New Samsung Q330, Q430 and Q530 notebooks

Samsung previewed its new Q series notebooks in May.

It appears that these new models have now been launched at Best Buy. More here.

UK users can look forward to seeing the Q430 in early July for under £700 -it is listed by More Computers.

John

 

The Q430 is listed on Best Buy's site for $799.99 right now. It seems like a pretty solid deal but the specs on the Laptopmag site are a bit misleading as the thickness of this laptop is listed by Best Buy as 1.3", likely the thickness at its thickest point (and perhaps the 1.04" is measured at its thinnest point).

 

I purchased a Samsung Q430 laptop last week and think that this is among the best laptops within the price range of $800 +/- 100.

(1) Build Quality (9/10): Excellent build reminding of Mac Book Pro.
Aluminium casing looks pretty sturdy and it is.
The LCD is protected by an additional layer of screen much like Mac
Book.The finish is very neat.
I eyed HP DM4t, because it is also covered with aluminium case.
Compared with Q430, however, HP DM4 looked tinny and cheaper.

(2) Performance (9/10): I didn't do any professional tests but am sure that
this computer is more than enough for non-gaming ordinary
users. Equipped with Intel I5-450 and Nvidia G310, Q430 has shown
no single problem in web-browsing, editing photos (CS4), playing HD
videos.

(3) Heat & Noise (9/10): This is where Q430 really shines. Heat is well-
controlled and noise is minimal. HWmonitor shows that the
temperature of CPU stays around mid-30 degrees celcius and GPU
around mid-40 degrees on idle. With moderate stresses, CPU reached
low 50s and GPU mid 50s. Fan remained calm during my personal
tests.

(4) Battery life (8/10): Doing normal internet surfing, I got 4hrs (which is enough to me) with a full
charge. This is neither excellent nor too bad.

(5) Keyboard & Touchpad (8.5): Keyboard is very comfortable. I generally
don't like a chicklet keyboard, but this one is an exception. Touchpad
is just average.

(6) Display (8/10): I want more pixels than 1366*768. But this is a matter of
personal preference. LED screen brightness is also just average,
less bright than MacBook or Sony Vaio.

Overall, I'm happy with my new machine. Before this, I bought Asus (flimsy plastic build, crappy display), Sony (plastic build, too short battery), Lenovo(loud fan noise), and HP (heat, blue screen) models in the similar configuartions during the last 6 months and was not so satisfied with them.

Kudos to Samsung!

 

Thanks for the info diehard. I've been eyeing this laptop, but there is very little info or reviews for it at the moment.

Any idea if it supports switchable graphics?

 

No, Q430 does not support switchable graphics.
However, I don't think switchable graphics is a phenomenal advantage over single graphics. I owned a laptop with manually switchable graphics (Nvidia 310m + Intel HD) and could have a modicum of extented battery hours by switching to a lower graphic card.

 

nVidia's Optimus is an option on the new Samsung X series models. See this thread.

John

 

I went into my local Best Buy in search of an Asus UL80J, but had an unexpected run in with a Q430. If I wasn't looking for a portable/thin and light, the Q430 would do nicely. Rock solid construction, good specs for the price (a better gpu/switchable graphics would have been great), and a nice keyboard. I wasn't crazy about the touchpad, since it reminds me too much of my 3 year old HP's (just plain, almost glossy plastic. High friction and rather small too).

It's probably one of the few laptops out there that could give the 13in Macbook Pro a run for its money in terms of both specs AND aesthetics.

 

I came across the Q430 Monday afternoon. Great little machine so far! The battery life is pretty good too.

 

I’ve been using the 13” MacBook Pro, and although I LOVE it, it wasn’t compatible with the exam software I’m going to be using. I had intended to purchase the Dell Studio 1438, but couldn’t get it shipped in time for my exams in law school. I went to Best Buy and was recommended the Samsung Q430. So far, I find that it’s actually kind of slow, but maybe this is typical for PCs? I’m definitely not tech savvy, but find it a lot slower than my macbook (3-5 minutes for start up and shutdown). Also, every time I boot up it say Kaspersky has found some sort of keytracking virus…I want to make sure I didn’t purchase a “lemon” computer! I appreciate the feedback.

 

Mine takes about 60-80 seconds for start up and less than 20 seconds for shut down. I suggest you to uninstall Kaspersky and download MS Security Essentials.

 

Windows start up times should be under a minute on most computers. It is likely that your computer came with a large amount of bloatware (software installed by the manufacturer/retailer) that you may not need. This may be the cause of your startup/shutdown woes.

Fire up Windows Defender and see what programs are launching at startup. Uncheck all programs that you are absolutely positive that you do not need. Restart and see if things have improved. If you find that startup is faster this time around, start uninstalling programs by going to control panel->uninstall a program and going down the list. Hope this helps!

