My new laptop - Samsung series 5 ultrabook

Quadophile

Quadophile

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I was contemplating for some time to get me a new laptop as my trusty IBM Thinkpad was beginning to get a bit long in the tooth. I came across a great deal which was too tempting and went ahead with the purchase. I thought the specs were very good and it had all the important bits that I was looking for in a laptop.

Light-weight
Comes with a DVD burner
Matte screen (I cannot stand glossy screens)
Large storage which is speedy (7200 RPM)
Great battery life
Well built with metal case
Good keyboard and trackpad

The answer was - Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook

I have spent only few hours with it so will come back on the weekend to give my opinion on the performance.
 
Very nice Quad, it looks very sleek and there appears to be plenty of connectivity. Hope you enjoy it and will find that it lives up to expectations. :D
 
Sweet bit of kit Mr Q, Looks similar to a Macbook, (which is no bad thing IMO, I love the Macbook/Air's looks) but with Windows.

Enjoy. :thumb:
 
Looks very nice indeed! How are you getting on with it? Oh, and I'm with you on the glossy screens - they are very annoying!
 
Sorry guy's for my delayed respose but yes I am having fun with this new toy indeed! I was busy trying to get the hang of it as it is very different from all those IBM Thinkpads I used all these years (I went through 5 of them in last 15 years) :lol:

I updated most of the software, as well as windows updates. After registering it with Samsung they also gave me 3 extra months of warranty. :thumb:

Out of the box the default settings were all samsung optimised so it was a balance between power and extended battery life. I put it it high performance mode and this is when this thing was blazingly fast, Sweeeet :drool:The trade-off was battery lasting 4 instead of 7 hours, stillnot bad.

What I really liked:

  • Speed
  • Hard drive capacity
  • Screen and graphics
  • Sound better than I expected from the speakers considering it is and ultra thin and light laptop
  • Good wifi connectivity, locks in and does not drop the connection.
  • Fit and finish is excellent for the price but not really built like a tank which was standard for the Thinkpads. (Thinkpads also costs more for the sake of argument)
  • Not much bloatware, although I did delete a few programs which I would not use
  • Samsung software updates worked like a charm, it not only updated all the software and patches but also updated the bios without any hassle.
  • The laptop is eligable for free Windows 8 upgrade (although I may put it off for the time being based on the thread on PC review itself and others disliking it)
  • Full recovery disk came with the package plus hidden partition of Samsung for factory reset, I tested it and it took only 11 minutes to restore. Back in the 90's a factory restore on my first IBM laptop took 6 hours :cry:
  • 4 GB ram in single bank and bank 2 empty so upgrading is not wasteful and I can simply plonk a 4 GB mem stick in the empty one for a total of 8 GB onboard. A 4 GB stick on Amazon is for $22 :) I have seen other laptops with 2 GB in each slot or a stick of 4 in fixed and 2 in user replaceable slot which means in order to upgrade your 2 GB stick is rendered useless for which you have paid.
  • Plenty of ports for all kinds of connections including a vga port (I am surprised they managed it on this one, many ultrabooks do not sport one).
What I did not like:


  • The keyboard: my IBM laptop was too good, no comparision here, the tactile feedback is nowhere near the IBM one. It was generally said about IBM keyborards that they were the best, now I understand why they said so. However the keyboard on this machine is much better than most out there today.
  • Keyboard is not backlit or illuminated, I sorely miss this. I use my laptop at night in bed and the illumination was very useful.
  • The A/C cord length is not as long as I would have liked.

I hope I covered most of it but if I remember something will come back and update it.;)
 
I found a couple of videos video of the laptop I bought :D








 
It looks like you've made a very nice choice Quad. Hope it will give you long and trouble-free enjoyment. :D
 
Thank you to both of you, yes, it is a pretty decent lappy and as time passes I am beginning to enjoy it more and more. I intend to now move on to virtualization and can experiment with several operating systems on top of Windows 7 without disturbing the original configuration. :nod:
 
I have the lappy configured in triple OS choices, Windows 7, Ubuntu 64 bit and Kubuntu 64 bit. I also ordered the 4 GB Samsung memory stick to upgrade it all the way upto 8 GB. Virtual PC as well as the host system should both get the boost that way. :D
 
:thumb:It is all going well then, I am very pleased for you:D I love Samsung kit and think it great value for your $ as it is here for £.:user:
 
Last edited:
bootneck02 said:
:thumb:It is all going well then, I am very pleased for you:D I love Samsung kit and think it great value for your $ as it is here for £.:user:
Click to expand...

Yes it is a good piece of kit and I too am a Samsung fan since mid/late 90's when I bought a high resolution monitor and it turned out to be a superb product, later I was to know that the same monitor put Samsung on the map to where they are today.
 
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