These guys made me a CUSTOM gaming laptop, running LINUX!
1,291I received this laptop, which has been custom-made for me by a company called Eurorra. It's a bit of a weird story, and this won't be a traditional laptop review, because... well, you'll see.
Eurorra Website: https://www.eurorra.com/
Become a channel member to get access to a weekly patroncast and vote on the next topics I'll cover:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5UAwBUum7CPN5buc-_N1Fw/join
Support the channel on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/thelinuxexperiment
Follow me on Twitter : http://twitter.com/thelinuxEXP
My Gaming on Linux Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaw_Lz7oifDb-PZCAcZ07kw
Follow me on ODYSEE: https://odysee.com/@TheLinuxExperiment:e
Or join ODYSEE: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@TheLinuxExperiment:e
The Linux Experiment merch: get your goodies there! https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/the-linux-experiment
Ok, so I was initially contacted by Eurorra in November. They offered me to review a laptop using a 3700X ryzen CPU, with an RTX 2070, 2Tb of SSD, and 32Gb of RAM, with a 4K oled display, running at 144hz. I couldn't really refuse, as it seemed like a beastly laptop, that you don't see often, and it was going to run Linux by default.
A few months passed without me hearing much, until the end of February, where they told me they had shipped the prototype for me to review. I received it a month later, after the french postal service kinda lost track of it, and handily damaged the box as well.
Anyways, the point is, the laptop I received isn't exactly the one that had been announced: while it does have an RTX2070, a Ryzen 7 3700X, 2Tb of storage, and 32Gb of RAM, the display is a 1080p one, not and OLED one, although it does have a refresh rate of 144hz.
Eurorra told me that the current context makes it really tricky to procure parts for laptops, and I'm inclined to believe that. The laptop itself is based on a Clevo chassis, that they've customized heavily. They changed the screens from Sharp, which Clevo uses, to LG panels, as well as the SSD and the RAM to get higher end options from goodram in there. They get access to the Clevo maintenance centers, so the laptops are still perfectly serviceable as well. But that's not what's interesting about these devices, the real selling point is the customization they want to offer.
See, the point of Eurorra is to create custom made laptops from solid materials, something that will last and that is personalized. They apparently take 3 days to create each laptop. Mine has the whole lid covered in carbon fiber, with a custom design integrating my logo, with a 3D motif. I can't say I'm a huge fan of how it ended up looking, I should have went with the full colored logo, even though I like how it kinda looks painted on there, even though it's etched. I tried scratching it, and it didn't move.
Others have been more inspired, and have had more interesting results, especially with the use of color. It's also well executed, as it's not just stickers, the custom paint job is literally etched onto the carbon fiber, so it should be durable.
Now, the final laptops that they want to sell are more powerful than the prototype I got: they'll have Mobile Ryzen CPUS, specifically a 5900HX, with an Nvidia 3070, and still these 32Gb of RAM and 2Tb of really fast SSD. They also will incorporate full HD displays running at 240hz, although they won't be OLED.
Interestingly enough, the laptop is eminently upgradeable and repairable, as you can swap and replace the battery, the RAM, and the SSD, which is a nice bonus, especially since it will be customized, so you want to be able to keep it for as long as possible.
In the end, the laptop itself is solid. Sure, it's huge and bulky, but it's definitely aimed towards gamers and people who want to do CPU and GPU intensive tasks. It's a tried and tested Clevo chassis, quite rigid even in the middle of the keyboard, and the trackpad is smooth, even though it has that 2 button design that I really cant force myself to like. The IO is pretty good, with a full ethernet port, 2 USB 3 ports and a micro SD slot on the left side, and a single USB 2 port, as well as the microphone and the audio jack on the right side. On the rear, you have the barrel charger, a USB C port, a minidisplay port, and a full HDMI port as well, so you should be able to connect that to anything you own.
The hardware is really powerful, easily running AAA games on the highest settings, and it's shipping Linux out of the box (although people can also opt to have Windows installed if they want to). But what will make you interested in it, or not, is the fact that it can be customized to look like whatever you want. Whether that justifies the quite high price of the laptop will be up to you.