Samsung Series 3 (NP305V5A)

The Samsung Series 3 (NP305V5A) ($599.98 list at Staples) may look luxurious, but its AMD Llano APU's performance and battery life is anything but. It has little else to recommend itself, unfortunately, in the way of features?aside from its integrated Bluetooth technology, a spacious 750GB hard drive, and its AMD Radeon HD 6520G GPU, which gives it an edge on the gaming grid over Intel's integrated graphics. Better laptops, in terms of performance and features, can be had for $20 less in the Gateway NV55S05u ($579.99 list, 4 stars) or $40 more in the Asus U56E-BBL5 ($649.99 list, 4 stars).

Design
The Series 3 (NP305V5A)'s design is a huge part of its appeal. Its sharp corners make it stand out from the usual rounded edges of laptops like the HP Probook 6465b ($730 direct, 4 stars). Its lid has a dark brown brushed aluminum texture that makes it look like table-top wood, and a silver band frames the lid, further adding to its elegance. The whole package weighs in at 5.25 pounds (1.24 inches at its thickest point), which puts in on the lighter side of the 15-inch laptop space, compared with the Gateway NV55S05u (5.6 pounds) and Asus U56E-BBL5 (5.5 pounds). In general, toting around anything heavier than 4 pounds on a day-to-day basis isn't the best for your back, unless you have a backpack with great support or use a wheeled bag.

Its 15.6-inch screen is perfect for multi-taskers who like to work with two windows side-by-side. The screen displays in 1,366-by-768?a standard resolution found in most all laptops at this price. The speakers offered a fairly average listening experience: Bass was low, and audio didn't go up terribly high, but it was enough to satisfy two or three people crowding around a laptop watching a movie or some trailers. Above the screen is a webcam for video chatting and taking pictures. The full-size keyboard is in the chiclet style, with a half-sized numeric keypad off to the right side. I found the typing experience to be satisfactory as far as laptops go, and the navigating experience offered from the matte multi-touchpad was smooth. The mouse buttons were also easy to click and didn't make much noise.

Features
Compared with other budget systems, like the Asus U56E-BBL5, the Series 3 (NP305V5A) is limited when it comes to features. It has the usual offerings: three USB 2.0, HDMI and VGA video, a 4-in-1 card reader (SD, SDXC, MMC), audio and mic jacks, DVD-RW drive, and an Ethernet jack. The only outlier is its integrated Bluetooth technology, which allows you to connect wireless peripherals like headsets, mice, and keyboards. The Asus U56E-BBL5, on the other hand, features WiDi 2.0, a technology that allows you to wirelessly stream your computer's contents to your HDTV in 1080p (provided you have a Netgear Push2TV receiver, a $99 option). It also has an integrated 3G wireless broadband technology called WiMAX. The Series 3 (NP305V5A) only has 802.11n Wi-Fi.

The Series 3 (NP305V5A)'s 750GB, 5,400rpm hard drive is the largest capacity you can get at this price in a laptop. It's bigger than the 640GB hard drive found in the Asus U56E-BBL5 and Gateway NV55S05u. The hard drive is also filled with a number of pre-installed programs, better known as "bloatware." There's an eMusic app, Amazon reader, Bing bar, Skype, and a bunch of Samsung's own proprietary software. Personally, I'm of the mind that a new PC should feel like a fresh start, not some company's commercial playground.

Performance
Llano APUs are the most powerful chipsets in AMD's arsenal. But when the Series 3 (NP305V5A)'s quad-core 1.6GHz A6 3410MXP chip and 4GB of RAM was pitted against the Intel Core i3 CPU?the lowest end of Intel's Core i-series?found in the Gateway NV77H05u ($629.99 list, 3 stars) it didn't quite step up. The Gateway NV77H05u (2,004) beat the Series 3 (NP305V5A) (1,516) in PCMark 7 by 488 points?a significant margin. The Series 3 (NP305V5A) managed to get through our Handbrake video encoding test in 3 minutes 18 seconds, 55 seconds slower than the Gateway NV77H05u and 1:23 behind the Asus U56E-BBL5 (a Core i5 system). In day-to-day tasks, the Series 3 (NP305V5A) will give you enough power to perform, but you'll likely start to see it slow sooner than its Core i5 counterparts.

The Series 3 (NP305V5A)'s AMD Llano APU does have an advantage when it comes to 3D gaming, as its graphics processor (AMD Radeon HD 6520G) sits on the same die as the CPU. In Crysis (DirectX 10) it managed 30 frames per second (fps) and 21.7fps in Lost Planet 2 (DirectX 9) on Medium quality settings at 1,024-by-768 resolution. However, it was beat out by the Gateway NV55S05u with its AMD Radeon HD 6620G GPU that was able to score 36.7fps on Crysis and 38fps in Lost Planet 2. At these frame rates, you'll be able to play most low-end titles easily (i.e. Limbo, Team Fortress 2), and mid-range titles like Starcraft 2 and Portal 2, provided you make some adjustments to the settings.

Its 48Wh (6-cell) battery only managed to last 3 hour 16 minutes on our MobileMark 2007 battery test. The Gateway NV55S054u lasted longer (4:54), and the Asus U56E-BBL5's larger 8-cell 74Wh battery garnered a total battery time of 7:34.

The Series 3 (NP305V5A) may have a luxurious exterior, but its parts are lackluster. If Web browsing and day-to-day tasks, with some gaming on the side, are what you have in mind, then the Gateway NV55S05u will give you a more advanced Llano APU and save you $20 on your overall purchase. However, the Editors' Choice Asus U56E-BBL5 (only $40 more) is equipped with a Core i5 CPU that will last for a few years before it start to become noticeably slower, and will chew through more CPU-intensive tasks at a quicker pace.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Samsung Series 3 (NP305V5A) with several other laptops side by side.

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