The actual Samsung Series 3 may not be the thinnest or least heavy 13-inch laptop on the market, but it does offer solid performance and also storage capabilities that are being sacrificed by many of the latest ultraportables. They keyboard and trackpad are also well designed to be precise and comfortable. There are a number of things to nitpick about the laptop such as the cheap feeling plastic exterior and lack of high speed exterior storage peripheral ports. At $750, the pricing is but there are a couple alternatives that are a bit more affordable along with comparable features.

Pros
Solid Performance From Core i5 Cpu
Large Hard Drive With DVD Drive
Comfortable Keyboard Along with Nice Trackpad
Cons
Plastic Exterior While Functional, Seems Cheap
No USB 3. 0 or eSATA Slots
Description
Intel Core i5-2410M Dual Core Mobile Model
4GB PC3-10600 DDR3 Memory
640GB 5400rpm SATA Hard disk
8x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner
13. 3" WXGA (1366x768) LED Backlit Display With 1 . 3 Mega-pixel Webcam
Intel HD Graphics 3000 Integrated Graphics
Gb Ethernet, 802. 11a/g/n Wireless, Bluetooth
Three USB second . 0, HDMI, VGA, 4-in-1 Card Reader
12. 4" by 8. 1" x 1 . 3" @ 4. six lbs.
Windows 7 Home Premium, Office Starter
Review - Samsung Sequence 3 NP300V3A-A01
Sep 29 2011 - Samsung's Line 3 laptops are designed to be a mix of portability and cost. As a result, they aren't as thin as many new ultrathin and ultrabook laptops that are available or coming soon. At $750 though, the NP300V3A-A01 is definitely more affordable with a few more features such as performance. It uses a standard laptop voltage Intel Primary i5-2410M dual core processor that provides it with a strong level of performance in a wide range of applications. This is combined with 4 GB of DDR3 memory to allow for a smooth overall encounter.

Most 13-inch laptops are dropping storage features with regard to portability, but the Series 3 laptops are about performance especially with storage. The NP300V3A-A01 features an very high 640GB hard drive. This provides roughly thirty percent more storage space compared to average hard drive based 13-inch laptop. The drive will spin at the more traditional 5400rpm spin rate which can impact the performance a bit compared to laptops using 7200rpm drives and it certainly falters compared to solid state turns. Still, if you need lots of storage space for applications, data along with media files, there won't be any problems here. Besides the hard drive, the laptop also packs in a standard double layer DVD burner which allows for burning or playback associated with CD or DVD media. Of course , this is partly the reason behind the fairly thick dimensions.

While the internal storage functions are quite nice, the Series 3 laptop does are unsuccessful for external peripherals. It does feature three USB slots but those wanting to hook up high speed external storage is going to be disappointed to learn that non-e of them support new UNIVERSAL SERIES BUS 3. 0 variety. In addition , it does not support eSATA gadgets either. This means that you won't have access to any high speed external hard disk drives.

The display for the Samsung Series 3 NP300V3A-A01 utilizes a fairly typical 13. 3-inch size. It also uses a shiny finish that is norm for most consumer oriented laptops. This in particular seems to produce a large amount of reflections and glare which will make it not very suitable for outdoor use. The image and color almost all seem to be about average for a 13-inch display. The images themselves are handled by the Intel HD Graphics 3000 which are built into the Core i5 processor. This is a step up from the earlier Intel integrated graphics solutions but it still really does not have 3D performance to be used for tasks like PC video gaming even at a casual level. It makes up for this through including the ability to accelerate media encoding with QuickSync suitable applications.

It is fairly apparent that one of the areas which Samsung helped reduce production costs is on the exterior covering which is comprised of plastics. They are certainly capable in terms of putting together a sturdy enough platform for the laptop but it feels inexpensive. At least the keyboard and trackpad make up for the exterior. The keyboard utilizes an isolated design that provides an accurate and comfortable experience. Despite the fact that Samsung puts the home key block on the right hand side from the keyboard, they kept the size of the enter and proper shift keys large enough to still be functional. The track pad itself is a nice size and centered on the keyboard. This is a bit overly sensitive but can be adjusted in the control sections. Thankfully, Samsung does use discrete left and appropriate buttons instead of the rocker bar that many consumer laptops utilize.

Samsung's NP300V3A-A01 comes with a fairly typical six cell battery power with a rated capacity of 4400mAh. In DVD play-back testing, the laptop was able to run for just over 3 hours and fifteen minutes. This is slightly below similarly outfitted 13-inch laptops with DVD burners but not that remote. More traditional usage should yield close to five hours that is decent but still falls short of the likes of the more expensive Macbook-pro 13.