Samsung Np300v5a laptop: technical specifications, price, reviews, review. Battery life

Samsung NP300E5C is a 15.6-inch laptop with a powerful graphics card and dual-core processor at a very affordable price. The manufacturer positions this model as a multimedia laptop with high autonomy.

Specifications Samsung NP300E5C

Display - 15.6 inches with HD resolution 1366×768
Processor - dual-core Intel Pentium B960 with a frequency of 2.2 GHz
RAM - 4 GB DDR3 format, expandable up to 8 GB
Video card - discrete nVidia GeForce 610M, memory capacity - 1 GB

Characteristics Analysis

Samsung NP300E5C has good technical characteristics, despite the fact that the model itself has already been discontinued.

The dual-core Intel processor is quite enough for both web surfing and working with documents, as well as running multimedia applications and games, while multitasking is possible.

The advantage of the laptop is its discrete graphics card - it is quite enough to run most games, not to mention releases released in 2012-2014. For example, sensational GTA V and The Witcher 3 run on this laptop at minimum-medium settings without any freezes. It should be understood that the laptop was released almost 4 years ago, so it may no longer be sufficient for subsequent releases.

The Samsung NP300E5C has 4 GB of RAM, and it is possible to add an additional slot, increasing the volume to 8 GB, which is enough for any everyday tasks. Also, the processor architecture allows you to install not only those that require a minimum of 4 GB of memory, but for which almost all modern games and applications are “tailored”.

User reviews and opinions

Samsung NP300E5C has quite positive user reviews on the Internet. The disadvantages include the lack of keyboard backlighting and strong heating, which, however, does not affect performance in any way.

Many people praise the laptop for its powerful battery, thanks to which the laptop boasts excellent battery life.

Some users experienced the problem due to the video card. The principle of such laptops is that during normal use the Intel video adapter built into the processor works, and when running resource-intensive applications it switches to a discrete nVidia one. But after a certain time of use, this switch begins to periodically “glitch” and you have to switch video cards manually through a special NVidia application.

Some advanced users complain about this model because it is very different from what is installed in other models. But this is not a drawback, but rather a feature of this particular laptop.

General impressions

pros:

good filling;
discrete video card;
the presence of an additional numeric keypad;
powerful battery;
low cost;
anti-glare matte screen.

Minuses:

possible strong heating;
switching between video cards.

Overall, one of the best laptops of the last generation, which has good technical characteristics, high-quality sound, but also has its drawbacks. Depending on the configuration, you may have a 3, 5 or even 7 core processor, you will agree that even now this is quite enough, if you do not play cutting-edge games, 6 GB of RAM is also enough for you not only to use office applications, but even to use some graphic program. However, in practice, the color reproduction of the Samsung Np 300v 5a is quite weak, and the viewing angles are small, which makes it impossible to work in applications such as Photoshop, for example. I was also pleased with the battery, in general, if you change the operating system with built-in WIN 7 to a more modern one, the battery can withstand about 8 hours of uninterrupted operation, which is a very good indicator.

PRICE - about 20,000 rubles at the time of production;

Specifications

OS – Win 7

Processor – Pentium three-core, five-core, seven-core

Frequency -2000-2500 MHz;

RAM - 2..6 GB;

Screen size – 15.6 d;

Video card – GeForce GT 520MX 1024 MB;

HDD- 320…1000 GB;

Battery -4400 mAh

Operating time from battery – 7 hours;

Reviews

— A high-quality matte screen, however, the peculiarity of such a matrix is that the color rendition is not the best, however, some people even like the display;

— The case is assembled poorly, something constantly creaks;

— After about a year, the monitor’s hinges may become loose;

— Fast processor;

— Different configurations have different amounts of RAM, but usually the system does not slow down, there is enough memory;

— The built-in Turbo boost function, if necessary, accelerates the processor to 3000 MHz, this happens when a large number of windows are open;

— A fairly comfortable keyboard that doesn’t tire your hands;

