Westlife, one of the greatest bands ever existed during my time.
They sing the best songs.
Songs which can relate to love
Ballads which just takes your heart away
Currently feeling every single word from this song.
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.
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The final part of this review, I will take a look at the sound quality and also give you guys a final verdict on this product whether if it is worth spending your money on.
1.0 SOUND QUALITY
I've tested the sound quality of the Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook with the following video.
It seems to be working very well for me. It's surround sound is pretty good indeed.
I've also tested it on various music with the volume turned on maximum. No cracking noise has been noticed.
2.0 THE VERDICT
The Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook has good first impressions. With a stylish look on its design, its thin and compact built and a great matte finish. It has great specs for an ultrabook. A good amount of storage space, well-built graphics and sound system and the i5 processor tops it up.
However, I do believe that in time, the notebook will turn sluggish in terms of booting time and loading time of softwares if it is not maintained properly.
I believe that this ultrabook is suitable for business people who are on the go. It eases you to carry your files and presentation in that lightweight ultrabook. Also, business people will usually not run heavy softwares, thus the current processor speed will be sufficient enough.
It's great for typing documents as well as for presentations.
The Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook 14" retails for RM2,999.
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.
Once again, I would like to state that I will be reviewing this product as an everyday user and not a tech guy, 'cause I'm not one. :)
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Part 2 of this review will be on the notebook's boot speed as well as its display features.
1.0 BOOT SPEED
The Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook boots rather well. It took me about 40 seconds to start up and reach the desktop screen. However, boot speed increases with time as you fill up your hard disk with files and softwares. This causes the notebook to use a longer time to start up.
To tackle this problem, do keep your less used files/documents in an external hard disk and always only install softwares which you frequently use only. Do not stock up softwares that you do not use into the notebook. Also remember to turn off the 'Run on startup' setting which most softwares have. This will increase the start up time.
If you follow these guides, the boot speed should remain a steady 40 seconds or so.
1.1 WAKE UP SPEED
The Ultrabook has a fast wake-up speed. It wakes up in about 2 to 5 seconds.
2.0 DISPLAY SCREEN
The Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook runs on a HD SuperBright LED screen. What I've noticed is that the contents it displays are very sharp. There are 8 levels or brightness for you to chose from and I have set mine to the maximum for best display.
I do not feel much glaring effect coming from the screen. Maybe I am just used to a bright screen. You may experience it differently.
3.0 SCREEN SPACE
The Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook 14" still offers sufficient workspace when you open softwares like internet browsers and Microsoft Office. However, more work space can be acquired when you close unnecessary tabs and menu bars.
Display on an Internet browser
Display while using Microsoft Word Starter
Viewing two windows side by side can be a pain though.
4.0 SCREEN RESOLUTION (1366 X 768 PIXELS)
With this resolution, it seems to run well with FULL HD (1080p) videos. No distortion has been noticed. Comparison can be made below.
The top picture is from a competitor's brand with a 1920 x 1080 screen resolution. The picture below is from Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook 14" with a screen resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels.
1920 x 1080 (click to enlarge)
1366 x 768 Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook 14" (click to enlarge)
That's about all for this post, to sum up, the boot speed is good and fast enough. Given that you maintain your notebook properly.
The display features are acceptable as well with a sufficient workspace with good and sharp display.
Do wait for the next post as I will be doing a quick review on the Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook sound quality.
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)
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
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
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.
