PCSpecialist Fusion Studio 14in
A high-quality laptop that compares well to its bigname opposition, especially for configurability
PRICE £887 (£1,064 inc VAT) from pcspecialist.co.uk/reviews
One of the advantages of choosing a British laptop manufacturer – such as PCSpecialist – is that they have the means to customise the specification to your choice. Of the big international companies, only Dell offers the same flexibility, but similar Dell XPS 13 configurations (there’s no exact match) cost £1,199 at a minimum.
Where PCSpecialist can’t match the big companies is for R&D, so it relies on third-party chassis makers. In the past, the choice has been limited to chassis that feel a generation or two behind the likes of Dell and HP, but the Fusion Studio is a match for style and finish. For a start, it’s made from a full-body magnesium alloy chassis, and aside from the lid – which has some obvious flex – it feels very sturdy.
Nor does this build quality translate into weight, with the Fusion Studio tipping our scales at 1.1kg. That’s lighter than the Dell XPS, or indeed any other laptop on test this month. Where it falls behind is for battery life, with a result of 6hrs 31mins in our general office test. The other disappointment is that it can only be charged via the supplied DC power brick, which is heavy at 515g.
We hoped it would charge via the USB-C ports on either side of the chassis, but the right-hand connector is restricted to data transfers (a fast 10Gbits/sec) while the left Thunderbolt 4 connector can output to a monitor but doesn’t deliver power. An HDMI output sits on the right, where you’ll also find a USB-A port (10Gbits/sec) and the DC input. The left-hand side offers a second USB-A port, full-size SD card slot and 3.5mm jack.
There are yet more expansion opportunities beneath the bottom panel, which is blissfully easy to remove: six crosshead screws stand in your way, and then the panel lifts off without any need for tools. It’s a relief to see two SODIMM sockets available, rather than having memory soldered onto the motherboard, and as PCSpecialist configured our test machine with one 8GB module, that’s easy to double to 16GB. Or configure it yourself at the time of purchase for an extra £36. Or go wild and choose 64GB for a total price of £1,340.
You can also configure the Fusion Studio 14in with two M.2 SSDs, with an easily accessible slot sitting on the motherboard. There shouldn’t be any immediate need to do so, however, as PCSpecialist supplies 1TB as part of this configuration, and again you can upgrade this at the time of purchase (for example, a 2TB Corsair unit adds £122 to the price).
If you intend to use this laptop for tasks that involve intensive writing to disk, then you may want to upgrade the supplied PCS SSD to a higher-spec Corsair MP400 anyway: sequential read and write speeds of 1,429MB/sec MB/ and 1,209MB/sec may p prove a bottleneck. This, along with the 8GB of RAM, is one reason reas the Core i7-11370H didn’t shine s in our benchmarks, wi with the Fusion Studio consistently sitting below laptops powered by the Core i5-1165G7 in intensive tests.
We would also steer you to other laptops if y you intend to play demanding demandi games, with this configuration of Intel’s Iris Xe graphics again falling behind its counterparts in 3DMark’s Time Spy test and both our in-game benchmarks: 50fps in Dirt: Showdown shows that it can handle less punishing games, but don’t set your expectations too high.
That average fell to 26fps at the Fusion Studio’s native resolution, but that’s to be expected because it’s a gorgeously detailed 2,880 x 1,800. It’s a high-quality panel, too, covering 99% of the sRGB space and 81% of DCI-P3. Combine that with an average Delta E of 0.34 and a peak brightness of 407cd/m2 and it’s a match for any screen here. It also supports 90Hz refresh rates and minimises reflections thanks to its matte finish.
There’s no touchscreen, but gesture lovers will appreciate the huge trackpad below the keyboard. We were concerned about palm interference while typing, but that was never a problem during our time with the Fusion. The keyboard itself sits in the friend zone, with a quiet action and excellent layout (note the big Enter key and separated cursors), and while it lacks the cushioned feel of the best keyboards, it’s pleasant to use for prolonged periods. There’s a two-level t l vel backlight, too.
It’s a shame about the lack of battery life and USB-C charging, because otherwise se this would have made a gorgeous rgeous machine to take on your ur travels. It’s this, and a lack of killer er pace, that robs it of an award. But t with prices starting at £876, and the e ability to configure it exactly xactly to your liking, this is arguably the best Britisha-ssembled laptop to have crossed rossed our paths.