Samsung R510 review

With all the fuss surrounding small, cheap laptops such as Asus's Eee PC, you'd be forgiven for forgetting it's also possible to buy a 15.4in widescreen Vista laptop on a budget.

Samsung's latest laptop, the R510, is generously specified, but costs less than £500 including VAT.

The R510 has a classy black-and-silver case that's available in black and red as well as plain black. It feels robust, but the screen hinge was wobblier than we'd like. There are only three USB ports, but there's an HDMI output for connecting a high-definition TV or a monitor.

A generous 3GB of RAM is fitted. This is more than enough for running several memory-hungry programs simultaneously. The 2GHz Core 2 Duo T5750 processor is by no means slow, but it's not quite as quick in our benchmarks as older 2GHz Core 2 Duo processors such as the T7250. This is because it has a 667MHz FSB, as opposed to the T7250's 800MHz FSB. As expected, the Intel GMA X4500M HD graphics chip isn't up to playing the latest 3D games, but it should be able to handle older, less demanding titles.

The 320GB hard disk is surprisingly large for the price. We were also pleased by the R510's lengthy battery life of nearly four hours and 30 minutes in our light-usage battery test. This compares favourably to similarly priced laptops, which often last as little as two hours and 30 minutes. Its weight is average for a 15.4in laptop, at just less than 2.7kg.

Unfortunately, the 15.4in widescreen display wasn't the best we've seen. The backlight was uneven, so parts of the screen were noticeably lighter than others. Viewing angles were tight, with colour accuracy suffering unless we were sitting squarely in front of it. The backlight is very bright, though, and the quality is fine for everyday tasks.

Although the R510 has Intel's new GM45 Express chipset and X4500M graphics chip, it doesn't have a Centrino 2 sticker, since it doesn't use one of Intel's latest Core 2 Duo processors, and has 802.11g wireless networking instead of Draft-N. You can always upgrade to Draft-N by plugging a wireless adaptor into the ExpressCard/54 slot or a USB socket, however.

The Samsung R510 is an impressive budget laptop. Despite its price, it has a large hard disk, plenty of RAM, long battery life and a comfy keyboard. Its only flaw is the quality of its display, so it just misses out on an award.