Samsung R530 laptop
We love
Good price, loads of decent specs, vids look great
We hate
Average, not the latest Intel inside
Verdict
A pretty standard machine but with a great value price tag
Launch Price
£499

Packing in a hefty 500GB HDD, an old-school Intel Core 2 Duo processor and a slick 720p panel, the Samsung R530 certainly offers a lot for its bargain £500 price tag. But is this a stunner or just your average lappie? Read our Samsung R530 review now and find out.

You can’t deny that the Samsung R530 offers good value when you consider just what you get thrown in. As well as the aforementioned hard drive, there’s Windows 7 Home Premium, a sizeable 15.6-inch panel and a decent 3GB of RAM to keep things ticking along nicely.

The keyboard on the Samsung R530 is every bit as good as we’ve come to expect from Sammy, with a numeric effort thrown in for number crunchers and panicked tax return lovers. All keys have the same ace feel as those on Samsung’s netbooks. That said, the trackpad feels a tad dinky and not as responsive as we’d have liked.

Fire up a movie and you won’t be disappointed with just how sharp that screen looks. The Samsung R530 handled video with aplomb, offering killer, rich colours that really sing. However, you’ll need to crank the brightness right up to ensure you get the full benefits of the 1366×768 panel, meaning battery does take a beating.


Read our Dell Studio 15 review now


The ageing Intel Core 2 Duo means that the Samsung R530 doesn’t run at the nippy speed of some rivals, but that does keep costs down. However, if you want to run myriad apps and keep up with the Joneses, you’ll want to wait for a Core i5 version to roll out of Seoul.

There’s nothing to suggest that the Samsung R530 isn’t a decent buy. But at the same time, it’s hard to get too excited about it either. It’s a pretty average machine, but it earns an extra star for offering so much for so little.

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