When I think about Illegear these days, I think about my Illegear laptop problems.
I got mine during the pandemic and I had rave reviews about it because it was very powerful despite its price.
Well, as the title of this post suggest, it seems that the laptop, which is an Illegear Prodigy, is the most problematic laptop I have to date.
With just a bit over 3 years under its belt, the Prodigy somewhat had encountered more problems than I used to have versus other brands so far.
The keyboard fades away
This was surprisingly the first issue I had. After about three months using the laptop, I noticed the frequently used keys to fade away as you can see in the photo.
While it is more of a cosmetic issue, it’s still an issue because this is the first laptop that I’ve owned to have such problem.
The battery dies out
Later after six month of use, the battery started giving way. Yes, some may say that usage is key in determining the laptop battery’s lifespan, but my other laptops, my ASUS Flip TP300 and ASUS S510 Vivobook, had a battery that lasted for over two years and could still retain about 2-3 hours of use when unplugged.
This one went from a capacity of 62,320mWh to just 25,840mWh within months, which explains its inability to retain power.
It lasted six months to be exact, and the Illegear Prodigy’s laptop could only last for 30 minutes before it died out.
I reached out to Illegear to get a replacement since it was still under warranty then, but decided not to send it to them since I needed the laptop for work and continued to use the laptop as it is, while bringing the power block when I had to travel.
It was also during the pandemic so sending it over to KL may result in the laptop getting stuck longer.
The battery expands
At exactly two years (perhaps slightly just passing two years), the laptop started to malfunction. I checked and noticed the battery had expanded and caused the motherboard to perform irregularly.
Since the warranty is over, I couldn’t send the laptop for a battery replacement.
I tried scouting for a replacement battery online, but since Illegear is not exactly a popular brand, I couldn’t find any battery that fits or is almost similar to what Illegear used for their Prodigy.
I also noticed Illegear had discontinued the Prodigy model
So, I decided to remove the battery entirely, hook up the laptop to a constant power supply and treat it now as a ‘desktop’ which just sits at home.
I also decided to hook it up to a monitor and external mouse and display to complete my set-up.
At this time, I decided to buy a MacBook Air, which I later traded for an Acer Swift 3.
- READ why I decided to buy the MacBook Air
- READ my MacBook Air review
- READ why I sold my MacBook Air
- READ my ACER Swift 3 review
The SSD dies
As the laptop enter it’s 30th month of use, I was greeted with BIOS bluescreen every time I booted the laptop.
This was another unexpected Illegear laptop problems that I encountered.
I tried changing the CMOS battery, and even tried reinstalling the Windows 11.
None helped, and finally I decided to change the SSD which worked. I was desperate at that time so I bought the SSD NVME M.2 at a very high price (Try RM150 for just 256GB. It usually just cost RM100).
It read that an SSD typically last more than 3 – 5 years, but I’ve never experienced a damaged SSD myself. This was my first, and I remain thankful I didn’t store important documents onto the hard drive since I got the Illegear Laptop.
Why buy Illegear?
I have to admit, I bought Illegear because they offered great specs at a discount and were recommended by a few select friends.
You can compare their prices versus many other brands in the market and Illegear, with their clever marketing won me over back then.
I have heard raves about the brand from many, but unfortunately you won’t be hearing any rave reviews from me after this experience.
Perhaps I am just unlucky, but as of now, I will unlikely not consider an Illegear laptop due to the constant problems I seem to be having with the current unit I have so far.