Samsung NP355E5x [Honest Review, OC] (AMD APU Vision E1 1.4Ghz, AMD 7310, 2GB DDR3, 500GB)

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Hello everyone!
I wanted a simple laptop for office work and Internet so I checked a few on Flipkart and saw this baby-

Samsung NP355E5X-A02IN(APU Dual Core/ 2GB/ 500GB/ DOS) Laptop - Samsung: Flipkart.com

Soon I popped to Lamington Road to get a feel of what the thing was. Luckily a Seller (Sidewalk Systems) had a Open piece so I could Check it thoroughly before spending cash.
I played it around for 15 minutes and Placed order for a final price of 19,500. Carry bag but NO Accessories. Windows 7 was installed with the required drivers. Antivirus Avast Free is installed.

I have been using it heavily for past week and here is my summary-

Looks-
Very sweet, brushed aluminium But plastic feel, Sturdy build.

Convinience-
Island keyboard (Spaced out) is Good to type. Numeric Keypad uploaded.Ports Located Conveniently. Heat vent to side.
Illuminated Power Button. Very large Touch pad
No scroll on Touch pad.
Some Keyboard flex when typing.
No separate keys for volume, WIFI, BT. used is supposed to use Fn+Combo.
Arrow keys are small and Girly

Screen-
The Given screen is the usual 15.6 inch (1366x768) widescreen with good brightness and Viewing angles.
Dual Monitors are supported
The Screen is ANTI GLARE. Its a rare design these days and its very helpful to reduce strain on eye due to reflection. A++ RATING!

Ports-
2x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 2.0 are a blessing in that budget!! There's HDMI and VGA out.
USB 3.0 speed verified using my 1TB SONY USB 3 HDD.
However you can't do triple Monitor with VGA+HDMI+ laptop.
These days most laptops are lacking Firewire, Expresscard and E-sata. This laptop is no exception.

Connectivity-
Inbuilt WIFI and BT are very good and work as expected. GIGABIT LAN is welcome addition for such a budget machine.

Sound-
Sound is best in Headphones.
Given speakers are average(No bass), Volume control does not work during full screen gaming.

Heat-
This lappy is very cool even under Heavy Load and Gaming. It idles max around 50.C with Cooling pad.
Left palmrest gets slightly warm due to HDD.
I am using zebronics 200mm fan cooling pad.

Performance-
For General Tasks the Lappy is very fast and responsive, esp when browsing through folders and opening Pictures,Videos etc.
There is No Turbo Core support so you're stuck with 1.4ghz top speed, But there's a solution. (read on)
RAM controlled is single channel so using 2 sticks won't boost anything.

The Integrated 7310 has 80 Shaders (Compareble to Nvidia 8600GT Performance) and supports DX11. Which means all games will run but you will have to tone down settings.

Gaming-
COD4, Serious Sam 2, Battlefield Bad company 2, NFS Most wanted, Left 4 Dead, Unreal - WORKING SMOOTHLY (720P).
COD MW2, COD MW3, Battlefield 3, Split Second- WORKING WITH STUTTER.

Overcloking-
This Lappy is a surprizingly great Overclocker!!
Using K10 STAT i was able to Boost the Tiny Childish Processor all the way upto 2 GHZ! Thats with stock voltage.
It may go more but I need to spend some more time. You could also underclock and Undervolt the CPU all the way down to 528mhz for better battery and Idling.

Battery-
I have not fully tested battery life but its expected around 5 hours or more. Some folks have even mentioned 8 hours of idling.
There's an option to limit battery charge to 80% which reduces Lithium wear(recommended)

My Overall Rating-
8.5 of 10!

Spec-
General
Brand Samsung
Model Name NP355E5X-A02IN
Series 355E Series
Color Silver
Part Number NP355E5X-A02IN
Model ID NP355E5X-A02IN
Processor
Processor APU Dual Core
Variant E1-1200
Chipset AMD A68M
Brand AMD
Clock Speed 1.4 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache
Memory
Expandable Memory Upto 8 GB
System Memory 2 GB DDR3
Storage
HDD Capacity 500 GB
Optical Disk Drive
Read/Write Speed 16X
Optical Drive SuperMulti DVD RW Multi Drive
Platform
Operating System Free DOS
Display
Screen Size 15.6 inch
Resolution 1366 x 768 pixel
Screen Type Anti-Reflective
Graphics
Dedicated Graphics Memory Capacity 384 MB
Graphic Processor AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
Input
Web Camera 1.3 Megapixel
Audio
Speakers Stereo Speakers ( 1.5 W x 2 )
Communication
Ethernet Gigabit Lan
Wireless LAN 802.11 bg/n 1X1, Gigabit Ethernet [10/100/1000]
Bluetooth v4.0
Power
Battery Backup 6+Hrs Battery Back-Up
Power Supply 65 W AC Adapter
Ports/Slots
USB Port 2 x USB2.0, 2x USB 3.0
Multi Card Slot Yes
Machine Dimensions
Weight 2.3 Kg
Dimension 372.5 x 243.0 x 34.1mm (14.67 x 9.57 x 1.34)
Color Silver

