Samsung R522

When conjuring up budget laptops for the mass market, manufacturers will usually do their level best to make them look more expensive than they actually are, and the R522 from Samsung is no different. Samsung R522 Samsung's R522: 802.11n not welcome There's nothing particularly special about the innards – Intel Core 2 Duo …

[David Simpson 1]

NOT CHICKLET!

The keyboard on this looks nothing like a macbook keyboard, it is however identical to the keyboard used on Sony VAIO laptops a few years ago. Many Samsungs and Acers are now using it.

Sony were also the first people to use the true chicklet style keyboards, before Apple did.

[Anonymous Coward]

Really?

"would have been better off reducing the size of the 320GB hard drive in order to accommodate 802.11n Wi-Fi....."

No thanks, I'd prefer a bigger hard drive, as would most people. unless you are tranfering between systems on a LAN as opposed to hooking up to the web (which i would think 90% of home users are more likely to do), then having a g card is going to make bugger all difference. Whereas people who take loads of photo's of the kids or family pets, will aprreciate the space.

[Andy 70]

802.11n

i know it is horses for courses etc, but why does not having that "n" standard wifi seem to be such a repeatedly bemoaned issue?

if it's such a problem not having the fastest connection, go for a wired hook up. i bet a bit of benchmark testing in a mixed b/g/n mode environment shows that there really is no advantage to "n" at all.

paris failton, cos she knows her multi in multi out, while being in promiscuous mode on all open ports with no built in virus scanner.

[Wil Rockall]

Chicklet?

Actually David Simpson I remember chicklet keys on my old ZX Spectrum nearly 30 years ago now.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Andy 70

I run my home network in a mixed g/n mode (Netgear AP) - my EEE with it's limited n card (up to 150Mbps) is appreciably faster and better for signal than the Mrs' Aspire One.

The EEE has better range through the walls and copes better with the wi-fi noise of a residential area, makes a lot sense for accessing my home NAS etc, and if I had faster internet (i.e. Virgin or a good ADSL2+) then at distance the g based wireless poor throughput could become the limiting factor.

[Dominik Stansby]

Umm..

For £560 you could get the next model up in the R522 series, the R522-FS04 which has ATI graphics, draft-n wifi, and the same size hard drive! I'm using it right now and it's a good machine!

[Rod Shoaf]

reducing the size of the hard drive?

Did I actually read that correctly?

"would have been better off reducing the size of the 320GB hard drive in order to accommodate 802.11n Wi-Fi....."

Since laptop hard drives are all the same size physically I guess you would rather go without a hard drive at all? Also since the chip that physically controls which wifi protocol is used is on a chip installed to the mini-pci slot on the bottom of the laptop.. and that they are also a standard size and shape.. I can only assume you (the Mr. Stapley) have no clue about PC/Laptop hardware.

[bex]

32 bit or 64 bit ?

If this is 32 Bit vista, what is the point of 4 Gb of memory ?

[Mr Ian]

@Rod Shoaf, @bex

"I can only assume you (the Mr. Stapley) have no clue about PC/Laptop hardware."

What if it costs more for draft-n and less for a smaller CAPACITY hard drive. The physical size is identical, of course, but the costs balance out. Typically a hard drive's capacity is referred to as "size" so young Mr Stapley's suggestion is indeed valid.

"32 bit or 64 bit"

When was the last time you saw 3.5GB of ram in a laptop? Never? Would you rather the laptop only have 2GB and screw over the the power-user that wishes to upgrade to 64-bit or Win7? Indeed.