— The lid gets scratched very quickly, so try to protect your laptop from unnecessary sharp corners;

— Samsung Np 300v 5a has a sufficient number of ports;

— The opening angle of the screen is about 120 degrees, sometimes this seems not enough;

— The laptop weighs more than competitors from approximately the same price category;

— There is no light on the webcam indicating that the camera is working;

— The touchpad and cover of the Samsung Np 300v 5a quickly become dirty, you need to carry a small cloth with you at all times;

— The sound is high-quality and loud, which is not the case with many other Samsung laptop models;

— If you change the operating system to Win 8, the battery will last for an average of 8 hours; on a standard “Seven” the maximum battery life is 4 hours;

— The microphone is located next to the cooler, when you talk on Skype the interlocutor will hear a lot of unnecessary sounds;

Although the fan itself is practically inaudible for the user of the Samsung Np 300v 5a, which is undoubtedly pleasing;

— The coating on the touchpad begins to wear off over time;

— Older games can be played without any problems;

— Quickly wakes up from sleep mode;

— Nice price;

— The touchpad holds many gestures;

— Webcam with a good image and high-quality software for it;

— Nice design of the laptop in general;

— On the keyboard, the Cyrillic alphabet as well as the Latin alphabet are embossed in white letters, which significantly reduces visibility;

Conclusion

Samsung Np 300v 5a is an excellent universal laptop model that is suitable for those people who like to use various software and periodically play games, although not the most modern ones. Of all the minuses, the only irritating thing is the cover of the lid, thanks to which dust constantly collects

RATING 8/10 for features, price, and sound

When choosing a laptop that costs less than $500, the buyer most often acts at random, hoping that he will be lucky: the purchased device will have a good screen, a comfortable keyboard, a reliable case, and a capacious battery. Yes, unfortunately, few reviews are written on budget laptops, since these devices are usually not interesting to reviewers. And reviews of such devices are usually left by novice users for whom this is their first laptop, and therefore they are not able to adequately evaluate ergonomics, performance and other parameters.

Filling the indicated gap, we want to talk about a cheap universal laptop manufactured by Samsung, a representative of the budget 3 series - 300E5. This is the simplest and most affordable model of the Korean company, descending from the RV500 series, which in turn became the heir to the once popular budget R500 series. The characteristic features of these laptops are a neutral classic design, standard hardware (Intel platform, built-in or inexpensive discrete graphics), a standard set of ports (three USB, VGA, HDMI), and a standard battery. Despite the fact that Samsung models are usually more expensive than their competitors, they enjoy some success, mainly among novice users who prefer equipment from well-known manufacturers.

Specifications

The Samsung 300E5 is a typical all-purpose laptop. It differs from analogues and other models of the same manufacturer mainly in design. In our opinion, thanks to the classic color scheme and the presence of glossy elements, this is more of a “budget” home laptop than a truly universal laptop for work and entertainment. For example, Samsung produces a model similar in technical specifications and price, which is distinguished by a more practical body, a more capacious battery and an impressive variety of configuration options. The 300E5 model reviewed in this review is most likely aimed at less demanding users who focus primarily on the tempting price and nice appearance, and do not take into account the technical characteristics (because they are most often incomprehensible to them).

The 300E5 is based on the Intel Huron River platform. (There is a less common version of the same laptop on the AMD platform, which is called the 305E5.) Most often, devices in this series are equipped with Pentium or Core i3 processors, there are very cheap configurations with a Celeron processor, such as our A02RU, as well as configurations with a Core processor i5 (which we don’t see much point in purchasing). In addition to integrated graphics, some configurations are equipped with low-end video cards, but not the most budget ones, for example NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (in the 305E5 model, respectively, similar in performance to Radeon). Thus, within one series you can choose a configuration both purely for work and for entertainment. But middle-class video cards are not included in this series of laptops, unlike mass models from Acer () and ASUS ().

