Conclusion

EVGA's implementation is neat and tidy throughout, and the manufacturer has a good idea of what its target audience is looking for.

Gaming laptops aimed at enthusiast users typically deliver high levels of portable performance with a customary list of caveats. These can include, but aren't limited to, poor battery life, plastic build quality, excessive heat and noise, average keyboards, lacklustre displays, plus a good dose of bloatware.

Alleviating a good number of those concerns, EVGA is bringing its high-end expertise to the gaming laptop space with the launch of the SC17. Designed to offer a premium experience to gamers with cash to spare, this 17.3in machine touts a thin and well-built metal chassis that's a cut above many competitors and outfitted with some of today's best mobile components.

The highlights include a 4K IPS display, a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, GeForce GTX 980M graphics, an NVMe M.2 SSD and 32GB of DDR4 memory. EVGA's implementation is neat and tidy throughout, and the manufacturer has a good idea of what its target audience is looking for. There's no bloatware in sight, the BIOS offers a decent amount of tinkering potential, and for overclocking novices PrecisionX Mobile provides a simple, one-click boost in frequency.

An admirable first attempt, yet as is the case with most first-run products, there is room for improvement. Battery life is mediocre, the laptop's weight isn't ideal, heat and fan noise are still prevalent, and there's something uncomfortable about a £2,400 enthusiast laptop running an 18-month-old GPU.

The SC17 lays a solid foundation and does enough to suggest that EVGA is a welcome player in the gaming laptop market. A reduction in weight, a next-gen GPU and a few small tweaks is all it would take to elevate the SC17 from interesting to compelling.

The Good		The Bad
17.3in 4K display is a treat Sleek for a gaming laptop Comfortable backlit keyboard Good build quality throughout Quick and easy overclocking Has a proper BIOS Free of bloatware		Steep £2,400 price tag Needs a next-gen GPU to shine Tips the scales at 3.7kg Short on I/O ports Poor battery life

EVGA SC17 Gaming Laptop

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The EVGA SC17 Gaming Laptop is available to purchase from Scan Computers.

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This is non blingy enough to use as a workstation which would suit me as am not a gamer. The battery life seems reasonable enough to me as your not likely to be using this far from a power socket that often.
The noise and that large lower lip bezel put me off however the biggest downer is that grossly exhorbitant price.

Massively overpriced. My MSI GT72 (non S) with i7-4720 and an overclocked GTX980m out performs this….http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/10136433

Why make such a high end laptop and yet not give people a capable GPU. Nobody expects to be able to do gaming at 4K on a laptop for at least another 3 years, but they really should make sure it has enough oomph to do QHD at 60fps.

Nice to see a good looking “gaming” laptop for once. And seems it performs pretty well too, battery life aside, agree with the sentiment about using a 980m at that price point though, should be a desktop one really. Still, seems like a much needed offering in this market, even if I'll never actually spend that much money on a laptop.

Needs a Pascal-boost, a Gsync panel at this price and a couple of hundred off :)