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Samsung RV720 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £470
inc VAT

A gorgeous design, decent performance and a great screen make Samsung’s RV720 a great budget desktop replacement

One thing that sets Samsung’s budget laptops apart from the competition is their style. Even when you’re spending around £500, you can guarantee the laptop will look fantastic. The RV720 is no exception, with its gunmetal grey finish and stylish two-tone chassis. Take a closer look though, and it’s clear this isn’t a case of style over substance.

Samsung RV720

The 17in chassis is certainly imposing, but also helps make the RV720 incredibly user-friendly; there’s ample space around the keyboard tray, even with a full-size keyboard and separate numerical keypad. The keys themselves have quite short travel times but plenty of spring, providing lots of tactile feedback. We did notice some slight flex in the keyboard tray, but only when we applied significant pressure; during normal use, we had no trouble.

The touchpad below the keyboard is a good size, although we would have liked to have seen slightly more horizontal space to match the widescreen display. A smooth plastic finish creates minimal friction and the two physical buttons felt firm, creating an audible click with each press. The row of lights directly underneath the touchpad indicate power, disk and wireless activity, keeping the number of flashing LEDs to a stylish minimum.

Samsung RV720 keyboard

Aside from the internal DVD re-writer, connectivity was slightly disappointing: three USB ports, of which none support the faster USB3 standard, and a multi-format card reader are all you get.

Samsung RV720 left

The RV720 is well suited to multimedia playback, thanks to its huge 750GB hard disk for a large media collection and a bright 17.3in display. Once you’ve loaded your files, you’ll be able to enjoy them on the 1,60×900 glossy display, which looks very sharp. Colours looked very vibrant, and although contrast wasn’t the greatest, we could still enjoy films and catch-up TV. Viewing angles were about average, but there was enough screen tilt that we could always find the ideal angle for the best image. A pair of speakers above the keyboard tray produces decent enough audio, although still no match for a dedicated external set.

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Basic Specifications

Rating****
ProcessorIntel Core i3-2310M
Processor clock speed2.1GHz
Memory4.00GB
Memory slots2
Memory slots free0
Maximum memory8GB
Size31x417x276mm
Weight2.5kg
SoundRealtek HD Audio
Pointing devicetouchpad

Display

Viewable size17.3 in
Native resolution1,600×900
Graphics ProcessorIntel HD 3000 Graphics
Graphics/video portsVGA, HDMI
Graphics Memory384MB

Storage

Total storage capacity750GB
Optical drive typeDVD+/-RW +/-DL

Ports and Expansion

USB ports3
Bluetoothyes
Wired network ports1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support802.11n
PC Card slotsnone
Supported memory cardsSDHC, MMC
Other portsminijack audio output, minijack microphone input

Miscellaneous

Carrying caseNo
Operating systemWindows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore optionrestore partition
Software includedMicrosoft Office 2010 Starter edition
Optional extrasnone

Buying Information

Warrantyone year collect and return
Price£470
Detailswww.samsung.co.uk
Supplierhttp://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk

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