New article: Review of the Digma Pro Fortis M laptop: studying more conveniently, working more efficiently

Right now, hundreds of thousands of applicants have sent their exam results to universities in our vast country, and many of them are undergoing additional tests. The period is very exciting and time-consuming, since there are many times fewer places in the “tower” applicants. But soon the lucky ones will be puzzled by the choice of a reliable assistant in their studies for five or even seven years at once. Of course, we mean a laptop for studying and, probably, further work. And here, whatever one may say, we see the most convenient models with a 17-inch screen and a full-size keyboard with a numeric keypad. In addition, such a laptop must be fast enough, autonomous and inexpensive. This is exactly the model offered by Digma - Pro Fortis M (DN17P7-ADXW01). Yes, this laptop is not based on the cutting-edge Meteor Lake processor and cannot boast of an OLED display, but it has almost everything you need to become one of the options for purchase. We will tell you about the features of the laptop, its advantages and disadvantages in today's material.

⇡#Contents of delivery

Digma Pro Fortis M comes in a compact box made of thick glossy cardboard. On the front it shows the laptop itself in an open form, and on the end you can see the name of the series.

The back of the box is not so colorful and contains a sticker with the laptop configuration, equipment and information about the manufacturer.

Included with the laptop you can find a power adapter with a USB Type-C cable, a set of screws for installing a SATA drive, a warranty card and a user manual.

The Fortis M series of laptops with a 17,3-inch screen includes seven models, differing from each other in processors, amount and type of RAM, and possibly some other nuances. Therefore, the cost of laptops in this series varies significantly. For example, for the version with the younger Intel Core i3-1005G1 and 8 GB LPDDR4x (DN17P3-8DXW01) you will need to pay a little less than 40 thousand rubles, while the older model (DN17P7-ADXW01), which was sent to us for testing, will cost almost 68 thousand rubles. But the main thing here is that there is a choice for any needs and financial capabilities. Let us add that Digma Pro laptops are manufactured in China and are provided with a one-year warranty.

⇡#Technical specifications

⇡#Case design and ergonomics

The design of Digma Pro Fortis M can be called ordinary, without any frills. The dark gray body is made primarily of plastic, but the lid is metal. The body panels bend when pressed, but do not emit any parasitic squeaks.

The case dimensions are 401,5 × 260 × 28 mm with a total weight of 2,23 kg - quite standard characteristics for a 17,3-inch laptop.

At the same time, the thickness of the case without legs is 20 mm, and along the leading edge it is completely equal to 14,5 mm. In other words, with all its parameters, the laptop does not give the impression of a bulky device.

In the center of the case cover there is an upward arrow, which turns into the letter V when the device is turned over. The surface of the case does not mark, fingerprints do not remain on it.

On the bottom of the case we will note two ventilation grilles and the marking of the laptop model.

There is also a hatch for installing a 2,5-inch SSD drive (or HDD).

It’s convenient that the storage capacity can be increased without opening the entire laptop case.

The height of the rear rubber foot of the laptop is 8 mm, and the front legs are no more than 3 mm high, so the working panel of the laptop is tilted towards the user, which makes typing more convenient.

At the front end there is a recess for conveniently picking up the lid with your fingers, and at the back we will note a small ventilation grille.

All ports are located on the side ends of the laptop case.

On the left are: the power connector, HDMI 1.4 video output, USB 3.0 Type-A and Type-C ports (with support for DisplayPort, charging and reverse charging), as well as a USB 2.0 Type-C port and a mechanical switch for the webcam/microphones.

On the right are an Ethernet port, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, a headphone/microphone combo jack, and a microSD card slot. Only USB 2.0 raises questions, which could be replaced with a faster port, but otherwise the set of interfaces is comprehensive for any task.

A traditional test of the throughput of USB ports on external SSDs showed that they all met the stated standards.

At the corners of the bottom panel of the case you can see two meshes, behind which the stereo speakers of the audio system are hidden. Two more are located under the mesh above the keyboard.

The laptop power button is located in the upper right corner of the work panel and is equipped with a white LED.

The laptop lid can be tilted 180 degrees, and you don’t have to hold the base with your second hand.

