This laptop possesses a sensitive
touch screen, and is well supported with installed Windows 8, sturdy design and
high operating performance.
Experience
Windows 8 which was released at the end of 2012
made many computer manufactures change their product strategy so as to become
suitable for the demand. Samsung quickly caught this trend and released Series
5 Ultratouch model supported touch screen while remaining the compact design to
the market. This combination will help users enjoy the new Modern UI
configuration but the laptop still fulfills the task well as a traditional
laptop.
Samsung
Series 5 Ultra Touch
The version of Samsung Series 5 Ultra Touch
is equipped with 13.3-inch screen, 1,366x768 pixel resolution, Intel Core
i7-3517U 1.9 GHz processor, 8 GB RAM, hybrid hard drive with 500 GB HDD and 20
GB SSD. The laptop has reference price of 1,325 USD.
Design
The design of Series 5 Ultra Touch is not
too different from the traditional Series 5, as well as has features from
Series 9 with the way to curve the borders and slenderize the edges. Samsung
new laptop model still meets the ultrabook standards with the size of
315.1x218.9x16.6/19.9 mm and the weight of 1.69 kg, though it’s not very
outstanding as compared with other models on the market. The laptop gives you a
heavy yet sturdy feeling while holding in arms thanks to the metal chassis. The
scarped aluminum surface not only creates luxury but also reduce the dirt.
However, to those who have oily sweat, the sweat can creates tracks that can be
seen when there is big source of light contrast.
Sturdy
scraped aluminum cover
Inside the laptop, the hand break session
made from scrapped aluminum creates a comfortable feeling when putting your
hand. Though the underside of the laptop is made from plastic, the paint with
the same color tone will make many people think that it’s the same material to
the upper side. Above the keyboard and near the joint, Samsung use a grid
design as used for the speakers but in fact, this kit is set by this
manufactures at the underside of the laptop and close to the sides.
The device has 13.3-inch screen with slim
edge which can be seen in the recent laptop series of Samsung. This makes the
product have a smaller size than ones with the same size and creates a
“high-class” sense for the product.
LAN port has a joint to close when not
use, along with USB 3.0, HDMI.
Series 5 Ultra Touch is not so excellent in
thinness but it’s that point that helps the laptop to possess complete
connection ports: USB 3.0, HDMI, card slot and LAN port, all of which have
joint to open or close when you need to use. The laptop isn’t equipped with VGA
standard sized port but Samsung equips it with an extra miniVGA port and a jack
as an added bonus in the kit.
Chiclet
standard-size keyboard
Samsung products equipped with Chiclet
standard-size keyboard gives users a moderate keyboard journey but when using
at first, you can feel a bit of heaviness. However, the rebound as well as the
high sensitivity will make the get-used-to process become easier, and you won’t
be tired to type for a long time. Multimedia keyboard shortcuts are also integrated
in the function keys and users have to use function in addition in order to
operate when needed. A pretty regrettable point is that the laptop doesn’t have
keyboard backlight, especially with an over 1,000USD-price laptop.
Meanwhile, touchpad of Series 5 Ultra Touch
receives good impression. Wide area with a quite rough surface makes the
operations of users more accurate without slipperiness. The mouse buttons
designed separately instead of seamlessly as Series 9 has short keyboard
pressing journey yet clear-cut and sensitive. Samsung also brings in
multi-touch support such as sliding 2 fingers to syntonize or other operations
such as drag, drop and rotate the pictures…
Stereo speakers of Series 5 Ultra Touch
placed at the underside create a sufficient sound to hear in a small 20 m2-space.
With the default mode, the sound seems to be quite clear with Jazz or gently
Pop yet sharp. Meanwhile, when changing to integrated Sound Alive software,
with the same song, the sound is more powerful and lively. However, with bass
songs, laptop can perform at the average level, which is a point that in
unavoidable with laptops unbiased against entertainment.
Screen
Sensitive
yet excellent-displayed touch screen
As named, the most outstanding and the
strongest points on Series 5 Ultra Touch are the touch screen. This feature
makes users’ experience on pre-installed Windows 8 operating system become more
perfect. Operations such as sliding your finger from one side to access Chamrs
Bar, sliding from the lower edges to access the menu or change the applications
are very smooth. When using webpages or images and use 2 fingers to zoom in or
out, it’s very smooth and seems to have no latency.
