Portable Laptop Review: Samsung X360-34P

May 2009
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Apr		Jun »
	1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Friday, May 29th, 2009 @ 10:53 pm | Laptop, Review

Coming in with 1.4 GHz Intel Core Duo U9400 CPU and 3 GB of RAM, this ultra portable laptop is a bit more mediocre than excellent. The speed is OK, but I can’t talk about the integrated graphics card without resorting to profanity. Don’t play games on this machine. Don’t think about games on this machine. Don’t even LOOK at them if this computer is anywhere around you. At least the setup comes with a 128 gig solid state drive – which is reliable and light. It comes to about 3.7 lbs with the adapter included – which I consider to be really good.

The battery is one area which impressed me though – I managed to use to for a whole seven hours. That’s a major plus for portability – I can’t think of many places besides an airplane or a jungle where you’d be away from a plug for that time (and shame on you if you’re by a pool for seven hours at a time!). The screen size seems a little odd to me (12.2×9.1×1.3″), but it could just be me. Thankfully the screen is extremely bright, meaning you can use it almost anywhere (even poolside, in direct sunlight)! This size means that there’s not a lot of space for everything though, leading to some crowding. This is of course to be expected in an ultra-portable laptop.

The mouse is placed well on this one, and the buttons are spaced and placed so that they aren’t awkward to use. The keyboard is pushed up through the chassis, giving it a solid feel and plenty of touch feedback. It doesn’t have much in the way of shortcut buttons – one to a quick-fix utility, and the other to toggle speed settings for the laptop. I personally like more buttons so I can launch certain apps rapidly, but it’s really more up to your preference.

I do have to say, this ultra portable laptop does come with lots of plugs (which means more versatility, which I really like). It has VGA and HDMI, Bluetooth, 3 USB ports, a 5-in-1 card reader, a PC Express Card slot, webcam, and fingerprint reader in addition to the basic package like Wifi and Ethernet. The speakers are surprisingly strong too – but of course it lacks any real base. At least this is one ultra-portable laptop that doesn’t require headphones.

Also unlike many laptops, this one comes almost free of bloatware. Believe me, this is a great plus. I loathe having to spend time uninstalling crap programs and replacing them with the ones I like. It does come with useful diagnostic and system recovery software, which is a plus. Overall, the system is solid, but a little lacking in my opinion. It also comes at a price point of 2500 USD. My feelings are that you can probably find much better options. But if this sounds like the ultra portable laptop for you, don’t let my opinion stop you!