The materials and build quality of the Digma Pro Fortis M case do not cause any discomfort or questions; everything fully corresponds to the price level of this laptop. Of course, you shouldn’t look for any premium notes here.

⇡#Input Devices

The keyboard of the Digma Pro Fortis M is full-size, membrane type, with a block of numeric keys. Russian and English layouts are printed on black keys in easy-to-read white font. The entire keyboard area is slightly recessed into the working panel.

The alphanumeric keys measure 17 x 17 mm, the function keys measure 17 x 9 mm, and the arrow keys are full-size.

Two-level backlighting will make typing at night convenient. The backlight automatically turns off after 20 seconds of inactivity.

It so happened that I had the opportunity to type on this keyboard for four days, and during this time only one inconvenience was identified - the short right Shift, which I never managed to get used to. Otherwise, there are no questions about working with the Digma Pro Fortis M keyboard.

The laptop has a huge, comfortable touchpad measuring 141 × 96 mm. There is a fingerprint scanner built into its upper left corner.

In the top frame of the screen there is a two-megapixel 1080p webcam and two microphones.

Let us summarize that all input devices on Digma Pro Fortis M correspond to the class of a laptop and practically do not limit the user in anything.

⇡#Display

Digma Pro Fortis M is equipped with a 17,3-inch IPS screen with a matte finish. Screen aspect ratio – 16:9, resolution – 1920 × 1080 pixels, frequency – 60 Hz.

The manufacturer of the matrix (model BOE0С34) is the BOE company.

The maximum screen brightness is not indicated in the laptop's specifications, and the screen frequency can be set to 60 Hz instead of 48 Hz (the second mode is most likely needed for watching movies).

We tested the Digma Pro Fortis M screen using a calibrator X-Rite i1 Display Pro and Argyll CMS software with graphical interface DispcalGUI. All measurements were performed both without display calibration and after it, and the measurement results are shown in pairs of screenshots (on the left - before calibration, on the right - after it).

According to the measurement results, the display in Digma Pro Fortis M was not completely a failure, like Digma Pro Breve, but still requires calibration.

According to the screen testing results, color gamut coverage was 92,2% sRGB, and DeltaE averaging was 0,22 units (with a maximum of 1,92 units).

But in terms of brightness, the display was frankly pleasing, since we expected results at the level of Digma Pro Breve with its 290 nits, but we received as much as 361 nits of brightness. These are almost the same indicators as those of our classmate Tecno Megabook K16AS, which we will demonstrate further in the graph.

The Digma Pro Fortis M screen had problems with backlight uniformity in the lower corners and in the upper zone. This cannot be determined by eye, but the calibrator records deviations.

Let us summarize that the screen in Digma Pro Fortis M is of an average level, but of sufficiently high brightness.

⇡#Internal structure and components

The plastic base of the Digma Pro Fortis M case is secured with screws and latches. The internal volume of the case is divided between the motherboard, cooling system, battery with acoustics and an area for installing a 2,5-inch drive.

The motherboard is based on the Alder Lake system logic set, and the BIOS is dated January 24, 2024.

The motherboard with processor and SSD is almost completely covered with thin plastic, only the RAM is visible.

All ports on the left of the case are located on the main board, and on the right - on the daughter board, connected to the main board with a flexible cable.

Our Digma Pro Fortis M configuration uses a processor Intel Core i7-1255U Alder Lake family. It has two powerful cores with Hyper Threading support, operating at frequencies from 1,7 to 4,7 GHz, and 8 energy-efficient cores with frequencies from 1,2 to 3,5 GHz. The volume of third-level cache memory is 12 MB.

The basic power limit of such a processor is 15 watts with the possibility of a short-term increase to 25 watts.

Digma Pro Fortis M configurations with Intel Core i3-1005G1, i5-1035G1, Intel Core i3-1215U and Intel Core i5-1235U processors are also available to the user.

The laptop motherboard has two slots for SO-DIMM RAM modules. They are equipped with 8 GB DDR4 modules labeled B4AS8G53222B manufactured by BiwinTech.

The effective RAM frequency is 3200 MHz, primary timings are 22-22-22-52_1T.

The memory operates in dual-channel mode and demonstrates standard throughput and latency indicators for this frequency and timings.