 

I'm about to pull the trigger on the Q430 but one concern I have is the webcam....is it really only .3 mega pixels or is that a typo on the best buy website?

 

I am not sure about pixels in web cam. However, the basic fact of digital photography or videography is that the number of pixels really doesn't matter, being the sensor size of camera is equal. That is, a larger number of pixels does not mean better quality.

 

Thank you for clarifying that diehard..I'm torn between the samsung and the toshiba m645-4050...any suggestions?

 

Depends on what your needs are. This guy has the right idea. Neither laptop is a clear cut winner in portability, so if that is important for you, you need to ask yourself what is more important: battery life or build quality/weight? Performance wise, the Toshiba is the winner.

 

Well I was at best buy for 3 hours today, and i'm going to chose the samsung....the toshiba just feels plain cheap compared to the samsung. I hope I'm making the right choice haha

 

I bought my Q-430 on Wednesday and I couldn't be happier.

I agree completely with your comment about the Toshiba feeling cheap compared to the Samsung. I compared 13" & 14" models from Asus, HP, Sony, Toshiba, Lenovo, and Samsung. Each had positives and negatives based on my personal performance needs, but the Samsung just has a solid/tight feel that the others don't.

I'm not sure what information people want, but I'll offer that start-up takes less than 1 min and shut-down probably takes 20 seconds (if that) and it is nearly silent. I don't know if that is important to anyone else. If it is, you can be confident that this computer can go anywhere and not get you any annoyed glances.

Just my two cents. I hope it helps someone.

 

Hey yellowsun..glad to see someone is enjoying this laptop. I'm ready to purchase I'm just waiting for the major sites to write up reviews for it. Does the laptop ever get warm, if so how hot?? Also how long is the charge lasting on the battery? Thanks for your help.

 

I was really looking forward to this laptop being released because I wanted a lightweight laptop. In this article,

Samsung Q330, Q430 and Q530 slim laptops to invade Britain in July -- Engadget

they said that the Q430 weight 4.52 pounds. But I realized that model that BestBuy carries is first of all called Q430-11 and weighs 5.3 pounds. These two are different right? Where can I find the lightweight one? What are some of the big name electronics stores (such as BestBuy in US) in the UK?

 

I was going to wait for the reviews too, but I caved. I was so tired of getting excited about a "soon to be released" notebook, waiting forever for it to be released, then the reality of the machine being great specs on paper but poor build quality. When I got to play with this at Best buy I was so happy that it didn't feel like a cheep plastic toy.

To your question about heat. I typically use it on my office desk or a lap desk so there is good air flow. It gets a couple of warm spots on the bottom, but not near as hot as I have experienced in the past with my laptops. At it's hottest, I can easily put my hand on the hot spot and leave it there with no discomfort.

The battery is consistently lasting around 4 hours. I am not good about keeping track to the minute, but I will tell you I keep the screen at it's brightest and I don't really have anything set to save power when on battery.

With the battery, I would say this is closer to 5.3 lbs. It felt so light when I picked it up at Best Buy, then I turned it over and realized they didn't have the battery in it. I asked the associate to get the battery so I could feel how heavy it would be when I was carrying it. I was disappointed with how much heavier the battery made it, but obviously it was not a deal breaker. Actually, my concerns were not warranted because when I carry it in my bag I hardly notice it is there. It would probably seem even lighter to a guy.

Something cool that even the sales guy was impressed with. The battery has a button that you can push and an indicator will light up to tell you how much charge you have left.

As far as I know (from reading every article I could find), this computer is only available at Best Buy (US). the 430-11 is the only variation they have right now. Whether they will get more I don't know. I saw articles saying the computer will be available in the UK in July, but I don't know the stores over there, and I don't know if the specs are different. Sorry I can't help much with those questions.

Again, I hope this helps. I will try to answer any questions I can.

 

I think I'll get one of these in the next week or so...

 

I feel the same way with yellowsun until i found this laptop at BB. It's not feel cheap and the spec is what i looking for.

I plan to buy this laptop next week but i just see one review at BB website said something about bad WIFI and he can not connect to the internet while his netbook can. Did any one here got this problem.Any suggestion?
(sorry for my bad English)

 

The WIFI is fine.

In the Network and Sharing Center you have to check the box "connect even if network is not broadcasting." It just means that the network you are connecting to is not sending out it's SSDI. It's kind of like the network is not saying "hey here I am connect to me," and instead you have to ask if you can connect. I had this problem on a new netbook; caused me fits for months. Now I feel silly, that it was only because one box wasn't checked. I can't say with certainty that this is the other reviewers problem, but I have told a lot of people with new machines (various manufacturers), and this has always fixed the problem.

