Colorful Evol P15 23 review: a VFM laptop trying to make a name for itself

Review Summary

Expert Rating
8.0/10

Design
★  
7.0
/10
Display
★  
8.0
/10
Performance
★  
8.0
/10
Battery
★  
6.5
/10
Gaming
★  
8.5
/10
Connectivity
★  
7.5
/10

Pros

  • Good performance
  • Easy upgradability
  • Ample connectivity options
  • Excellent value for money

Cons

  • Battery life could have been better
  • Dubious service

Colorful has been around for a couple of decades, including in India, and is primarily known for its desktop GPUs. However, the brand has recently entered the super-competitive budget gaming laptop market in India, and its EVOL series is definitely something worth considering. Take a look at the Evol P15 we have right here. For about 65K, the laptop offers an i5-12450H processor, the latest RTX 4050 graphics, and plenty of upgradability.

That being said, the laptop brings unclear promotional material, some quality control issues, and several question marks over its service and reliability. So, should you jump past those doubts and still splurge for this budget gaming laptop? Let’s find out in our in-depth Colorful EVOL P15 Review.

Design and Display

Starting with the design, Colorful refers to the laptop’s design as a Retro-Futuristic concept. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but the laptop definitely looks modern and unique. Our review unit comes in the Cloud White colourway, though there are Carbon Grey and Steel Blue colour variants too. The lid features the Colorful branding, with a reflective strip above it. Just to be clear, there are no RGB lights here which some viewers might assume. Instead, it’s a purely reflective strip, which can display a myriad of different colours depending upon the angle and quality of light thrown its way.



As for the chassis itself, it’s primarily a plastic build. Credit where it’s due though, Colorful has done a decent job in ensuring minimal flex, at least around the keyboard area. The display does exhibit some wobbling and is easy to twist without much pressure. Then again, that is something to be expected at this price point.



Moving to the display, as the name suggests, the P15 comes with a 15.6-inch 1080p display. It’s an IPS panel, thanks to which the viewing angles are great. The panel itself also comes with 100 percent sRGB and 72 percent NTSC coverage, which works very well for content creators for editing. As for the general consumer, this essentially means that you can enjoy your movies and TV shows without any issues.



Of course, it’s a budget laptop, so some cost-cutting had to be done. The panel doesn’t support HDR but offers a decent contrast ratio so one can still enjoy movies as well as games. Speaking of which, the panel’s 144Hz refresh rate is in line with its competition, and I faced no issues enjoying games at the higher refresh rate.

Ports, Audio and I/O

Moving along, the laptop comes with a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port coupled with a USB-A 2.0 and a 3.5mm combo jack on the left side. Over to the right side, there are dual USB 3.2 Gen2 ports, one in USB-A and the other in USB-C form. Finally, over to the back side, the laptop comes with an RJ45 LAN port, a full-sized HDMI port, and a Mini DP 1.4 port as well.



It’s interesting to see that the laptop comes with a Mini DP port as well, considering a full-sized HDMI port is already included. I noticed some other reviewers mentioning that the HDMI port doesn’t work with the dedicated GPU and only outputs via the Integrated Intel GPU. Thankfully, that was not the case on my unit, with the HDMI port perfectly outputting to an external 4K display.



As for the audio, the bottom-firing speakers sound decent and can be tuned for extra finesse via the Creative audio app that’s included. They don’t get super loud but should suffice for basic media consumption.



The P15 also comes with a 720p webcam at the top, which again, is quite basic. The picture is quite grainy and requires plenty of lighting to produce an acceptable result. Colorful does include a software-level Camera shutter for those worried about privacy though.

Keyboard and Trackpad

Next up, there’s the keyboard, which is a full-sized keyboard with a proper number pad as well. The font is easy to read, and the keys are well-spaced, making the layout easy to adapt to. The feedback can be best described as mush, though I mean that in a positive way. There’s enough feedback to let you know the key has been registered, without the clicky sound that most budget keyboards have.



The keyboard also features single-zone RGB lighting, though the customisability is quite limited. You only get to choose from a handful of colours, and there are no animations or effects available. You can, however, set a timer for the keyboard lighting, as well as choose from 5 levels of brightness.



As for the touchpad below it, the surface isn’t as smooth as one would like. As a result, I constantly found my finger facing a lot of friction, and the experience wasn’t delightful by any means. Then again, it’s a gaming laptop, and the touchpad will suffice for basic tasks, with most users using a gaming mouse at the end of the day.

Software

Colorful also includes a Control Center application, which can be triggered via the Fn+Esc key combo. Similar to the software control on most gaming laptops, the Control Center allows the user to easily switch the fan profiles and power modes, alongside added controls for system functions. You can also switch between the dedicated GPU and a Hybrid switch from here.

Control Center - Colorful P15 23 Review

Other than that, you can change the keyboard lighting as I mentioned, and also create custom macros. The Control Center also offers a FlexiCharger setting, which lets you set custom charging limits for the battery. This does help in extending the battery’s overall health, so it’s nice of Colorful to add this feature. As for additional goodies, there’s no Microsoft Office license or Xbox Game Pass trial included with the laptop.

