Samsung Unveils R720; 17 Inch Laptop With Blu-ray

Posted by GarySims

June 15, 2009

There are times when you need a netbook and there are times when you need a big laptop. Samsung’s new Intel Centrino 2 powered laptop the R720 is big and it won’t fit into your pocket. But when you need a desktop replacement or a laptop that is great for watching films then a 17 inch screen is what you need.

The Samsung R720’s display has a true widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio which means that films made in the 16:9 format will look great and you won’t get any of those annoying black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.

To power the display Samsung has gone for the ATI Mobility Radeon HD4650 graphics card. This is a mid range graphics card and will handle Blu-ray movies without and problems and will play modern games on reasonable settings. For those looking on the back of games to see if the Samsung will support the next game you want to buy, the HD4650 comes with 512MB of RAM and supports Microsoft DirectX 10.1 along with Shader Model 4.1.

One of the problems with watching films on a laptop is that the sound quality can often be quite poor. The R720 comes with 4-watt stereo speakers with 3D SRS (Sound Retrieval System) Audio and a dedicated subwoofer. The inclusion of a subwoofer should beef up the sound experience. Also if you plug in your headphones, you’ll get a virtual 5.1 surround effect.

This Samsung also comes with four USB 2.0 ports one of which is a chargeable USB Port. This means that it can be used for charging external devices without the need to start the notebook. There is also USB/eSATA combo port.

The entry-level configuration (which doesn’t include the Blu-ray) will start at £599 in July.

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