15.6″ Samsung NP300E5K-L04US Notebook 3
Black Samsung NP300E5K-L04US Notebook 3 is a late 2016 release, entry-level, non-touch 15.6-inch laptop with a good quality Full HD screen, a very large storage, a fifth generation mid-range processor and the Samsung name you can trust. Technical specs include an ultra low voltage Intel i5-5200U processor at 2.2 to 2.7GHz speed with turbo boost and a benchmark score of 3485 which indicates a decent mid-range performance, a very large 1TB Serial ATA mechanical drive at standard 5400rpm speed for you to store lots of files and that can be easily upgraded to Solid State Drive with an easy access to HDD and SSD as there is a free M.2 SATA 3 (2280) slot, 4GB DDR3L SDRAM memory that is good enough for the multitasking of daily things and that can be upgraded to 16GB and a pre-installed Windows 10 64-bit English Home operating system.
15.6-inch non-touch FHD display offers a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and you have a clear picture with 250 nits of max brightness, vivid and realistic colors and great contrast but it has a TN panel so you have limited viewing than an IPS panel. Intel HD 5500 built-in graphics card with a current benchmark rating of 566 offers an average performance that is better than Intel HD 4400 and 5000 but up to 30% slower than the low-end dedicated GeForce 820M so if you had gaming in mind, you can only play the old games comfortably and a few of the later games at low settings. Black Samsung Notebook 3 weighs 4.4 pounds with the measurements of 14.76 x 0.98 x 9.76 inches- is lighter than an average 15-inch machine, less than an inch thick and portable enough. You have the average battery life of up to 6 hours from its 3-cell 43Wh lithium ion battery on paper and you can expect around 4-5 hours in practice.
It doesn’t come with a DVD Drive but they only cost 20-30 dollars if you need one and the connectivity options include the older but fast enough 802.11bgn wireless, Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Ethernet with RJ-45 connector, a USB 3.0 port, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, a full-size HDMI output if you wish to connect it to your large TV, and a 480p webcam. There are many different models of low-cost entry level laptops on the market and so many people are buying them, as what most people do on the computer is surfing the internet, streaming videos and perhaps typing document, so there is a very big demand for them. Intel i5-5200U is a relatively old but powerful and energy efficient fifth generation processor that offers great performance for a budget machine and 1TB is very generous and will satisfy most users and those that want to save lots of photos and videos. The 4GB memory is installed on one DIMM chip and there is another slot available so you can put another RAM there.
You will need at least a mid-range dedicated card for a good gaming performance and this one only has an Intel HD 5500 integrated card so do not expect much for gaming. The keyboard is not backlit but is responsive, comes with a numeric pad and a reasonable trackpad with separate left and right click buttons. Samsung Notebook 3 has a plastic case- not metal, the panel is not IPS but TN, is not designed for power users but more as a laptop for handling daily tasks and for work and entertainment. For the lower price point and what you’re getting for it, the FHD display, ultra low voltage i5 processor, 1TB storage, an easily accessible memory and hard drive and an open M.2 SATA IIII slot, loud speakers, auto power-on when you open the lid, you have a decent deal here by a great company you can trust and that is worth looking into. Samsung is a reliable brand of the global electronics giant and they make some good laptops too.