Samsung's Q45 stands apart from the rest of the laptops in this group, with a design that's suited to a life in the great outdoors. Its 1.9kg weight is just over half that of Acer's Aspire, while its four-hour battery life is more than double that of Asus's F7Sr. Its power adaptor is considerably lighter and more compact than the others. The integrated Draft-N wireless networking and Bluetooth further support the Q45's mobile credentials.
The 12.1in screen's glossy finish seems a little out of place on an ultra-portable laptop. Glossy screens flatter photos and videos, but they're susceptible to reflections that make text hard to read under bright lights. The screen's colour accuracy isn't
ADVERTISEMENT
perfect, either, so it's not particularly suitable for photo editing. Its 1,280x800-pixel resolution matches the 15.4in laptops' screens, so you can view just as much information, but it'll be smaller than on the others' screens.
There's no room for a numeric keypad, but Samsung hasn't compromised on the size and layout of existing keys. The keys have a firm action and plenty of feedback, so typing is a pleasant experience, and the touch pad is equally responsive and accurate. The speakers are tinny, but this isn't a particular problem on an ultra-portable laptop. Our biggest concern with the Q45 is that it has only two USB2 ports. Some external hard disks require two ports, which would leave no room for a USB mouse or MP3 player.
We first encountered the Q45 in What's New, Shopper 237, so it's great to see that the price has fallen by £50 and the specifications boosted since then. The Core 2 Duo processor now runs at 2.2GHz, making this one of the faster laptops here. Its overall score of 176 in our application benchmarks shows that it can compete with the desktop replacement models, but the integrated graphics chip can't cope with modern 3D games.
Samsung's Q45 isn't the best all-rounder here, but it's a fast, good-value and very light laptop.
