While I primarily write about Android, apps, and occasionally Vision Pro, I’ve been deeply immersed in gaming for years. That’s why reviewing gaming laptops like the MSI Stealth 14 Studio A13V brings me immense joy. So, when Colorful launched its Evol P15 series of laptops in India, I decided to review it. The lineup seemed so intriguing that AzmoTech ended up purchasing the base variant from Flipkart. Little did we know that this Colorful laptop would lead us into a frustrating experience. Here’s what happened.
With introductory bank offers, the variant cost us just Rs. 62,539, while the regular price is Rs. 69,990. It features the Intel Core i5 12th Gen 12450H CPU, 6GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD. All of this at that price seemed unbelievable. So, we placed the order on April 25 and eagerly awaited its arrival.
The Laptop Arrived on April 30 and It Wouldn’t Turn On
When it arrived, we were excited to set it up quickly and start gaming. But, guess what? The laptop wouldn’t turn on. Like anyone in this situation, we disconnected and reconnected the charger multiple times and even kept it connected for a while before trying again. It still didn’t work. It was officially time to replace the laptop. On the same day, April 30, we placed the replacement request on Flipkart.
Replacement Request Was Denied on May 1
The next day, a Flipkart representative arrived to process the replacement request. However, it turned out that the serial number of the laptop we received didn’t match the one listed on the invoice. What a surprise! Consequently, the replacement request was denied. After spending a considerable amount of time on the phone with Flipkart, they acknowledged their mistake (I suppose) and agreed to replace the product on May 3rd.
Replacement Laptop Arrived on May 6 But…
Upon receiving the replacement unit, we conducted thorough research and extensively used the laptop. It performed admirably, offering great value for money. We ran benchmarks, played games, and typed extensively on its solid keyboard. The design was appealing, and the build quality was surprisingly good for the price. However, our positive experience took a turn on May 7th.
During testing, Saurabh, one of my researchers, shut down the laptop after running benchmarks. When he tried to restart it an hour later, the laptop booted into Windows Recovery Environment. This was alarming, akin to the dreaded Windows blue screen of death.
The situation worsened when, after selecting “Turn off the System” on the troubleshooting page, the laptop displayed a “Default Boot Device Missing or Boot Failed” error message upon restart. This led us to the BIOS homepage, where we confirmed that the SSD and its data were intact. However, the laptop was unable to boot Windows from it, which was incredibly perplexing. Once again, we were left with an unusable laptop.
It’s May 18 and We’re Still Left With an Unusable Unit
On May 7th, we reached out to the Colorful Service Centre and were informed that our issue had been escalated to the brand. They assured us that a technician would promptly visit to fix our laptop, but unfortunately, no estimated date was provided.
Two days later, on May 9th, with no technician in sight, we contacted the brand’s service center again to follow up on our complaint. To our dismay, the service representative stated that no complaint had been registered under the number we used to contact them. This was puzzling, as it was the exact same number we had previously used to file the complaint.
Undeterred, we provided a different number to file the complaint this time. However, the response was unexpected. The service center personnel informed us that a service request had already been placed with that number. This left us utterly confused, as there seemed to be no logical explanation for this discrepancy. It appeared that either we were being led in circles or there was a serious communication breakdown on their end.
After some discussion about the issue and our insistence that the fault lay elsewhere, the service center agreed to file a new request. However, even this time, they did not automatically provide us with a complaint ID. We had to specifically request one from them, and I remain skeptical about the validity of this so-called ID.
I’m Disappointed, Colorful
While the complaint has been registered (hopefully) this time, I have a lingering sense of unease about it. We are likely to return the unit and get a refund, something we have rarely had to do even with the most dubious of gadgets we’ve purchased (and we’ve purchased quite a few). Out of the 13 days since the laptop was delivered, we’ve only been able to use it for about a day, which is incredibly frustrating.
As of May 18th, no one from Colorful has visited us to repair the laptop.
Such an experience from a brand that is fairly well-known in gaming circles (albeit for their GPUs) is unexpected, to say the least, and frankly, quite horrifying. Needless to say, I won’t be recommending a Colorful laptop to anyone unless they are prepared to risk experiencing a spectacular tech failure.
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