Transtec Senyo 610 review

Apart from the Mac mini, Transtec's Senyo 610 is the smallest machine on test this month, but you'd never know to look at the feature table or benchmark results. The chassis helps narrow the gap between the tiny Senyo's performance and that of larger systems, and is full of intelligent and innovative design.

It's barely more than 4cm tall, but the Senyo crams a lot in. Most of the case is given over to the hard disk and slot-loading optical drive - one stacked on top of the other - and the small heatsink over the mobile CPU. The rest of the components are plugged into small PCB risers that slice between the major components in an impressive space-saving exercise.

The performance is just as good, too. The Senyo's 2D benchmark result of 1.36 lags just behind the fastest PC this month, the VeryPC Parkwood below, and is easily enough to handle the most demanding of applications.

Credit for this superb performance goes to the use of a Penryn-based Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T8300 processor running at 2.4GHz, Intel's GM965 mobile graphics chipset and wireless networking which, as well as supporting 802.11g connections, also lets you connect to draft-n networks.

As well as providing excellent performance scores, the Transtec's power consumption figures are among the most impressive. At idle, the Senyo 610 peaked at a mere 31W and, more impressively, this figure only rose to 36W when the system was running our demanding multiple application test. It's especially pleasing when you compare it with other systems this month: the Lenovo and Asus PCs both practically double their power draw when running at full tilt.

In a month where compromise seems to be the rule of thumb - helpful features neglected for a low power draw, and performance ignored to achieve the ultimate in space-saving design - the Transtec seems to have it all. It offers enough power to motor through the most demanding of applications, while using hardly any power, and all in a tiny space. It's a true miniature marvel and, for that reason, a worthy Labs winner.

Author: Mike Jennings