Thanks and please post your comments

(Pic coming tomorrow)

Pics-
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=12522&d=1382203927

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=12523&d=1382203927
Dual Monitor
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=12524&d=1382203941

I dont know how to embed pics it seems.. ha ha.

Nicely put. :thumbs:

good review mate .
congo for the purchase

Nyc review mate.

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I Played with the K10 Stat awhile and i could get a stable Overclock of 2367 MHZ on Stock voltage!!
Max temps with full Load (4 hours of COD4) are 62.c With Laptop cooler.

This mode makes the Tiny AMD E1-1200 (Stock 1.4 Ghz )Better than its stock elder brother (E2-1800 at 1.7 ghz).
I think its already in the line of entry level i3. What say?

These AMD APUs are a gem for overclocking.

Check the attatched image for details-

Hi, its a great review. I am thinking of purchasing this lappy for my father as my old lenovo netbook has become drastically slow.

How is it with regards to web browsing with 10 tabs open , youtube streaming and heavy duty software like say CS5.

Also, where did u get all the drivers for this?

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hello, I'm glad you liked the review.
yesterday, me and dad were planning for Diwali so we took full advantage of dual screen by opening 2 instances of opera (5-7 tabs on EACH screen ) that made the work very easy.

I do not use cs 5 so no comment but it should work esp, if you're upgrading from geforce 210.

I think this Laptop is best for your dad but for yourself I'd suggest getting amd quad core A6 or A8.

after Diwali I'm getting a quad core a6 with 4 GB ram, that should Help when tonemapping hdrs. keep your eyes peeled!!

drivers are provided on DVD.

nice photography btw!

Thanks

. I have finalized this lappy

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Hello everyone,
I'm Joyed to say that i was able to Overclock the inbuilt Radeon 7310 Puppy to 605 mhz from the default 500MHZ.

This has made it possible to run Demanding stuff like Crysis 2 with mid settings and low resolution (800x480)
Check the screenshots for details.

Its a feat indeed for such a budget and Tiny APU.

S

Nice laptop and very nice review...i just want to know one thing.....is this laptop can run 1920*1080p hd video properly..?

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sundar07 said:
Nice laptop and very nice review...i just want to know one thing.....is this laptop can run 1920*1080p hd video properly..?

the screen is half HD (720p ) so I couldn't test full HD playback unless I have external monitor. however with the smoothness of 720p video and 720p gaming, I'm damm sure it'll play full HD without problems. it also handles dual monitor efficiently where I can have video playing on 1 screen and internet or backups on other.

@OP , Great buy ... the price mate?, may be its mentioned in the review, i missed, post it again please. and the flipkart link seems broken

bhvm said:
the screen is half HD (720p ) so I couldn't test full HD playback unless I have external monitor. however with the smoothness of 720p video and 720p gaming, I'm damm sure it'll play full HD without problems. it also handles dual monitor efficiently where I can have video playing on 1 screen and internet or backups on other.

Also 1080p playback is dependent on the player as well.

There are several guides to running 1080p videos on old single core computers running Media player classic tweaking the settings (Haali Media splitter is the best at decoding mkv). If you want to avoid all this , simply install VLC Media player 1.0.0. Runs all 1080p smoothly on my 5 years old Core2 Duo E4600 + Geforce 210 + 4 GB Ram. Newer versions of VLC have choppiness in 1080p videos on old config.

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sam_738844 said:
@OP , Great buy ... the price mate?, may be its mentioned in the review, i missed, post it again please. and the flipkart link seems broken

Its 19,500 from Lamington (Sidewalk Systems)

srkmish said:
Also 1080p playback is dependent on the player as well.