The laptop has 13.3-inch size with
1,366x768 pixel resolution like other common laptop models. However, the use of
mirror glass technology makes the laptop uneasy to use outdoors or at places
with strong light from the back because of dazzling screen. Samsung provides
many image options to chance the color saturation on the laptop such as movie
option or standard option... so as to be suitable. Test in standard mode shows
that the images are well displayed, but not excellent.
Operating performance
Owing hybrid hard disk drives (SSD and HDD)
as well as Windows 8 operating system and a good configuration, Series 5 Ultra
Touch gives you an impressive startup time. In 5 small tests, when turning off
the laptop completely the pressing the power switch, it’s about 10 to 12
seconds for this product to show the Start Screen. When closing the lid and
reopen, the restore time is about 2-3 seconds. If the lid is closed and left
for a long time (the product change to hibernate mode), the reopen time is
short, just about 5-6 seconds.
With the test configuration mentioned
above, Series 5 Ultra Touch receives 5.7 points when scoring with Windows
Experience Index on pre-installed Windows 8 operating system. Particularly,
microprocessor receives 6.9 points, 7.5 points for RAM, graphics score is 5.7,
game graphics reaches 6.5 points and the 6.6 points for hard disk drive.
Despite the use of Intel Core i3
microprocessor with low voltage and Intel HD Graphics 4000 integrated graphics
chip, Series 5 Ultra Touch gives you an impressive graphics test result. The
laptop receives 5,705 points with 3D Mark 06, a surprising score in comparison
with other models which have more than 4,000 points though when running this
software, though they all have Intel Core i3 microprocessor. Due to this
figure, the laptop can meets the graphics demand for users well.
Meanwhile, if performing test with PcMark
Vantage, the memory score of the laptop reaches 2,737, 4,148 for game and the
score for hard disk drive is 8,421.
Test with CineBench 11.5, Series 5 Ultra
Touch receives 2.25 points CPU and 17.73 fps for Open GL.
The size of the laptop’s hard disk drives
is 500 GB produced by Hitachi but there is a combination with an attached 24 GB
SSD memory chip which helps to increase the overall operating performance of
the laptop. Test performance shows that the HHD hard disk drives have excellent
read speed, up to MB/second, much better than other model which has the average
speed of 70 MB/second.
When running with simple office operations
and listening to online music through headphones, Ultra Touch Series 5 battery
timer is at the moderate level with more than 4 running hours. This timer is
better than common laptop but not very impressed as compared with regular
ultrabook model.
Performance test
Meanwhile, let the laptop play a HD 720p
standard movie in a test and repeat this continuously until it is off: turn off
the Wi-Fi connection, use headphones instead of speakerphone and set the volume
at 70% (Windows Media Player’s volume at 100%), brightness at 50%, let the
laptop run till it turns off itself (battery level at 5%), the time for this
test reaches 3 hours 27 minutes.
In a test, open Chrome, download 10
websites and let them reload after every 15 minutes, open one more site about
online music and repeat continuously, use headphones instead of speakerphone
and set the volume at 70% and brightness at 50%, let the laptop run till the
battery remains 5% (turn off automatically).
It can be said that Series 5 Ultra Touch
creates impression through impressed renovation. Smooth touch screen combined
with stable operating capabilities are outstanding strong points this laptop
gives you. This model will be a suitable mobile device for energetic users who
want to look for themselves a new experience with the new Windows 8 operating system.
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Specifications
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CPU
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1.7-GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-3317U
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Operating System
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Windows 8
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RAM
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4GB
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RAM Upgradable to
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4GB
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Hard Drive Size
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500GB + 24GB SSD
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Hard Drive Speed
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5,400rpm
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Hard Drive Type
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SATA Hard Drive + mSATA SSD
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Display Size
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13.3
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Native Resolution
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1366x768
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Graphics Card
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Intel HD Graphics 4000
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Video Memory
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Shared
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Wi-Fi
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802.11a/b/g/n
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Wi-Fi Model
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Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235
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Bluetooth
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Bluetooth 4.0
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Ports (excluding USB)
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Ethernet; HDMI; Headphone/Mic; mini-VGA;
USB; USB 3.0
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USB Ports
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3
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Card Slots
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3-1 card reader
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Warranty/Support
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1 Year Standard Parts and Labor
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Size
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12.4 x 8.6 x 0.66 ~ 0.78 inches
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Weight
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3.8 pounds
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