Done testing Prodigy, Rogue, 9th gen Onyx+Selenite+Raven just now. Stay tuned for updates.

Illegear Rogue review

Main specs:
This is a quick review; thus, not everything will be covered in here. Also, this review will mainly focus on thermals instead of performance.

Product page: Illegear Rogue

Part 1: Build quality, input devices
Build quality is good overall. The plastic lid has some flex on the middle of the lid cover when force is applied. Twisting the lid is possible but the flex isn’t too bad. The lid is noticeably wobbling – probably due to QC. You can barely open the lid with single hand.

The body uses all plastic build (soft touch). Despite that, there is little to flex on the entire keyboard+palm rest. Most flex is at the part between keyboard and clickpad, but the amount of flex is very little. There is some flex at the bottom bezel when being pressed in.

The membrane keyboard has a bit of mushiness. Key travel is ~1.7mm, actuation force is 55-60g. You can set the effect, brightness and speed of the keyboard lighting via Illegear Command Center.

The Precision clickpad has plastic surface and it’s slightly elevated to the back. Wet fingers will result in rough surface. Movements are quite precise. The L/R clicks requires moderate pressure to be pressed and the click noise is OK. Not bad overall. You can disable the clickpad by double tapping the left top corner of the clickpad.

Part 2: Display, Audio, Battery
The display is the same 144Hz IPS panel found in Selenite - BOE07B6. As you can expect from a high refresh rate panel, everything feels smooth, although there is a bit of ghosting due to advertised 30ms response times (still better than 60Hz). It gets bright enough, colours are vibrant and has good contrast.

The 2 down firing speakers has good enough audio only if you tune the audio via Sound Blaster software.

Example of a tuned audio profile: Bass 0, treble 6, surround 80, crystalizer 90, bass 20, smart vol 80 dialog+ 60. Volume is a bit soft/quiet.

I don’t have time to test the battery life, however don’t expect much from the 46.74Wh battery (there is optional 63Wh upgrade which sacrifices 2.5 inch bay).

Part 3: Cooling performance
The cooling design consists of 3 heatpipes with 1 shared on CPU+GPU (same with Selenite). The heatsink is stretched to both left and right.

Notes on all thermal testing:
Undervolt profile: CPU core+cache -100mv. You can undervolt GPU if you want, but it takes time. Blue highlighted part is the undervolted result.

CPU temp - Cinebench R15 multi core (1 run)
Max 88C, 74-75W, 3.8-3.9GHz, 1230+cb
Max 87C, 74-75W, 1280+cb
~38dBA

CPU temp - Aida64 FPU 60W
Max 82C, 3.05GHz
Max 82C, 3.2GHz
~35dBA

GPU temp - Unigine Valley (extreme HD profile)
Clock speed fluctuates: at least +100MHz higher than boost clock (1590MHz)
Max 67C, ~80W
~34dBA

GPU temp - Unigine Valley (extreme HD profile with turbo mode)
Clock speed fluctuates: at least +200MHz higher than boost clock
Max 75C
~36dBA

FPU + Valley (extreme HD+turbo) with max fans
CPU (UV): Max 88C, 3.1-3.2GHz, 50W (PL1 will drop to 50W)
GPU: Max 75C, same clock speed behaviour

Time Spy (Turbo mode, 1 run):
Score: 6057, Graphics: 5941

Fire Strike (Turbo mode, 1 run):
Score: 13664, Graphics: 15305

The chassis stays quite cool while under load.
There is noticeable uneven core temp, therefore CPU peak temp might be higher.
To get best performance+thermal result for GPU, you need to undervolt GPU and use turbo mode.

In Illegear Command Center, there are 3 modes to choose from: Turbo, Game or Office mode. Turbo mode increases TDP/power consumption of GPU to allow faster GPU clock speed. Office mode gives you access to control fan speed but has a 35W CPU power limit. There are 4 power profiles: High performance (same with Windows), Game, Equilibrium, Power saving. Basically, just keep it to game mode and equilibrium.

The included power adapter is an 180W unit from FSP. Take note that temps might be a little higher when running dual channel memory.

Part 4: Miscellaneous
The laptop is thin and light for a 17-inch gaming laptop – 2.35kg and 27mm thickness. The footprint is also relatively small.

Conclusion: Well-cooled 17 inch light weight gaming laptop with almost no flaws

Pros:
Cons: