Sleek in aluminium chic

Samsung jumps on board the Ultrabook train with its Series 5 14-inch (530U4B-S02) high-performing and ultra-slim computer.

The Series 5 Ultrabook meets all Intel’s requirements for eligibility in the Ultrabook class and Samsung has gone one step further, adding extra graphics performance to its 14-inch Ultrabook with an AMD Radeon HD graphics processor with dedicated 1 GB video memory.

To meet Intel’s key standards for the Ultrabook category, a notebook computer must be powered by second generation Intel Core Processor Family for Ultrabook and must be thin and light at less than 21 mm thick.

An Ultrabook must also have between 5 and 8 hours of battery life and be enabled with features that help protect itself and its user.

The 530U4B has about six hours of battery life and it’s powered by second generation Intel Core i5-2467M processor running at 1.6 GHz. It’s 20.9mm thick and weighs 1.79 kilograms.

Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook   also meets the requirement of fast booting: its starts up in just 20    seconds and takes just two seconds to exit the sleep mode.

It runs on Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) operating system and is equipped with4 gigabytes DDR3 memory and a 500 GB hard drive. Unlike other models and brands of Ultrabook computers, the Series 5 14-inch Ultrabook is also equipped with a DVD writer.

The Series 5 14-inch Ultrabook looks sleek in silver aluminium body, which also makes it tough and light.

Its LED-backlit screen is really bright with 300 nits brightness and 1366 x 768 pixel resolution. The Ultrabook is equipped with 1.3 megapixel web cam and a built-in microphone, two superfast USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2 port and 4-in-one (SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC) card reader.

I liked the fact that the Ultrabook had an HDMI port for connecting to a large screen LCD TV allowing it to function as a multimedia player.

During the test, the 530U4B played Full HD video files and YouTube HD clips smoothly and browsed web pages very fast.

Games also ran smoothly during the test and the Ultrabook also ran business applications, like the preloaded Microsoft Office 2010 Starter fast.

Benchmarked by Windows 7’s internal benchmark tool, the 530U4B got good scores.

It got 6.3 points on the scale of 1.0 to 7.9 for processor’s performance of calculations per second.

It got 5.9 points both for memory operations per second and disk data transfer rate.

And it scored an impressive 6.3 points for 3D business and gaming graphics performance. It didn’t do so well on desktop performance for Windows Aero, a transitional effect of the operating system, scoring just 4.4 points.

The 530U4B is preloaded with several useful applications and utilities, among them Software Launcher, which groups handy applications on a launcher task bar at the bottom of the screen. The applications are classified into groups called Multimedia, Utilities, Customer support, Safe and Security, Entertainment and Microsoft Programs. You can also and drop your choices of applications to the Launcher bar for faster access.

The Entertainment group has several useful applications from CyberLink, including CyberLink Media+ Player for playing music and movie files. There is also the Media Suite application, which has Media+ integrated in it and includes functions for writing music and video disks and displaying photos. You’ll also find the GameConsole application for downloading or buying games from WildTangent Games network here.

CyberLink Youcam allows you to have fun with the built-in webcam by taking your own shot and video clips then jazzing them up with graphic clipart before sharing on Facebook or YouTube.

In the Utilities group, I particularly liked Easy setting, which quickly changes various settings of the notebook to increase more performance or suit your usage taste. You’ll also find utilities for easily sharing your files with other computers on your home network and the Skype video call application.

Samsung Series 5 14-inch Ultrabook 530U4B-S02 retails for Bt32,900, VAT included.

 

       Key specs

_ OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

_ Processor: Intel Core i5-2467M Processor 1.6GHz with 3MB L3 cache

_ Display: 14-inch  300 nits SuperBright with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution

_ Memory: 4 GB DDR3

_ Storage: 500GB Hard Drive Capacity with Express Cache, 16GB

_ Optical drive: DVD +/-RW Super Multi Dual Layer (S-ATA)

_ Webcam: 1.3MP HD 

_ Connectivity: 802.11 a/b/g/n Wireless LAN, WiDi, Bluetooth v3.0 High Speed, Gigabit Wired Ethernet LAN

_ I/O Ports: HDMI, 2 USB 3 Ports, USB 2, Headphone/MIC combo, VGA, RJ45 (LAN), 4-in-1 Multi Card Slot (SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC)

_ Battery: 8 Cell / Li-Po Battery 6120mAh

_ Dimensions: 332.74mm (W) x 228.6mm (D) x 20.9mm (H)

_ Weight: 1.79kgs