Custom PC - UK (2020-02)

T

heChillblastPhantom 17 istheonly
17.3inmachineinthe Labswitha
mechanicalkeyboard.It’san
excellentaddition;thebuttonshavemore
travel,snapandspeedthananychicletunit,
andthere’sa strongbase.
TheChillblasthasa numberpadtoo,andno
buttonsarereducedinsize.Thekeyboardhas
RGBLEDbacklightingtoo,andit offersa
robustgamingandtypingexperience.We
can’tsaythesameforthetrackpadthough–
it’slarge,butthebuttonsaresoft.
Thedesignisdecentelsewheretoo,evenif
it doesn’thavethepizzazzoftheAlienware.
Its2.4kgweightand27mmframemeanits
dimensionsslotbetweenthelarger
AlienwareandtheslimmerMSI,andits
designissmartandsubtle– it’sallmattmetal
andbrushedaluminium.

CHILLBLAST PHANTOM 17

/£1,949inc VAT

SUPPLIER chillblast.com

The sides serve up a USB 3.1 Type-C port

and two full-sized USB 3.1 connectors, plus

a card reader, but its third USB port uses the

slower USB 2 standard and there’s no

Thunderbolt 3. Meanwhile, there’s Gigabit

Ethernet and dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi for

networking, but no Wi-Fi 6.

Inside, there’s a Core i7-9750H and a full-fat

mobile RTX 2070 GPU alongside 16GB of DDR4

RAM. Storage is covered by a 500GB Samsung

NVMe SSD and a 2TB hard disk. That SSD is the

fastest in the Labs too. The Core i7 processor

returned an overall RealBench score of 157,541 –

fast enough to just about beat the Alienware and

easily outpace the MSI. It’s not enough power to

beat the PC Specialist’s Core i9 CPU, but that

chip is only worth considering for serious multi-

threaded work alongside games.

Intermsofgamingperformance,theRTX

2070’sShadowofthe TombRaiderminimum

of71fpsis a littlebehinditsrivalswiththeRTX

2080 Max-Q,butitsTotalWar:WarhammerII

minimumof63fpsbeatstheMSI.InBattlefieldV

withHighDXR,itsscoreswerea littlebetterthan

theMSIandPCSpecialist.It maynothave‘2080’

in itsname,butthere’sclearlyplentyofgaming

powerin thisGPU.

TheChillblastalsoremainedcoolandquiet

duringgaming.Don’texpectmuchbattery

lifethough– it couldn’thandleanhourof

gamingwiththescreenatfullbrightness.

Meanwhile,the17.3inpanel’s144Hz

refreshratemeansundemandinggames

withhighframerates looksmootherthan

ontheAlienware’sscreen,andit hasa

solidcontrastratioof1,277:1.ItsdeltaE

of2.25ispoorerthanthatofthe

AlienwareandMSIscreens,andit

only rendered 87.3 per cent of

the sRGB colour gamut, but

those figures are still

fine for gaming.

Conclusion

TheChillblastdoesn’thavethepizzazzofthe

Alienware,butit offerscomparablegaming

pace,it’squickerinapplications,andit hasa

superiorscreenanda mechanicalkeyboard.

Withgreatgamingperformanceanda sub-

£2,000price,it’sthebest17.3in gaminglaptop

intheLabs.

VERDICT

There are no outrageous design elements,

but this affordable laptop offers great quality

and fast gaming performance.

HAUNTED

+ Impressive

gaming speed

+ Fast in applications

+ Mechanical keyboard

HUNTED

• Underwhelming looks


• Poor battery life


• A little heavy
  and chunky

SPEC

CPU 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-9750H

Memory 16GB 2,666MHz DDR4

Graphics Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 8GB

Screen 17.3in 1,920 x 1,080 IPS 144Hz

Storage 500GB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2

SSD, 2TB Seagate Barracuda hard disk

Networking Gigabit Ethernet,

dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi

Weight 2.4kg

Ports 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2, 1 x USB 3.1

Type-C, 1 x USB 2, 2 x mini-DisplayPort,

1 x HDMI 2, 1 x SDXC, 2 x audio jack

Dimensions (mm) 396 x 261 x 27 (W x D x H)

Operating system Windows 10 Home 64-bit

Extras Bluetooth 5

Warranty Two years parts and labour

collect and return, followed by three

years labour only return to base

PERFORMANCE

23 / 25

HARDWARE

21 / 25

DESIGN

19 / 25

VALUE

23 / 25

OVERALLSCORE

86 %

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