To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more
Samsung’s laptops have always had a refined look, and the RF711 is no exception. The glossy lid has a translucent starburst effect which is eye-catching, and it opens up to a two-tone keyboard panel that reminded us of one of Sony’s Vaio designs. A silver panel above and to the right of the keyboard contains the power button as well as a networking toggle button and volume controls. Build quality is good, with little flex in the lid and none in the case.
One of the highlights is the Intel Core i7-2630QM processor, running at 2GHz. That may seem a bit slow, until you consider that the Core i7 supports Turbo Boost, which can automatically overclock the chip to a maximum of 2.9GHz. It’s also a quad-core chip and is paired with 6GB of memory, so it’s great at multitasking, and its score of 74 overall mean it’s quite capable of running most applications, including video-editing and 3D-modelling software.
There’s also a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 540M graphics card, which helped the RF711 to a score of 40fps in Call of Duty 4. This is fine but at the screen’s native resolution of 1,600×900, the score dropped to 32fps, which is only just playable. Support for CUDA means you’ll also benefit from speedier operations in GPU-accelerated applications such as the latest version of Photoshop.
A 1,600×900 resolution is disappointing for a 17.3in screen, especially as there’s a Blu-ray drive installed. At this price, we expected a 1,920×1,080 resolution, which would also be welcome for video editing and other applications that need lots of information on screen at once. Still, image quality is good, with a bright, even backlight and vibrant colours, thanks to a glossy screen finish. Vertical viewing angles are fussy though, so you’ll have to adjust the tilt of the screen carefully.
There’s no ExpressCard slot, but that shouldn’t bother many people. You do get an SDHC memory card reader, four USB ports, two of which are USB3, as well as a choice of VGA or HDMI video outputs. Also, the hard disk has a huge 1TB capacity.
Like many laptops these days, Samsung has opted for a keyboard with separated, Chiclet-style keys. Their flat tops are a bit slippery, but our main concern was the spongy action, which lacked feedback for touch-typists. At least the layout is standard, and the numeric keypad includes a row of page navigation keys. The touchpad is smooth and responsive, but its buttons are flush with the case so it’s hard to locate them by touch.
Had the RF711 had a 1,920×1,080 screen we’d have liked it a lot more. It’s not a bad laptop if you do a lot of multimedia editing, and it has a collect-and-return warranty. The Dell XPS L502X does have a Full HD screen for a similar price, albeit a smaller 15.6in version. It’s not quite as fast overall, but its better-quality screen plus a better keyboard mean it’s a superior choice for most people.
