Samsung Q330 Portable Laptop Review
One major thing that laptop manufacturers strive to achieve is striking the right balance between power and portability; and trust us, it is no easy task. There has always been a trade off; if you wish for long battery life, you better be prepared for, at best, mediocre performance and a much reduced feature set. Thinking of high end performance, do not even dare to think about leaving your charger at home. Well, the good news here is that, Samsung has managed to pull it off with its latest 13.3″ ultra portable Q330 Laptop, while managing to keep the price tag limited to the £600 mark. Samsung’s Q-series of laptops is something of a perennial classic. While it is hardly the most glamorous or sophisticated, they’ve always balanced portability and affordability extremely well. This laptop offers top speed, great battery life and portability in a single reasonably priced package. It certainly gets off to a flying start.
Slim n Sleek:
The Samsung Q330 13.3″ Laptop Netbook might possess a low-end, but that is no indication of how it looks; far from cheap. The plastic chassis has been given a clever makeover by Samsung with a matching a near-black lid with matt silver that gives it a slightly more premium look. We particularly like the semi-gloss finish of the lid, which has all the visual qualities of a glossy one but with the fraction of the ugly smudges and fingerprints. It is quite light, at just 2kg, and relatively thin, too. The laptop rear measures 32mm and tapers off to just 23mm at the front. This sort of dimensions means that it is small enough to tuck comfortably into your bags without taking up too much of your precious space in there. In this respect the Q330 has more in common with the Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro 13-inch, though it is considerably cheaper than either.
Build Quality:
Yet another thing that is quite important is the build quality of Q330 Netbook, sounds Sound! It takes excessive force to ripple the screen and the chassis does not creak when you move it around like some of the cheaper laptops in the market. Hence, you can expect the Q330 to withstand all the knocks, bumps and bruises it is more likely to suffer in the hands and bags of frequent travellers. It also runs coolly and quietly, something that is without doubt, important when working on the move.
Display and Keyboard:
The screen of the Samsung Q330laptop is rather small, at just 13.3 inches, and has a pretty average resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels. Considering the price we were not expecting great audio-visual delights from the Q330, but it performs above our expectations. Though viewing angles are quite shallow, looked at straight on the screen on the Q330 is brighter, sharper and has greater fidelity than most of its kin. These strengths serve it well in all walks of use, be it web browsing, film viewing or productivity. A 1.3-megapixel webcam set into the screen bezel. Like most of today’s high end laptops, the Samsung Q330 features isolated keys, that aid in minimising typo errors and makes the keyboard a pleasure to use. Touch typists will be glad to find the extra space between the keys and their high responsiveness. We also loved the sizeable touchpad that feels smooth without being sticky, and its generously proportioned buttons. This is a great machine for regular typing tasks.
Ports and Connectivity:
It is taken by default that an ultra-portable laptop is going to have a limited range of ports compared to a larger desktop replacement laptop model. Surprisingly, the Q330 actually did not fair too badly on this front, having all things considered. Though it has only three USB ports, one of those is a sleep and charge port, which is just perfect for charging peripherals including digital cameras and smart phones when the laptop has been switched off. Along with the VGA port, the manufacturer has managed to add an HDMI socket, which allows you to connect the laptop to an HD Ready TV. These are all arranged in a logical manner, particularly as the memory card is at the front for easy access. Interestingly, like the Samsung Galaxy S, the Q330 has Bluetooth 3.0, which is a nice, future proofing addition, in addition to Wireless-N Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet. Of course, and this may sound like a trivial thing, the Q330 also sports a 8 x DVD Rewriter drive; something not found in many low-voltage laptops, where the emphasis is on slimness at all costs.
Processor:
With its super speedy, dual-core Intel Core i3-350M processor clocking 2.26GHz, and a beefy 3GB of RAM, the Q330 is an extraordinary performer. This configuration is nothing similar to the likes of the Asus UL30A. Its performance scores racks it up there with some of the best performing ultra portables tested. It is comfortably faster than the Asus UL30A, and compares pretty well to the similarly specified Toshiba Satellite U500. As with most of its kind, however, its graphics performance is not quite as good. It sports an Intel GMA HD graphics chip, which pushed it to a score that is not exactly earth shattering. If you are a gamer wanting to play the latest games on this laptop, you may have to turn the detail settings down considerably to achieve anything close to a decent frame rate.
