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In a similar vein to the Saville Row suits the company is clearly named after, SavRow is a small company in London’s funky Camden borough, which makes ‘bespoke’ computers to clients’ individual requirements. Of course, there’s nothing new there, and many of the biggest players also let you customise the build while ordering through a website. However, SavRow’s small size offers a much more personalised experience, including online photographs of your machine as it’s being assembled, and the opportunity to communicate directly with the engineer assigned to the job.
We have seen the assembly and testing process for ourselves and there are some nice touches, such as using silver thermal paste on the heatsinks for better thermal transfer, and everything is focused on speed and quiet operation. Until now, SavRow only offered a 17-inch desktop replacement laptop besides its refrigerated and liquid-cooled full-sized PCs. The Razor (£1469 inc. VAT) is the company’s first foray into the truly mobile space. It tipped our scales at 2.6kg, so it’s no hardship to carry in the supplied Shayd AirBag, yet it offers a 15-inch screen and spacious keyboard. The design is very square-edged with a trim and tidy appearance, and you can optionally have it custom-painted from a wide range of high quality automotive paints.
We looked at the fixed-build Razor 1.7, which comes with a 1.7GHz Intel Pentium M 735 processor and 1024MB DDR SDRAM memory. Because of SavRow’s performance boasts we expected a good test score. The benchmark of 184 is the third highest we’ve seen from a Pentium M 1.7GHz chip, and it’s particularly strong considering the laptop’s 2.6kg weight. Dothan isn’t yet an option (nor is a DVD burner), but the company says it will be soon. The hard drive is a 5400rpm 80GB Hitachi unit, but you can specify a 7200rpm 60GB drive for the same price, both partitioned so you can rebuild the OS without wiping your data. An ATi Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics adapter with 64MB of VRAM is intended to give cutting-edge gaming performance. We got 11302 when testing with 3DMark 2001 SE in our standard configuration, although SavRow uses custom settings biased towards frame rate, scoring 11453 as shipped. Like the processor score, it’s one of the best results we’ve seen. The 15-inch TFT panel is driven at 1400 x 1050 pixels (SXGA+), which is a pleasing combination, and the brightness range and horizontal viewing angles are good. Protection behind the screen is satisfactory, but there are better-protected systems out there.
Modem and Ethernet connections are on the rear of the case with the external monitor port. Four USB 2.0 ports, generous for such a mobile machine, are arranged on the sides along with mini-FireWire, S-Video, a volume control, a Type II PC Card slot and an SD card reader. There’s also 802.11g wireless LAN inside the machine. Besides a standard three-year C&R parts and labour warranty, SavRow offers annual servicing and future proofing options. An annual service ensures your machine gets the latest drivers and patches, while future proofing allows you to upgrade parts at cost, although the parts list is limited in a laptop. The SavRow Razor is an impressive machine, and the combination of power and portability makes it an ideal gaming laptop for anyone who attends LAN parties.
The trade-off is that the machine’s graphics can’t be upgraded, but at less than £1500 (inc. VAT) it’s better value than those systems that can. The three-year warranty is nice, but above all it’s the opportunity for personal and individual attention that excites us the most.
PRICE: £1250/£1469 (EX/INC. VAT)
RATING: 8
PROCESSOR: Intel Pentium M 735
MEMORY: 1024MB DDR SDRAM
HARD DRIVE: Hitachi 80GB
SCREEN SIZE AND TYPE: 15-inch TFT
DISPLAY RESOLUTION: 1400 x 1050 pixels
GRAPHICS CARD: ATi Mobility Radeon 9700
DIMENSIONS: 327 x 268 x 39mm
WEIGHT: 2.6kg
PC CARDS (TYPE II/III): 1/0
WIRELESS LAN: 802.11g
ETHERNET: Yes
MODEM: Yes
USB PORTS: 4
FIREWIRE: 1
STANDARD WARRANTY: 3 yr C&R, parts & labour
WARRANTY UPGRADE: N/A
CONTACT:
0207 428 0035
www.savrow.com
VALUE FOR MONEY: 8
PERFORMANCE: 8
FEATURES: 8
MOBILITY: 7
BUILD QUALITY: 8
OVERALL: 8
BATTERY: 251 MINS
MOBILEMARK: 184
3DMARK:11302
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