 

Thank youuu yellowsun for the answer and a useful tip . I admit that at first I'm still not sure about getting this laptop eventhough I really like it, because I never heard about samsung laptop before . Anyway, after I try this at BB I think thay did a good job with build quality spec and price. In my opinion this baby look like a mac book pro in pc version while the black cover remind me about Asus U series.

I wait wait wait for a long time for the right one (Now all of my friend told me that I think to much "ํํYou said you wanna buy a new laptop since last Christmas and you still didn't get it!?")

I think I'll pull the trigger for this one
Thanks again yellowsun

 

The wi-fi of my Q430 has no single problem.

Samsung has manufactured computers since the early 1990s.
Although they do not make premium laptops, their overall quality is comparable to middle-class HP, Dell, Asus laptops. Definitely better than Acer, Gateway, Emachines junks.

 

Samsung's X series are their premium line. There's a new X series in the pipeline at the moment. Also, Dell's very popular Latitude X1 is a rebadged Samsung (Q30?).

The Q series is intermediate quality between the X series and the mainstream R series.

John

 

Hi Mr Ratsey been a few years.

Not sure you mean "quality" vs say "value". Does Samsung even make notebooks? I did not think they did. So is the DeLL a OEM Quanta/Compal/Wistron/Inventec and so on?

In a widely posted analysis on this site and others Asus and Toshiba were #1 and #2 respectively on requested warranty service. Meaning they were the best.

John while I know the analysis I mentioned does not distinguish between models. I am a little baffled by the comment you quoted. I am in so far as HP is the worst and DeLL did not do well. So how diehard reaches the conclusions he does are at best anecdotal but I would say more likely personal. And as such of no real empirical value to anyone.

Further Acer has been making substantial increase in quality and performance. Furthermore prior to their separation Acer was Wistron. Funny how we can bash Acer but then talk of better that as a matter of fact are and were made by what was Acer, Wistron.

I guess I just do not see where Diehard gets any of his facts from.

John I get over 15GB RAM bandwidth on my new notebook.


Edit: Samsung is the worlds largest electronics MFG for those who do not know. They do have an idea what they are doing. When you buy that better notebook it might have Sumsung RAM or a Sumsung screen.

 

Hey Yellow sun,diehard6.0. Another guy at BB review site just talking about HDD whistle. I'm not sure what he mean...like HDD is too loud while it working or a strange noise from HDD. I don't think It's gonna be that bad but He said It's noticeable. What's you guy thinking about it? Just wonder

 

I'm thinking of getting a q430 from bestbuy. Just a few questions guys: does the laptop have hdmi? Its listed on the site that it has no hdmi port but in the samsung website, it says that it does have an hdmi port. Also, what's q430's max ram? Also, are the usuals (ram and hdd) user accessible? Thanks!

 

It does have an hdmi port, It's a mistake in the specifications list at BB website. At first, I'm a bit confuse like Salamancero so I go double check at store already.

 

thanks Tentchelsea!

 

Yes, it does have HDD whistle. But the noise comes only occasionally, and is not loud. The reviewer seems oversensitive.

 

It's too late for Samsung.

I have looked through their new modells and i can't see any redeeming features of this series!

Asus, Acer &Co had such devices much earlier on the market.

And it seems that Samsung has weaker batter life in this here.

So why would someone buy this device now?

 

Hmm... If you mean like Asus have features like usb 3.0, Nvidia Optimus or Acer have a good combination spec for gaming with a very long battery life.
Then..Yes,you may not interest in this machine.

I like Acer and Asus too and waitng for new Acer timeline and Asus N43/N53 but at the same time,It could cost me more than 1000$ and actually I'm not gaming much so their spec is a bit too much for me.

I'm not a tech savy so I try to search any information that I can find, may be I'm wrong,you guy can correct me. For me usb 3.0 is not necessary at this time and it seem like Nvidia Optimus didn't help much for saving the battery life(It should be better in the future but it still good to have it though ). Acer did a very good job on their new laptop about battery life. I don't know how can they make it but from what I heard (don't know is it true or not)If you compare head to head with other company,with the same spec,Acer will working a little bit lower than other(may be to save energy)

Anyway. If you are a gamer or you like the new feature and have enough budget just go for it. But for me I have limit budget and I'm not hardcore pc gamer(but I'm a hardcore console gamer ) so I'm just looking for the medium spec that fast enough,can connect to LCD TV via hdmi (full screen) may be can play light gaming, and 4 hours battery life is good enough for me. So the last thing I looking for is build quality and this laptop look solid and not have a crappy keyboard

 

Ohh never mind... I already google it myself

 

Does anyone know if you can upgrade the memory on the Q430 to 8gb? I can not find any information on this. I have contacted Samsung and they are pretty clueless on it.

 

This is more a question of the memory support by the Intel chipset (which I think means yes) although there is a small chance that there is a BIOS limitation.