The maximum amount of RAM supported by the laptop is 64 GB, and in the minimum configuration the Digma Pro Fortis M can be equipped with 8 GB of memory.

The laptop uses an Intel Iris Xe graphics core built into the processor with 80 execution units and a turbo frequency of up to 2,35 GHz.

Let us remember that it uses RAM resources, and the Digma Pro Fortis M has it quite slow.

The board has only one M.2 slot, in which a 3.0 GB SSD with a PCIe 4 x512 interface is installed (BiwinTech P3821 NA80V1M10-512).

We were unable to find the characteristics of this particular SSD, including MTBF.

Nevertheless, nothing prevents us from checking the speed characteristics of the laptop’s SSD ourselves, which is what we did both when the Digma Pro Fortis M was powered from the mains, and when it was running only on battery power. The results are presented in the form of four pairs of screenshots.

Interestingly, ATTO Disk Benchmark and 3DMark storage reported an increase in drive performance when the laptop was running in offline mode, but AS SSD Benchmark and CrystalDiskMark did not agree with their position, showing better results when the laptop was powered from the mains. Be that as it may, the performance of the drive is at a rather modest level by modern standards, but still sufficient for the tasks for which Digma Pro Fortis M will be purchased.

Next, we present the results of a stress test of the drive in AIDA64 Extreme to check the temperature conditions of the SSD.

As you can see, the SSD does not warm up above 44 degrees Celsius in any of the operating modes, and in everyday use its temperature is 37-38 degrees Celsius. And this despite the fact that the temperature in the room where the tests were carried out reached 29 degrees Celsius.

Digma Pro Fortis M has two network controllers. The cable network is implemented by a Realtek RTL8168/8111 Gigabit Ethernet controller, and the wireless one uses an Intel Wi-Fi 5 AC9560D2W module soldered on the board with support for 802.11a/b/g/n/ac protocols and frequency ranges of 2,4 and 5 GHz.

The maximum throughput of this network adapter is 1,8 Gbps. Bluetooth version 5.1 is also supported.

The sound in the laptop is implemented by a Realtek controller, a pair of stereo speakers with a power of one and a half watts each are located in the lower part of the case, and two more 0,8-W are located above the keyboard.

The power of such stereo speakers is quite enough, and the laptop does not wheeze or crackle. But low frequencies are absent here as a class. In general, there is sound and sometimes it can even be useful for the user of Digma Pro Fortis M, and for music lovers we immediately recommend using headphones.

⇡#Cooling system, efficiency and noise level

At the base of the laptop there are two ventilation grilles: one directly above the fan and the second above the heat spreader area of ​​​​the central processor.

Through the first, cold air enters the cooling system and is exhausted back through the grille at the rear end.

As in the Digma Pro Breve model, the fan speed is automatically adjusted using pulse-width modulation depending on the temperature of the processor and the degree of load on it. There are no separate operating modes for the cooling system in Digma Pro Fortis M.

To evaluate the cooling efficiency of the CPU in a laptop, we used a stress test powerMAX in AVX mode. The utility was responsible for monitoring all indicators HWiNFO64 version 8.05.5485. Testing was carried out under the operating system Windows 11 Pro with the latest available drivers and updates installed. The room temperature during testing was 29 degrees Celsius.

We conducted the first stress test of Digma Pro Fortis M with the laptop running on mains power.

The first thing that is immediately clearly visible is that the thermal package of the Intel Core i7-1255U processor is really limited to 25 watts, so the cooling system can easily cope with such a load, preventing throttling. The maximum temperature of productive cores rises only to 73 degrees Celsius, and energy-efficient ones to 69 degrees. The frequency of the P-cores at the beginning of the test increases to 4,2 GHz with a decrease and stabilization at 2,8 GHz. E-cores start at 3,5 GHz and then stabilize at 2,1-2,2 GHz. Let us add that the laptop cooler is audible, but its noise does not cause any discomfort.

Now let's see how the laptop behaves in offline mode when running only on battery power.

