Samsung Q210: It's bloody good
The Samsung Q210 is a fantastic new thin and light laptop. It's a Centrino 2 model, and it has a strange red strip along the bottom edge that makes it look like it's been dipped in blood
A couple of months ago, we went to South Korea, where we ate rotten vegetables, saw the Samsung R410, some slides we probably shouldn't have, and a fantastic thin-and-light laptop -- the Samsung Q210.
Now it's hit the UK, and we have to admit, we were never fans of the design. The glossy black finish is okay, but like many new Samsung devices, there's a strip of red along the bottom of the wrist rest, which makes the Q210 look like it's been smeared in blood. It's just like a Korean to bring a laptop to a knife fight.
The rest of it is ace, though. It's very similar to the Samsung Q70, except it qualifies for Centrino 2 status by using a 2.27GHz Intel P8400 CPU along with 3GB of RAM. There's a 12.1-inch 1,280x800-pixel display, a 320GB hard drive, Nvidia GeForce 9200M graphics, and a 1.3-megapixel webcam.
Samsung has made a couple of interesting decisions regarding the keyboard. It sports Silver Nano technology, which helps reduce the chances of antibacterial infection, but there's more: when we first saw the prototype, we moaned that the Ctrl and Fn buttons were the wrong way round. Samsung didn't seem to agree at the time, but the final Q210 has the Ctrl button at the far bottom left corner -- just like it is on a desktop keyboard. The Fn button sits to the right of it, so now we can sleep at night.
The Q210 is in the shops now for around £700. On initial inspection, we'd say it was worth buying, though our less impulsive readers might want to wait 'til we publish a full review in the next few days or so. -Rory Reid
Update: Read our full Samsung Q210 review here.