Samsung Q330 Laptop Review

Trying to find a balance between power, portability and price is certainly not an easy task. However, the Q330 from Samsung certainly goes some distance in trying to address this problem.

The Samung Q330 has a rather splendid design which incorporates a 13.3-inch screen and still weighs just under 2kg and I forgot to add that is features the latest Intel Core i3-350M processor. Even though the Intel Core i3 processor is the entry level processor out of the three new processors designed by Intel it is undoubtedly more than sufficient for such a small and dainty laptop. The Intel i3-350M is a lower-middle class dual core CPU for laptops and clocks 2.26GHz. The main different between the i3-350M and the i5-430M is the lack of Turbo Boost overclocking.

The integrated GMA HD graphics card is faster than the older GMA 4500MHD in terms of 3D performance it is on par with the Raadeon HD 4200 but even that isn’t really anything to write home about.

The Q330 has a black lid with a metallic finish but it still feels high-grade. The keyboard follows suite in terms of feeling and looking high-grade, Samsung have opted for isolated island type keys making touch typing very, very easy and avoids miss typing. Furthermore, the backspace, return button and space bar are all large and this makes word processing, and writing this review, a breeze.

Even though the laptop measures in at 328mm x 230mm x 33mm Samsung have managed to incorporate an HDMI out, a VGA out, three USB ports and even a multi-format DVD optical drive.

Furthermore, Samsung have incorporate some quite impressive features such as USB sleep charge technology allowing you to charge your USB peripherals without having to boot up the laptop itself.

In addition, the Samsung Q330 comes with Bluetooth 3.0 which means the transfer rate is 24Mbit per second which is twice as fast as USB 1.0.

The addition of Bluetooth 3.0 is a move in the right direction as far as the laptops.co.uk team is concerned. The benefits of Bluetooth 3.0 are numerous and all beneficial to the consumer. In essence it makes moving bigger, larger files such as videos, music or photos between devices easier. For instance you’ll be able to wirelessly bulk synchronize music libraries between PC and music players or your phone. A rumour has it that in the future Apple are looking into Bluetooth synchronization between iTunes and iPods and iPhones. Furthermore, the other benefits of Bluetooth 3.0 are those such as bulk download of photos to a printer or a PC or even streaming video files from a camera, phone or PC to a TV or computer.

The Samsung Q330 comes with 3GB of memory a 320GB hard drive a vibrant and backlit display sporting a resolution of 1366x768 which means the capability to watch HD movies or play games is just not there and more importantly it boasts a 5 hour battery life under light usage so this could very well be your university friendly laptop.