Why Buy A Samsung Laptop: The Thin and Light QX410-J01

I've been on the wall on getting a new computer for a while. For one thing, I knew I was getting a was something portable. Nowadays most people have either a desktop, laptop, netbook or a tablet and I need a laptop. I had been using a desktop for the past two years and it worked well but I need something more portable. I originally intended to get a ultraportable but the instead I ended getting a thin and light notebook, the Samsung QX410-J01. I'll go over my first impression of in this review with and overview on design, battery life and its' overall performance. There are some drawbacks but I will get more into that later on in my review.

All I can say is it impressed me and I'm sure it will impress you as well. So lets take a better look at the Samsung QX410-J01.

Now my first impression of the QX410 is its built quality, there is no gloss to be found on the entire notebook besides the screen. That a real plus for me as most manufacturers seem to be crazy for gloss. Instead of gloss, Samsung use an almost complete aluminum chassis giving it a refreshing look and feel to it. With its minimalistic look I have to say it looks great. The bottom however is just a black plastic that is that does as some appeal with aluminum design making seem to come together. On the bottom you will see that the battery is non-removable and is kind of a shame as you cannot replace it without sending the whole machine to Samsung. They also slapped there logo right on top of the lid which somewhat ruins the whole sleekness it has but nothing to go crazy about.

Now on is weight, the QX410 feels solid. At a little over 5lbs so it not light so carrying it around all day is not too comfortable. Compared to my old HP dv5000 that weighted 6.5 lbs, the QX410 is just a bit lighter but I do notice a little difference carrying it around but not much. The overall design though, I got to say that it does seem that Samsung borrowed a lot of their design from the Macbook, especially in the screen.

The QX410 has LED display at 14”. It has a glass covering it and emulates the the look of the Macbook and is a nice look. The screen is however is extremely glossy so it a fingerprint and dust magnetic but that is a given to all screens but it takes it a little further. A major problem I have with the screen is glare, it's almost mirror like. On the highest brightness it's less noticeable but anything lower and you will be seeing yourself and things behind you. Depending on your lighting it can be much worse, and say it's not good idea to sit under the sun with this laptop unless you under some shade.

For watching videos, the screen okay and is nothing special about it but you're limited to play HD content at only 720p on a maximum resolution of 1366 x 768. It's not the best display out there but it not that bad either. I am quiet disappointed though as I always though Samsung made great displays, its a shame that they didn't put on on the QX401. Watching videos are okay on the screen but there is nothing special about it, I just expected more in the quality.

The speakers sound a little better than standard laptop speakers thanks to the SRS 3D sound. Don't expect too much from them as they are still just laptop speakers. I did find that the sound quality was much better through the headphone jack, even from a from a pair of cheap headphones it sound good which was a surprise. In any case, if you want to use speakers I suggest you go gets some for a better experience. A pair of good headphones would be great if you on the go.

When you look at the first look at the keyboard is seems like nothing special but truth be told it good. With 88 keys and lacks a real numbpad but typing on the QX401 is just good. The keys themselves are are chiclet style and well spaced for easy typing. The only thing the keyboard lacks is backlit which does detract from it a bit but nothing serious.

The track-pad is a click-pad, something that I don't really care for, and lacks dedicated buttons for the right and left click which again is similar to Macbooks. The pad itself is large and support multi-touch gestures and does work better compare to others I've tried on HP and Dell. It does at time get in of click and drag functions at time but the gestures can be disabled. A problem that I have with the pad is its' jumps at times making it a bit difficult to highlight text or when dragging something the click-pad be unresponsive to a click on the pad even on the left or right click location. It can be annoying at times especially when accuracy is need, but it does take sometime to get used to.

Now it comes to a more important matter, battery life. Like I've said the battery is not removable so you can't stick in a better battery in, but you probably won't need to. According to Samsung, on a full charge the battery should get up 7 hours, I'm going to say that not true. I am going to say on 80% charge, I have gotten over 5 hours. On a full charge I gotten a little over 6 hours. I just amazed at how good the battery life is. Most laptops I've used last only 2.5-3 but QX410 take the cake on battery life. It last almost as some netbooks.

While using the QX410 I notice something, it almost completely silent. All I can hear at time is the hard drive humming at time but that can be easily over come by the sound of typing are someone just talking a 10 feet away. The only time you would hear anything noise from this laptop would be when you play game even or HD video, you would start to hear the fan running. On any heavy gaming is where the sound of the fan really gets noticeable however if you're playing with the music up, then it becomes negligible.

When it comes to heat, there is nothing to say about it. The QX410 never got noticeably hot or warm under normal usage. The only place that got warm is at the small exhaust vents. The keyboard and click-pad never got warm at all. The only time does heat become noticeable is when playing an HD video and heavy gaming. When playing an HD video does the fan starts to kick in and the exhaust get a little bit warmer. With heavy gaming the fan starts to rev and heat from the exhaust. You can feel the keys and the pad get a little warmer then normal and the heat from the exhaust become something to keep your hand warm on a cool day. The QX410 never once got hot to the touch or uncomfortably warm on my lap.

I got to say Samsung made an overall great laptop. It's has great performance for it size and so silent at times you might not notice it's on. The QX410 never got hot compared to other laptop I've used in the past and it has the best battery life I've seen in any laptop closing in to the level of some netbooks which just amazing. There are few things I can say I really dislike about the QX410, namely the click-pad and the non-removable battery. I can say that QX410 is great selection for anyone looking to get a laptop, Price at about $800, it's a steal for what you get, great performance, great battery life, and it look as good as a Macbook. If you looking at a Sony VAIO or an HP Envy, I suggest you take a look at Samsung QX410 it might the choice you're looking for.

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