IT Pro Verdict

It's tempting to buy the Samsung SF310 based purely on how it looks. There's a lot to like about the SF310 besides its appearance, including its fast performance, auto-switching dual graphics, good battery life and reasonably comfy keyboard. It's not quite as cheap as it seems if you need to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional however, while its frustratingly-designed touchpad counts against it. Nonetheless, if you can live with this it's a very competitively-priced ultra-portable laptop.

By Alan Lu

published 1 November 2010

in Reviews

Although the keyboard is large with no oddly placed keys, the slightly spongy keys don't feel as responsive as other laptop keyboards we've used. Although it's still comfortable to use, we'd still prefer keys with more feedback. The touchpad is large and feels smooth, but the buttons are built into the bottom of the pad. This makes them difficult to press and hold so simple tasks, such as dragging and dropping icons, are much harder than they should be. It's a frustrating design choice we've started to see on an increasing number laptops.

The 13.3in screen is bright, due in part to its glossy finish. Unfortunately, this glossy sheen also reflects overhead light very easily, causing glare which can look distracting. It's annoying, but usually easy enough to work around by simply adjusting the angle or position of the screen. This should be easy enough since the screen tilts back quite far. This should also make the SF310 easier to use when placed on one's lap.

The screen flexes under pressure more than we'd like, but the base feels fairly rigid. It doesn't become uncomfortably warm when churning through our Windows benchmarks either. Thanks to its fast 2.53GHz Core i5 processor and 4GB of RAM, the SF310 fared very well running our Windows application benchmarks scoring 93 overall. The 320GB hard disk is a bit small for a laptop at this price, we'd normally expect 500GB, but it should still be big enough for most uses.

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