Samsung 305V5A-A04 review
A unique white plastic design and an AMD CPU and graphics chip might draw attention to the 305V5A-A04, but its dim and patchy screen lets it down badly
Specifications
15.6 in 1,366×768 display, 2.5kg, 1.6GHz AMD A6-3410MX, 6.00GB RAM, 750GB disk, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Expansion is covered by the bare minimum for a laptop at this price. You get VGA and HDMI video outputs, two 3.5mm audio ports, a LAN port and three USB2 ports. We would, however, have liked at least one USB3 port to speed up file transfers to the 750GB hard disk.
We had a couple of other small niggles as well. Although it supports both two-fingered gestures and edge scrolling, the touchpad wasn’t able to scroll horizontally. Also, Samsung’s keyboard shortcut to toggle Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on or off doesn’t actually do so; instead, it displays a control panel in which you then have to click a switch, which is a pointless and frustrating extra step.
We were intrigued by the 305V5A-A04’s unique design and were interested to see how AMD’s A6 chip would fare, but both are sadly overshadowed by the awful, blotchy screen. The Dell Inspiron 17R has a much better 17in screen and a faster graphics card, making it far better value for money; alternately the Asus K53SC is a better 15in laptop.
Basic Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Rating | ** |
| Processor | AMD A6-3410MX |
| Processor clock speed | 1.6GHz |
| Memory | 6.00GB |
| Memory slots | 2 |
| Memory slots free | 0 |
| Maximum memory | 8GB |
| Size | 33x367x240mm |
| Weight | 2.5kg |
| Sound | Realtek HD Audio |
| Pointing device | touchpad |
Display | |
| Viewable size | 15.6 in |
| Native resolution | 1,366×768 |
| Graphics Processor | AMD Radeon HD 6520G |
| Graphics/video ports | VGA, HDMI |
| Graphics Memory | 512MB |
Storage | |
| Total storage capacity | 750GB |
| Optical drive type | DVD+/-RW +/-DL |
Ports and Expansion | |
| USB ports | 3 |
| Bluetooth | yes |
| Wired network ports | 1x 10/100/1000 |
| Wireless networking support | 802.11n |
| PC Card slots | none |
| Supported memory cards | SDHC, MMC |
| Other ports | minijack audio output, minijack microphone input |
Miscellaneous | |
| Carrying case | No |
| Operating system | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
| Operating system restore option | restore partition |
| Software included | CyberLink Media Suite 8, Microsoft Office 2010 Starter |
Buying Information | |
| Warranty | one year RTB |
| Price | £500 |
| Details | www.samsung.com/uk |
| Supplier | http://www.pcworld.co.uk |
