When Apple launched the MacBook Air, it sparked rave reviews. The price also proved steep for majority of consumers. The same can be said of the first Ultrabooks launched by Acer and the Series 9 by Samsung.
The Series 5 range of Ultrabooks by Samsung hopes to address the issue of price while at the same time providing users with the premium Ultrabook experience.
Design & Features
Only the bottom half is covered in plastic. It comes in at 1.43kg, which justifies its blade-like looks, making it not one of the lightest Ultrabooks on the market but it won’t strain any muscles when you carry it.
It looks more on the conservative side with its silver or gray (depending how you look at it) aluminium covering, but this also makes it have a sleek and subdued design, making it stylish but also fingerprint resistant.
It is not the thinnest Ultrabook out on the market given that it measures 315x219mm and is 18mm thick, yet it is not bulky either keeping with the Ultrabook theme.
It comes with a few standard ports, they include a SD card slot, 3 x USB ports (1 x high-speed USB 3.0), an Ethernet port, a combined headphone/microphone 3.5mm jack and a VGA port which is supplied with an adaptor.
The 13.3-inch screen is non-reflective and has a matte finish.
Performance
Performance wise this Ultrabook delivers. From the rather quick boot up time running Microsoft Windows 7 thanks to the Intel Core i5 processor to the quick and good quality manner in which it renders both graphics and video, powered by an Intel HD Graphics 3000 card.
A good reason for why this ultrabook is better priced than most can be found in that it comes with a 500GB hard disk drive whilst most ultrabooks come with a solid-state drive which is more expensive (the HDD is also a big contributor to the 1.43kg). The only negative with this specification is that the HDD is slower than a solid-state drive. Should the 500GB not be sufficient for your requirements, you have an option to expand it with a memory card.
The battery is not exceptional but sufficient for the average user’s requirements, it provides approximately six hours of light usage (word processing, web browsing etc.) and about half of that under heavy power hungry usage like viewing videos or game playing.
Specifications
*Processor : Intel Core i5 Processor 2467M, 1.60GHz
*OS(Recommended by Manufacturer) : MicWindows 7 Home Premium 64-bit;
*Hard Disk Drive: 500GB;
*System Memory : 4GB
*Display : 13.3-inch, SuperBright Anti-Reflective HD LED display,1366×768 pixels;
*Graphics Adaptor : Intel HD Graphics 3000;
*Camera (Front) : 1.3MP;
*Connectivity : Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2 x 2) + Bluetooth 3.0 HighSpeed (HS);
*Ports : Ethernet, VGA via Dongle, HDMI, Headphone-out / Mic-inCombo, Internal Mic, 1x USB 3.0, 2x; USB 2.0, 4in-1 Multi Card Slot(SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC), RJ45 (LAN);
*Battery : Lithium-ion, 45Wh;
*Size : 315x219x15-18mm;
*Weight : 1.43kg.
Alternatives
Dell XPS 13, Acer Aspire S3 and the Asus Zenbook UX32.
Conclusion
For the price one pays, this is good value for money for a “workhorse” like Ultrabook.
It doesn’t offer the best of any of its specifications or features but at the same time it isn’t being sold at the “top” price. It is well suited for day-to-day work and dare I say it, it is the next device you upgrade to if you need better performance and storage than a tablet at almost similar looks.
