NovaCustom B.V. Reviews 136

Absolutely awful experience with this company. They sent me a laptop that had obviously not been QC'd as some of the hardware was defective. I contacted them within three days of receipt to report this and was told to open the laptop up and fix it myself. I didn't have the required tools (because why would I buy tools to fix a brand new laptop when I bought the laptop?) and asked to send it back for a refund on day 7 after receipt, well within their 14 day "no questions asked" return policy. They refused to pay for return shipping even though they had sent me a defective machine and it wasn't just me changing my mind. Spent $400 to ship it back, and they refused to give me a refund after receiving it because...wait for it...the machine wasn't working properly due to the defective hardware they installed in the first place. Highly recommend you avoid these guys.

I suddenly had to change my laptop after an upgrade that "broke" the linux graphics stack because of optimus (nvidia geforce card...)

After a lot of searching, in vain, I found the website configurelaptop.eu and then its French version pcportablesurmesure.fr. I quickly found a machine that would suit me.

I contacted Mr Wessel Klein Snakenborg, about the compatibility with my usual Gnu/Linux distribution; his answer was quick, clear and in a perfect French.

I felt so confident that I placed an order with him and entrusted him with the installation of openSUSE Leap 15.4.

I received the laptop quickly; the package was perfectly packed; the machine corresponds perfectly to my needs; the system is in conformity with my requests (partitioning and desktop environment).

Congratulations and many thanks to Mr Wessel Klein Snakenborg and Nova Custom for their excellent work.

I highly recommend Nova Custom for the quality of their products as well as for the excellent service.

Olivier BELLEUX
(France, PARIS area)

Ordered a Clevo PC50 and have been using it for around 10 months. Works perfectly.

The staff is very available for information and support.
Great experience, would recommend to anyone wanting to buy a laptop with a Linux distro.

Very attractive online shop with a large choice of hardware components, easy to use . It allows valuable simulations of different laptop configuration with a constant eye on the budget. Software installation (operating system) a kind of alpha testing validates de selected configuration before shipping. Also thank you for the very fast shipment. The product (laptop) N750WU has a nice design, devices (screen , .., wifi, network) are OK. I started my Ubuntu customization within the next hour

Seems ok. Received laptop as ordered.

Ordered a Clevo NB50TK1 after asking the owner a couple of questions regarding the configuration and quickly getting useful replies. After receiving the laptop in Denmark, it was trivial to insert an SSD and some RAM. I've owned it for a couple of days and it works fine as expected.

Very fast on responding to enquiries and excellent advice. Good choice of configuration at very competitive prices. Fast delivery

Impressive support! Very fast in dealing with an issue. Proper and polite communication. Certainly would recommend NovaCustom to anyone.

Excellent communication with the seller, fast delivery and a very well built laptop. What more could you ask for?

Responsive and good customer service, very personal! Please keep it up!
Fast delivery of top products.
I'm a satisfied customer.

Great experience overall - quick and attentive replies to questions before ordering, then they set expectations once the order was placed and fulfilled them. The computer arrived well packed and protected, exactly as ordered, and setting up was smooth. I can't speak to the durability as it's been only two days but first impressions are great.

Superservice, superlaptop.

Let me begin by saying that the perfect laptop probably doesn’t exist: every manufacturer makes mistakes. Some of the disadvantages of the computer I ordered (the N850EK1) are simply to be expected given the size, performance envelope, and price—as well as the fact that it’s a Linux laptop specifically. Some of the problems, however, could definitely be rectified, which is why I’m rating it 4 stars.

To be clear, here are the specs of the machine I ordered:
- Intel I5 8th gen, 45W.
- Nvidia GTX 1050 4GB.
- 16GB DDR4 RAM.
- Samsung 250GB PCIe SSD.
- 4K LG-Philips screen.
- Fancy backlighting for the keyboard.
- Price as configured: €1185

It’s no surprise—based on the specs—that the laptop is fast. Laptop hardware has come a long, long way since I had my first laptop 10 years ago. The graphics card will play demanding games just fine at 1080p, and even older titles at 1440p and 2160p. The SSD is fast; there’s a lot of RAM. Cooling isn’t an issue as far as temperatures, although the fans could be quieter. This machine will definitely handle editing 24MPix RAW photos for when I’m travelling and away from my desktop.

But hey, this is true for all laptops you can buy today—specs no longer matter as much as they did. What makes this laptop better than the competition?

