Samsung RC510 review

We’re almost always impressed with Samsung laptops’ stylish design and excellent build quality. The RC510 is no different; the outside might be made entirely from plastic, but the metal effect lid and smooth angular chassis look fantastic. However, underneath the attractive outer shell are some surprising component choices.

Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors have quickly superseded the previous generation, but Samsung has strangely decided to stick with an original Core i3 chip. The dual-core i3-380m runs at a fairly snappy 2.53GHz, but it can’t Turbo Boost for extra performance like a Core i5 or i7. Paired with a generous 6GB of RAM and large 640GB hard disk, the processor completed our multimedia benchmarks with an overall score of 46. This is by no means slow, but the equivalent Sandy Bridge laptop will be significantly faster. Even so, the Windows desktop felt responsive during everyday use. More disappointing was battery life; in our light use test, it couldn’t even reach a mediocre four hours.

The second surprise comes from the choice of graphics card; the GeForce 315M might have a gigabyte of dedicated video memory, but it’s also two whole generations behind Nvidia’s current mobile line-up. It’s still powerful enough to play high definition video, either in 720p on the laptop itself or 1080p on an external display using the HDMI out port, but it can’t hope to play games at high levels of detail. A lowly 16.4fps in our Call of Duty test shows you’ll have to turn down graphics settings to get playable frame rates in modern titles.

In spite of the slightly out-dated internal components, the RC510 was still great to use thanks to a keyboard with well-spaced keys. Each key has a responsive action, minimal flex and just the right amount of tactile feedback. There’s also room for a numeric keypad, and even though the keys have been slightly reduced in size they are still big enough to use without making mistakes. The large touchpad was also impressive, with a pleasant-to-use smooth surface. It responds well to multi-touch gestures, but the touchpad buttons aren’t great. Their silver plastic construction feels cheap, although we appreciated two separate buttons rather than a single rocker switch.

One of the RC510’s highlights is its fantastic screen; although the 1,366×768 resolution isn’t the highest, everything looked pin-sharp on the 15.6in display. Colours were accurate and brightness was very high on the maximum setting, although the glossy screen coating picked up a lot of reflections from overhead lighting. Viewing angles aren’t the best, but there is at least a reasonable amount of tilt to compensate. Sound quality couldn’t match the visuals, as the pair of tiny speakers recessed into the chassis above the keyboard tray could only produce average audio.

Overall, we can’t help but feel slightly disappointed with the RC510. It might have a great design and excellent quality screen, but more powerful Sandy Bridge-powered laptops are available for similar money. Had the RC510 been released last year, we would probably have recommended it, but now there’s too much competition from other manufacturers using newer and more powerful components.