Custom PC - UK (2021-05)

VERDICT

Decent gaming speed, a solid display and a low price, but it’s

a bit rough around the edges.

OVERALL SCORE

78 %

PERFORMANCE

19 / 25

DESIGN

17 / 25

HARDWARE

19 / 25

VALUE

23 / 25

DEFY

+ Solid 1080p

gaming speed

+ Customisable

spec

+ Very affordable

CAPITULATE

• Mediocre chassis


• Middling keyboard


• Terrible speakers
  That refresh rate isn’t paired with active sync, but the
  Defiance’s display still delivers smooth gameplay in fast-
  paced titles. The brightness of 308cd/m² is good enough
  for indoor use, and the contrast ratio of 1,062:1 delivers
  decent vibrancy and depth. The delta E of 1.6 is good and the
  sRGB coverage level of 95 per cent is solid, but the colour
  temperature of 7,272K is cool. That’s not ruinous, though, and
  the PC Specialist’s panel is easily good enough for everyday
  gaming and work – just don’t expect it to hold up for colour-
  sensitive workloads.
  Meanwhile, the processor is only ordinary these days –
  its overall result of 169,601 is outpaced by last year’s AMD
  Ryzen 7 4800H, and laptops such as the Asus TUF Gaming
  A15 now come equipped with a Ryzen 7 5800H and an RTX
  3070 for just £100 more at £1,599 inc VAT. The Core i7 CPU is
  still fine – it won’t cause gaming bottlenecks and it will easily
  handle everyday workloads and photo editing, but it’s now
  outclassed by the AMD competition.

BENCHMARK RESULTS

GIMP IMAGE

EDITING

49,714

HANDBRAKE H.264

VIDEO ENCODING

436,498

HEAVY MULTI

TASKING

166,939

SYSTEM

SCORE

169,601

99th percentile Average

1,920 x 1,080, Ultra preset, no ray tracing

CYBERPUNK 2077

0306090120

PC Specialist Defiance VIII Pro 45fps 56fps

1,920 x 1,080, Ultra settings, High RT, PhysX off, HairWorks off

METRO EXODUS

0306090120

PC Specialist Defiance VIII Pro 30fps 49fps

1,920 x 1,080, Highest settings, High RT shadows, TAA

SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER

0306090120

PC Specialist Defiance VIII Pro 32fps 70fps

1,920 x 1,080, Vulkan, Ultra Nightmare settings

DOOM ETERNAL

0 60 120 180 240

PC Specialist Defiance VIII Pro 121fps 183fps

1,920 x 1,080, Ultra High settings, High anti-aliasing

ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA

0306090120

PC Specialist Defiance VIII Pro 41fps 58fps

The PC Specialist is mixed thermal performer too. When

gaming, noise levels aren’t bad – a headset will easily mask

the moderate output – and the GPU regularly boosted to

clock speeds beyond 1650MHz. The Defiance was quieter

when handling both single- and multi-threaded workloads,

too. The GPU’s peak delta T of 51°C is fine.

However, the CPU ran a little hotter: during a multi-

threaded work benchmark it peaked at 68°C and then slowly

throttled to an all-core speed of 2.9GHz, which is short of the

chip’s theoretical all-core Turbo peak of 4.2GHz. In a single-

threaded test, the CPU was faster, so the Defiance is clearly

better suited to gaming and single-threaded tasks, rather

than large multi-core workloads.

Don’t expect much from the speakers either – they’re

loud, but tinny, with high-end distortion, little depth and no

bass. The included SoundBlaster Atlas app has profiles for

different game genres, but they make no real difference.

A headset would be much better. Finally, when gaming,

the battery lasted for just under two hours, and its lifespan

extended to four hours when working, which is reasonable

for a gaming laptop.

Conclusion

The Defiance has enough gaming power to handle any

1080p gaming scenario and it serves up a good display, solid

connections and a low price. The lower price does mean an

underwhelming case, CPU, and keyboard though – problems

that could be solved by spending a bit more cash. We’d

recommend splashing out a little more money if you can

find it, but if not, the Defiance remains a decent option for

affordable, unfussy mainstream gaming.

MIKE JENNINGS