John

 

If the max battery life on power saver mode is around 4 hours, has anyone thought of undervolting the cpu or gpu? I'm just wondering about this because I'm already set on picking one up from bestbuy. It'll be a bonus if I can still extend the battery life outside of the regular methods.

 

As far as I know, no one has figured out yet how to undervolt the Core i series CPUs.

John

 

I too am strongly considering the Q430-11 after spending an hour or so playing with it at my local Best Buy store. II have been building and reviewing destop computers for over 15 years but am somewhat of a noob when it comes to laptops. I've done so much research on so many different laptops I'm experiencing a certain degree of information overload. I have a few questions for those who actually own it:

1. Does the Backup/Recovery software supplied by Samsung allow you to make a copy of the the recovery files from the hidden partition on DVD? If not I have Acronis True Image 10, will it copy the hidden partition if you clone the drive?

2. What brand of WiFi card is this system using?

3. Does the hard drive "whistle" sound like a potential drive defect?

Thanks in advance!

 

by the way, is the hard drive easily accessible in this laptop?

 

I am close to getting this laptop from Best Buy, but notice that one missing on the Q430 is "no bluetooth." From the online articles, it seems that the version released in the UK does have Bluetooth 3.0.

Is there any way to buy Q430 and install a built-in bluetooth capability later on? Not a USB adapter.

 

Take a look in the user guide. I think the HDD is under a cover on the bottom.

Different versions of Samsung notebooks have different feature lists. Evidently, Bluetooth was a feature left out in the Best Buy version in order to get the price down.

Unfortunately for you, the -11 seems to be the only version of the Q430 currently being sold in US of A. Perhaps, if it sells well, then Samsung may bring in another version with different specs.

It will be challenging to retro-fit the module. First you would have to find the module and second you will have to dismantle the computer.

John

 

I found a problem with Q430-11.
The battery pack is not securely fastened.
Worse is that the battery drains when the computer is turned off, if not connected to power through AC adapter.

 

How much is the battery draining? I have not had any problem with that, but it is something I am always looking out for. I have my Q430 set to the 'extended battery life' setting and have never had a problem with battery drain. I wonder what is causing this for you.

I can see your point on the battery fastening. I guess I hadn't really noticed. Probably because my last computer (Toshiba) was awful in that respect and I trained myself not to handle the computer around the battery.

In respect to the questions about hard drive whistle. I can honestly say I don't have that problem. I have tried to listen for it in an otherwise silent room and I get nothing. When burning a dvd I can hear the optical drive, but that is the most noise ever. I even found viewing dvd's as a surprisingly quiet event (ie, no annoying loud and constant whirl that is so bad you don't even want to watch the movie).

One note about the hard drive. I don't know if this matters, but when I was playing with the model at Best Buy I noticed that the hard drive was not identified as a Samsung. When I purchased mine, and got it home, it did identify the hard drive as a Samsung. I don't know if the brand of hard drive can make a difference, but as I said mine has not been a problem. I just know that my hard drive is silent and this is by far the quietest computer I have ever had.

 

Perhaps Samsung is trying to emulate Sony, who regularly provide loose batteries. If the looseness bugs you then glue some paper onto the battery in the right places.

How much is the drain? On some computers the BIOS is set to not recharge the battery until the charge has dropped by several percent. This is to avoid frequent top-up charges. You can monitor the charge status using the battery info page of RMClock.

John

 

Hi guys,

I never tried undervolting a gpu before but I'm contemplating on undervolting the nvidia 310m on the Samsung q430. Are there any online resources that I can refer to that specifically deal with the nvidia 310m?

 

There are some tools around for managing nVidia GPUs. Does nVidia provide any power management toolds. Also look here and here. I have no experience with those packages and they may not work with your GPU. I would also stress that, if you are wanting to reduce temperatures and save power, then you will need to reduce the frequencies, not increase them.

John

 

The Q330a and Q430 are both quite interesting for me.

1) I second the question about difficulties with changing the HDD... (or RAM, or ...)
2) What is the quality of the speakers like. Right now I'm enjoying Harman/Kardon of an older Toshiba, and that's a pretty pleasant experience... (in fact, it's the best thing about the notebook lol)
3) Don't want a glossy display. Will Samsung provide matte displays for the Q series?
4) Anyone tried it on Linux? Does all the hardware work? Do powersaving features work? FN-Keys etc etc.? How's the fan doing (under load) on Linux?
5) So how is the touchpad?
6) Internal UMTS would be awesome...

 

Normally, Samsung only put matte screens on their P series (which are some of the R series without the shiny bits) and on some netbooks.

These days if you want a matte screen then you have to look at the business notebooks. How about checking the stock at Dell Outlet? Perhaps the E6410 would fit your needs (and the speakers are said to be better than on my E6400)?

John