A wolf in sheep's skin Coming from Samsung, we have a potent 17 inch mid-range entertainment notebook with a plain case. Samsung attracts entertainment customers with an Intel quad core CPU and Nvidia's Optimus GPU switching technology. This promises long HP Pavilion XH545 Battery battery life paired with strong performance when needed. Does the concept live up to its billing?
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Samsung's brand new RC730-S05DE managed to make it into the ring inHP Pavilion XH525 Battery the race for the Multimedia crown. In price comparisons, its listed starting around 650 euros (as of Sept. 13, 2001). The notebook is so new, at the time of our test, it wasn't even listed on Samsung's home page. Pleasantly, the unit is not covered in stickers, unlike many other notebooks. So, the RC730 doesn't immediately let on what components are inside; HP Pavilion XH485 Battery but what is offered has no reason to hide. A test of the previous RC720 can be found by our Polish colleagues.
Driven by a Core i7 2630QM clocked at 2GHz (and up to 2,9 GHz with Turbo Boost) performance should suffice for most uses. Appealing graphics are taken care of by the pairing of an integrated Intel HD-3000 GPU and the more powerful Nvidia GeForce GT 540M, sporting onlyHP Pavilion XH455 Battery 1GB of dedicated RAM, which differs from the stated amount in the video preview. This should suffice for games with up to medium demand for GPU power. The 17.3" display sports average brightness and a decent 1600x900 pixel resolution in 16:9 ratio, which could be still a bit higher for this screen size. Standard in this segment are a DVD writer, four GigaByte DDR3 RAM and a 500 GB hard drive from Samsung. The processor's power-save function and the Optimus GPU-switching promise decent battery life in spite of the performance. The weight of 6.6 lbsHP Pavilion XH35 Battery (3 kilogram) and another 1.1 lbs (500 gramme) for the power supply are not that portable, however.
In addition to our test sample, the RC730 is available in various other equipment levels. HP Pavilion XH335 Battery Available are, for example, Core i5, Blu-Ray writer, SSD, larger hard drives and more RAM, as desired. Prices range up to near 1,000 euros.
The design of the RC730 is very plain. The shape is almost identical to its predecessor RC720, just with slightly different colors and less glossy surfaces. The blue lit power button and the keyboard framed in dark silver serve as highlights. HP Pavilion XH226 Battery Thanks to its rounded edges, the base unit appears fairly slim, even though it is roughly 4/5" (20mm) thick at the front. The matte surfaces on the base unit make a good impression; the glossy lid and dotted display frame on the other hand arHP Pavilion N5490 Battery e fingerprint magnets. A cleaning cloth should always be at hand, if you'd like to keep it looking clean. Workmanship is very good on everything leaving a perception of quality.
Samsung even advertises the stability of HP Pavilion N5485 Battery the case. In Samsung-speak, its called "Duracase" and there is a noticeable difference. Nothing creaks, even if you pick up the entire notebook by one corner. No area of the surface can be pushed in, the keyboard does not flex and the wrist rest is solid too. The lid is very stable in spite of its size and hardly flexes at all. Solely at the lower end, just above the hinge, we found a weak point. To open the notebook however, both handsHP Pavilion N5482 Battery are needed, as the hinges are exceptionally tight, holding the lid closed without help from a latch. This prevents any bobbing of the display, but needing both hands to open the unit could start to get on your nerves.
Overall, the 1 3/8" (35mm) thick Candidate'sHP Pavilion N5481 Battery
case receives a very positive grade. A small drawback, depending on usage, is the weight of 6.5 lbs (2.97 kg), which isn't that portable. In relation to the size, it is actually lighter than many competitor's 17" units and will likely HP Pavilion N5475 Battery
be purchased primarily for stationary use, where the weight won't be as much of an issue.
Interface selection is alright, but offers noHP Pavilion N5474 Battery high-lights. Firewire, ExpressCard slot, eSata or USB 3.0 are nowhere to be found. It will be difficult to connect fast external hard drives. Otherwise, you primarily get standard selections. Four USB 2.0 ports spread across three sides allow connection of a limited number of peripherals. Here too, there could have been more. External displays can be connected with an ancient VGA connector or a modern HDMI port. The HP Pavilion N5472 Battery quality of the VGA port's output is good and only shows a slightly washed out image at the highest resolution of 1920x1200. Obligatory ports like Audio, RJ45 network connector and Kensington lock are included with the addition of an SD card reader at the front.
