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Samsung 305V5A-A04 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £500
inc VAT

A unique white plastic design and an AMD CPU and graphics chip might draw attention to the 305V5A-A04, but its dim and patchy screen lets it down badly

Specifications

15.6 in 1,366×768 display, 2.5kg, 1.6GHz AMD A6-3410MX, 6.00GB RAM, 750GB disk, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

http://www.pcworld.co.uk

The Samsung 305V5A-A04’s unusual white case divided opinion in the office. Some saw it as just another budget white laptop, while others saw the unusual matt white plastic, metallic panels and sharp lines as an interesting departure for Samsung, which is better known for smooth curves and blended colours. It certainly has something retro about it.

Samsung 305V5A-A04

It isn’t just the 305V5A-A04’s design that’s unique. It’s one of the few laptops we’ve seen recently to use AMD’s Vision platform (a combination of an AMD A6 processor and Radeon HD graphics chip), which is backed up by 6GB of RAM and a generous 750GB hard disk. Sadly, the quad-core A6 didn’t fare well in our benchmarks, with an Overall score of just 40. While this is still powerful enough for most people’s everyday computing needs, some Intel-powered budget models are twice as powerful.

Graphics performance is far better, and the 305V5A-A04 scored 26fps in our Dirt3 benchmark. Turning off AA produced a more playable 29fps and, as long as you’re willing to sacrifice some graphical ‘eye candy’, you should be able to run most games at playable frame rates, although more intense action games, such as first-person shooters, may prove too much for it.

Sadly, the best efforts of the graphics card aren’t translated well by the screen, which has a dull, uneven backlight with painfully obvious dark areas along its top and bottom edges. It also has a matt finish, which is unusual for a consumer laptop, and although this does reduce glare from overhead lights, it also diffuses the colours on screen, making them lose impact. The overall result is washed out, inaccurate colours and awful contrast.

Samsung 305V5A-A04

That’s a shame, because the 305V5A-A04 has some great features. Its keyboard is firm, well laid out, and each key has a light, crisp action. Our only complaint would be that the keys have flat tops and slight wobble can cause the occasional slip. There’s a numberpad to the right of the main keyboard and a massive touchpad below it, which has two large buttons set close to the edge of the case where your thumb naturally rests.

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Basic Specifications

Rating **
Processor AMD A6-3410MX
Processor clock speed 1.6GHz
Memory 6.00GB
Memory slots 2
Memory slots free 0
Maximum memory 8GB
Size 33x367x240mm
Weight 2.5kg
Sound Realtek HD Audio
Pointing device touchpad

Display

Viewable size 15.6 in
Native resolution 1,366×768
Graphics Processor AMD Radeon HD 6520G
Graphics/video ports VGA, HDMI
Graphics Memory 512MB

Storage

Total storage capacity 750GB
Optical drive type DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Ports and Expansion

USB ports 3
Bluetooth yes
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support 802.11n
PC Card slots none
Supported memory cards SDHC, MMC
Other ports minijack audio output, minijack microphone input

Miscellaneous

Carrying case No
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore option restore partition
Software included CyberLink Media Suite 8, Microsoft Office 2010 Starter

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB
Price £500
Details www.samsung.com/uk
Supplier http://www.pcworld.co.uk

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