Bought a new laptop, the Samsung SF310. I previously owned an Apple black macbook, but decided to get a windows laptop this time around due to my budget and also because there are lots of programs and things I like about Windows 7 and wanted to go with it instead.  

Here are the specs of the laptop:

• Core i5 2.53ghz with turbo boost up to 2.9ghz
• Nvidia Optimus switching graphics with Nvidia 310M 512mb video memory
• 320gb 5400rpm hard drive
• 4gb RAM
• 13.3” HDLED screen
• Bluetooth 3.0
• Wireless N 
• 6 hours battery life

Short Review

Likes

The laptop looks great and has a great feel to it. The build quality is excellent and the look of the laptop is pretty cool looking. The keyboard feels great and is very sturdy. The speed of the laptop is snappy, and when turbo boost kicks in it speeds things up even more making it feel like it’s much faster. When the dedicated graphics kick in, it handles games or Photoshop with ease. The laptop has dedicated volume buttons for up, down, and mute, which is always great. 

Battery life is pretty good and I’ve gotten around 4-6 hours regularly while using mostly the internet, which is better than my black macbook which was averaging 2 hours 30 minutes. Windows has gone a long way since Vista, and this Windows 7 is responsive and great to use. Easy to shut off annoying things like the UAC and easy to customize and look good. Plus, now that I have a Windows machine I can also run all my emulators such as SNES, Megadrive, and PS1, which is awesome. 

Dislikes

The speakers were at first horrible. Distorted, bad quality altogether. I found out that in the Realtek audio options the setting was for big speakers, so I put it down to small speakers, and adjusted some other things in there, and now the speakers are almost decent. I plan on buying portable speakers or just using headphones when I’m using the laptop, as the speakers are still not that bearable. It certainly can get loud enough but the quality is horrible and it distorts easily.

The touchpad click buttons are bad. The touchpad is pretty huge, and that’s because the left click and right click are integrated into it. So when you go to do a left or right click, you brush your finger across the touchpad and the mouse pointer moves and you don’t click the right things. It is incredibly annoying! 
I did solve the issue though. I now only use tap clicks, and set it so that when I tap with two fingers it gives me right click. Since I did this, it’s actually pretty okay. The two finger scrolling like on a macbook works great on this laptop and the touchpad is pretty huge and easy to use. So I’m okay with it now and can live with it. I do mostly use a mouse with my laptops so altogether this isn’t a big issue. 

Overall

I’m glad that I got this laptop. I like the looks, build quality, and specs for it. The speakers suck, and the touchpad needed getting used to, but overall that isn’t a deal breaker for me. The laptop cost me 290kd, and I think that’s a fair price considering the specs for it. I did do research for about a week before I got the laptop, and I feel I made a good choice. 

Some could say I could’ve waited till the new Sandy Bridge laptops came out. I don’t think they’re coming out till summer time, and I needed a laptop ASAP, as my black macbook was falling apart and becoming unusable. 

Also some could say that I could’ve ordered from amazon and have it shipped, but then I don’t get a warranty and I risk having to RMA the laptop if there is an issue, plus with shipping cost it would make it the same cost as laptops here in Kuwait.

Overall I am happy with this laptop and would recommend it if you can deal with having to only tap when using the touchpad and plan on getting portable speakers to use with it.