Samsung NP530U4B Review

Performance

Boot up times on the 530U are pretty quick. We logged into Windows in around 19 seconds, and it was noticeably quicker than the ThinkPad X220. Multitasking isn’t a problem and the CPU handles memory intensive applications without a fuss. The 530U comes with wide viewing angles and the display is bright enough for personal usage. We did notice slight heating towards the bottom right, but nothing worthy of labeling as a con. The 530U is pretty silent as well. 

Brilliant keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard and trackpad are responsive and provide pretty good feedback. The keyboard, in particular, is conducive to long hours of typing, with the chiclet styled keyboard and ample arm rest. The trackpad buttons have a nice uniform feedback from all sides, something that we’ve seen has often been neglected. 

Slim and sexy

Far Cry2 got an average framerate of 24.68 fps at D3D10 with Antialiasing set at 2x. We compared the 530U to the similarly priced Wipro e.go Aero and the Samsung trumps the Wipro in the CPU Arithmetic and OpenGL score. The comparison chart can be seen below. 

Benchmarks

Battery Life

With our Battery Eater Pro application, the 530U managed to crank out 2 hours of usage with high performance enabled. In real world scenario, you’ll easily get around five hours of usage on this notebook, which compares it to the likes of the Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook.

Worth a buy?

Verdict

The Samsung NP530U4B is priced at 54,390 (MOP).  At this price tag, it competes with the likes of Wipro e.go Aero Ultra and the HP Pavilion dm4-3010tx. We weren’t overly happy with the build quality of the Wipro and the 530U is the clear winner amongst the two. In comparison with the HP Pavilion dm4-3010tx, the 530U props up with a better GPU. To sum it up, if you have that budget and you want a slim notebook without compromising on any connectivity features, the Samsung 530U is your best bet for now.