Samsung RC510 review

Benchmarks
3DMark 03: 10026
3DMark 05: 6996
3DMark 06: 3586
Battery Life: 3hrs 30m

We've already stated that Intel's Core i3 is very good, but let us state it once more: it's very good. Very. Coupled with the 6GB RAM on offer, the RC510 is a pretty slick and flawless system in terms of desktop performance, pounding through every test we put in front of it.

That nippiness is particularly notable if you're jumping from a lesser system – there's a level of instant gratification that really stands out.

This is doubled when you consider the Nvidia Optimus tech built in, which includes CUDA technology that looks after things like video encoding. The few weak spots of the 2.53GHz processor – namely its ability to grind through super-heavy calculation tasks at speed – are made up for by the graphics card taking some of the slack. And that's a great thing.

The world won't be lit on fire, but that graphics card means some pretty good gaming performance. It's a league away from its desktop brethren, but we can see the truth in Nvidia's claim that the 315M is ten times faster than Intel's integrated graphics – at least as long as you ignore the new fangled GMA3000 chipset, which marks a big shift.

You'll be able to play just about anything to an adequate level. It's probably not worth buying this to run Crysis 2 at full detail, but most other games should be fine.

The RC510 is missing a few things that might have made it a better machine, though. Its screen lacks resolution, for a start. A step up on the panel would've made this feel a lot more luxurious – 1366 x 768 isn't fine enough for our tastes.

And for all the Optimus' power savings, we'd have liked a slightly bigger battery. Three and a half hours just doesn't cut it.