The good:
- The machine is very repairable. No soldered SSDs or RAM slots here!
- The screen is good. Not the best, mind you, but excellent given the price point. It’s sharp; sufficiently bright; it controls reflections well; and it has good colours (93% sRGB coverage). However, contrast could be better, though this isn’t immediately obvious because of the screen’s good performance overall (I only notice it next to my superior 4K monitor). Remember: many laptops still come with crappy TN panels or substandard IPS ones. Gaming laptops at this price point have IPS as standard, but they’re rarely high DPI, and rarely cover more than 90% of sRGB.
- All hardware is supported by Linux, even function keys, backlighting and the touchpad. Oh, and High DPI scaling is pretty good with Cinnamon.
- Customer support is fast and helpful.

The bad:
- The screen assembly doesn’t rotate far enough, and it wobbles.
- Very plasticky build; I would have expected some aluminium at this price.
- Crummy battery life, but that’s to be expected.
- Although the hardware is fully supported, drivers were NOT perfect out of the box. I had to install the nvidia proprietary driver, vaapi for video decoding on Intel, and a missing OpenCL package; this should not happen on a laptop pre-installed with Linux.

The okay:
- They keyboard is good but not great. It’s better than the Apple keyboards—I bought this machine to replace my ageing MacBook Pro, and tested the crappy butterfly keyboards on the new MacBooks, so I know what I’m talking about—since it has decent travel, big arrow keys, and all those keys like hash, backslash and end which are missing on Apple laptops. Nonetheless, the overall tactile feedback doesn’t stand up to a Model M or an old Thinkpad. Bear in mind, however, that I’m a fantasy novelist—I’m very picky about these things!
- The touchpad is not as good as my old Mac. Natural scrolling and tap-to-click works, but it’s not as smooth or precise.

Overall, I’m expecting this machine to last a long time. The hardware is good for the most part, and support is prompt and useful. If you’re in the market for a Linux laptop, Snaak Systems is a viable choice. If you’re outside the Netherlands, though, I would still go with a dedicated Linux company like Entroware or System76. I would still buy from this company again, though, especially if they fix the outstanding Linux issues out of the box.

Extremely helpful. Laptop received in good condition. Troubleshooting with user done successfully.

Great company! Was quite bothersome but got great help and support! Will by again!

Very pleasant experience ordering from Snaaksystems: rich choice of hardware configuration options (much better than other Clevo retailers), free and quick delivery, and above all direct and sincere customer service. Highly recommended!

Regarding the Shop:
I would buy here again. Extremely customizable laptops by default, and via email contact you can get hardware not available in the offer. Friendly "contact", also after 30+ exchanged emails and post-sale requests.

Operating Systems:
Started with dual boot: Xubuntu and Windows 10. Now I stay 99% only with Xubuntu. For the remaining 1%, I use VirtualBox with WindowsXP or Windows10.
(Even if after the upgrade to the latest Xubuntu, manually I had to select "Built-in Audio - Profile: Analog Stereo Duplex" in "Pulse Audio Volume Control" - so the Skype and Discord could work properly).

Hardware:
* Fairtrade. Here for the same budget, you can have much better Hardware inside. (for example, in comparison to Apple or Dell small Hard Drives and limited RAM).
* Clevo 13.3 look the same as GalagoPro, Appollo, Hyperbook and few other companies and brands. Here the biggest added value of the shop - parts are much more customizable, and the shop&service location is in EU. With preinstalled Linux and/or Windows, based upon your wish.
* The screen, SSD, RAM & CPU - great & outstanding, looks like a perfect combo.
* Based on the cover - Laptop could easily stay on the same shelf as Dell, HP or MacBook. A great laptop without an imprinted logo, so when you wish you can laser print your idea on it. Edges are a bit sharp, and unfortunately, it's pretty much the same as in competitors.
* Battery - Clevo13.3 for me usually works around 4-5h. (Which is the best jump for my usage. Previously I had Thinkpad T460P with extra battery - and with my usage, I was happy if it worked more than an hour on a battery. Usually around 35-45 min. Now I'm impressed with 4-5h. Maybe it's also because of the switch from Windows 7 Pro to Xubuntu 18.04 LTS. As here, in a dual boot, Windows 10 on the same battery showed me 1h of work, where Xubuntu after reboot - 4h and 33min.)
* Keyboard - I got 2 and use 1 - Swiss German (specially ordered for me). The 2nd keyboard as a backup. I enjoy the typing experience and the "context menu" button, which is removed from several manufacturers.
* Bluetooth 5.0 - a year ago I got feedback that they can have it as soon as manufacturers will start selling it. Now it's the first Linux-Friendly company (I know) which started to sell laptops with the newest Bluetooth. (And I checked a bunch of offers between Japan, USA, Switzerland, Spain, Poland, etc.)