Samsung R522 - 15.6in Notebook Review

I like the look of this machine. It seems to have everything that i'm looking for, but is it better than the medion akoya s5610, or the sony vaio vgn-ns20j/s. I have been working on this question for a while and a recent magazine I purchased said the Sony was clearly the best. I can't, for the life of me work out why but any help would be greatly appreciated. Your Michael.

I couldn't see this machine in a BB store, so I ordered it blindly after rejecting HP, Dell, Compaq, and several other competitors. I needed a machine badly since my last computer was actually falling apart. It came 5 days later (standard shipping) and I was pleased with its easy setup and Vista's operation. It even comes with a free upgrade to Windows 7. Here is the good news...

Its light enough to travel around the house and around town with, the screen is very bright, and the construction is solid and sturdy. The speakers allow the music to be heard in the next room, albeit without bass, but can be quiet enough to be a bedroom television/DVD player for me. The mouse pad has a cool blue ring around it so you can find the mouse pad in the dark. Its completely useless and can be turned off in BIOS, but adds a bit of Samsung's style to the laptop. She gets an A+ on wireless range, power-sipping energy efficiency (very high on my list), an HDMI out, the graphics accelerator, cd burning, aesthetics, and available USB ports. Seriously, who uses more than 4 USB ports simultaneously?

Here's the bad news. I'm not too stoked about the keyboard arrangement. The keys are chiclet-style, meaning my big fingers roll right off of them easily. Also, the the delete, home, pg up, pg down, and end keys are horizontally placed on the far right side of the keyboard, so i have to actually look when using these quick keys while typing. There are no quick media buttons, which I had on my last laptop and I now miss them dearly. The AC cord plugs in on the left, and is extra long, but i always seem to sit on the wrong side of AC jacks in my house. Beware of fingerprints, the matte black finish collects em like candy. Vista automatically partitions half of my hard drive for backup space, and I wish it wouldn't do that. The SD card slot is completely open, which makes me think dust WILL collect in it. Oh, and I paid full price for it a month ago (629).

If you like RAM speed, tons of GB of memory, and want a lightning quick machine WITH blue-tooth, look elsewhere and pay more. Otherwise, this might be just what the PC Gods ordered... I recommend for the non-techies and light techies.