Performance and Battery Life

Under the hood, our unit comes with an Intel Core i5-12450H processor coupled with a single stick of 16GB DDR5 RAM clocked at 4800MHz. There’s the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU with a max TGP of 100W, and a 512GB WD SN540 NVMe SSD. That’s a PCIe Gen3 SSD, which isn’t that fast, to be honest. From Steam downloads to normal extracting big ZIP files, the SSD would easily reach 100 percent usage, at which point the laptop definitely would stutter a bit.



The good news is that there’s an additional M.2 slot with support for Gen4 SSDs. Similarly, there’s an additional RAM slot as well, and Colorful claims one can upgrade the RAM to a whopping 64GB if desired. Then again, considering the specifications, anything over 32GB would be an overkill.



As for the performance, the RTX 4050 coupled with the 12th-gen i5 processor does output very well, punching well above its weight. Considering that this is a laptop for around the 60K price tag, the laptop’s Cinebench R24 single and multi-core scores of 100 and 650 respectively are very good. Along similar lines are the laptop’s GeekBench scores of 2288 in single-core and 8524 in multi-core.

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra - Colorful P15 23 Review
3DMark Time Spy Extreme - Colorful P15 23 Review
Cinebench R23 - Colorful P15 23 Review
Cinebench R24 - Colorful P15 23 Review
GeekBench - Colorful P15 23 Review
PCMark10 - Colorful P15 23 Review
PCMark10 Extended - Colorful P15 23 Review
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For comparison, the Acer ALG also comes fitted with the same processor, but an older generation GPU. As you can see, when comparing the two, the Colorful P15 performs significantly better. That said, it’s quite obvious that the P15 benefits mostly from the newer GPU, as evident by the massive gains in 3DMark results.

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme
PCMark
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Speaking of which, the 100W-rated RTX 4050 performs very well for 1080p gaming too. Most AAA titles can easily run at 100 FPS on High settings while switching to the Ultra preset drops them to 60-70 FPS. That said, the real benefit is for games that support DLSS. Titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Alan Wake 2 were easily able to breach the 100 FPS mark on Ultra with DLLS enabled. As for competitive gaming, Apex Legends manages to hit the 144 FPS mark to sync well with the 144Hz refresh rate, while less demanding titles like Valorant and Rocket League go way past that.

Cyberpunk 2077 - Colorful P15 23 Review
Forza Horizon 5 - Colorful P15 23 Review
Valorant - Colorful P15 23 Review
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As for cooling, the dual-fan setup offers decent cooling, but it’s not uncommon for the laptop to reach the 95-degree Celsius mark within 15 minutes of gaming. The fans do get noticeably loud, so one will have to invest in a pair of gaming headphones while gaming on the P15. And while you’re at it, we’d also recommend investing in a good laptop cooling pad. While your mileage will vary, the mesh chassis underneath the laptop should aid the cooling pad well.

In terms of battery life, the laptop comes with a 54WHr battery, which isn’t a lot considering the chassis does leave room for a bigger battery. Nonetheless, the laptop managed to last over 4 hours in PCMark 10 battery test, which is a little below what you’d expect from a gaming laptop in this segment.



Finally, for charging, the laptop comes with a beefy 180W charger, and there’s no support for USB Type-C charging.

Verdict

As configured, the Colorful Evol P15 will cost you Rs. 63,990 in India. There’s also the i7 + RTX 4060 variant, which costs around 80K, but that’s a different story. Speaking strictly for the RTX 4050 variant that we have with us, for its price, the Colorful Evol P15 is an absolute steal. The 12th-gen Intel processor is still pretty solid, especially for gaming, and the RTX 4050 GPU offers excellent gaming performance on 1080p, which is further enhanced with DLSS. Down the line, one can invest in another stick of RAM, possibly a Gen4 SSD, and a cooling pad for even better performance.

While all that is good, a laptop is a lot more than its specifications. Even though Colorful has been catering to Indian audiences for a long time, most of its service centres are outsourced. As a result, there are plenty of mixed reviews for their customer service. Additionally, while our unit has been working well without any issues, a noticeable number of users have reported their machines to be faulty and not working within days of purchase. Not to forget that there’s no mention of the i5 model on the official website, and there’s a noticeable disparity in the specifications of the i7 variant as well.

So, at the end of the day, is the Colorful P15 23-HE55D16512A-W-IND worth it? Despite its red flags, the majority of users, including us, are happy with their purchase. The laptop’s performance is better than that of its competitors, and it comes at a much more affordable price tag. The one suggestion that I’d give is that if you buy the laptop, make sure to test it thoroughly in the initial days, using set benchmarks, to know that it’s performing as intended. Returning a laptop via Flipkart is much easier compared to reaching out to Colorful to get an RMA done.

Editor’s rating: 8 / 10

Pros:

  • Good performance
  • Easy upgradability
  • Ample connectivity options
  • Excellent value for money

Cons:

  • Battery life could have been better
  • Dubious service

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