Samsung R710 user reviews

Pj Feldsine 25 November 2012

Good: Huge Display, extra bay for 2nd hard drive, Sleek Design (compared to other 17 inch laptops), powerful, Can be upgraded to 16 GB ram (if you buy 64 bit Windows)

Bad: Overheating

Comment: When the computer works, it works well. Unfortunately overheating can be a problem (see below). They give you space to install a second hard drive (which I did) and you can also put two 8 GB sticks of ram in the machine for a total of 16 GB RAM if you have upgraded to Windows 7 - 64 bit (I use Ultimate, I think 64 bit Home edition only allows you to use 8 gb). Battery life is also decent as I typically get about 2 hours 50 minutes of casual internet/ms office use and about 2 hours 1 minutes if I am watching movies or playing games.

If you want to add more speed to the machine you may want to consider replacing the standard hard drive. For the most part my Windows Experience ratings are in the 7.X range, but the overall score is 5.4 due to the slower primary hard drive. Nevertheless, this has not been a problem for me. Some people complain about the size, but in my opinion this is about as sleek as a 17 inch laptop can get. Compare to similar Asus, Dell, or Alienware machines and you'll see that it doesn't seem anywhere near as thick although I can't say I've compared them directly side by side. I purchased a backpack that is made for 17 inch laptops and I can easily carry it and a laptop cooler on my back with room to spare for school books, etc.

For the most part I love this laptop, but unfortunately it has overheating issues. When the temp creeps up to about 96 degrees the first thing to go tends to be the network adapter, or the entire machine will crash or become unresponsive. This typically happens sometime between 30 minutes and 2 and a half hours after I start PvPing in World of Warcraft. After that, you just sort of have to put it to sleep, and find something else to do for a few minutes while it cools down. The most effective cooler I ever used was just setting the thing on top of a giant box fan - it NEVER overheated when I did this, but otherwise, I've discovered that some laptop coolers that are made for 17 inch machines are still unable to keep it from over heating. The best traditional laptop cooler I ever had was a no-name laptop stand I bought in Korea with a giant 140 mm fan in the center that allowed you to adjust the angle of the machine - it only overheated about once a week. The Cool Master U3 Note Pal that I purchased in the USA has proven woefully inadequate for this machine (but quite effective for my Alienware M13x) - the 30 min to 2.5 hour range I gave represents the temp while I am using this cooler.

Sam James Gunner 5 January 2012

Good: Big screen, Nice Graphics

Bad: CPU is underpowered, Penryn overheats easy, only 1 fan for GFX and CPU cards,

Comment: Plasticy, clunky, and hot. but has potential, sorry but I still prefer my mac :/

qwertyuiop 27 August 2011

Comment: jast for replay to previous comment from "rybeast"

extremaly good laptop, bougt it in end of 2008

In those years it has been used almost 24/7 . I`m using it for studies and my girfrend does, and those few times in month when we want to look a TV it also done on laptop bay DVB-T dongle.

First serious maintenance - reinstalling of windows only in 2011 august, becouse get some virus who made my files unnacesible and unfindable (but luckally get them back with program for recovering deletet files)

previous commentator says it overheats ? maybee , I do not now , I just use it and have no idea about overheating even there are are open tenths of webpages, photoshop and autocad .it`s simply works

greit - it`s big and have full size kaybord with numbers, bad - it`s big :) when needed to cary

there nothing is broked and even keybord is almoust as new, only if look at most used letters in keybord in low angle , can see that they looks polished , bet all letters are still in place

looked extremealy well and modern in 2008 and still looks good , nobody with new cheap acer, hp and so on, didnbelieves thats it almoust 3 year old laptop

rybeast 25 July 2010

Good: Design, memory, graphics.

Bad: Over heats, breaks too easy.

Comment: I made an account on this website just to review this stupid laptop.
Everything that is great about this laptop is ruined by Samsung being sloppy. The laptop has major issues - it has the ability to play powerful games with great graphics, but overheats if played for more than about 30 minutes! It also overheats if more than 10 tabs are open in a web browser.

I also had to send the laptop to Samsung to be repaired when the charger port broke! It was quite flimsy to begin with and then one day just snapped. When the laptop returned I got about a day out of the repaired, working laptop before it reverted to its old ways and began over heating.

There shouldn't be these problems on a £800 laptop. I definitely won't be buying Samsung again.