The Dream Machines RG4060-15UA46 gaming laptop is the most unique model I’ve reviewed in years. It pleasantly surprised me because laptops like this have been rare lately.
It’s because when I was choosing a laptop for myself some time ago, I had VERY specific and unusual requirements. Someone unfamiliar with my workflow would never understand my selection criteria and why I overpaid. Traditionally speaking, I did indeed overpay. Although my laptop has already paid for itself several times over.
So, the Dream Machines RG4060-15UA46 earns my respect for being such a specialized laptop, just not for me, but for someone else. In theory, it could even fit certain tasks of mine, but as you can see, it’s on a completely different vector.
Specifications
- Model Clevo: V350SNDQ
- Screen: 15,6″ FHD (1920×1080), 144 Hz
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX4060 8GB, 105 W
- CPU: Intel Core i9-14900HX
- RAM: 32 GB (DDR5, 4800 MHz)
- Maximum amount of RAM: 64 GB
- RAM slots (All/Available): 2/0
- M.2 slots (All/Available): 3/2
- Network: Wi-Fi 6E (AX211/RZ608)
- Dimensions: 361.0×248.5×24.9 mm
- Weight: ~2.25 kg
- Ports: 1×USB 3.2 Gen 1 port (Type A) / 1×USB 3.2 Gen 2 port (Type A) / 1×USB 3.2 Gen 2 port (Type C) with Power Delivery DC-in, HDMI
- Battery: 53.35 Wh
Video review of Dream Machines RG4060-15UA46
Market positioning
The Dream Machines RG4060-15UA46 and the OEM model Clevo V350SNDQ with an Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, RTX 4060 8GB graphics card, 32GB RAM, and 1TB NVMe SSD are priced around $1800 or slightly less than €1700.
Competitors with RTX 4060 cost either the same or slightly less, and for $1970 you can get a laptop with RTX 4070. You can, but not necessarily should. Plus, the cost of the RG4060-15UA46 can be explained and justified – and I have ALREADY provided you with all the information that can help you.
Package contents
It’s standard, as expected from Dream Machines. The laptop itself is packed in soft, foamed polypropylene, with minimal plastic packaging. The set includes a universal manual, a 230W charger, and a set of spacers and thermal pads for the M.2 SSD.
I emphasize the universality of the manual as a drawback since it doesn’t specify the laptop’s peripherals. For example, it doesn’t clarify the version of USB Type-A or Type-C. The manual lists ALL versions at once.
Appearance
However, it looks like a very nice model. In general, all the Dream Machines laptops I’ve had on my desk can be described as “honest”. The Dream Machines RG4060-15UA46 has a gaming design, aggressive and well-made.
The lid is matte, with a white logo in the center that can be felt by touch. The top part of the body is black, the bottom is gray, and there are carbon fiber elements on the sides.
There are distinct design elements featuring diagonal lines, mainly for cooling perforations, located on the sides and bottom. The edges are smooth, with almost no sharp corners. The lid collects fingerprints, but they can be easily wiped off.
The laptop passes the MacBook test without issues; the lid does not flex down enough to press on the keyboard, and the display tilts back to 130 degrees.
The peripherals are located on the sides and the back, which I really appreciate. The touchpad is small, and the keyboard includes a numeric keypad. The laptop’s dimensions are 361.0×248.5×24.9 mm, and it weighs 2.25 kg.
Display
The display of this particular model is a 15.6-inch FHD 144 Hz with a PPI of 142. It has around 100% sRGB color coverage, which is about 70% DCI-P3, and a Delta E >2. This means you can easily use this display for both gaming and video editing. However, I should note that the maximum brightness is 300 nits.
Capacity
This is where the specialization of the Dream Machines RG4060-15UA46 becomes evident. Despite its gaming appearance, this laptop is designed for work. The component set is not as advantageous for gaming but is significantly more beneficial for certain professional applications. And I don’t mean those that require a Quadro.
How do I know this? Because for gaming, the video card is the primary requirement, not the processor. This laptop’s system works the other way around. It is suitable for gaming, yes, but it clearly has a “higher purpose.” The Intel Core i9-14900HX processor is the best mobile processor of Intel’s 14th generation, which is overkill for gaming.
Yes, it has 8 powerful cores, 16 energy-efficient cores, totaling 32 threads. It also features a boost frequency of up to 5.8 GHz, with a base frequency of around 2 GHz, and 36 MB of smart cache. However, the main point is that under almost any load, it consumes SIGNIFICANTLY more power than even the Core i7 of the same lineup.
This means that the Intel Core i9-14900HX processor is configured with power settings that are by no means economical. It’s important to understand this because the Dream Machines RG4060-15UA46 is essentially a rendering station disguised as a gaming laptop. The 32 GB of RAM also supports this, despite its base frequency of 4800 MT/s.
It’s also important to understand that the 15UA46 performs well in games. It features an RTX 4060, and the fact that in both gaming and work tasks the processor consumes as much or even more power than the graphics card does not imply that the graphics card is underpowered or inefficient.
Here, it has 8 GB of video memory, DLSS 3.5, and hardware support for modern video codecs. For my work specifically, the RTX 4060 is just as suitable as any other graphics card with 8 GB of memory.