The set of interfaces on a Samsung laptop is completely standard, and the location of the connectors is very good: two USB on the right, behind the optical drive tray, the remaining ports (USB, both audio connectors, HDMI, VGA, RJ45) are on the left side, at a sufficient distance from each other. The only thing I didn’t like was the card reader placed on the cut of the front edge, which also does not have a plug. The large L-shaped cover on the bottom allows you to easily access the hard drive and RAM for replacing them. Unfortunately, there is no way to clean and lubricate the cooling system fan without disassembling the entire case.

Recently, Samsung laptops have been using new LCD matrices of reduced dimensions. Thanks to this, the 300E5 model turned out to be 1 cm narrower than most of its analogues: 368 mm versus 378-383 mm for the popular 15.6″ budget class models. In addition, the screen surface is semi-matte, eliminating glare from bright light sources. True, we know from experience that new Samsung matrices have unpleasant image “features,” but we will talk about this in the appropriate section of the article.

Unlike the 300V series models, the laptop in question uses a standard 48.8 Wh battery. Consequently, battery life will be around 5-6 hours under low to moderate load. On the other hand, due to the smaller battery, it was possible to reduce the weight of the device to a minimum - 2.24 kg, and this is the level of an average 14″ budget laptop.

Thus, the Samsung 300E5 is a modern budget-level laptop that differs from its competitors, firstly, by the presence of an anti-glare screen, and secondly, by its smaller dimensions (especially in width) and weight. A wide range of configurations are available, from very simple ones, with a Celeron processor, to quite powerful ones, with entry-level discrete graphics and a Core i5 processor. What's the catch? In a cheap case, made according to the principle of maximum economy.

Case design and construction

The 300E series laptops largely inherited their design from Samsung's budget models of the previous RV series. The general style and contours have been preserved, the changes affected mainly the interior. The body shape is plump, with rounded corners, a domed bottom, and a slightly raised and rounded back. At first, only one color option was produced - the classic one: a silver-black two-color lid, a banal silver wrist pad, a black back side of the lid, a black bottom. At the time of preparation of the article, it became known about the second option, in which silver plastic was replaced with steel gray.

The laptop cover, by the way, is not simple: firstly, it is horizontally divided into two parts of different colors (a rather rare solution), and secondly, it is decorated using glossy plastic with a small, deep “ribbed edge”. The inside of the lid is also glossy, but with a fine checkerboard pattern of matte dots. Noteworthy is the very narrow, only 10 mm, screen frame - the result of using the aforementioned specially designed LCD matrix. The cover is attached to thin plastic hinges, which work the same way as they look: the screen is held in place unreliably, with significant play, and the opening angle is only 130°.

The interior of the laptop is visually divided into three parts. The flat silver wrist rest has a simple smooth matte finish. The platform turns into narrow inserts, visually indicating the side edges. The touchpad is designed in a spartan way: a flat surface that matches the surrounding panel, and the same flat buttons. The keyboard area is glossy black, solid, without indentation or edging; the keys themselves are matte, slightly rough. The area above the keyboard is matte black, slightly grainy, and features a round button with a glowing blue border and fine perforations running along the rounded back edge of the case. Under the perforation, as is customary, there are two speakers.

The reduced width of the case, the side edges rounded over a large radius and the thickness, which is decent by today’s standards (34 mm), make the case of the Samsung laptop look massive, thick and sloppy. The second, more significant drawback is low strength: the body is easily twisted and bent, creaks under strong influences, and the lid wobbles noticeably. The painted silver panels look cheap, the quality of the plastic does not seem high. The assembly of the device and the fit of the panels to each other are at a good level, however, there are a number of shortcomings, such as a slight play in the battery, and the cover on the bottom that does not match the color and texture. In general, the laptop body in the hands and visually gives a characteristic “cheap” impression. It also lacks practicality: the wrist area and the outer part of the lid hardly get dirty, but other surfaces will have to be periodically cleaned of dust and fingerprints.

