Samsung Q430 – classy aluminum covered 14 incher

Netbooks and tablets are growing in popularity these days, but this doesn’t mean that the more traditional niches in computer manufacturing, like laptops or desktops, don’t come with solid products all the time. One of the good mainstream laptops you can go for these days is the Samsung Q430, which is a 14 inch laptop, with a configuration solid enough to take you through almost any type of endeavour you might have with computers.

The Q430 comes with a metal finish and looks like one of those very expensive laptops, usually over $1000, which you usually avoid if you’re looking for a budget laptop. But the laptop comes at a very affordable price, packing all the features and performance you need from your primary computer. At the heart of the Q430 is a Corei5 dual core processor, with a 2.53 GHZ speed,  but using Intel Power Boost, the speed increases to 2.8 GHZ for very demanding applications.

The processor comes with Intel HD graphics, which is a on board graphics accelerator able to deal with flawless HD playback. But you won’t have to rely on the chip because the laptop comes with a dedicated video card, namely the Nvidia Gfore 310 M, which delivers 10 times the performance you get from on board chipsets and even helps prolonging battery life.

The black, metal finish adds class to an already exquisite machine

The graphics card also allows for some gaming, but think more in terms of modest online gaming than next gen textures and engines you get on newer games. The speed in multitasking comes also from the 4 GB of RAM, which help you have many programs running all at once without bottle necks.

There’s also a 500 GB hard disk drive, on which you can store lots of movies, pictures and music and all your important documents. The 14 inch display has a 1366 x 768 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio, allowing for a wide screen experience. There are also a DVD burner, a low light web cam, which can deliver crystal clear images even in the dark, WiFi connectivity, 3 USB ports. The USB ports can be used also for charging your MP3 player or smart phone even when the laptop is off.

The chiclet keyboard has enough space between keys to limit the risk of typos

If the 14 inch display is not enough for you, there’s the possibility to hook up the laptop to a bigger display via the HDMI output. The operating system is Windows 7 Premium and the battery lasts for only 4.5 hours. But there are good things also on the outside. The lid of the Q430 is made from aluminum and has a black brush finish with curved edges. The aluminum treatment also goes around the keyboard, where we can find a classy silver finish. Unfortunately, we don’t get the same treatment on the bottom, where we get plain plastic.

The chiclet keyboard feels good and there’s enough space between keys not to go into a typo frenzy. The touch pad is a little small for its own good and it’s a little too sensitive with the default settings, but that’s a common issue with many laptops. The Q430 is now available from Amazon for $849.99 and is a very good deal at this price. The laptop can handle everything you might throw at it- video playback, some gaming, office tools, all of it at the same time.

The DVD burner and LCD display add to the multimedia experience the Q430 delivers

All this in a very attractive package, as the aluminum finish give the laptop a touch of class (and I might say that it makes it tougher when dealing with accidents like bumps or falls). On the downside, we might say that the touch pad needs some time to get used to and the battery is kind of poor, but if you’ll use this more as a home computer, than it won’t be an issue.