The laptops, netbooks and other electronic gadgets these days occupy such a position in our lives that man finds it almost impossible to survive without its aid. With such a need, it is obvious that companies try to produce more and more products into the market trying to claim their rule. In that queue of products, the Q330 is a 13.3 inch notebook produced by one of the world’s largest manufacturers, Samsung. Samsung products are well known for their good quality and also for their stylish and dignified external appearance. Recently in 2010, Samsung introduced the Q series notebooks at a very reasonable cost. These notebooks are mainly targeted around home users and can also be used for office purpose. The Q330 is one of the models out in the market that envisages a look of expertise. It has almost all the features that users would search for, offered at a very plausible price. Let us study the product in detail and then decide whether this is really a heart-throb.

Samsung Q330 13.3-inch Notebook

Samsung Q330 Design:

If the aluminium brush on a plastic body could add so much for a notebook, no wonder why this Samsung Q330 Notebook looks its best. Yes, the Q330 is made of black plastic with brushed aluminium effect. The outer covering of the notebook is semi gloss in nature and this brings so much of goodness into the notebook. By semi gloss it implies that the notebook sports a super shining look while at the same time, it says a big “No” to the fingerprints. So this 13.3” notebook is devoid of fingerprint attraction and still provides a super-cool look. The outer black colour and the inner brushed aluminium colour look fantastic for the notebook and it gives the machine a perfect look.

While the outer appearance is excellent, the features of this notebook are even more attractive. The weight of the notebook is only 1.96 Kg, which does not make it very heavy and does not make it very thin either. The display screen of this notebook is 13.3 inches and the native resolution is nearly 1366 x 768p and this obviously means that the quality of picture is enticing. Moreover, the viewing angles of this notebook are perfect, though it is essential to state here that the degree of tilting the notebook is comparatively less. The width of the notebook is 329 mm, while the depth is 229.5 mm. The height of this machine varies from a minimum of 26.4 mm to a 32 mm maximum.

Keyboard:

If you take a look at the keyboard of this notebook, you would definitely fall in love with its design. Designed in the chiclet style, the keys are neatly aligned with the perfect sizing and makes typing an interesting job. The keys are smooth to operate on and sufficient space between each key ensures comfort. The power button on the right side above the keyboard looks fantastic and as it is obvious, this button is used to switch on the notebook. The keyboard occupies good amount of space and the palm rest area is sufficient too.

Touch Pad:

The touch pad of this Q330 13.3” notebook computer is a two button pad of optimal size. There are two buttons, left and right, for performing the corresponding options and also this notebook is multi-touch gesture enabled, which means that the users can zoom in and out of the photo or move from one photo to another by pinching or swiping action. The touchpads in general pose some problems while typing, that is, we tend to unknowingly place our wrist on the touchpad while working with the keyboard and to avoid this, external mouse is the best solution. But since this is something that all the touchpads face, this particular touchpad has no negative edges. A good one and gives a neat performance.

Samsung Q330 Multiple Views

LED:

There are 5 LEDs present in this notebook right below the touchpad. The LEDs are used to indicate the current condition of the caps lock, battery, wireless connectivity, charge and power. These LEDs are of much use when it comes to checking the status of connectivity or power while we are in a hurry.

Camera, Microphone and Speaker:

The camera is present on the top bezel of the screen as seen in any other notebook. The microphone can be plugged into the jack provided on the right side of the Q330. The speakers are present above the keyboard on the base and there are two integrated 1.5 W speakers. The speakers are of good quality and would be of great comfort for all music lovers, but for the rock stars that always prefer to listen to the sound at the highest volume possible, you can not expect that much of clarity at higher volumes. But indeed at this price, it has done a great justice. With good camera, microphone and speakers, you can connect to anyone at anytime and anywhere, distance separation does not matter anymore.

Ports:

Positively the Samsung Q330 Laptop Notebook has quite a good number of ports implemented in it. The right hand side has more number of ports than the left. The fan vent, 15 pin VGA, HDMI, ethernet port, chargeable USB, microphone and headphone jacks are the ports that take refuge on the right side. On the left are present only the optical drive and 2 USB 2.0 ports. There is this memory card reader placed right in front of the notebook. The presence of a chargeable USB is great news because the users can easily and instantly charge their devices even when the notebook is switched off. These kinds of many small but nice features boost the users and entice them into buying this notebook.