A matte LCD matrix in a budget laptop is certainly a significant plus. Many users do not like strong glare from glossy screens, and they are happy to choose the few models with matte screens. However, by relying on matte screens of its own production, Samsung did not take into account that image quality is also of great importance. And the new matte matrices have a problem with this: unusually small viewing angles (the screen literally “shimmers”), narrow color gamut (our sample has about 60% sRGB), low contrast.

The colors on the screen look insufficiently bright and saturated, unnatural. The gamma of the image is adjusted quite accurately, but for some reason the blue curve went up, which aggravates the “blueness” of dark shades. The white color, on the contrary, turned out to be too warm, with a noticeable yellowish tint. What I liked about this screen is, firstly, the good visual clarity, and secondly, the normal brightness margin and the absence of glare. In general, working with the screen is more or less comfortable, but the image without adjustments is significantly different from the norm.

Sound

In a budget laptop, the quality of the built-in sound is perhaps of the utmost importance. Naturally, manufacturers implement sound according to the residual principle.

The Samsung laptop has the most common audio codec - Realtek, and two small speakers have mediocre sound quality, with a narrow range of reproduced frequencies, unpleasant timbre, boominess, but a decent volume reserve.

Keyboard

In short, the keyboard on the Samsung laptop turned out to be quite successful. Both in terms of design and construction, and in terms of layout. To begin with, the neat Sony-style island design looks good and is easy to use at the same time. Rough keys with large gaps prevent fingers from sliding and touching adjacent keys. There is no loose stencil insert - the keys are located in a solid panel without cracks or recesses. True, this panel is glossy, it will have to be constantly cleaned from dust and fingerprints. The fixation of the keyboard base is quite reliable, however, due to the general flimsiness of the case, the keyboard field on the left and right springs under strong pressure.

The keyboard mechanism is average - both in the elasticity of the keys, and in the depth of travel, and in the noise of the click, and in the locking of the keys. The key travel is moderately tight, uniform across the entire field, pressing is felt very clearly, there are almost no typing errors, although the overall level of comfort is not above average. For a budget laptop, which is the Samsung 300E5, the keyboard is implemented perfectly - both in appearance and in feel during operation.

The keyboard layout is almost standard, with the usual size and position of the main keys. There is a numeric field that is reduced in width. The cursor keys are large, not separated, marked with a gray-blue outline; Because of them, the size of the right Shift is reduced. I didn’t like that the developers removed Pause/Break and ScrLock, placing in their place the unnecessary Fn Lock key; Otherwise the layout is quite convenient.

It’s a pity that Samsung has abandoned the color markings of the Cyrillic alphabet in its new models: now it is printed in the same color and font as the Latin alphabet. The designations of “hot” combinations are printed in a pleasant gray-blue color, the icons are easy to read. However, many of these combinations do not lead to the desired actions, but call up Samsung's proprietary Easy Setting utility. Of course, this utility is very interesting and useful, as it provides many necessary settings that most analogues do not have (optimizing Windows boot speed, battery life extension mode, fan mode (quiet, normal, pulsating), image correction, sound correction, separate turning off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth). However, it works quite slowly and loads with a significant delay, especially immediately after rebooting the operating system. In addition, an unpleasant “glitch” migrates from model to model - the laptop does not save the wireless connection state; after a reboot, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are always on and eat up battery power, even if they are not used.

Indication and buttons

System operation indicators are located under the touchpad: LEDs are located on the front edge, their designations are under the touchpad keys. When the lid is closed, you can determine by the color of the LEDs what they mean. There are no keyboard indicators: there are no LEDs, and the pop-up on-screen indicator is implemented only for Num-lock and Fn-lock.

Touchpad

The touchpad of a Samsung laptop has become larger than in previous models; it is now quite large - 102x55 mm. The smooth surface is quite comfortable, but is located almost flush with the wrist panel.

