Samsung has long been known as a company that churns out laptops with respectably functional laptop parts housed in sleek-looking casings. With the company’s entry into the gaming laptop market, however, it seemed to have done a complete 180.
The Samsung Series 7 Gamer desktop replacement is as powerful as one expects a gaming laptop to be; and it’s certainly more powerful than most of what Samsung has been producing. Surprisingly, though, the laptop isn’t really much to look at. In fact, many might even be tempted to call it dull, or even downright ugly.
Still, looks aren’t everything, as the saying goes; and the Series 7 certainly has a lot of everything else. Check out its laptop component specs: A 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM processor, 16 GB of 1,333 MHz DDR3 RAM, 1.5 TB of hard drive space working at 7,200 rpm, and of course its powerhouse part, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M dedicated graphics card. Upgraded Samsung replacement laptop parts aren’t provided for consumers, but with that much power under this beast, it really doesn’t need them.
The laptop also has two USB 2.0 ports, two more USB 3.0s, a Blu-ray optical drive, an SD card reader, Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and a slot each for VGA, HDMI, and DisplayPort.
All these laptop parts come with a seemingly hefty price tag; $1,899 to be exact. Enough to give one a heart attack, to be sure; but stacked against other desktop replacements, the Series 7 is actually reasonably priced. Out of all the gaming laptops currently competing, Samsung’s is the only which I can confidently say gives you what you pay for.
It could do with a little fixer-upper in the looks department, though, as previously stated. Apart from the shiny finish and the tapered edges, it doesn’t look all that different from those old-school box-type laptops.
Lifting up its screen might make you think twice, though. Placed above its keyboards is a dashboard-style control panel that has three LED-enhanced circles. The one on the left lets you adjust the volume, while the one on the right lets you turn the laptop on or off. The middle one though isn’t manipulable. Rather, it’s an indicator that lights up when the laptop goes into Game Mode; and is also appropriately labeled the “Turbo” circle, just to give it that amped-up feel. The panel also has three indicators that show whether audio muting, Wi-Fi connectivity, and/or keyboard back lighting are activated.
To the right of the panel is a knob that modifies which mode the laptop is in, of which there are four: “Green Mode,” “Library Mode” (which just mutes the audio and nothing else), the default “Balanced Mode,” and the aforementioned “Game Mode.” Needless to say, that last mode is where you’ll truly see what the Series 7 has to offer.
Furthering the laptop’s gaming feel is a keyboard that doesn’t feature the now-ubiquitous Chiclet-style keys. Instead, it emulates the feel of desktop keyboards by having the edges of the keys tapered. Also, the all-important-to-gaming SWAD keys are backlit a cool orange to differentiate them from the blue light of the rest.
The Series 7’s screen is what really showcases the laptop’s capabilities. Measuring 17.3 inches diagonally, it can display the full 1080p hi-def resolution, making images pop out with pristine sharpness and color contrast. The laptop also gives a wide viewing angle range, letting you boast your Series 7 to a roomful of people should you have the urge.
The Samsung Series 7 Gamer, like other current gaming laptops, is released on the heels of the latest NVIDIA GPUs, Intel processors, and the first games out of the gate in the current video game season. It may not look as pretty as the other desktop replacements, but it can certainly display pretty graphics with the best of them.
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