ThunderTron ST-R1 laptop review: A small screen can also have high-end features, with a small but powerful aesthetic!

In the current gaming laptop market, many manufacturers define gaming laptops as having a large screen. 15-inch computers are only standard screens for current gaming laptops, and products with 15-inch and 17-inch sizes are undoubtedly the mainstream. However, after launching its own 911 series computers, Thunder Technology suddenly chose to go against the trend and launched the 14-inch small-screen gaming laptop, Thunder ST-R1, which is known as the "small steel cannon", in contrast to the characteristics of the 911 series brand.

Thunder Technology describes the birth of this notebook as a gaming notebook created by integrating the needs of the majority of gamers and its own fans. Thunder itself is a fan-driven gaming notebook company, and now it has suddenly launched this compact gaming notebook. So is this Thunder ST-R1 really a notebook that can meet higher gaming needs?

The compact appearance casts the name of the small steel cannon

Thundergod ST-R1 is the first 14-inch small-screen gaming laptop under Thundergod Technology. Judging from the product model, this may be the first work in the new gaming laptop series of Thundergod laptops. Nevertheless, when Thundergod ST-R1 appears on the table, we can see that its shape and style have absorbed some characteristics of its own 911 series brand. The gray all-metal back design with clear angular lines is quite powerful, and combined with the sports car design inherited from the 911 series, the appearance is quite tough.

But the powerful body is not heavy. The 14-inch screen makes the whole machine light. The official claims that the ST-R1 weighs only 1.98kg, but the actual weight may vary from machine to machine. This weight is quite gratifying for gamers who often travel with their laptops, and the body thickness of only 24.7mm also adds a lot to the portability of this gaming laptop.

On the left side of the body, there are two Mini DisplayPort interfaces, an HDMI interface, a USB 3.0 interface, a USB 3.1 Type-C interface and a set of audio input and output interfaces.

The right side is simply equipped with a USIM card reader and an all-in-one card reader, two Powered USB 3.0 ports and an RJ-45 network cable port.

Since the power interface of ST-R1 is located in the middle of the back of the keyboard and there is no optical drive, the interfaces are arranged evenly around it, which ensures the traditional interface usage habits of players while avoiding the disadvantage of densely arranged interfaces on many small-screen computers.

This gaming laptop has another unique highlight. The ST-R1's built-in speaker is placed in the center of the laptop's hinge, designed like a mini speaker. When players use the laptop's external speaker function, they can still get a listening experience close to that of a speaker.

The heat dissipation design of Thundergod ST-R1 is also quite unique. The two heat dissipation outlets at the bottom cover nearly a quarter of the bottom of the notebook, and there are 4 auxiliary heat dissipation outlets on the left and right of the power interface. This design that emphasizes heat dissipation is obviously in line with the wishes of enthusiasts.

Thunder ST-R1 uses a 1080P IPS matte screen made by AUO. The visual effect at the four corners of the screen of the ST-R1 in my hand is not very good, and the picture is slightly oversaturated. Perhaps due to cost control considerations, this 14-inch display is not ideal.

If we don't discuss the issue of whether the screen size affects the gaming experience, then the appearance of this ThunderST-R1 can be completely called an authentic gaming notebook, and the design of the external speaker and heat dissipation port also reflects Thunder Technology's listening to the voices of players.

Experience the concentrated essence, trial play is the only criterion for testing the truth

As we all know, the performance of a laptop is limited to a certain extent by its size. Compared with 15-inch or even 17-inch large-screen laptops, will the insufficient space of the Thundergod ST-R1 be greatly affected, thereby reducing the hardware performance requirements of the laptop?

In fact, the Thundergod ST-R1 is equipped with the sixth-generation Core i7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M graphics card, 8G memory and a hard drive combination of 128GB Samsung SSD + 500GB Seagate HDD, so we cannot say anything about the performance of the Thundergod ST-R1.

Considering that it is a dedicated gaming laptop, ST-R1 chose to give up some hard disk storage space in a small space. For the common combination of 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD, ST-R1 did not blindly pursue high data like them. Gamers do not have such high requirements for hard disk space, and 128GB SSD is already luxurious enough for the system disk.

In terms of CPU/GPU, which is more important to gamers, the Core i7-6700HQ is already the top configuration of mobile CPU, and the GTX 965M is also the top graphics card configuration below the enthusiast GPU of the mobile platform. Compared with the 911 series equipped with the sixth-generation Core i7 processor + GTX 970M graphics card, the ST-R1 is only slightly inferior in graphics card, but both graphics cards belong to the second-generation Maxwell architecture, and are on the same level in terms of technology.

It can be said that this new product from Thunder, which claims to have listened to the suggestions of players and fans extensively, has indeed been carefully considered in design. Taking into account the requirements put forward by various players, such as controlling the price, reflecting the cost-effectiveness, and ensuring the quality of the game, the answer sheet submitted by ST-R1 can already be rated as excellent.

Of course, in actual use, the performance of this gaming laptop is the final basis for judging its quality. For this purpose, we prepared the currently very popular multi-platform large-scale game "GTA5" for experience.

After actual game experience testing, the ThunderTron ST-R1 has an overall stable FPS of 58 frames/s when running GTA5 with the highest image quality. After 1 hour and 20 minutes of light use and about half an hour of playing GTA5, the CPU temperature was 51 degrees Celsius and the GPU temperature was 48 degrees Celsius during the game, and they were stable at this value.

Even when there are large explosions and intense battles, the game still remains stable and smooth. I believe that such actual test results are more vivid than directly using running score data.

We then tested the battery life of the Thunderobot ST-R1. After playing a 1080P HD animation for 2 hours, the Thunderobot ST-R1 only had 15% of its battery left. Perhaps the small-screen gaming laptop has to compromise on battery life for overall performance in order to meet higher performance requirements. The HD video playback time of about 2 hours and 20 minutes is not considered excellent.

Fans are power, and 14 inches is not in vain

As the only notebook product selected for the 5.18 Tmall Customization Festival, it will be launched at the Tmall customized initial price of 5888 RMB. However, the greatest significance of launching the Thundergod ST-R1 this time is probably not to expand its own small-screen market. The real significance of the Thundergod ST-R1 is to know how to communicate with players, refer to the needs of brand audiences in the most direct way, and respond to these needs in a relatively comprehensive way.

Perhaps in terms of performance and ultimate experience, ST-R1 is still a little behind high-end products. For example, it is said that ST-R1 can only play the most basic VR games, and GTX 965M is not a high-end graphics card. But there is no doubt that the Thundergod ST-R1, which is priced at 7,000 RMB, is a gaming laptop that many players are in urgent need of, because this is the significance of the birth of ST-R1.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.