There are several guides to running 1080p videos on old single core computers running Media player classic tweaking the settings (Haali Media splitter is the best at decoding mkv). If you want to avoid all this , simply install VLC Media player 1.0.0. Runs all 1080p smoothly on my 5 years old Core2 Duo E4600 + Geforce 210 + 4 GB Ram. Newer versions of VLC have choppiness in 1080p videos on old config.

Very nice info and tips.
I always use K-lite codec with media player classic. It was able to play 1080P on my 7 year old AMD Manchester X2 (2 ghz) on Nvidia 6150 Chipset Board (DDR1). I Guess we can be relaxed about this lappy. It will work.
Esp with the Tips above.

Else, I am composing my Acer 5560 AMD A6 review and it should be online soon.

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Its here-

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/reviews/1...ming-amd-apu-a6-amd-6520g-4gb-ddr3-500gb.html

thanks for the review..planning to get this lappy for my dad..

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I'm extremely pleased to say that, I could game a full 3 hours 10 min until the laptop hibernated. yesterday I played lan gaming (serious sam 2) with this Laptop and Acer 5560. that gaming was flawless and jerk free. infact the game performance felt no worse than much expensive quad core Acer.
other thing to rejoice is that lan gaming was truly mobile. I was able to game via a Wi-Fi ad hoc network between the laptops ,doing away with any modems or cables. there's no lag problem.

3 hours gaming also means that full 6 hours Battery life is possible on light loads.

Fantastic review mate. Thanks a lot. Really appreciate it.

PS: I have a question, what settings for OC are you using now? I mean to what extent could I go for OC? I just wanna get the max performance from this, that's all. I absolutely don't care about battery life.

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whatthefrak said:
bhvm said:

whatthefrak said:

Hey mate I just read your review about the Samsung NP355E5x netbook and I wanna thank you for that. I purchased this netbook today actually and have some queries about it, so shall I ask? I am not sure if you still visit Digit or not, so could you kindly reply me back when you get this PM?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

I'm pleased to have your message. you're free to ask me any questions. it is better if you reply to my thread at digit as everyone will be able to share the knowledge. I'll reply you there.
thanks.

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot mate. I will prefer to continue here if you don't mind, but if you want I will continue there. I have thanked you in the post, that's the least I could do, given the time you have taken to do a really nice and succinct review.
Okay my first question is, I saw that you overclocked, now my question till what level could I OC stably? I don't have a laptop cooling pad, and I don't think I will have any. Also the purpose of this device for me is downloading mainly, and some browsing. I won't play any games on this at all, nor any heavy tasks. Actually I use my desktop (i7 980) and coming from that I am seeing little bit choppiness here and there, especially when I play 720p videos from YouTube, so I would really like to have that choppiness cut to some degree if possible, and I think it might happen with OC right?

Thanks.

Hello There!
As each machine is unique regarding OC headroom, you will have to experiment a little with K10Stat to see whats your stable Limit. But as I managed to get 2GHZ without any raise in Core Voltage,that should be your guideline. Raising Voltage generates tremendous Heat and increases stability issues hence is not recommended for laptops.

For the video, Load up the Task manager to see if its actually the CPU thats causing stutter (high CPU Use) or something else.
Mostly, these problems are fixed by getting a faster broweser, like Opera or Firefox with latest plugins. try upgrading and get back to me if problem persists.

Nice one.. This will help people who are afraid to invest in apu powered laptops.

Well I hope I am not trying to intrigue anyone but I ended up selling this, I was getting really annoyed with the performance of this, even after OC'ing it up to 2.0 GHz!
Sorry to say.

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Just a Long term Update-
The system continues to work flawlessly, No hang ups or whatever. I am planning to Upgrade the Lappy with Seagate SSHD 1TB which shall instill some speed into it. It would work very well as a media server with all the space. Battery life is always 5 hours Plus, and the Lappy never heats up.

If you understand the Purpose & Price this lappy was made for, its unbeatable!

G

Nice review.

Just wanted to know How is the feel of keyboard keys ? Are they soft while in contact with fingers like in sony vaio? or plastic like feel?

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gopi_vbboy said:
Nice review.

Just wanted to know How is the feel of keyboard keys ? Are they soft while in contact with fingers like in sony vaio? or plastic like feel?

they're soft, but not too soft. good typing experience.

Its out of stock in FK :/

sushovan said:
Its out of stock in FK :/

That gotta be a great news

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Just a Small Update. Last sunday, i was keying Articles on this laptop. I can CONFIRM that the Laptop has 6 hours of battery life Running light tasks like Text Editor and Brightness on medium. Even with Multimedia the battery would be 4~5 hours. This is VERY impressive to say the least. What the AMD E-Series lacks in Performance is made up in Endurance!