Accidental touch detection is not accurate and errors occur frequently. However, the software component of the Elan touchpad works with multi-finger combinations much more confidently and clearly compared to common Synaptics touchpads. In general, both the touchpad and its buttons work very well on a Samsung laptop.

Performance

Our test copy of the Samsung 300E5 laptop had the cheapest configuration possible: a Celeron B800 processor, the youngest in its generation (frequency only 1.5 GHz), only 2 GB of RAM. Thanks to the use of cheap components, the cost of the laptop has been significantly reduced - to the level of models on AMD processors. (True, in the case of Samsung, the price was still quite high, but the pricing policy of a particular manufacturer is to blame for this.) Consequently, devices in this configuration can successfully compete with models on the AMD Brazos platform.

We're interested to know if a laptop with a Celeron B800 processor is actually more powerful than a laptop with an AMD E-450 or A4-3300M processor. And the second question we would like to get an answer to is whether such a laptop is suitable for professional work.

First, let's look at the results of the Windows 7 test. For comparison, let's take a laptop of a different class, but on the required platform - with an AMD E-450 processor. As you can see, the only point on which the Windows test rated a laptop with an AMD processor positively was 3D graphics performance. But no one doubted this result, yet Intel still has little experience in developing good graphics accelerators. But according to the processor performance test, the AMD chip is in a deep disadvantage.

Next, evaluating the results of the PCMark 7 test, we will add data from a laptop based on the AMD Sabine platform. This unit was equipped with a standard 2-core AMD A4-3300M processor with a frequency of 1.9 GHz. Logically, this processor should be much faster than the Celeron B800 in a Samsung laptop. However, according to the results of the PCMark 7 test, the difference in performance between Lenovo and Samsung laptops is relatively small, from 3 to 7%. Only in the test for processing documents and web pages, the model with an AMD A4 processor turned out to be 20% more efficient, and that was largely due to the more expensive hard drive with 7200 RPM. But the Sony laptop, which in our review represents a large family of models with an AMD E-series processor for netbooks, turned out to be on average a third less productive than the other two devices. As you can see, the Intel platform, even with the cheapest processor, easily outperforms the AMD platform of a similar or even higher cost.

Now let's look at the results of a more serious test - BAPCo SYSmark 2012, which measures the speed of performing numerous operations in popular real-world applications (mainly Microsoft and Adobe). Instead of a Sony laptop, which was not originally intended for office work, we will take the results on the Intel platform (Core i3-2330M processor) and the already mentioned AMD platform. We already know that thanks to the Core i3 processor, the Acer laptop will be ahead by a large margin. But for what reason Samsung was ahead of Lenovo in a number of scenarios is not very clear to us. It turns out that the AMD A4 processor was able to outperform the cheap Celeron only in audio/video/graphics processing and encryption/archiving tasks. To work with documents, databases, and programming, it is better to prefer a laptop on the Intel platform.

Battery life

Samsung laptop battery life test results were lower than expected. Without any significant load (leisurely flipping through a PDF), this device lasted almost 6 hours; The presence of occasional load (MobileMark 2007 test, a benchmark for laptop manufacturers) or active use of wireless communication (our own test) reduced battery life to 5 hours.

Thus, the average power consumption of the Samsung 300E5 was about 9.5 W, which is quite a lot for a configuration without a discrete video card. However, budget laptops usually do not have good indicators of efficiency and autonomy.

Noise and heat

Despite the fact that our test unit was equipped with a Celeron processor, which has a low clock speed and does not support HyperThreading, the cooling system did not seem to be efficient enough. No, the laptop cannot be called noisy (of course, it does not have built-in graphics). However, the temperature of the panels outside and the processor inside (according to monitoring data) turned out to be higher than expected. At rest, the processor heats up to 45-50°, when running 3D games - up to 70°, during stress testing it can be heated to 78-80°, which is quite high for a device with normal body sizes. The heating of the left half of the body of a Samsung laptop, like many other budget devices, can reach levels unacceptable for work - 37° at the top and 45° at the bottom. The wrist area, however, remains barely warm - 28-32°, even when performing a stress test, which has a positive effect on ergonomics.

