3D Laptop Samsung RF712
A rare device today is able to surprise a spoiled user - in their class they can do almost everything, so the difference (within the margin of error) is only in the “shell”. Take, for example, multimedia laptops - everywhere FullHD, everywhere 3D, everywhere discrete graphics cards. Keyboard, touchpad and sharpened speakers - Am I wrong? But at the same time, this does not mean that laptops (as well as many other classes of devices) no longer deserve attention and you do not need to write about them. Today, for example, I decided to take one “multimedia monster” from Samsung for testing and share my impressions - all of a sudden you have been looking for something like that for a long time. Moreover, the novelty has something to brag about - the novelty is a laptop with the brightest three-dimensional screen.
Samsung RF712 | Equipment
In a medium-sized box were:
- Samsung RF712 Notebook
- Stereo glasses
- Slides for an additional hard drive
- Wire and power adapter
- Recovery disk (Windows 7 Home Premium)
- Manuals for glasses and a laptop, warranty.
In general, nothing supernatural - for a laptop with 3D support this is a common set. Only the slide for the second hard drive is confusing - it is not clear why they needed to be done separately. In most laptops, if a second disk is provided, they simply make a separate niche for it - removed the cover of the disk compartment, inserted the drive and you're done. Here you will have to tinker if by that time the accessory is not lost. But yes, but they won a couple of grams in weight - at least some profit.
The glasses from the kit are exactly the same as in the recent review of the Samsung T27A950 TV monitor . They use an active shutter - perhaps the most successful technology for creating stereo images at the moment. Let me remind you that this technology is good for almost everyone: low fatigue for the eyes, the ability to "fully" display even a large picture, a wide angle for 3D and absolutely no negative impact on a regular 2D picture. And of the minuses - perhaps the possibility of discharging the battery of glasses during viewing. The glasses are synchronized with the laptop via Bluetooth.
Samsung RF712 | Appearance
The cover of the device is glossy and all prints are clearly visible on it - unfortunately, this is quite a common picture for so many modern laptops. But among others, this laptop differs in an unusual way of coloring the cover - this is something ... incomprehensible, indescribable. I really don’t know what to call it - it seems like the lid is black, but it seems like it’s already red ... but at the same time it’s not a chameleon.
It’s just that the paint is applied in such a way that “lightning” literally walks on it - it looks at least very unusual. Well, and quite pleasantly - perhaps someone will forgive the gloss for this:
The fact that we have a multimedia laptop, it becomes clear from any direction, wherever you look. So, for example, on the right side is the door of the Blu-ray drive, a USB port (version 3.0) and the so-called Kensington lock.
The back is quite deserted - another USB 3.0 port was lost somewhere among the ventilation holes. In front is a slot for a card reader that supports all modern types of memory cards (including SDXC).
On the left there is already something to see: a power connector (incredible!), VGA (D-Sub), gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45), HDMI, two audio ports and two more USB ports (already version 2.0). All connectors are separated by fairly large gaps - there should not be a problem with lack of free space for external devices. I just didn’t like the fact that the power connector is not on the back, but on the side (and not at the hinge itself, but almost in the middle) - a rather massive wire will almost always stick out from there.
Inside, the laptop looks perhaps more impressive: the finely polished metal panel under the keyboard meets a pleasant chill whenever you start work.
Built-in speakers hid behind a metal grid above the keyboard. Between them there are 5 buttons - three are responsible for the volume, one for Wi-Fi (next to it is an indicator) and one for powering the laptop.
The keyboard itself consists of “island” type keys, which have a rather unusual shape - with a small indentation closer to the center. It is printed on such quietly and in pleasure - there are no comments either on the keyboard itself or on the layout (which, by the way, is quite convenient - due to the large Shift keys and the correct Enter).
As you already noticed, there is a numeric keypad, but it “joined” the letter layout and because of this it seemed to me not very convenient. Arrow buttons complement the picture, which support the digital unit from the bottom - they have several Fn functions, such as volume and brightness. For greater convenience, the second Fn key is located nearby.
