Samsung RF711-S02 Notebook Review

The Samsung RF711-S02 notebook packs an Intel Core i7 processor, NVIDIA GT540M graphics and a Samsung solid state drive in a slim 1.5" thick design. Kevin Pereira and Candace Bailey test out the $950 notebook for its official Gadget Pr0n rating.

What You Need to Know

• This 1.5” laptop is slimmer than most and it's also much wider than a normal laptop.
• The wider screen means you wind up with lots of extra real estate for multimedia apps like video editing, or Photoshop.
• Movies and games look great on the LED back-lit screen.
• The extra width also gets you a full-sized keyboard and a number pad, which is a nice bonus.
• It has three USB ports and full HDMI out so you can connect it to most TVs for watching movies or surfing the web.
• The disc drive is only DVD read write and not Blu-ray.
• Even without the Blu-ray, it's still a good all-purpose laptop.
• It performed as well or better than other laptops in this price range, but we tested two versions of this laptop.
• The $950 one had a standard hard drive.
• This one here has a 256 GB Samsung 470 Series solid state hard drive installed, which means no moving parts; it increases the total price to about $1,400.
• As expected, both laptops performed about the same when we ran our 3D gaming benchmarks; games looked and played great on the medium settings.
• The upgraded laptop far outperformed other laptops in its class at things like booting up, launching applications, and loading games; it cold boots to the desktop in about 20 seconds and most applications launched nearly instantly.
• The Samsung rf-711 starts at $950, but we're recommending that you install a Samsung solid state drive to get the most out of it with the faster drive.
• This laptop is a great value; the extra 256 GB solid state drive is about $400 and is easy to install yourself or save some money and add a smaller 128 GB drive for about $200.

Price

• You can get one starting at $950 and upgrade from there.

Overall Rating

• 4 Seals of Approval Out of 5 (How do we rate gadgets?)

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