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THINQ! Best Blu-Ray laptop

Samsung R620
Price £682

With its high gloss Piano black finish, Samsung’s R620 wouldn’t look out of place in the living room which is just as well as it weighs a non too light 2.8kg which is testament to the build quality, but as well as looking the part, it also offers a pretty impressive bang for your buck.

At the R620’s heart is an Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 processor which is clocked at 2.1GHz, ably supported by Intel’s PM45 Express chipset, 3GB of 800MHz DDR memory and dedicated ATI Mobility graphics.

While the 1,366 by 768 resolution 16in screen doesn’t support Full HD content (but the graphics chipset can), it supports 720p and in any case there is a HDMI port so you can output to a HD TV. Unfortunately the speakers don’t match the quality of the screen, they have the usual notebook tinnyness, lacking any real bass depth.

The keybed stretches the width of the chassis allowing a full size keyboard and separate number pad to be fitted. The keyboard is superbly laid out with the keys having a really good action making it a pleasure to type on. The multtouch trackpad is also very good, responsive and smooth and has a neat design touch in the way the surround is lit with blue lighting.

While the ATI graphics support full HD, they offer little in the way of support for most of today’s top titles but then again the R620 isn’t being pitched as a gaming notebook.

For storage there is a 500GB hard drive and there is also an e-SATA port built into the chassis allowing an external hard drive to be connected up to the R620 to keep as much space free on the hard drive as possible.

Good Built in Blu-ray. Good feature set
Bad Audio 
Overall Samsung’s R620 has first rate build quality and offers an excellent mix of features, performance and price.

Specifications
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 (2.1GHz, 2MB L2 cache)
Memory: 4GB 800MHz DDR2
Graphics: dedicated ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330 (512MB)
Hard Drive: 500GB
Optical Drive: BD-ROM, DVD+/-RW, DVD +/- DL
Screen: 16in WXGA SuperBright (1,366 by 768 pixel resolution)
Webcam: 1.3MP
Networking: 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WiFi
Ports: 1 x 54mm Express Card, 4 x USB (1 x eSATA/USB combo), 2 x audio, 1 x HDMI, 1 x VGA
Card Reader: 3-in-1
Colour Options: Black
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium
Dimensions (HxWxD): 37 x 381 x 259mm
Weight: 2.8kg