china news: Samsung unveils Series 7 laptops, we go hands-on

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Samsung unveils Series 7 laptops, we go hands-on

One of Samsung's Series 7 laptops was outed not long ago, but that PC was made for fragging, while the rest in this line of laptops is meant for more pedestrian purposes. The new members of the family come sheathed in the same silver aluminum skin, but sport a smaller 300 nit, 1600 x 900 matte display in both 15.6-inch and 14-inch versions. Those displays are surrounded by a minimalist bezel, which allowed Samsung to stuff a 14-inch panel into a 13-inch chassis. Around the sides, there are two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, HDMI out, VGA out (which requires an included dongle a la the Series 9) and Gigabit Ethernet.

On the inside, users can get up to a Core i7 2675QM CPU clocked at 2.20GHz, up to 8GB of RAM, Radeon HD 6750M graphics, and a 750GB HDD spinning at 7200RPM. On all but the base model, there's an additional 8GB of flash memory mounted on the motherboard that helps shave boot times down to mere seconds using Sammy's FastStart technology. A lithium polymer battery powers everything, and Samsung claims the 80Wh cell will maintain 80 percent of its original capacity for up to 1,500 charges. Prices start at $1000, and run all the way up to $1300 for all the fixins'. Sound good? Read on past the break to get our impressions of the Korean company's newest computer on the block.

Gallery: Samsung Series 7 Laptops