We record a decrease in all laptop indicators. After a vigorous start, the frequency of productive cores is reduced to 1,2 GHz, and energy-efficient ones to 1,5 GHz. The power consumption of the processor with such a load does not exceed 7 watts. P-core temperatures do not exceed 67 degrees Celsius, stabilizing at 46, and E-cores, after a peak of 60 degrees, stabilize at 44-45 degrees Celsius. And in this mode, the laptop’s cooling system is barely audible. Obviously, in such an economical mode one cannot expect any impressive performance from Digma Pro Fortis M. This is exactly what we will check now.

⇡#Performance testing

To evaluate the performance of Digma Pro Fortis M, we included a laptop in testing Tecno Megabook K16AS with an Intel Core i5-1235U processor, as well as Honor MagicBook X 16 (BRN-F56) with Intel Core i5-12450H processor. The first one costs a little less than the hero of today’s review, and the second one is a little more expensive. We present the performance results of these laptops in the table, both when powered by an adapter/mains supply and when powered by a battery. The individual columns show the performance difference as a percentage.

The results are quite logical: Digma Pro Fortis M turned out to be slightly faster than Tecno Megabook K16AS, but slightly slower than Honor MagicBook X 16 (BRN-F56). The latter gains an advantage in multi-threaded tests, but let's not forget that the thermal package of the Intel Core i5-12450H is twice as high as that of the Intel Core i7-1255U. But the decrease in processor performance in Digma Pro Fortis M when switching to offline mode does not look as critical as we expected during stress tests, and in the worst case reaches 30%, and the average for all benchmarks was 7,2%.

In addition, we present the test results of the graphics core built into the processor in six 3DMark benchmarks.

⇡#Autonomy

Digma Pro Fortis M is equipped with a removable lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 62,7 Wh (5500 mAh).

The BatteryMon utility confirmed the battery capacity stated in the specifications.

To charge the battery, the laptop is equipped with a power adapter with a maximum power of 65 W (20 V, 3,25 A) and weighs only 100 grams (we indicate this because you often have to carry the power adapter with you). It connects to the laptop with a separate 1,99 meter long cable with two USB Type-C connectors.

Based on the results of five battery charge cycles from 3 to 99%, the average charge time was 2 hours 19 minutes - a lot, I must admit.

We measured the autonomy of the laptop at a display brightness of 200 nits, which corresponds to 56% on the brightness scale (the graph is shown above, in the section with screen tests). Tests were carried out using the PCMark'10 package in three modes. Network connections and sound were not disabled, and no artificial optimizations were introduced to extend battery life. The results obtained are shown below.

The laptop will last seven and a half or eight hours for office work or watching videos, which, in our opinion, is not quite enough for confidence in a school or work day. I would like a reserve of another 1,5-2 hours, especially since above we saw serious limitations on processor power consumption in offline mode. In conditional gaming mode, Digma Pro Fortis M is ready to work for two hours, which is a standard indicator for laptops with Intel Iris Xe.

⇡#Conclusion

First, let's list the advantages of the Digma Pro Fortis M laptop with a 17,3-inch screen:

• wide choice of 9 hardware configurations;
• performance sufficient for positioning a laptop (we are talking about DN17P7-ADXW01);
• high brightness screen (for this class of laptops);
• comfortable noise level, including in high load modes;
• full-size keyboard with numeric keypad and backlight;
• comprehensive set of ports;
• webcam with Full HD resolution and mechanical switch;
• fingerprint scanner and Kensington lock;
• the ability to increase the amount of RAM or replace it;
• possibility of installing a second SSD (SATA, 2,5 inches);
• availability of cable network adapter;
• pre-installed Windows 11 Pro.

At the same time, we cannot fail to mention the disadvantages of this laptop model:

• average indicators of autonomy;
• outdated wireless network controller without the possibility of replacement;
• the screen requires calibration;
• The short right Shift on the keyboard will take some getting used to.

Almost, just about, well, very close to the ideal educational or office laptop. If only we could improve its autonomy, install a fast Wi-Fi module, and the choice would be obvious. It can be assumed that Digma Pro Fortis M models with weaker Intel Core i3-1215U and Intel Core i5-1235U processors (we are not even considering Intel Core i3-1005G1) will be able to demonstrate higher autonomy, but they will also lose in performance. In all other respects, the Fortis M looks like a very strong competitor for laptops of its price level and can be considered as a convenient and reliable companion for the entire five to seven years of higher education.

Source: 3dnews.ru