The Q330 sports VGA as well as HDMI and now this is splendid because the users can not only watch their favorites on an external monitor by plugging in the VGA, but they can also watch it in a bigger screen TV or Home Theatre, seated in their couch with the HDMI port to support it. All the big screen lovers will definitely be delighted at this piece of news because there are many notebooks available in the market that do not offer a HDMI port for such a reasonable price. This is added up by another feature, the optical drive. The users can happily play the CDs or DVDs in the drive of the notebook and then sit back and enjoy the movie or video in a bigger screen. Also there are two USB 2.0 ports for the users to plug in any hard drive at any instant they wish to. But then both the USB ports are present on the same side and this might cause some trouble because if the USB drives are quite bulky and bigger, it is difficult to plug in two USBs at the same time. The 3-in-1 memory card reader on the front allows the users to transfer or view the contents from their SD, SDHC or MMC cards to the notebook or TV. Thus as far as the ports are concerned, Samsung has done a great job indeed.

Processor, Memory and OS:

No processor can overtake the position that Intel has of late acquired. It has carved a place for itself by providing the users, great quality and power packed performance that most of the manufacturers prefer to use only an Intel product as their processor. The same goes here, the Samsung Q330 employs the Intel Core i3-350M processor with a speed of 2.26GHz. This processor is said to work at high speed and manage efficiently all the jobs. But then, it does lack in speed at times, when the stress is higher. The notebook comes with 3GB of RAM memory. The hard drive memory extends to an excellent 320GB and this is great news if you are someone who always gets worried about more space to store your data. It runs on the Windows 7 operating system, which needless to say, is an OS that has acquired the hearts of millions. So, it is a good combo indeed.

Samsung Q330 Laptop Notebook

Connectivity:

Connectivity is one of the most important features in a notebook. The Samsung Q330 provides not only wired and wireless connection, but also Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity, something to be happy for. The RJ-45 ethernet port is useful to access the net via wired connection and the speed is good. For wireless connectivity there is the Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n. The presence of bluetooth is awesome because in just a second the users can easily transfer the contents among the electronic devices.

Battery:

With a 6 cell battery, the Samsung Q330 offers nearly 5 hours of survival time, though in practice, the longevity of battery life might reduce down to 4 and half hours or even lesser. As we know, the battery life depends mainly on the works done on the notebook. For instance, if all that the user does is light browsing and effortless works like working on documents, the notebook lives long. But then if you are planning to play games while you are on travel, then you are to get disappointed as the notebook fails to stay alive long. But otherwise, for normal users this notebook offers a good battery life.

Performance:

The Samsung Q330 does not fit into the gamer’s basket as this notebook lacks to perform well. The Q330 does not have a separate graphics card like the ATI, but instead it has the Intel GMA HD graphics that is integrated, has shared memory and results in the poor graphical performance. The notebook even plays HD audio. The allshare technology has been included in this notebook and with this feature the users can share their photos or videos online and also if the devices are DLNA connected, then contents can be easily transferred from one device to another. The performance level of the Samsung Q330 is overall laudable, without considering few minor errors.

Warranty:

As any notebook in the market, the international FastGuard warranty time period for this Q330 is 1 year and this includes the services for parts and labour.

Verdict:

The Samsung Q330 is a notebook that has the greatest asset “Affordable price”. This reduces the expectation level in terms of features as well as performance. So therefore looking at the product with less expectation reveals the fact that this product is a great success. But then if you look at the product first without knowing the price, you might be disappointed in few places. Still, overall the notebook does a good job and is worthy for the pounds spent on it. But if you are much into gaming and stuff, then there are other products out in the market that would best suit you. For all the others, this would be a good choice.

Samsung Q330 13.3-inch Notebook – Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer Samsung
Model Name Samsung Q330
Dimensions: (W x D x H) 329 x 229.5 x 26.4 ~ 32mm
Weight 1.96 Kg
Type Notebook
Display
Screen Size 13.3 inch
Screen Type LED HD Gloss
Screen Resolution 1366 x 768p
Aspect Ratio 16:9
Internal Components
Processor Intel Core i3-350M 2.26GHz
Chipset and Graphics Intel HM55; Intel GMA HD
RAM 3GB DDR3 (Extendable up to 4GB)
Hard drive 320GB
OS Comes pre-installed with Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
Keypad Good response keys
Touchpad Yes, with Multi touch facilities
Multimedia
Speakers Two 1.5W stereo speakers
Communication Setup
Wireless support WLAN 802.11n
Memory card slot Multi-in-1 card reader
Connectivity 3 USB 2.0 ports, Audio line in, Audio line out,
1 VGA video output, 1 HDMI
Warranty 1 year warranty

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