We review products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. Terms of use. Most popular gaming laps come from a smattering of well known names: Razer, Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI. But a German company with under 100 employees, Schenker, is hoping to toughen the competition across Europe with the XMG Fusion 15 (starts at around $1750, X as tested) Schenker isn’t quite doing it alone, though; the XMG Fusion 15 is a part of the “With Intel” program, which aims to assist manufacturers in making “premium laptop[s] designed for the gaming and content creation market.” That means Intel is behind the design of the motherboard, cooling system, and firmware of this laptop. With impressive machines, such as the Razer Blade 15, firmly in its sights, the XMG Fusion 15 has no easy task ahead of it. And although we haven’t had the opportunity yet to put it through its paces in the PCMag Labs, this device may still have a way to go before it can take on an Editor’s Choice. Pro-gamer, but professional The XMG Fusion 15 gives you a straightforward setup - all in black, with metal magnesium alloy housings. One area where this laptop does come ahead of Razer is in its aesthetic; the XMG name on the device’s lid is only slightly darker than the rest of the body and as such does not stand out as much as the three-pronged neon green logo. If you’re looking to use this device in a professional environment, it’s a definite plus. There’s also a small light underneath the trackpad which can cycle through colors and glow when the device is charging; not particularly useful, granted, but it’s a neat touch and adds some character to what is otherwise a suited-and-booted, straightforward machine. It’s also an almost identical size, at 0.7 by 14 by 9.2 inches (HWD) and weighs in at 4.2 pounds which is marginally lighter than the Razer Blade 15, but not so much that you would notice a real difference when carrying it about. That doesn’t make it as light as some laptops, like the featherweight LG Gram 17, but it’s still easy enough to fit into a backpack and travel around without too much hassle. Inside is a 93 Wh battery, which Schenker says will last for eight hours of video streaming. We’ve yet to put it through its paces properly but anecdotally, I would say an average day of use (watching video, listening to music over Wi-Fi, with multiple programs running and a handful of Chrome tabs open simultaneously) while the laptop is on its most ergonomic setting gets you closer to between five or six hours than eight. The XMG Fusion 15 also comes with a strong smattering of ports: three USB-A ports, one USB-C port located at the back next to the laptop’s power supply, WLAN connection, and a HDMI 2.0 connection with HDCP 2.2 support. For cord-cutters, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 is supported as well. Software and usability While most laptops only have one or two configurations, the XMG Fusion 15 has a myriad. Our model has an Intel Core i7-9750H processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Max Q graphics card, a 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus SSD, and 16GB of memory (two 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-2666 kits), but there are options to include more or less powerful components from Kingston, Corsair, Crucial, Seagate, and Western Digital. There is also the option of choosing a cheaper graphics card, Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, to cut around $500 off this laptop’s price tag. Having the Max Q graphics card means that this laptop is, in theory, matching the Blade 15 beat for beat, and hitting the middle ground between performance and heat production. While we would need to properly benchmark the Fusion 15 against its competition in a lab environment to properly test it, playing Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare the game runs smoothly both on its Enthusiast mode (which is to be expected, as the most powerful the laptop can run) as well as its Balanced and Quiet modes, which is more impressive. At its peak, however, it’s not the quietest machine - with the fan spinning at around 50dB compared to 40dB when gaming on Quiet mode. On the Fusion 15’s screen - a 15.6” 1920x1080 display with a 144Hz refresh rate - games look quite impressive. Picture quality is sharp and the colors are vivid enough, although for preference we would like it to be a bit brighter and have a little more subtlety in the way that it handles contrast, especially as a device that’s being pitched at photo and video editors who need a portable but adept machine. When it comes to the speakers, however, that’s a different matter. Commendably, the midrange comes through clearly with solid dynamism and a fair amount of detail; if you’re using this computer for video or audio calls on Skype or Google Hangouts then voices come through loud and clear. The higher-pitched notes are also light and breezy. In the lower frequencies, unfortunately, there’s a disappointing lack of bass power. Low-pitched beats, such as those in Kanye West’s 'Jesus Walks', don’t have enough depth or power to capture the energy of the track, and even the lower-midrange of the tracks backing vocals are lacklustre. If you’re hoping to get a punchy performance from high-octane movies or explosion-heavy video games, you’ll want to invest in some good headphones or plug this laptop into a good speaker setup. The mechanical keyboard is also good, and a breeze to type on. Each key clicks satisfyingly and can be customised to light up when pressed, via the Control Centre program that comes pre-installed on the Fusion 15. There is a smattering of other effects too, such as ‘breathing’ (where the keys will eerily light up and dim as if there were a pair of mechanical lungs hidden in the chassis), ‘spark’ (which lights up clumps of keys at random) and ‘reactive’ (which lights up keys as you press them). There isn’t as much customization as we’ve seen with competing devices, but there’s enough to give this laptop a sense of individuality and Schenker says that an updated version of the program is already in the works “soon,” although it did not yet have a release date. On a Razer's edge The XMG Fusion 15 puts up a good fight. It’s speedy and powerful with a decent battery life, even though there are tweaks we would like to see made. It will be difficult for it to top the Razer Blade 15 for its high-end power, great build quality, and impressive battery life, but we look forward to it hitting the States so we can put it through its paces properly.

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