Samsung Q430 review

Buying from a big-name brand like Samsung, you expect a certain level of quality, and the Q430 doesn’t disappoint. The glossy black lid has a classy brushed metal finish, and it opens to reveal a silver interior with the same effect on the keyboard panel. At just over 26mm it’s pleasingly slim, plus the minimalist design – refreshingly free of gaudy buttons and LED indicators – gives the Q430 an air of unassuming style.

It weighs 2.1kg, just over our 2kg limit for a laptop to be classed as an ultra-portable, but still easily light enough for day-to-day mobile use. Our light usage battery test showed the Q430 can last for five hours and 20 minutes away from the mains – very respectable given that it doesn’t use a low-power processor. In fact, it uses the now-common Intel Core i3-350M processor. Its overall score of 80 shows it’s capable of handling pretty much any task you could think of.

The Q430 also has a dedicated graphics card, the Nvidia GeForce 310M. This is a mid-range card, and its score of 16.6fps in our Call of Duty 4 test shows it’s up to running most games, although you’ll have to reduce graphics settings to get playable frame rates. It may still struggle with fast-paced shooter, but a round of golf or a more sedate strategy game will be no problem. Nvidia’s CUDA technology provides GPU acceleration for other applications, all the latest media suites, such as Nero, use this to accelerate tasks like video encoding.

The LED-backlit display has a glossy finish, which adds punch to colours but makes vertical viewing angles really tight, reducing contrast at the top and bottom edges of the screen even when you’re square on. However, if accuracy isn’t your primary concern, you’ll find colours are vibrant and contrast is, for the most part, great. A 1,366×768 resolution is standard for a laptop this size, and provides adequate desktop space. Full HD (1080p) content will be downscaled to fit, whereas 720p content only needs upscaling slightly. Like most laptops, this one has a 16:9 aspect ratio, just like a HD TV.

Sadly, the internal speakers lack the volume to fill even a small room, although they are surprisingly clear and reveal a wider frequency range than most other laptop speakers. If you want the full home cinema experience, you’ll have to connect an external set of speakers, or connect to an AV amplifier via the HDMI output.

There are only three USB ports, but cleverly, one of these can be used to charge devices even when the computer’s switched – ideal for charging your smartphone overnight or even on the move (as long as the laptop’s battery has charge of course). The memory card reader only supports SD, SDHC and MMC cards, but that won’t bother most people. The network port only supports 100MB/s Ethernet, but there’s also support for 802.11b/g/n wireless and Bluetooth 3.0.

Samsung has opted for a chiclet-style keyboard, with separated, flat-topped keys. Without a numberpad, there’s plenty of room and the layout is standard, with a double-height Enter key and a column of page navigation keys on the left. The keys have a light, crisp action that provides plenty of feedback. Below is a responsive touchpad which supports multi-touch gestures. The buttons are large and have a light action.

With decent performance in both Windows and 3D applications, plus over five hours of battery life, the Q430 is a great alternative to last month’s labs winner, the Dell Inspiron 15R. The Inspiron has better performance, plus a bigger hard disk and display; but its battery life is shorter and it’s half a kilogram heavier. The Q430 is far better suited to use on the move then, and if you want an all-round laptop that’s easy on the shoulder then this is it. However, for most the cheaper Inspiron is still the better choice.