TechRadar Verdict
Pros
- +
High-end performance
- +
Good hardware for the money
- +
Samsung's UI has some useful options
- +
Runs relatively quiet and cool
Cons
- -
Gaudy case lights
- -
Samsung's UI is mostly obnoxious
- -
No 3D support
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With its blue backlit keyboard and i7 processor, Samsung's Series 7 Gamer laptop is a big shiny box of power. At 17 inches and 9 pounds, it's more of a semi-portable desktop replacement than a truly portable laptop. Still, this is a gaming computer, and with great power generally comes some serious bulk and a hefty down payment.
The first thing you'll notice about the Series 7 Gamer are all the blue lights, and a silver dial on the right side, near the monitor. This lets you cycle the computer into one of four modes: Gaming, Balanced, Library and Green Mode.
With an MSRP of $1,899 (note: Amazon is currently selling it for $1,742.98/£1,349.97), the Series 7 Gamer isn't cheap, but it's also not the priciest mobile gaming solution on the market (just look at the $2,500 Razer Blade). A little under two grand is pretty much par for the course with any machine that's (partially) portable and capable of running Skyrim at a respectable resolution.
Specifications
Let's get down to brass tacks: how much horsepower are you getting for your money? Quite a bit, we're happy to say. Here are the hard and fast specs for the Series 7:
Intel Core i7-3610QM @ 2.3GHz
w/ 6MB L3 cache
16GB DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M Graphics
1.5TB Hitachi Hard Drive
8GB SanDisk SSD
17.3" display with 1920x1080 resolution
The Samsung Series 7 Gamer also sports four USB ports (2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0), a Blu-Ray drive, four stereo speakers, plus built-in webcam and microphone. Our review unit had Windows 7 Home Premium installed.
The Series 7 is not customizable, this is the only configuration that Samsung currently offers.