Samsung R40 'Aura' (15.4" Widescreen)

Hi,
Been lurking here for a while, in particular keeping an eye on the Samsung R20thread. Am going to be buying my first notebook soon and this is near the top of my shortlist. My budget is arounfd the £500 mark and it will been mainly used at home as a secondary computer (to stop the kids arguing) and only accasionally venturing out with me for work purposes. As such the R20 seemed good value for money and ticked a few boxes. However, I have just stumbled across this at Tesco direct.

Samsung R40 FY06/SUK

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-6513.aspx



It seems to have a similar spec to the R20 but I must admit I do like the idea of the 15.4” screen as opposed to the 14.1 of the R20. Saw one in the flesh at the Tesco’s Extra near me and asthetically it has the same Black Shiny ‘Aura’ exterior as the R20 but with a silver interior around the keyboard.

So, after all that rambling, my simple question is has anyone got one and, if so, what are their thoughts? Or has anybody else got any thoughts about it.

 

That seems to be a version of the R40 plus since it has the ATI 1250M chipset.

It is very much the R20 hardware in a bigger chassis with a slightly bigger display. However, the screen resolution is the same so the pixels will just be a bit bigger. If you want any mobility then the R20 will be a bit less to carry around.

However, if you want the bigger display then that Tesco version of the R40 appears to be a bargain compared with the R40RY02/SUK being sold elsewhere.

You get the T2080 CPU, which is a Core Duo with only 1MB cache and will have some reduction in performance compared with the T2250. However, I don't know if anything else has been left out of the Tesco version. For example, there's no mention of wireless.

Comparing the R20 and R40 prices, I think it is the R40RY02/SUK which is out of touch with reality.

John