Samsung's Notebook Resurgence

Enter the Notebooks

Enter The Notebooks

R Series

Samsung's latest R series comes in two different iterations, the R420 and R470. Other than their usage of different processors and GPUs, there is actually little to differentiate between the two 14-inch laptops. The R420 is powered by an Intel Pentium T4300, while the R470 is running on a Core 2 Duo T6500. For the GPU, the R420 is fitted with an Intel 4500MHD integrated graphics, versus a discrete NVIDIA GeForce G105M graphics on the R470. No prizes for guessing why the R470 is geared towards entertainment.

The rest is very much the same. Duracase lids, 1366 by 768 resolution screens, three USB ports, Samsung's Silver Nano technology (to kill those nasty bacteria) and a 6-cell battery which goes up to 4 hours. The Samsung R470 and R420 are priced at $1,449 and S$1,199 respectively.

X Series

We have saved the best for last. Samsung might not carry a whole fleet of notebooks at this point in time, but they'll still need a torchbearer for their laptop sortie. Well, X marks the spot here. The X460 is their latest flagship piece, a 14.1-inch notebook marked out for business executives on the go. We first caught sight of this during CeBIT 2009 expo in Germany back in March and it looks like it's finally ready to spread its wings.

Sporting a thin and light frame, the X460 has a Flat-LED screen with a decent brightness rating of 300 nits. Other than its slim and sexy design, the X460 employs a Core 2 Duo P7450 processor, 2GB DDR3 RAM and a 320GB hard disk for its hardware. Graphics-wise, the X460 is fitted with an NVIDIA GeForce Go 9200M GPU. Not too bad for a rejuvenated attempt at striking the notebook competition. Let's hope there's more to come from Samsung.