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Part two of the series is on offerings by Samsung. From my initial entry into the fair, my eyes have been drawn to the ultra-slim notebooks. That’s all Sony’s fault. So its obvious that the next booth I went to, my eyes drifted to the ultra-slim models (chiqs and notebooks alike :D) first. Here’s what Samsung had on display:

Samsung
Samsung has its own model to challenge Sony’s VAIO. The NP-Q30+ on display was red in colour and comes with the following specs:

• Intel Centrino Mobile Technology
• Intel Pentium Mobile ULV 753 1.20GHz, 2MB Cache, 400MHz FSB
• Intel 915GMS
• Intel PRO / Wireless network (WIFI)
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional
• 12.1″ SuperBright Gloss LCD display (WXGA: 1280 x 768 resolution)
• 60GB HDD
• 512MB DDR II RAM
• Builtin Bluetooth
• Weighs 1.1kg

The whole package will set you back a hefty RM9,299 (USD2,500)! To sweeten the deal, Samsung throws in an additional battery pack and what they call a Superdrive. Upon further enquiry, it turns out the the “Superdrive” is actually an external DVD(+-) RW drive (or at least that’s what Eng Lee and I gathered from the explanation). The salesperson tried to pass it off as something super but we know better.

Anyway, are the specs actually worth the cost? Samsung certainly thinks so. On the plus side, it is actually a tad lighter compared to the newest VAIO series with a slightly wider screen. The extra battery pack helps especially if you’re travelling and access to power sockets are few and far between (I assume that they’ve figured the cost of the battery pack into the overall price). The metalic colour also makes it look trendy and stands out in a crowd.

In terms of processing power, it uses the same Intel Centrino Mobile 1.20GHz processor that I’ve come to expect of ultra-slim notebooks. Few other processors would fit into the small frame.

Probably not the best slim notebook around. But to each their own.