Samsung unveils Ivy Bridge powered notebook too early

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Category: LAPTOPS

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Beyond having an Ivy Bridge processor, the 17.3-inch notebook also sports Nvidia 600-series mobile graphics.

The product page has since then been pulled, but thanks to Google's cache the details are still available. As for the notebook, it's part of Samsung's 7-series, although there seems to either be a mistake in the specifications, or Samsung posted the wrong pictures as the key count for the keyboard doesn't add up. That aside, we're looking at a fully loaded notebook here with a Core i7-3610QM quad core CPU clocked at 2.3GHz with 6MB of L3 cache, 16GB of RAM (using four 4GB modules) and a pair of 1TB hard drives in RAID with the addition of Samsung's ExpressCache which adds 8GB of on-board flash memory as an SSD caching solution.

As mentioned, we're looking at a 17.3-inch screen and the good news here is that it means 1920x1080 resolution. The GPU in question is a GeForce GTX 675M with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, although it's unclear in this point in time as to where in Nvidia's new line-up this GPU will end up. Other features include a Blu-ray drive, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi with WiDi support, Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Ethernet, an HDMI port, a Samsung specific connector for a D-sub adapter, two USB 3.0 ports and one USB 2.0 port, a memory card reader, a headphone/mic combo jack, a 2Megapixel webcam and finally there's a backlit keyboard.

Samsung has also thrown in an 8-cell battery, but there's no mention of how long this will keep the notebook going away from a power socket. That said at 3.8kg, this isn't a notebook you're going to want to lug around with you for too long. For the pleasure of owning this loaded out notebook, Samsung is asking for US$1,699.99 (S$2,145) which isn't what we'd call the bargain of the day, but it doesn't sound like a terrible deal considering what you get for your money.