By Darius Chang, CNET Asia
13/04/2006
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/notebooks/0,39050488,39097530p,00.htm

Part of Samsung's multimedia R series, the R65 is a dual-core notebook which is similar to its predecessor, the R50, in looks and heft. However, we felt that as an entertainment system, its performance is only adequate though it has a dedicated graphics card, good sound quality, transflective screen and proprietary AVStation application which allows playback of CDs and multimedia files without booting into Windows. Lacking a widescreen display, dedicated multimedia buttons and remote control--features that are present in the Toshiba Satellite A100 and LG S1 Express--may be a hindrance to its role as a portable entertainment system.

Design
The matte-silver exterior and black trimmings give a corporate feel to the Samsung R65. Made from magnesium alloy, the scratch-resistant chassis is commensurate with its image as a premium-class notebook. It is a midsized notebook at almost 40mm thick and weighs 2.7kg, but its footprint is small at 329.8 x 272mm, probably as a result of Samsung going with a 15-inch LCD display rather than a more common 15.4-inch screen.

	The dual-core Samsung R65 looks identical to the previous R50 notebook.

With two easy-access USB ports on the right flank and the heat vent on the opposite side, the R65 seems to be designed for the right-handed user. The keyboard is comfortable to type on, though gamers would probably have preferred the first key on the bottom left to be the CTRL instead of FN button. This is because most games do not allow the FN key to be mapped to an action. Dedicated keys are limited to Wi-Fi and AVStation, with multimedia and volume control buttons curiously missing for an entertainment system.

The speaker grill above the keyboard allows the audio output to be clearly heard when the notebook is in the open position. Though we expected the sound to be muffled when the cover is closed, it was a pleasant surprise to note that such was not the case, and in both positions, the audio quality did not suffer. The position of the sound jacks at the left front area of the unit prevent wire tangles when typing and using a headset, yet keeping unsightly cables out of view when hooked up to external speakers.

Features
Based on the latest Centrino platform, the Samsung R65 has the requisite 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi connectivity and Core Duo processor. Other network options include Bluetooth, infrared, modem and a disappointing 10/100 Ethernet port instead of the faster Gigabit LAN. For hooking up to external peripherals, four USB ports, one mini-FireWire and two PC card slots--one supporting the PCMCIA standard while the other is future-proofed with the ExpressCard format--are available on the R65. A serial port protected with a rubber dust cover is included for users of legacy devices.

The video subsystem of the unit is powered by Nvidia's GeForce Go 7400 graphics card with 256MB of TurboCache memory. TurboCache technology allows the sharing of system memory with the dedicated VRAM to boost video rendering if required, hence allowing the Samsung R65 to handle most games and playback movies on the 200nits-bright transflective screen. Though capable of only 1280 x 768-pixel resolution, images on the 15-inch display do seem sharper compared with the same resolution on the more common 15.4-inch screen size. However, we were more disappoint with the standard 4:3 aspect ratio LCD as it means that widescreen movies cannot be natively displayed. Fortunately, hooking up to an external widescreen monitor vie the analog S-video or VGA port should overcome this obstacle, though we would have liked to see the digital-standard DVI connector being included as well.

The Samsung R65 uses the SoundMax HD audio driver capable of SRS 3D sound output. The speakers are clear and loud, able to be heard even in noisy environments. For the discerning audiophile, a digital SPDIF jack allows hookup to external Hi-Fi sets with minimal reduction in audio quality.

Getting more common nowadays for midrange and above systems is the DVD Super Multi optical drive which can handle both DVD -R/RW and +R/RW formats as well as the DVD-RAM standard. Naturally it is also compatible with lower-capacity CDR/CDRW. The 60GB harddisk uses the older parallel ATA standard which is slower when it comes to accessing hard drive data compared to the newer and faster serial ATA. The memory card reader is a boon for photographers as it accepts SD, MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro and xD-Picture cards without requiring additional adapters.

Performance And Battery Life
Our review unit came with the Intel Core Duo T2300 processor running at 1.66GHz and 512MB of DDR2 RAM. Unfortunately, its performance on single-thread applications is disappointing, scoring only 106 on MobileMark 2005 productivity test. The single-core Pentium M 740 in the Asus A6V running at 1.73GHz had a significantly higher score of 158 on the same test.

Its multithread performance, on the other hand, is the Samsung's R65's saving grace. Hitting a result of 157 on SysMark 2004 SE, stands almost shoulder-to-shoulder with the faster 2GHz Core Duo T2500 processor in the Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi, which had a score of 168 in the same benchmark test.

Unfortunately, the graphics performance is lacking despite the impressive-sounding Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 graphics card on 256MB TurboCache VRAM, which uses a combination of dedicated VRAM and system memory for video rendering. Hitting the 923 mark on 3DMark06 gaming benchmark, the R65 falls far behind the Toshiba Satellite A100 which eked out a score of 1,195 using an equivalent ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 GPU with 256MB Hypermemory VRAM.

The 5200mAh battery is disappointing, managing only 2 hours 47minutes on MobileMark 2005 battery life test. It falls just between the Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi and Toshiba Satellite A100, which scored a reasonable 3 hours 8 minutes and an inadequate 2 hours 33 minutes, respectively. However, a helpful feature is the power indicator on the battery, also found in Dell's business notebooks, which makes managing multiple power cells a breeze.

Service And Support
Samsung notebooks come with a one-year international warranty. On its support Web site, you can download user manuals, drivers and software patches. However, there is no knowledge database nor comprehensive FAQ for self-diagnosis. There is no telephone technical support and only a hotline number is given for basic inquiries. In case of hardware failure, the unit should be brought to a service center for repair. It is unfortunate that the number of service centers, of which there's only one location in Singapore, is found lacking. Overall, there is much room for improvement when it comes to Samsung's technical support.