Memory:
The Samsung Q330 is equipped with a reasonably roomy 320GB hard drive for an ultra portable laptop, so you will have no issues storing plenty of files, images and movies. If you do find yourself running low on storage space, you can always back up your files to DVD thanks to the slim, multi-format DVD drive that Samsung managed to squeeze in.
Audio:
We were also pleasantly surprised by the speakers, if only because they are much better than we are accustomed to hearing on Samsung laptops. Do not be under any illusions, bass is still mostly absent, but this pair achieve enough clarity and volume for general use
Battery:
In one of our highly demanding battery draining test, the Q330 managed to keep running for 1 hour and 20 minutes before it required a recharge. This is a very good show of stamina for a powerful ultra portable, and you are likely to get even longer battery life from it with ordinary everyday usage. The Q330’s 4,400mAh six-cell battery lasted 5hrs 46mins on a single charge; the E Series managed just 3hrs 50mins. It cannot quite match the Acer Timeline 3810TZ, which managed a Trojan 8hrs 30mins, but with more than double the performance it has a compromise we suspect many will be more than willing to make.
Warranty:
Samsung offers Q300 one year international collect and return warranty.
Verdict:
We are quite impressed with the Samsung Q300. It is quite easy on the eyes, slim and lightweight, and has plenty of grunt under its gorgeous bonnet. Of course there is more choice in affordable and portable laptops these days, but the Q330 continues the grand tradition of its forbears. At a reasonable price tag of around £600, we are compelled to recommend this laptop.
Check other Samsung Laptops Reviews, Specs in this website.
Samsung Q330 13.3″ Laptop Computer – Technical Specification Table
| Manufacturer | Samsung |
| Model Name | Samsung Q300 |
| Display technology | LCD |
| Display diagonal size | 13.3″ LED HD |
| Maximum resolution | (1366 x 768) 16:9 Gloss |
| Dimension (W x D x H) | 329 x 229.5 x 26.4 |
| Colours available | Black |
| Weight | 1.96kg |
| Operation Systems | Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (32b) |
| Processors used in each configuration | Intel® Core™ i3 Processor 350M (2.26GHz, 3MB) |
| System Memory configurations | 3GB (DDR3 / 1GB x 1 + 2GB x 1 ) |
| Memory Slot | 2 x SODIMM |
| Graphic Memory | Shared Memory (Int. Grahpic |
| Graphic Processor | Intel GMA HD (Int. Graphic) |
| Sound | HD (High Definition Audio) Mic Noise Suppression SRS 3D Sound Effect |
| Multimedia Player | Yes |
| Speaker | 3W Stereo Speaker (1.5W x 2) |
| HDD (5400rpm S-ATA) | 320GB (5400rpm S-ATA) |
| ODD | Super Multi Dual Layer (9.5mm S-ATA) |
| Modem | No |
| Wired Ethernet LAN | 10 / 100 LAN |
| Wireless LAN | 802.11bg/n |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 3.0 High Speed |
| Keyboard Type | 89 Key QWERTY |
| Touch Pad | Touch Pad (Scroll Scope, Flat Type, Gesture UI) |
| Software installed | Adobe Acrobat Reader Easy Battery Manager Easy Display Manger Easy Network Manager Easy SpeedUp Manager Samsung Magic Doctor Samsung Support Center Samsung Update Plus |
| I/O ports | VGA , HDMI , Headphone-out, Microphone-in, Internal Mic, Express PC Card (54mm), 3 x USB 2.0, Multi Card Slot 3-in-1 (SD, SDHC, MMC) and DC-In (Power Port) |
| Security features | McAfee Virus Scan BIOS Boot Up Password HDD Password Kensington Lock Port Samsung Recovery Solution |
| Standard Battery | 6 Cell |
| AC Adapter | 60 Watt |
| Warranty | 1 Year FastGuard Warranty |
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