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Samsung Series 5 Ultrathin review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £483
inc VAT

The best value ultra-portable we’ve seen, thanks to its AMD Trinity processor

Specifications

13.3 in 1,366×768 display, 1.9kg, 2.1GHz AMD A6-4455M, 6.00GB RAM, 500GB disk, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

http://www.amazon.co.uk
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Considering how thin the main body of the laptop is, Samsung has done well to squeeze in a keyboard that has enough key travel to make typing comfortable. Each full-size, Chiclet-style key is bouncy and responsive, with a straightforward layout that won’t see you searching for keys or mistyping words. Naturally there’s no room for a numeric keypad and the keys aren’t backlit, so you may struggle to work in dim lighting, but it’s otherwise difficult to pick faults in it.

Samsung Series 5 Ultrathin

The oversized touchpad is a good match to the widescreen display, as you can span the Windows desktop in a single swipe. It responds well to multi-touch gestures and has a smooth plastic finish that lets you glide across it with minimal friction. The physical touchpad buttons have very little tactile feedback, which can make it difficult to know whether you’ve pressed hard enough to register a click, but at least the short travel distance makes it unlikely.

Samsung Series 5 Ultrathin

Compared to Intel’s Core i5 CPUS, AMD Trinity is quite far behind in terms of raw performance, but unless you’re running processor-intensive applications you’re unlikely to notice the difference in everyday use. The main reason to consider a Trinity-powered laptop such as the Series 5 is price. It costs just £480 and is one of the cheapest ultra-portable machines you can currently buy, without dropping down to underpowered netbooks.

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Basic Specifications

Rating *****
Processor AMD A6-4455M
Processor clock speed 2.1GHz
Memory 6.00GB
Memory slots 2
Memory slots free 0
Maximum memory 8GB
Size 20x333x230mm
Weight 1.9kg
Sound Realtek HD Audio
Pointing device touchpad

Display

Viewable size 13.3 in
Native resolution 1,366×768
Graphics Processor AMD Radeon HD 7500G
Graphics/video ports HDMI
Graphics Memory 512MB

Storage

Total storage capacity 500GB
Optical drive type none

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 SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC, Memory Stick Pro
Other ports minijack headset port, 1x USB 3.0

Miscellaneous

Carrying case No
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore option restore partition
Software included Microsoft Office 2010 Starter Edition
Optional extras none

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB
Price £483
Details www.samsung.co.uk
Supplier http://www.amazon.co.uk