The blue bar only lights up when Alexa is tapped. © The Digital
The chassis of the Thomson Evo M15 Evo is monolithic in style. It is a simple block with rounded corners. The edges are specially marked and provide an unpleasant feel when handling. The black paint of our test model is sanded down with the Thomson logo in the upper right corner of the hood. Sorry for the sensitivity of the coating to fingerprints.
The Thomson M15 Evo is particularly sober. © The Digital
Opening the lid reveals a touch screen topped with an edge-to-edge finishing plate. The tone keyboard does not have a numeric keypad, but it is backlit. Its top holes are not speaker holes, but simple ventilation holes. The start button also occurs to the right of the holes. In fact, the keyboard is placed a little more in the front of the chassis, which leaves less room for a touchpad that’s not too high – but that’s a classic width.
The inside is as understated as the outside. © The Digital
During use, typing on the keyboard is comfortable and the keystroke is sufficient and well-defined. On the touchpad side, sliding is smooth, and Windows gestures are fully taken into account. On the other hand, the left and right clicks are a bit too sunken to suit our taste.
The touchpad is not long enough for a 15.6-inch laptop. © The Digital
The connectivity of the Thomson M15 Evo is provided well. There are two ThunderBolt 4 ports that support data transfer, charging, and the DisplayPort protocol. Two USB ports (10 Gbit/s), an HDMI 2.0 port, and a mini-jack complete this nearly perfect connection, which is ultimately only lacking in a memory card reader.
Conductors are located on each side. © The Digital
Unsurprisingly, wireless connectivity is charged with an Intel AX201 chip that supports 2400Mbps wifi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. The webcam has a 720p sensor and is compatible with Windows Hello thanks to its infrared sensors. The display is good in good lighting and gets very noisy in a darker environment.
The cooling system of the Thomson M15 Evo consists of two fans, two radiators and two heat pipes. Thomson (or Intel) saw a large size, which makes it possible to maintain very correct temperatures on the keyboard side. During our encoder testing, we noticed just under 41 degrees Celsius among the fans at 6/F7 keys. The rest of the computers stay relatively cool: less than 30°C on each end of the keyboard and just over 25°C on the touchpad.
Noise pollution is also low (34.8 dB in normal mode) and resembles a slight, audible hiss, but not to the point of disturbing your outdoor neighbors. Performance and ventilation management is left entirely to Windows. Thus, the performance mode makes it possible to release ventilation that is then highly reactive and noisy, to achieve gains in anecdotal performance.
The temperature rise was contained. © The Digital
To access the interior of the Thomson M15 Evo, you must remove the 7 Torx screws and gently unscrew the cover. Once the cover is removed, the wifi card and SSD can be removed, while the RAM is soldered. The battery can also be replaced if necessary. Thomson gave us a repairability index of 7.5/10.
Only SSD, wifi card and battery can be replaced. © The Digital
performance
The Thomson M15 Evo has an Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor with 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD; Rocket Lake Eleventh Wizard. Which therefore begins to date (end of 2020). Therefore it does not benefit from the hybrid architecture introduced with the twelfth gene cores. It has 4 interlocking cores that can reach 4.20GHz and has an adjustable thermocouple from 12 to 28W.
Performance index (bigger is better). © The Digital
This brings him to a performance index of 78 which is starting to pale in comparison to the competition.
However, the Thomson M15 Evo will handle office use without any problem. When you require it a little more, for example in photo editing or video processing, it becomes worth it. Fortunately, it’s well backed by a Samsung PM9A1 SSD – the equivalent of a 980 Pro – which clocks in at 6.36 GB/s in reading and 4.63 GB/s in writing.
For video game use, the integrated Iris Xe chipset does not perform miracles; You will have to settle for dated games or lower the level of detail drastically to get an acceptable frame rate.
Monitor
The Thomson M15 Evo’s display consists of a 15.6-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. Its integration is neat, especially with the glass panel and its thin edge – the lower border is slightly wider.
The glossy finish of the board is prone to reflections. © The Digital
Our probe measured delta E 2.7, which is less than 3, thus a guarantee of true colors. Color temperature (6737 K) is also close to the video standard value (6500 K). Contrast is also good for an IPS panel (1469:1), although we’re still a long way from the perfect blacks for an Oled panel.
We simply regret the 30ms lingering, which results in under-cursor or shadows when moving windows. Similarly, the reflectivity of the panel is high (48.5% of the reflected light) and the brightness of the panel (446 cd/m²) is not resistant to reflections, especially outdoors.
Beware of Intel video drivers that have Local Adaptive Contrast Enhancement enabled by default. Combined with the light sensor located next to the webcam, it increases contrast when the computer is in a bright environment, especially when viewing dark content. This option, designed before the arrival of dark mode, causes lines to smudge and deteriorate color gradations by artificially increasing contrast. So avoid…
Mobility / Autonomy
The Thomson M15 Evo displays fairly standard dimensions (35.5 x 23 cm) for a 15.6-inch computer. Its thickness is limited to 1.49 cm despite the large non-slip pads. Understands a weight of 1.65 kg without the 330 g of the 65W USB-C charger, so the set can be transported quite easily in a backpack.
The 65W charger is compact, but we would have done without the mains cable. © The Digital
The M15 Evo is out of the game thanks to a great autonomy: exactly 10 hours 17 minutes on our usual protocol (screen at 200 cd / m², reading Netflix under Chrome). So he will be able to get away from an outlet during the working day. The 73W battery and low processor consumption (28W) are the makers of this performance.
The Thomson Evo offers a great deal of autonomy. © The Digital
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