Samsung R20 Review Discussion

The Samsung NP-R20 was announced at CeBIT in March 2007 but had been available in some European countries a few weeks earlier with very competitive pricing. Perhaps the key feature of the R20 is its use of the ATI chipset (ATI Radeon Xpress 1250, also known as the RS600). The R20 has a 14.1" display and provides a slightly smaller alternative for people who do not want the ubiquitous 15.4" models.

Read the full content of this Article: Samsung R20 Review

 

Wow! Incredibly detailed review, you really outdid yourself (and me). Seems to me like a quick summary of the R20 would be "Solid but not spectacular". It's really too bad about the battery life, but looking at how small that battery is, it's no surprise.

 

nice review as usual, john. samsung really dropped the ball on the design on this one. you're right when you say it's boring...but then again, boring is better than ugly.

 

Nicely written review. I was wondering about the 3DMark06 scores. According to PCMag.com's review, they listed the Intel X3100 having a score of 630~, while the ATI X1250 having only 476. The 3DMark05 scores clearly showed the ATI X1250 as the winner.

Does Vista have an impact on the scores?

 

seems like samsung went out of their way to design this laptop with those ugly swirls.

 

Also, in UK terms, very competitive pricing. How many notebook users actually need battery life?

The general design and usuability are good. It's the colour scheme. But black has never hurt IBM / Lenovo.

Vista's eye candy does some benchmarks (eg SuperPI with eye candy on was 1m 38s! PCMark insists on having the computer set for best Visual effects.

My experiments with different memory combinations and overclocking indicate that 3DMark06 got more boost (up to around 500) with 667MHz RAM than it got from overclocking the CPU by 50%. On the other hand PCMark05 and PCMark05 benefited from a faster CPU but faster RAM had little or no impact. These benchmarks test different features.
It is quite plausible that the X3100 could pull ahead of the 1250M in this test. We must ask Andrew to run 3DMark06 on the T61.

My daughter thought the swirls were one of the better parts of the design. Much better than plain plastic.

John

 

I'm pretty sure I've seen screenshots of the CCC showing a "PowerPlay" settings page... is that only available for non-integrated graphics, or does the R20 unnecessarily run its GPU at full speed even when on battery power?

 

A limited warranty spells out the terms under they will fix your notebook, usually parts or labor. If they gave you an unlimited warranty, you could ask them to fix it for any reason. Nice review by the way. I've never seen a Samsung notebook.

 

Outstanding review John! Well done.

 

I like the statistics and this review had plenty, rep points for you!

 

Top review

Agreed, in the shop I was impressed by the build quality for the price (*cough* soft plastic of you know who *cough*) and the decent spec on offer. imho you can't go too wrong if you want a budget 14"

And I think its quite stylish!

 

Good review John. Your benchmarks are a fraction lower than mine, possibly because I cleared some of the bloatware out before running them. I notice you have a different hard drive too.

My R20 is doing a stellar job as my test machine, with a triple boot of Vista, XP and Ubuntu. Anyone looking to get Ubuntu running will have to jump through a few hoops, but it can be done - check out this thread for the procedure.

 

seems like samsung tried to do the imprint finish as the hps atleast thats what it feels to me
thanks for the review john nicely done...as usual!!!
hows the flex in the notebook
is there any flex in the keyboard area near hdd area?
most notebooks have their weakness at that part
cheers
and thanks again

 

There is definitely no trace of PowerPlay. I don't know whether this is normal for the 1250M or whether it is another of Samsung's incomplete developments. I've no PowerPlay on my X60 plus with its X1700, and PowerPlay is an advertised feature of that GPU. ATI blame Samsung and Samsung blame ATI.

John

 

Have you tried this laptop with any games? I'm curious as to how it'd run something like HL2, which is meant to be kind to graphics cards.

 

The keyboard has little or no flex and is better than my other Samsung notebooks. I looked under the keyboard and the keyboard is supported on a base which is part of the plastic chassis with openings only for the keyboardand touchpad cables (see attached photo).

The only game I play is occasional solitaire so I can't comment on the actual gaming performance. You can indirectly work out the gaming compatibility from either the 3DMark results or from the performance being similar to the ATI X1300.

John

 

Would you describe this notebook as better built than the HP 6510 or HP-Compaq nx6310? (if you had any contacts with them)

 

I haven't used the HPs, but I've asked someone who has used both the R20 and the HPs.

He describes the R20 as better finished and commented that the HPs usually get quite hot (in general, the Samsung notebooks keep quite cool). However, he's not sure how well the shiny cover will withstand a lot of travel.

I would take this opportunity to note that I recently bought an R20 for another family member. There have been no complaints, so far. I still think it is a good choice in its size and price range.

John