The distribution of connectors is not optimal HP Pavilion N5470 Battery for left handers, as you may have to fight with a possibly stiff display wire. Power supply- network- and audio connectors are also set to spoil left handers' enjoyment.
On the rear, there would be more room for connectors, due to the design HP Pavilion N5462 Battery of the display hinges, but other than the fan and a single USB port, it remains unused. This is a shame, as the notebook would work a lot better on the desk with more of the connectors in the rear.
A Realtek Gigabit Lan adapter and Intel's Centrino N100 WIFI adapter with one 150MBit/s antenna are standard fare, and so far, there's no complaint.A missing bluetooth radio is hard to understand though. Bluetooth peripherals won't be able HP Pavilion N5461 Battery to connect to the Samsung notebook, unless you sacrifice a USB port for a Bluetooth dongle.
As is the regrettable custom, the RC 730 too comes with a lot of pre-installed bloatware, like Norton Internet Security or Office 2010 starter version, games (some as demos), Cyberlink, YouCam and additional Samsung software. YouCam is a software that adds effects toHP Pavilion N5455 Battery the output of your webcam. Even without effects, the picture of the 1.3 MP camera is a bit noisy. Of all the software, only Norton is annoying, the rest is at least unobtrusive. Still, a thorough cleanup, uninstalling everything is probably advisable. The backup software as well as the battery life extender software seem somewhat useful, at least.
The box is large, but the number of included accessories rather small. Aside from the notebook itself and the 57 Wh 6-Cell Battery there is only the 90W power supply with its cable, a quick start guide, safety information, warranty informationHP Pavilion N5454 Battery and a recovery disc in the box. Furthermore, there's a congratulatory note for purchasing a TCO certified notebook - at least.
Warranty
The Notebook includes a two year warranty in Germany and a limited oneAsus Eee PC T91 Tablet ASUS Eee PC T91MT Battery year international warranty. An extended warranty is available as an option. For repairs, you have to send the unit in, resulting in a loss of working hours.
The keyboard is a clear highlight of the RC 730. Parts of the layout may require getting used to, but it convinces us by using the full width of the notebook, short, precise action and the included number pad. You can comfortably type on it for longer Asus ASUS Eee PC T91 S101 Battery durations and numeric input is easy and comparably quiet. There are no special function keys, just FN plus F-key or arrow key combinations. This is, for example, how you activate Samsung's customary Silent Mode, which makes the notebook whisper quiet. Beyond that, you can activate or deactivate touch pad, WIFI, webcam or audio in this way. Numerous other functions are also immortalized like this. The chiclet keyboardASUS Eee PC T91 Battery also looks good, but fails to score with back-lit keys.
Touchpad
Regrettably, the touchpad by Elan is asASUS W90vp-x2 Battery bad as the keyboard is good. Its size is large at 9cm x 5.5cm, but it lacks precision and its surface is poor. Fingers tend to "stick" often, and we continually ended up unintentionally clicking on things. Theoretically, the touchpad sports multi-touch functions for up to three fingers, but this rarely worked. Scroll bars are noted in software, but lack demarcation on the touchpad. Size and speed can be adjusted.
The touchpad buttons stand out with an ill defined pressure point and unnervinglyASUS W90vp-x1 Battery
loud clicking. The chrome surface feels unpleasant to the touch and quickly looks greasy.
Samsung only offers one display for the RC 730; a very glossy 17.3 inch 16:9 display with a decent resolution of 1600x900, though some people may have preferred full HD resolution for a display of this size. However, the built in GPU ASUS W90vp-a2 Battery would have been insufficient for games at higher resolutions, so the chosen resolution is understandable.
Its hard to fathom why such a poor display was built into a Multimedia notebook. The glossy surface is a matter of preference; subjectively, colors look more vivid on glossy screens, but you can forget about using them outdoors, as they turn into mirrors showing just your own face.ASUS W90vp-a1 Battery Contrast is below average at 156:1, which is related to the poor black value of 1.33 cd/m2.
