Mythlogic Callisto 1512 (Clevo W550EU) Ultrabook Review

Display Quality

One of the things boutique releases of ODM notebooks typically can offer over the notebooks on retail shelves is a superior display panel. As I mentioned earlier, Mythlogic doesn't even offer the W550EU with a garden variety TN panel; the only option is the 15.6" 1080p IPS, and that's something I actually appreciate. That it's a matte panel may be an even bigger selling point for some, though it isn't touch enabled as increasing numbers of modern displays are.

While the display is comparatively attractive and still ranks well above a garden variety TN panel (as evidenced by the HP Folio's dismal performance), color gamut is unusually poor for an IPS display. This isn't something immediately evident in regular use and would probably only be noticed with the kind of testing we do, but it is nonetheless worth mentioning. Contrast and brightness are excellent, however, and any way you slice it, it's a massive improvement on a low-resolution TN panel.

Battery Life

Unfortunately, these ODM units are oftentimes poor performers when it comes to battery life. For one reason or another they're just not particularly well optimized to run off of the mains, and the result is reduced mobility overall. The Clevo W550EU sadly doesn't buck this trend.

Running time off of the mains, even normalized, is fairly poor. It takes a quad core CPU and dedicated graphics (albeit running on Optimus) to put in a worse showing, and even then you're looking at essentially another ODM machine. The 62Wh battery is basically essential to get useful battery life out of the W550EU; Clevo offers a smaller one but that seems to be another component Mythlogic opted to just sweep under the rug in favor of the superior option.

Heat and Noise

The one thing these larger ultrabooks tend to do better than their smaller counterparts is cooling: more space for cooling often means lower temperatures and/or lower noise. Even with the 35W CPU, the Clevo W550EU gets most of this right, but I'd caution against configuring this notebook with a quad core CPU.

Even under sustained load, the W550EU is relatively quiet, but the CPU does get fairly hot and the left side of the notebook (next to the vent) actually gets pretty warm. If you routinely find yourself resting a fingertip or two on the bezel surrounding the keyboard, you're going to feel it. So while Mythlogic does offer quad core options with the Callisto 1512, the only one I would recommend is the 35W i7-3612QM.