The Samsung Q310-34P is a good thin-and-light notebook for work and play that doesn’t skimp on battery life. It also offers good looks without being over the top. But while system offers solid performance, is it worth $1,299?
Design
The glossy black lid of the Samsung Q310-34P doesn’t look radically different from other thin-and-light notebooks. Once you open the system, however, your eyes will be drawn to the subtle but sophisticated Touch of Color design on the deck borrowed from Samsung’s TVs: the polished black design has red gradation highlights as you move from the bottom of the keyboard to the front of the notebook.
The Q310-34P measures 12.7 x 9.5 x 1.1 inches and weighs 4.8 pounds, making it the same weight as the HP Pavilion dv3510nr we recently reviewed, although it’s noticeably thinner. On the right side of the system you’ll find a USB port, an 8X optical drive, ExpressCard/34 slot, headphone and microphone jacks, and a blocked modem port; on the left are VGA and HDMI ports.
The front houses a 7-in-1 memory card reader, while the rear contains an Ethernet jack and two stacked USB ports that may prove troublesome when attempting to plug in multiple devices at once. The base of the machine has easy-access mini-PCI and RAM panels and a very handy button that gives you an at-a-glance percentage reading of the the notebook’s battery life without needing to power on the system.
The keyboard is good, without too much flex, but the touchpad is a bit on the small side and features mushy mouse buttons that lacked a satisfying click. It should be noted that the keyboard has a silver nano antibacterial coating designed to keep cooties at bay.
Display and Audio
The 1280 x 800-pixel screen looked good while we were watching a DVD of There Will Be Blood. Despite the glossy display, the visuals weren’t impaired by distracting reflections, and we enjoyed wide viewing angles. Surprisingly, the audio was good for a non-multimedia machine; sounds were crisp and music didn’t sound as tinny as on other systems. The integrated 1.3-megapixel webcam served up solid images that suffered from muted colors with only a minimum of blurring when we made Skype video calls. The Q310-34P’s display was on a par with the Lenovo ThinkPad SL300 (another 13.3-inch, 1280 x 800 notebook), but its audio was a hair better.
