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
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
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.
