cyberpower FangBook Evo HX7-200

Bottom line

A gaming laptop that's a great bang for your buck, the CyberPower FangBook Evo HX7-200 packs everything you probably want and more into a sturdy boutique body for a reasonable price. You get the latest Haswell processor, powerful Nvidia graphics, Blu-ray Disc drive and more, but size suffers. Prepare to haul around more than 10 pounds of notebook to get your gaming fix.

Performance

"Fastest notebook to date." The FangBook Evo HX7-200 was already one of experts' favorite gaming laptops before it got a new Core i7-4700MQ Intel Haswell processor. Now it's "the fastest notebook we've tested to date," PC World raves. The only way to get a better gaming laptop? Drop $3,000 to $4,000 or so on one with even more powerful graphics. That'll get you higher frame rates at max settings, but rest assured, the FangBook can handle any title you throw at it. Of course, you can always configure your Evo HX7-200 for more power when you buy it.

Battery life isn't great with the last-gen processor -- just over 2 hours, about average for a gaming laptop -- but the energy-efficient Haswell chip should improve that.

Ergonomics

"As elegant as a water buffalo." This is one of those old-school, 2-inch-thick gaming cinderblocks. It tips the scales at 8.5 pounds, plus the 2.2-pound power brick you'll haul wherever you go, and looks "about as elegant as a water buffalo," PC World says. That's not unusual for a serious gaming laptop, but the 4-pound Razer Blade (Est. $1,800 and up) , our Best Reviewed choice, is sleek by comparison.

There's no touch screen and the trackpad isn't multi-touch, but gamers will probably use the keyboard and an external mouse, anyway. A full array of ports includes wired Ethernet, as well as a memory card reader and Blu-ray Disc drive, all of which the Razer jettisons in the name of skinniness.

Design

Big screen, nice speakers. Unlike the Razer Blade, which could almost pass for a MacBook, there's nothing subtle about the FangBook's design. "CyberPowerPC wants the FangBook to stop traffic," HotHardware.com says, so it's wrapped in "what looks like space-age armor." Reminiscent of RoboCop, angular black and silver panels surround a glowing red CyberPowerPC logo on the lid. Inside, the Evo HX7-200's 17.3-inch, full 1,080p HD screen is perfect for gaming and watching Blu-ray movies. Even the audio sounds really good for a laptop, thanks to stereo speakers with an integrated subwoofer.

Support & reliability

Most improved (for desktops). In 2011 and 2012, PCMag.com surveyed its readers to find the most reliable computers. The first year, CyberPower desktops had "by far the worst repair rate of any company," but by 2012 it had soared to second place among all brands. At the time there weren't enough CyberPower laptop owners to make the ratings, and the brand doesn't appear at all in the 2013 survey. The FangBook comes with a standard 1-year warranty, plus lifetime tech support.

Value

Do you mind buying in bulk? If you're a gamer, the FangBook Evo HX7-200 has all the features you probably want. If you're looking for the most powerful gaming laptop under $2,000, look no further. But it's gargantuan. If you can do without the Blu-ray Disc drive and a few ports, you can get competitive power from the Best Reviewed Razer Blade in a 4-pound, Ultrabook-thin package that you can actually carry around.