The Samsung laptop has a correctly working “quiet” mode: when activated, the processor frequency is reduced to a minimum (usually 800 MHz), and the fan speed is reduced. In this mode, the processor does not heat up above 50° (in our configuration), but performance is reduced by more than 2 times (depending on the processor model). However, in many cases this is not critical.

conclusions

In terms of technical characteristics, the Samsung 300E5 laptop is completely standard: a typical budget machine in a pliable plastic case with a basic battery capacity and the usual set of interfaces. However, this device is a little smaller and lighter than its competitors, although it looks somewhat massive, even thick. It can interest the buyer with its classic neutral design, matte screen finish, and good ergonomics of the keyboard and touchpad. However, you shouldn’t delude yourself: the level of performance of this laptop generally corresponds to its price.

Advantages:

more or less interesting design;
successful design and keyboard mechanism;
matte screen surface;
reduced dimensions and weight;
convenient and useful proprietary utilities.

Flaws:

The image quality on the screen is worse than average;
short battery life;
overpriced;
low strength of the body, inexpensive materials.

"The Samsung 3 Series 300E laptop has a powerful battery, a rugged design, and long-lasting, reliable components, all at an affordable price. Samsung's Smart Charging technology allows the battery to last up to three times longer and extends its lifespan, with special scratch- and fingerprint-resistance The Duracase case always looks great on your fingertips, and the anti-glare, narrow-bezel display keeps images sharp and bright even in the sun. Lightweight and compact, with up to 6 hours of playtime* on a single charge (4.6 hours of DVD playback). You can take it with you anywhere!

*Battery life based on MobileMark test and may vary depending on laptop configuration."

Narrow bezel, anti-glare screen

The laptop's 17.3-inch diagonal HD+ anti-glare LED display delivers unparalleled detail clarity and color vibrancy. The matte display does not give the effect of mirror reflection. Even on the street, you will be able to work with your laptop longer, because your eyes will be much less tired. Thanks to the narrow, finger-thick frame, the laptop is smaller in size, and therefore lighter and more mobile.

Fingerprint-resistant case material will preserve the pristine appearance of the laptop for a long time

Life at a fast pace is unpredictable, so your laptop can get scratched even after a short period of use. The durable and durable Samsung Duracase case with a special scratch- and fingerprint-resistant coating protects your laptop from shocks and impacts, maintaining its stylish and impeccable appearance for a long time.

BatteryLife Plus - battery saving technology

Samsung's intelligent battery saving technology retains 80% of the battery's original capacity even after 1,000 charges - that's almost 3 times more than a regular battery, which only lasts for a little over 300 cycles. Samsung batteries are not only much more economical, but also better for the environment - because you won't have to change batteries as often.

Only the most necessary functions. Exceptional quality

The Samsung 3 Series 300E laptop has a powerful battery, a rugged design, and durable, reliable components at an affordable price. Samsung's Intelligent Charging technology helps your battery last up to three times longer and extends its lifespan, and with its special scratch- and fingerprint-resistant Duracase design, your laptop always looks great. And thanks to the anti-glare display with a narrow frame, images remain clear and bright even in the sun. Lightweight and compact, with up to 7 hours* of battery life (5.6 hours of DVD playback) you can take it anywhere!

*Battery life based on MobileMark test and may vary depending on laptop configuration.

Narrow bezel, anti-glare screen

The laptop's 15.6-inch diagonal HD anti-glare LED display delivers unparalleled detail clarity and color vibrancy. The matte display does not give the effect of mirror reflection. Even on the street, you will be able to work with your laptop longer, because your eyes will be much less tired. Thanks to the narrow, finger-thick frame, the laptop is smaller in size, and therefore lighter and more mobile.

Fingerprint-resistant case material will preserve the pristine appearance of the laptop for a long time

BatteryLife Plus - battery saving technology