Samsung Q70 review

Performance
Unfortunately the Q70 refused to run our PCMark05 benchmark software. However, it uses the latest Intel Centrino technology, previously codenamed Santa Rosa, so we would expect its performance to be impressive -- more so than equivalent Centrino laptops released pre-March 2007.

Certainly the laptop felt speedy for day-to-day tasks in Windows Vista, which is not really surprising as the Intel T7300 processor runs at a healthy 2GHz and is backed up with 2GB of RAM. Unfortunately it doesn't run to its full potential as the memory has a frequency of 667MHz. Had 800MHz memory been fitted, we'd expect the performance to be even higher.

As we've already seen, the Nvidia 8400M GS graphics chip fully supports the transparency and 3D effects in Windows. In our 3D Mark test it managed to claw its way to a score of 1,036, which is not too bad for an ultra-portable. It means you'll be able to play the latest games, as long as you turn most of the graphics settings down to their lower levels.

The Q70 is supplied with a large six-cell battery that sticks out the back by about 25mm. It adds considerably to the weight, but even so, it didn't help the machine to a particularly good score in our test. The Q70 managed to keep puffing away under its own steam for 1 hour and 29 minutes, which is a fairly average performance.

Conclusion
This is decent enough laptop. It's got plenty of grunt under the bonnet, a sensible amount of storage space and a good all-round list of features. As a result it runs Windows Vista without breaking a sweat.

The problem remains, however, that there's just nothing really here that stands out and screams 'buy me' at you. In part, this is because of the lacklustre styling, but it's also because it's heavier and thicker than we've grown accustomed to in ultraportable machines.

Edited by Jason Jenkins and Rory Reid
Additional editing by Nick Hide