As before, the English characters are made in white, and the Cyrillic in red. There is an adjustable white backlight for the keys, but it still has the same problem - it does not highlight the Russian letters, since they are painted.
Touchpad. He really moved to the left side - under the space bar. A rather large area of the sensor surface, which has laser engraving - small grooves are visible in the light, which also would not mind playing with a ray of light. Despite this, the tactile touchpad feels absolutely smooth - to crawl even with wet fingers on it is quite comfortable. Just below - two oblong keys with an elastic and resonant click.
To the left of the touchpad is a microphone - it seems to me that this is a rather controversial decision. Firstly, he will hammer more intensively with dust, and secondly, during a conversation he will transmit noise from work on the device. To make it clear what I'm talking about - put the recorder on the table and try to work in normal mode - you will immediately understand. Well, okay - the microphone is not the main thing.
Around the glossy 17.3-inch screen (from the principle I didn’t even take a picture of it) there is a no less glossy frame, on it is a 1.3-megapixel camera. That's where the microphone was needed ...
By the fact that it catches the eye, perhaps everything - the photos were not very successful, but overall the laptop is good in its own way. Although, of course, there’s nothing directly special about him.
From the bottom, everything is exactly the same, if you wish, you can unscrew the RAM cover and a rather large hard drive cover - each rests on one screw. I didn’t take it apart, although for the sake of interest it would be possible to insert a second disk. One more screw has the inscription “ODD” - with the help of it, apparently, a CD drive is attached inside. But I didn’t touch it either - there is nothing in the kit with which to “fill” the formed cavity - there is an additional battery there or some kind of expansion board.
The battery is disproportionately small - it takes about half of the place that it could occupy for longer battery life. But you can’t argue against the laws of physics - part of the space had to be conceded to ventilation holes. Its capacity is 5200 mAh (11.1V, 57Wh) - thanks to the battery charging technology Samsung PowerPlus allows the battery to maintain 80% of its original capacity even after 1000 charge / discharge cycles, which is 2-3 times more than a conventional battery. But be that as it may, I repeat - laptops with a similar screen diagonal most optimally live within walking distance from the outlet, so whatever the battery capacity, it will not be able to make battery life the trump card of the device.
Well and the last - the laptop is quite heavy (2.9 kg), but this, again, is a consequence. Let’s take a better look at its technical characteristics ... Although no, we won’t ruin the tradition - all the information will be at the end of the article, but for now just press the Power button.
Samsung RF712 | Inclusion and work
When I turned on for the first time, I could only appreciate the soundlessness of the working system - it’s good when the buzz from the cooler does not interfere with the movie. As for the boot time, for the first time it was not up to him - at first it was necessary to go through the tiringly long installation of unnecessary software (such as Easy Partition Manager). In the future, if you turn off all unnecessary junk, the laptop turns on completely in 20 seconds - on board the 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium. If you look at the properties of the system, you can see the performance rating - because of the hard drive, it is 5.9 points (considered by the minimum rating), although it costs 6.9 points for almost all items.
At one of the exhibitions, Samsung promised to use exclusively high-quality screens in all of its new devices - I am already starting to believe in the veracity of this statement, since this is the third time that there are no complaints about the screen. Samsung RF712 claims to be the brightest 3D laptop: Super Bright Plus technology has already come across to me in a Series 9 laptop, but now it has found application in a FullHD matrix - thanks to it, the screen brightness is 400 nits (at 100-150 conventional LCD matrices), and the contrast is of the order of 600: 1. Really bright, really contrasting, color reproduction is also very good. As well as viewing angles - you can watch from anywhere.
And even the glossiness in this case is not so terrible as it is painted - glare and reflections mysteriously disappear somewhere.
