Hi-Grade has been in operation since 1986, manufacturing desktop PCs and more recently laptops. This year has seen a resurgence in the company’s mobile offerings with a number of new chassis.

The Hi-Grade C7000 (£1486 inc. VAT) is one of the first commercially available laptops to feature the 2GHz Pentium M 755 processor, which is fitted with 2MB or Level 2 cache. It is also the fastest mobile-specific processor currently available. Hi-Grade has paired this processor with 512MB DDR SDRAM and a Hitachi 60GB hard drive. Under test, this configuration scored a MobileMark 2002 score of 203. It would seem that the increased use of Level 2 cache speeds up most operations. In every day use we found that the C7000 was certainly more than usable with no signs of the system slowing down, even when running multiple applications.

Weight is an important factor when choosing a laptop. At 3kg, the C7000 is portable and is in keeping with many two-spindle machines. Couple this to a battery life, under test, of 265 minutes and with over four hours of life away from mains power, the C7000 looks set to satisfy those who need true portable computing.

CONTRAST RATIO

Making up a portion of this weight is the 15inch TFT display. With a native resolution of 1400 x 1050 pixels, the C7000 has a good quality screen, which in the case of our review machine did not have any dead pixels or similar flaws. On the downside, images did appear slightly shallow with no real contrast. The panel has adequate support behind it, but there is a degree of flexing when opening the machine up. While the build quality of the C7000 is satisfactory, we didn’t feel that it was extremely robust.

The Hi-Grade originally came supplied with the ATi Mobility Radeon 9600 graphics adapter, which scored a 3DMark 2001 of 9861. However, Hi-Grade also supplied us a system with the improved Mobility Radeon 9700 card, scoring an improved 10191 3DMark.

To this end, we were more than satisfied with the performance of this system. If you are looking for a laptop that is capable of dealing with demanding tasks and still offer headroom, this is the choice to make. Hi-Grade is the first company to offer Intel’s new PRO/wireless A/B/G Wi-Fi adapter, allowing users to connect to networks and hotspots regardless of location or technology.

Supplied with a Matshita multiformat DVD writer, the C7000 is capable of writing discs regardless of formatting. Connectivity is in keeping with what we have come to expect from a laptop in this class, three USB 2.0 ports and a single mini-FireWire port. Alongside the single Type II PC card slot there is a reader that supports MS/MMC and SD cards. Overall, we found the usability of the C7000 to be of the highest possible, with even the keyboard offering well-spaced keys and a comfortable amount of travel under the keys. The Hi-Grade C7000 is a powerful laptop that is ideal for everyday use.

RATING 7
PRICE £1249/£1468 (EX/INC. VAT)
PROCESSOR Intel Pentium M 755
MEMORY 512MB DDR SDRAM
HARD DRIVE Hitachi 604B
SCREEN SIZE AND TYPE 15-inch TFT
DISPLAY RESOLUTION 1400 x 1050 pixels
GRAPHICS CARD ATi Mobility Radeon 9700
DIMENSIONS 330 x 270 x 30mm
WEIGHT 3kg
PC CARDS (TYPE II/III) 1/0
WIRELESS LAN 802.11A/G
ETHERNET Yes
MODEM Yes
USB PORTS 3
FIREWIRE 1
STANDARD WARRANTY 2 yr C&R
WARRANTY UPGRADE 3 yr £75
CONTACT
020 8532 6111
www.higrade.com  

VALUE FOR MONEY 7
PERFORMANCE 8
FEATURES 7
MOBILITY 7
BUILD QUALITY 7
OVERALL 7

BATTERY LIFE 265 mins
MOBILEMARK 2002 203
3DMARK 2001 10191