Samsung R519

Samsung's R519 represents an affordable way into laptop ownership.Despite its low price, it has a modern design and sports a widescreendisplay with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

The 15.6-inch screen iscolourful and offers detailed images with good contrast. The glossySuper-TFT coating results in reflections in direct sunlight and it'snot one of the brighter screens we have seen.

It's more thangood enough for indoor use, however, where the widescreen aspect ratiomakes it ideal for movie playback or viewing a couple of documents sideby side.

The graphics card is an integrated Intel solution,offering enough power to carry out office tasks and watch DVDs, but youwon't be able to play games.

It's a reasonably power-efficient solution and enables this machine to run for 193 minutes between charges.

Noisy keyboard

Thekeyboard offers good usability, with large keys that are firmlyattached. It's not the quietest board, however, rattling noisily duringuse.

The plastics lack the high-quality feel of the PackardBell EasyNote TJ65-AU-010UK and Acer Aspire 5410T-723G25Mn, althoughit's still a robust machine.

You'll find black plastics usedthroughout the chassis and it makes for a very conservative design.Even the Samsung logo below the screen is finished in black.

Abudget Intel Pentium processor has been used to keep costs down,although, running at 2.16GHz, it is quite powerful. Multi-tasking is apossibility, as it's a dual-core chip, although the 2048MB of memory islimited in this company.

The 250GB hard drive offers ample storage space and should hold all of your files and folders.

There'sa tri-format DVD rewriter on the right-hand side, letting you copyfiles to blank DVDs and CDs, and Samsung also bundles its own RecoverySolution III software, letting you easily create system backups andoffering protection should anything happen to your hard drive.

A flash memory card reader lets you access files from digital cameras and other devices.

Wirelessnetworking is provided by 802.11g Wi-Fi, with 10/100 Ethernet in placefor fixed connections. Three USB ports are lined up on the left-handside of the chassis.

You'll be able to connect an externaldisplay via an analogue VGA cable but, unlike some of its rivals, highdefinition displays are not supported.

The R519 may not offerthe style or premium feel of some of the other laptops, but it doesoffer an excellent platform for no-frills computing. If you're after acheap machine simply to browse the internet or create documents on,then this is well worth a look.

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