software and System Noise
Here's where we usually compile a list of bloatware and hope, in vain, that manufacturers would cease to clutter the Windows environment. As it turns out, we're in luck. Our review sample came with a tidy install of Windows 8 and only the relevant software packages used to drive certain hardware components - the fingerprint reader and trackpad, for example. Other than that, there's no bloatware in sight. Handy to note, also, that those wishing to use their own copy of Windows (or indeed another operating system) can save a few bob by ordering the XMG laptop with no software at all.
It's a shame the system's dual fans aren't as refined. The Clevo chassis has them connected to the CPU and GPU through a series of heatpipes and the good news is that the fans do a great job of cooling: we never found the laptop uncomfortable to use. Unfortunately, the fans can be frustratingly loud and, making matters worse, they don't have a nice, gradual speed curve.
The system goes from inaudible to loud and then to bothersome at regular intervals. Applying a good amount of CPU/GPU load creates the most noise, but even when the laptop is idle, the fans will spin up intermittently creating unwanted commotion. Perhaps we've just become too accustomed to quiet computers, but really, we found the noise offputting and wouldn't want to game on the P503 PRO without a good set of headphones.