At least the display's brightness is ASUS W90VP Battery
not further reduced when operating on battery power, so you can continue to use its maximum brightness.
Only good illumination is left for this display to score, which is pretty even at 90%. But the result of this positive aspect is terminated by mediocre average brightness. A middling 199.2 cd/m2 won't suffice to outshine eventual reflections.ASUS W90VN Battery
Displayed color space is deficient because the picture has a blue tint, which shows in all color space measurements. Users looking for decent presentation of colors should look elsewhere. This manifests when viewing the displayable part of the sRGB color space. Roughly two thirdsASUS W90V Battery
coverage especially lacks coverage of warm colors, as you can tell in the color space images below. Even in comparison to its predecessor RC720, a loss of quality is noticeable. The RC730 can't even begin to compare with the glossy display of the MacBook Pro 17.
Summarizing the subject of outdoor use, only one thing can be said: The glossy display with its mediocre brightness turns working outdoors into a challenge.Our impression does not change when looking at viewing angles. Even small divergence ASUS W90 Battery
from the optimal viewing angle results in color and brightness aberrations. You keep having to alter the position of the display, or sometimes feel its impossible to find a proper angle, because some part of the screen always shows distorted colors.
Overall, one can say that the display, from Samsung's ownHP Pavilion N5452 Battery production (type SEC544B), fails to satisfy.
Intel's Core i7 CPU with its 995 million transistors handles most tasks with ease. With performance surpassing the previous Clarksfield generation, it is well equipped for elaborate tasks. The integrated Intel HD-3000 GPU is not a performance miracle,HP Pavilion N5451 Battery but suffices for common chores.
TurboBoost permits to overclock one CPU core from the standard 2.0 GHz clock speed to 2.9 GHz, or overclock two cores to 2.8 GHz. Hyperthreading tricks Windows into thinking it has eight cores to work with, where each of the four physical cores provides 2 logical cores. HP Pavilion N5450 Battery Applications written to support multiple cores respond with increased performance.
At least in theory, it should workHP Pavilion N5445 Battery like this. Reality looks different with the RC 730; more on this in the section on temperatures.
In CPU heavy benchmarks, this CPU leaves a positive picture. The results allow the conclusion that even complex tasks won't pose any difficulty for the processor. This is shown by the Cinebench 10 and 11.5 benchmark results, where the processor profits from HP Pavilion N5444 Battery TurboBoost over clocking of up to 2.9 GHz. 3661 points are on a level with all other notebooks using this processor. With Cinebench 10's multi core test scoring 5077 points, results of the RC 730 slide to the lower middle field. The identically equipped Toshiba Satellite P770-10P manages 600 points more. Samsung's RAM running in single channel mode might have something to do with that. The shader test with 15908 points returns to the area of comparable notebooks, like the MSI GE620-i748W7P.
The two Cinebench 11.5 tests didn't open up any surprises. HP Pavilion N5400 Battery With 4.6 points in the CPU benchmark and 25.0 points in the OpenGL benchmark, the RC730 equals all its competitors.
In system benchmarks, the RC730 scores slightly below comparable units like the Toshiba Satellite P770-10P. 6335 points in 3DMark Vantage or 2096 points in PCMark 7 are not bad values, but with a view to the competition, it could be a bit more. HP Pavilion N5390 Battery Why results score lower will come into view further into the test – the notebook has throttling problems under combined heavy load for CPU and GPU. The Toshiba Satellite P770-10P can score for example with 2688 points with PCMark 7 or 6963 with PCMark Vantage. The Samsung RF711 is the only notebook with comparable configuration that scores even lower with 5830 points in the 3DMark Vantage benchmark.
4.9Windows 7 Experience IndexProcessorCalculations per second7.4MemoryHP Pavilion N5350 Battery
(RAM)Memory operations per second5.9GraphicsDesktop performance for Windows Aero4.9Gaming graphics3D business and gaming graphics6.6Primary hard diskDisk data transfer rate5.9
The equipped GPU is a typical representative HP Pavilion N5341 Battery
of the current middle class and is suited for games of low to medium demand in regards to graphics. Comparisons can be found here.
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