Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook Review 14-inch NP530U4B-S01 (Part 1: Overview and First Impressions)

The Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook is one of the latest gadget release by Samsung. Thanks to Nuffnang and also Samsung Malaysia, I have been given a chance to review this product.

Will be reviewing this as a normal human being:
I will be assessing the Series 5 Ultrabook based on the perspective of a normal consumer. Being a Multimedia Design student myself, I believe that I've been introduced to various gadgets and technologies throughout my studies and I hope that my review would have sufficient information for the everyday users like you and me.

No, I'm not a tech guy. So you won't be seeing too much jargon here which nobody understands in most gadget reviews.

Also take note that I will be splitting this review into a few parts, so make sure you stay until the end.



1.0 THE PRODUCT

Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook 14-inch

(Model No.: NP530U4B-S01)

2.0 TECH SPECIFICATIONS
Operating System 
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Processor
Intel® Core™ i5 Processor 2467M (1.60GHz, 3MB L3 Cache)

Display
14.0" SuperBright 300nit HD LED Display (1366 x 768), Anti-Reflective

Physical Specifications
333.0 x 229.5 x 20.9mm (13.10" x 9.00" x 0.82")
1.79kg (3.94lbs)

Graphic
AMD Radeon™ HD7550M
1GB DDR3 (Ext. Graphic)

Memory
6GB DDR3 System Memory at 1,333MHz (on BD 4GB + 2GB x 1)
1 DIMM Slots

Storage
1TB S-ATAII Hard Drive (5,400RPM) with ExpressCache 16GB
Super Multi Dual Layer

Main Chipset
Intel HM65

Multimedia
HD Audio
Mic Noise Suppression
SoundAlive™
4 watts Stereo Speaker (2 watts x 2)
1.3 megapixel HD Webcam

Communication
10 / 100 / 1,000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN
Inte®l Centrino® Advanced-N 6230, 2 x 2 802.11abg/n (up to 300Mbps), Widi Support
Bluetooth V3.0 High Speed

I/O Port
VGA available
HDMI available
Headphone-out / Mic Combo
Headphone-out / Mic Combo
Internal Mic available
(Sleep-and-Charge)
2 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0
4-in-1 (SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC)
RJ45 (LAN) available
DC-In (Power Port) available

Input
87 Key
86 Key
Touch Pad (Scroll Scope, Flat Type, Gesture UI)

Security
Norton Internet Security (60-day Trial)*
Security Slot
Samsung Recovery Solution
BIOS Boot Up Password
HDD Password
Norton Internet Security (60-day Trial)*
Absolute Data Protection (90-day Trial)*

Power
60 watts*
8 Cell (45.3Wh)

Software
OS DVD
Universal Printer / Scanner Driver
Easy File Share
Easy Migration
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Microsoft Office Starter 2010
Samsung Support Centre
Microsoft Office Starter 2010
WildTangent Game Console
Windows Live
Norton Online Backup (30-day Trial)
Skype
Cyberlink Media Suite
Cyberlink Youcam
Software Launcher
Intel® Anti-Theft Technology
Intel® Identity Protection Technology

Tech Spec Source: Samsung Malaysia

2.1 Some Issues That You Might Want To Consider About
Up till this point, I have yet to turn on the notebook yet. However, by just looking at the specifications above there are a few things that most potential customers would consider about before purchasing.

Processor: What kind of user are you?
First of all, it comes with an Intel Core i5 Processor 2467M which runs at a speed of 1.60GHz. Running at this speed isn't very must attractive. However, with the notebook having two (2) cores it can have a boost up to 2.30GHz. Now how well it performs will depend on what purpose is it used for.

Are you a heavy user who uses heavy softwares or are you a light user mainly just using it to go online or to type documents?

Display: Does size really matter?
Coming in at 14-inches, this might be one of the screen size where most consumers use. However, some consumers prefer larger screen sizes (15-inches and above). Then again, the question goes back to you, does size really matter to you?

What softwares will you be using? Will the menu bars of these softwares take up too much of your space leaving you with only half of the screen to work with?

Then comes the screen resolution, 1366 x 768. This gives out an almost widescreen (~16:9) effect and you'll be able to watch high definition videos but I'm just not too sure about this resolution. It is a bit too odd and stretchy for me. Oh well, I'll test this out later.

Physical Specifications: Is it a dumbbell?
Weighing in 1.79kg, it acts as a lightweight notebook. Makes carrying it around a breeze. This is a very good plus point. I guess you will need to look for a substitute for that dumbbell.

Graphic
A middle class graphic card for regular usage. Sufficient enough to support medium graphics workload. High demand games would need you to reduce the game quality settings.

Memory
6GB DDR3. This is sufficient even for designers.

Storage
1 Terabyte (1TB), if you keep your movies and video files on an external hard disk then a 1TB HDD will be more than enough. However, I do recommend partitioning the HDD.

3.0 FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Currently this notebook looks pretty solid. With a moderate i5 processor, a moderate display screen size, lightweight, sufficient memory installed and a very good amount of storage space, it seems to be very suitable for most of the average users.

In my opinion, it seems to be a good business notebook to have. However, I shall inspect more into the details and will update you guys more in the blog posts to come.

~~~

This post is brought to you by Samsung Malaysia through Nuffnang.