Internal structure
Under the laptop’s hood, there are three fans, between 3 to 4 heat pipes, two SO-DIMM slots, a Wi-Fi slot with a network card, and a total of 3 slots for M.2 SSDs.
Certainly, the laptop comes with a one-terabyte model from Silicon Power, which uses PCIe 3.0. But here’s a spoiler: you don’t necessarily need a PCIe 4.0 SSD for work. Sometimes, all you need is storage capacity.
Cooling
The Dream Machines RG4060-15UA46 is not silent, but it is not loud either, and even under intense synthetic tests, it was far from overheating. It had a significant margin before reaching overheating temperatures, and in games, temperature concerns are generally not something to worry about. The initial temperature spike before the fans ramp up to higher speeds will only be statistically noticeable.
However, I must note that I couldn’t get it to operate completely silently at 100%. Even in the maximum quiet mode, the fan responsible for the processor always runs at a speed of at least 1500 RPM. In manual mode, the fan speed starts from 0 but increases by a minimum of 1% every 10 degrees.
Peripherals and data transfer
The peripherals include a Type-A 5 Gbps port and a combo jack, as well as a Kensington lock on the left side. At the back, there’s a full-size HDMI port, power input, USB Type-C 10 Gbps with DisplayPort support, and a gigabit RJ-45 port.
On the right side, there’s a Type-A 5 Gbps port and a Type-C 10 Gbps port with DisplayPort and charging support. The Wi-Fi is powered by the Intel AX211 network card, ensuring Wi-Fi 6E MU-MIMO support and Bluetooth 5.3 capabilities.
Keyboard and touchpad
The laptop is equipped with a full-size scissor keyboard with one additional Fn button, but without unnecessary experiments with the layout. The backlight is RGB and has three brightness levels.
I’ll note that the power button has a delayed press, reducing the likelihood of accidentally turning off the laptop. However, this function cannot be disabled even in the proprietary software. The touchpad is basic, offset, small, and clicks from the bottom rather than the top.
Software
The proprietary software, Control Center, is accessed by pressing Fn + Slash on the numeric keypad and cannot be found by searching for programs in Windows. If you’re unfamiliar with how to locate it, you might stumble upon it accidentally, as there’s no mention of it in the instructions.
In my opinion, the program itself seems stuck halfway to what I would consider adequate and is far from what I would call ideal. It includes airplane mode switches, a manual MUX switch, three power profile modes, battery settings, backlight adjustments, and even macros.
However, fine-tuning power settings for the processor or graphics card is impossible. Fine-tuning fan speed is possible but inconvenient. I was also surprised by the absence of a “update center,” which is typically found in modern laptops’ proprietary software.
Battery life
I always leave the battery life discussion for last because my logic is as follows: no matter how great your laptop model is, how impressive the processor, graphics card, or screen are, and no matter how advanced the software or Wi-Fi module is, none of these components will work without a battery. Well, they might function as a desktop PC, but when I review a laptop, I consider the device as intended.
I’m sharing this because battery life is an issue with the Dream Machines RG4060-15UA46, and it’s related to three things. Firstly, the battery capacity is just a little over 50 watt-hours. This is a basic level for a modern laptop; 75 watt-hours would be adequate, and 99 watt-hours would be ideal.
In addition to the capacity, the Intel Core i9-14900HX is not capable of operating as energy efficiently as even the Core i7 from a previous review. Coupled with the inability to finely tune the processor’s power for specific tasks, these factors contribute to the following results.
In the PCMark Battery Test, under the Video mode with the base power profile and 50% screen brightness, the laptop lasted only about 1.5 hours. After switching to the power-saving mode and disabling the RTX GPU, this figure increased to 2 hours and 30 minutes. In the same power profile, during the Office Work test, it lasted for 3 hours and 30 minutes.
I’m not sure how to explain this result. On one hand, playing video should logically be less demanding than typing text, so the result should have been the opposite. On the other hand, the device issued a notification about the video core stopping during one of the tests. I haven’t noticed glitches like this in games or other programs.
Also, note that PCMark tests on this specific Dream Machines model automatically stopped at 20% battery capacity, although typically they should stop, if I’m not mistaken, at 5%. Therefore, theoretically, you might have an additional 10-20 minutes of work time in reserve. Will this autonomy affect the final assessment?
No, because Dream Machines RG4060-15UA46 should be considered a workstation in the first place. The processor alone at full power can drain the battery in half an hour. But sometimes this can be enough to complete a project. And let me remind you that the laptop is charged via Type-C.
Summary
This is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It’s a workstation, with all the advantages and disadvantages of its form factor, sold at the cost of a gaming laptop. As a gaming laptop, this model is completely unbalanced; here, the processor is ‘conditionally’ twice as powerful as the graphics card, although it should be the opposite.
But rendering on the processor is still used by many engines in various programs, and as far as I know, this pays off well. And you don’t necessarily need a full workstation – a laptop can handle it.
Also, if you need to store a lot of data on SSD, if you need significantly more RAM out of the box than honest gaming models can provide. If you need a model that’s more or less quiet and won’t suffer from overheating – then I can’t imagine anything better than the Dream Machines RG4060-15UA46. So yes, not for everyone, but highly recommended.
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