Refurbished Samsung NP-RF511 Laptop or Notebook????

I have been looking for an affordable "laptop" with at least an i5 processor. I specifically did not want a notebook because of what i had read about their lack of upgradability and of course their smaller size than that of a Laptop.
I did allot of research and finally found what was labelled as a refurbished Laptop"Samsung i5 Rf511" for just $599. It had said nothing about it being a notebook. It came today intel i5, 6gb SDRAM, 650GB SATA Hard Drive, Nvidia 1gb graphics card, Combo Bluray-DVD-Rom player, 802.11b/g/n WLAN with WiDi
1.3MP Webcam and Microphone.

I've got to say it works great so far and is around 9.03 pounds. So it's the size of a laptop but why would they advertise it as a Laptop. I've noticed this about many other brands also. They are labeled as Laptops but when you look at the specs they say notebooks. I wasn't able to find the specs for this order that's why I wasn't worried.

My question is whether this is technically a laptop or notebook and what and why do so many companies label as laptop when they are really notebooks. Just to make it clear it's more the stores that label them as such and not the companies themselves. My PC 6 year old PC just died for good finally and I spend much of the year doing volunteer work in Centeral America so I was hoping to find a nice portable "laptop" with some good power behind it. I specifically didn't want a notebook after seeing many of them in stores like best buy, office depot, costco, etc. They were all very small and had very little in the on-board features department.

Please let me know if I'm overreacting. Are laptop and notebooks usually called by both names? I've always had PC's. so please excuse my lack of knowledge.

PS.

When trying to register it at the samsung website it's
in the catagory of "Laptops" but the sub-category is "Notebooks"
yet my model isn't even listed. It only goes from Samsung's NP-RF511-S02 - S04. idon't know if it would be the s01 I'm just assuming, but I would guess it would be. However I've looked up the RF511-S01 and they seem to have i7 processors same with the higher end models. So maybe some series 1 models have the i7 while others have the i5 processors.

 

9lbs o-o Idk why but I think thats alot. Did you google the exact specs to see what it had?

and tbh I dont see the difference between notebooks or laptops.

 

I never could find the pdf for the exact specs from google or costco's website. it's a little big for a notebook and looks much more like a laptop. I just wasn't sure of the differences of laptops an notebooks untill googling "Laptop vs notebook" and many posts say that while the notebook is much smaller, it's also not as upgradable later on than the laptop.

Here is the website I bought my Laptop/Notebook from:


Costco - Refurbished Samsung RF511 Laptop Intel® Core? i5-2410M 2.3GHz Blu-ray ROM

It gives a complete list of what it comes with and I can tell you now from only knowing a Pentium 3 as my fastest computer ever. This computer and OS is much faster with way better addons than available.

I just want to make sure it's completely upgradable for later on otherwise i'll have to return it. To me this seems like false advertising, unless laptops are also called notebooks.

 

The terms "laptops" and "notebooks" are interchangeable and, to my understanding, mean a portable computer with a built-in battery. Laptops was the more popular term some years ago but some people got overheated knees and genitals so the name was changed to notebooks which implied something that can be carried around (but not necessarily used on the lap).

This site is called notebookreview.com but covers anything which is vaguely portable. If real portability is a concern then the purchaser needs to do their homework. The model RF511 immediately tells me that it is a 15" machine so it won't be veyr lightweight. Samsung say it weighs 5.73lbs. What does your 9.03lbs include?

John

 

Thanks, I kind of guessed that the two term had less difference in meaning after looking at so many reviews of other laptops also sometimes called notebooks.

Your right this is a big Laptop/Notebook. I haven't yet found a 15" weighing this much, even the later models of the rf11 are light but i think it is not because of what it comes with since the later models have more but this model seems extra thick. If you click on the link I posted above it will show everything included. It has allot for what I paid. I'm quite happy except the touch pad sometimes isn't sensitive enough and makes it hard to move the arrow at times.

It will be a little heavy lugging around Mexico and central America but i plan to pack much less clothes this time and just pay the local laundry's to do it for me. I just got back in August from Guatemala and my clothes alone weighed a ton. I'm sure the difference will more than enough make room for the extra weight of my new laptop. In Guatemala I live in a hostel in a nice area with my own room and people at the front door 24 hours a day making sure know one gets in uninvited and I have my own room so security isn't a big issue.

Thanks for the answer. The one disappointment I have is that it didn't come with a DVD-RW just a combo bluray/dvd player. I'm thinking of getting an external Lightscribe DVD-RW as my next purchase and another 2gb Memory chip to max out the 6gb of ram it came with to 8gigs.

For my fist laptop I think I made a pretty good decision.

 

1. Costco's weight is probably the boxed weight. I look at the travel weight which is the notebook + PSU + cables (PSU + cables can weigh a couple of pounds). One of my tricks for reducing the travel weight is to use a 2 core mains cable plus an adaptor to connect it to the PSU.

2. Check what the optical drive actually does. I thought that BD-ROM usually meant DVD RW but BD read only. Nero Infotool should show what the burner can do.

3. I would leave the RAM at 6GB. This will be 4GB + 2GB and runs as assymetric dual channel. To upgrade to 8GB you will need to replace the 2GB modules with 4GB. I am actually using 6GB by choice because there are occasions when I need more than 4GB but 8GB noticeably increases the hibernation and resume times.

John

 

thanks, those are excellent ideas for decreasing weight, and the resume time is already only a matter of 2-3 seconds. So maybe the extra ram isn't needed. The battery life isn't great but i've also read of ways to increase that like turning off wifi when not using and lowering screen brightness.

I called Costco before ordering and they told me only DVD-rom is included with the bluray, but it does include burning software, I'll give it a try.

Thanks again, I'll let you know if it works.

 

wow, your right and the customer assistance person I talked to at costco didn't know what they were talking about. I'm burning a "spanish learning dvd" as we speak. I thought it was funny a computer that didn't at least include a dvd-r with it. I haven't seen one of those in around 10 years.

 

i weighed the laptop itself and it came to around 5.6 pounds. I also got the bluetooth adapter, so know i got everything I wanted in a Laptop.