Review: Samsung Q210 notebook PC

Intel’s latest mobile platform, Centrino 2 (codenamed Montevina), brings a whole new line-up of processors, a completely new chipset providing improved graphics, better Wifi handling and enhanced power management.

The first notebook to land on our lab bench using the new technology is Samsung’s replacement for the Q45, namely the Q210.

From the outside the Q210 looks like any other Samsung with its glossy black finish, but opening the lid tends to divide opinion.

The Q210 has a touch of red along the front edge of the chassis ­ although this makes it stand out from the crowd, the jury is very much out on whether it improves its looks.

Arguments about finish aside, the Q210 has excellent build quality, which belies its 2.25kg (with power adapter) weight.

Powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo T8400, one of the new CPUs that are part of the Centrino 2 platform, the T8400 has a clock speed of 2.26GHz, a 1,066MHz front-side bus, 3MB of L2 cache and a TDP (Thermal Design Power) of just 25W.

Backing up the processor is the new Intel PM45 Express chipset and 3GB of PC2-5300 667MHz DDR2 memory. This gives the Q210 a reasonable overall PCmark05 score of 5,462, while the more intensive PCmark Vantage returned an overall score of 3,474.

Don’t expect the graphics to power anything more than casual gaming, though, as the Nvidia Geforce 9200M GS with 256MB of dedicated memory isn’t about to set the world alight. This is something amply proved by its 3Dmark06 score of just 2,368 ­ if that doesn’t convince you, the average frame rate score of just 4fps (frames per second) in World in Conflict should.

However, the screen is very good. With a native resolution of 1,280x800, the 12.1in display comes with a glossy, high-contrast coating which doesn’t reflect office lighting as badly as some others we’ve seen.
The keyboard exhibits the same build quality as the rest of the notebook with no discernible flex during use; this results in a strange key response feeling when you type, but we soon got used to it.

All the ports are labelled on the top edge of the chassis and, unlike many of the competition’s systems, the labels are positioned above the appropriate port. The left-hand side of the chassis holds VGA and HDMI ports, a single USB port and two audio ports.

The eight-speed DVD burner sits on the right-hand side, together with two more USB ports, an SD card slot and a 34mm Express Card slot. Samsung has provided the Q210 with a 320GB 5,400rpm Sata drive for storage, which should be more than adequate for day-to-day use.

The Q210 is well equipped for keeping in touch with the office or surfing the web. There is Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n Wifi; along with a 56K modem. Last but not least is Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR to get you connected to devices such as mobile phones.

When it comes to battery life, the Q210 offers some pretty decent results with its six-cell 5,200mAh battery. In Mobilemark 2007 it lasted for just a shade over three-and-a-half hours in the Productivity test, while the DVD test yielded a life of just over two-and-a-half hours. By using the power-saving features, you could boost this even further.

Its design might not suit all tastes, but Samsung has done a good job of implementing Intel’s latest mobile chipset. And if games aren’t your bag, it’s a great workhorse laptop.