Samsung R470 [Review]

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Samsung R470 [Review]

Rohan Naravane, Dec 09, 2009 1450 hrs IST

Samsung's aptly priced workhorse

Fairly powerful internals, eSATA port, chargeable USB port, battery life meter, decent gaming performance, value for money pricing

Fingerprint magnet, No Wi-fi 802.11n support, keyboard may not be comfortable for all

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Design and Construction

The Samsung R470 is available only in the piano black shade, which gives it a nice elegant look. But this feel-good factor is short-lived, as it collects nasty fingerprints on its shiny body. It is a nagging task to clean the body regularly to bring back its charm. The Samsung R470 has a sturdy build, and at 2.3 kilos, its weight is in line with other 14-incher models. It is also not that bulky to carry around.

On the inside, is an adequately bright and crisp screen. Nowadays, we're seeing all laptop screens-- the R470 included -- shifting to the 16:9 aspect ratio, and an HD-ready 1366x768 pixel resolution. This makes watching hi-def movies on it quite ideal. The webcam output quality is decent in fairly lit areas, but the frame rate is a little laggy.

The speakers, which are fairly loud, are placed right above the keyboard. While the keys are soft to type on and have a nice feel, their positioning is not ideal. After typing for some time, I could feel some strain on the fingers of my left hand, as they were a little constricted for space as compared to the fingers on my right hand. Therefore, people with large hands may have a problem typing for long. However, my colleagues did not seem to face this problem, thus you'd want to try it out yourself before buying. The touch-pad offers good response, but the strips marking the side scrolling are a little inaccurate, as it scrolls even when swiping a little away from that marked area.

The left side bears a USB/eSATA combination port. The eSATA port could prove to be useful for people owning external storage featuring that port. There's also an ExpressCard slot next to it. There is another interesting feature to the right. The USB port in the right corner can charge devices even without turning the PC on. Since most of the MP3 players and even mobile phones nowadays can be charged off USB, it is actually a very nifty feature to have. Thus, the device being charged will simply draw power out of the laptop battery, without the need for other PC peripherals to be powered on.

At the bottom is yet another cool feature; the battery pack has a LED meter that indicates the amount of charge left in it. All in all, we were happy with the overall design of the laptop. The only downer for me is the keyboard.