Notebook Hunter

The 14in Samsung Series 5 ULTRA 530U4B-S01AU is one of the most unique Ultrabooks released to date, and for $1,299 it’s a good deal as well. What makes this 1.79kg Ultrabook so unusual is that it has a dedicated graphics card, a DVD burner and port variety that wouldn’t look out of place on an all-rounder.

While not as portable as its smaller-screen cousins, the above list of features really does make the Series 5 a worthwhile bearer of the Ultrabook name. The AMD Radeon HD 7550M dedicated graphics card in particular offers a huge boost over the integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 typical for an Ultrabook. (Running 3DMark Vantage showed a marked difference in GPU score: the 7550M scored 2,627; the Graphics 3000 scored 1,217).

See the special online here.

See a summary of the specs below.

Processor
The 530U4B features a 2nd Gen Intel Core i5-2467M (1.6GHz), a mid-range low-voltage processor that can run productivity applications and some intensive software. It can burst up to 2.3GHz using Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology if a particularly demanding program is running.

Graphics
It comes with a dedicated graphics card called the AMD Radeon HD 7550M. It’s one of the better entry-level products from AMD, and it should be able to handle modern games at medium settings without any issues.

RAM
4GB of RAM is enough to run several programs at once smoothly. It’s more than enough to ensure fluid overall system performance with Windows 7 Home Premium.

Storage
A 500GB hard disk drive is about average in size. It’s big enough for plenty of documents, but movies and the like will fill it sooner rather than later. It also has a 16GB solid state drive that is used for caching programs, resulting in faster overall performance with the main hard disk drive.

Screen
The 530U4B sports a 14in (1,366 x 768 resolution) matte screen. The matte screen is better suited for outdoor use, because direct sunlight won’t turn it into a mirror as would be the case with a gloss screen.

Portability
The 530U4B has great portability, because it weighs 1.78kg and is 20.9mm thick. It can be carried around very easily.