Battery life and thoughts
Battery lifeBattery testing was undertaken with three scenarios. The first was the most intensive, with the laptop set to loop 3DMark2001SE until it went into standby mode. The second was to play a full-screen DVD (Full Metal Jacket) with sound turned up the maximum permissible until battery failure. Lastly, and the most unscientific, was general laptop usage, consisting of web browsing, Macromedia HomeSite use for writing this review, e-mail retrieval and word processing - basic PC usage. The screen was set to the default brightness and any other resident programs were terminated. Power attributes were set to Maximum battery life.
Pretty good mobile life from such a small battery. We'd have no problem in carrying a second battery to effectively double the performance shown above.
Thoughts
SavRow's Razor 1.7 impresses in many ways. A wise choice was made when the company went to Arima for a chassis that's equally geared to cater for both the thin-and-light and desktop-replacement crowd. We like the svelte form factor, 2.3kg operational weight, Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics adapter, decent screen, and optional automotive-quality paint finish. These attributes alone, really, are more than enough to make it stand out as a potential winner. SavRow has other bases covered with the Razor. It's a quiet machine under heavy load and connectivity is good.
Performance was also good, helped by the fastest Banias-based CPU available, a P M 1.7GHz and the above-mentioned MR9700 64MB adapter. It's also pleasing to note that the Dothan, Banias' logical replacement, is a drop-in solution. Extremely tight retail availability may preclude SavRow from specifying the 2.0GHz processor for a while, though.
SavRow's Razor 1.7 does a damn fine job of eliminating long-held belief that a laptop cannot be both thin-and light and a desktop-replacement at the same time. Copious amounts of power and a sub-2.5kg travel weight make it an attractive prospect for a wide range of buyers. £1469 is a lot of money - SavRow's Razor 1.7 is a fine way to spend it.
Recommended if you want a slim but powerful laptop that's more than capable of filling a number of roles.