I have upgraded the Laptop with SSHD, Which could be a reason of Better battery life. I guess It would spin down and the SSD part would take simple light tasks. Here is the review-
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/reviews/183201-seagate-1tb-sshd-honest-review-benchmarks.html

Where to buy this or an equally VFM performer?

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lamington? snap deal?

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using the new version of MSI afterburner,
I was able to overclock the Inbuilt HD 7310 all the way upto 805 Mhz and then 930 mhz!!!
Thats a 90% overclock people! As a result the framerate jumped from 17 FPS to a much better 28 FPS. Transformers fall of cybertron is finally playable at 800x600. I bet this is a feat no other GPU can OC upto!!

Hurrayyyyyyyy!!! :twisted:

(Dont know why i cant upload screenshots today!)

We should make a Sub-Forum for Honest reviews.

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When playing games, I noticed that the bottleneck was not the GPU but actually the small dual core CPU. Please bear in mind that this is an Netbook class CPU running at 18W.

I downloaded Brazos tweaker, and Lo and behold, I was able to OC the Puppy to 3.5 Ghz! This is crazy.

For those using K10 stat, it gives an empty overclock, The clock values seem to be applied but there is no increase in performance, But with Brazon tweaker, the Clock speeds were actuall applied and I confirmed the same using some game benhmarks. I am seeing about a 10 Fps boost in older games and 4 FPS extra in new games.

AMD e1 at 3.5 Ghz! yes people!

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Time for a long term review,
The laptop has been happily chugging along. However recently, the DVD drive has been dissapearing from the My computer as well as BIOS.
Any ideas folks?

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After about a week,
1) The news is not so good. DVD has not shown up in Windows or even BIOS for that matter, and any fixes shown on various forums are'nt working.
2) There are sometimes (rarely) a blizzard of Horizontal lines on the screen
3) Laptop is heating up quite a bit. The CPU idles around 58~61.c which is not alarming. However, what is worrisome is that HDD idles about 44~46.c and quickly climbs to 48.C. Ouch.

(p.s above values without any OC or tuning processes. I have disabled OC for many Months now as the lappy is on Lightweight duty and is infrequently used.)

Talk to me Folks!.

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More Long term Update-
1>DVD finally went Kaput. Removed it and put aside. Put a tape on opening.
2> Horizontal lines on Screen do trouble intermittently. Not that I care much due to accounting use. The Lines are not related to Flexing of Screen, CPU load or Heat. Its random.
3> CPU idling is near 53~54.C. HDD idle is near 42.C

Overall satisfaction is low. So is the price.
Points 1 & 2 show the poor build quaility of Samsung. Unfortunately these things started just as warranty Ran out.

Full BOOOO to samsung on this.

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Even More long term update-
The laptop has been moved to Net surfing and other Light duties.

1> The weird lines on screen have disappeared automatically. The Matte display is a joy to use as always. Laptop is quite stable now.
2> I've added one more 2GB ram stick, and machine is surprisingly peppy now for daily tasks. I guess its as good as any other Intel budget laptop now. The total RAM size now is 4GB, out of which, 256 MB is set to graphics. Rest everything is for system.
3> Threw away the DVD drive.
4> Gave a good TLC to laptop by dusting out the fans and cleaning circuits etc using a soft brush. I really appreciate the large access panel. These things are becoming a rarity on modern laptops.

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Long term update-
The laptop has been moved to Tertiary duty. Which means Web surfing, Youtube and lots of Backup archival.

1. Weird lines on screen have not returned.
2. This laptop seems to have the best speakers among mine entire lot. They're loud enough to properly understand you-tube tutorials.
3. No Hanging or freezing problem.
4. Enjoyed some old games. I mean whats the fun in running old games on blazing fast GPU?
I Ran a few games from 2001~2003~2005 era.
HALO 2003
COD1, COD 2
NFS MW
Painkiller (original with city on water... ohhh so beautiful)
Painkiller overdose
Painkiller redemption
PK Recurring evil
FEAR & FEAR 2
NOLF 1 & 2
Project Snow-blind (Amazing gameplay)
Conflict Global storm (Global terror)
UT 2003.

These games work very well mated to the puppy 7310 Graphics with 80 shaders. Roughly the same power as High end card from late 2005. What charm.