Samsung RF712 is pretty well charged in terms of filling - a modern dual-core Intel Core i5-2410M processor (in normal mode, the clock frequency is 2.3 GHz and 2.9 GHz in Turbo Boost mode), 6 GB of RAM (represented by two bars - 4 and 2 GB, i.e. the total if desired, you can "finish" up to 8GB) and a discrete graphics card AMD HD6650M with 2GB of video memory. Uh ... even just in numbers, this configuration exceeds the capabilities of my first computer by tens, or even hundreds of times. Needless to say, in fact, such performance is enough for any task? Be it watching a Blu-ray movie, batch processing a stack of RAW photos, or even three-dimensional (in every sense) simulation. Well and, of course, games!
The power of the built-in speakers is 3 W - they give a pretty good and high-quality sound, but there is clearly not enough bass - if you use a laptop for home watching movies, then external acoustics will clearly not hurt. Supported surround sound technology - SRS Premium Sound.
As for the battery life, here, as I said, there are no record marks - about 3-3.5 hours in normal mode. But on the other hand, it is unlikely that someone will trample this laptop with them as a “long-playing” assistant in a healthy mind - it is much more pleasant to find a cozy corner for him within the house :)
Samsung RF712 | Specifications
Processor: Intel Core i5-2410M (two cores, 2.3-2.9 GHz, 3 MB L3, 32 nm, TDP 35 W, Intel 64)
Chipset: Intel HM65
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000 + AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6650 (gDDR3 2GB )
RAM: 6144 MB (1x4GB + 1x2GB), DDR3 PC3-10700, 1333 MHz, two slots (up to 8192 MB)
Data storage: 500 GB hard disk (7200rpm), the ability to install a second disk
Operating system: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
Display: 17.3 ", 1920x1080 (16: 9), 3D, glossy, LED-backlight with SuperBright Plus technology
Drive: BluRay (SATA)
Connectors:2xUSB (3.0), 2xUSB (2.0), VGA, HDMI, Ethernet, two audio connectors.
Wireless interfaces: Bluetooth 3.0 + HS, Wi-Fi 802.11b / g / n
Card reader: SD / MMC / SDHC / SDXC
Camera: 1.3 MP
Additionally: keyboard backlight, multimedia keys, the ability to install a second disk
Battery: Li-Ion 4400 mAh (6 cells, 57Wh), up to 3.5 hours
Dimensions: 416 x 276 x 38 mm
Weight: 2.9 kg
Price: from 35 000 rubles
| Pros and cons
Screen. Large diagonal, high brightness and contrast, 3D support.
Productive filling. With the ability to upgrade (install memory and a second hard drive).
Keeping up with the times. The presence of two ports USB 3.0 and Blu-ray-drive.
Keyboard. Quiet and comfortable, and even with backlight.
Very quiet. Very straight.
✘ Gloss. Mirrored case and screen - shot.
✘ Dimensions and weight. The consequence of the multimedia class.
✘ Defective. Keyboard backlight does not work for Russian characters.
✘ Weak bass. External acoustics will not hurt.
| Conclusion
A multimedia laptop ... what is it all about? In my understanding, this is, firstly, a large screen - so that when watching a movie from the sofa, you do not have to squint, trying to make out the details of the film in FullHD quality. A TV or a projector in this regard will be more interesting, but we're talking about a laptop ...
Secondly, it's 3D. I still look at this possibility with some skepticism (I’m still more used to more traditional types of images), but now it’s a trend without which such products will be perceived as “fi, but it’s even without 3D.” And if there is support for 3D, it should not be “for show” and not for one person. I will not take out the sound in a separate paragraph, but it should be “out of the box” at a level.
And thirdly, this is performance - it should be enough not only to watch movies, but also for any other user tasks - this is, after all, a device of the Desktop Replacement class.
In this case, the Samsung RF712 is a great example of a multimedia laptop - at least it has everything to become the center of any modern media system. And for such, as it seems to me, $ 100 trillion is not a pity! ;)