While the market is full of budget laptops you occasionally stumble upon a more expensive one. Those are the notebooks you want for resource-intensive software, multitasking and such. One good example is Samsung Notebook 9 NP900X5N-X01US, a high-end laptop with excellent review score around the Internet. If you are not sure about its usefulness yet, read this review and see!
General performance
First, Samsung Notebook 9 NP900X5N-X01US is equipped with a 256GB solid-state drive. It does a good job for keeping the system running smoothly. The drive uses M.2 interface and PCIe/NVMe technology. You can upgrade the drive if you want to. In fact, I’ve read a few users have successfully done so. You of course need to remove the laptop bottom first, but with some skills it is doable.
The processor department is not any worse. Included is Core i7-7500U, the power user chip of Intel’s. A member of the 7th generation family (Kaby Lake), the i7-7500U brings a respectable 2.7GHz clock speed with 3.5GHz turbo boost. Some might question its performance because the unit has just a dual-core setup, but nonetheless CPU Mark score is a high ~5300. That actually makes i7-7500U one of the faster notebook processors!
The laptop has 16GB DDR4 memory. It’s all installed onboard – in another words, the RAM can not be upgraded. However, you are free to upgrade the SSD if you want. And in any case, sixteen gigabytes of memory is probably far more than you would ever need.
How good for gaming?
Samsung Notebook 9 NP900X5N-X01US was made for gaming, too. There is GeForce 940MX graphics card with 2GB DDR3L memory installed in the laptop. It’s not the fastest graphics engine of 2017, but will definitely do the trick for the occasional gamer. You would be looking at over 60 frames per second on games like GTA 5 and Battlefield 4, if 720p resolution and ~medium settings were fine for you. Then, titles that are easier on the system, such as DayZ and Counter-Strike: Go would run even with more eye candy on.
Video
Ports and interfaces
Samsung Notebook 9 NP900X5N-X01US has pretty much the standard set of ports to get your devices connected. Available are one USB 2.0, two USB 3.0 and one USB Type-C. The last one supports Thunderbolt 3 and you can also charge the laptop through that!
In addition, there is one dedicated output for video connection: the full-sized HDMI. Hook up your external PC display to that if you want to use the notebook with a bigger monitor. It’s like emulating a desktop, sometimes very useful trick.
As far as I know the notebook contains no RJ-45 port for cabled Internet connection. On the other hand, there is Intel’s Wireless-AC 8260 card with the long-range 802.11ac 2×2 standard available. It’s also good for Bluetooth, feel free to connect your mobile phone and other devices with that.
DVD burner is missing in this notebook. But you can always buy an external optical drive. They connect to USB ports of which this laptop has plenty. The notebook has MicroSD card slot as well, you might want to use it for file transfers from memory cards (which, in turn, are used as storage in digital cameras etc).
Miscellaneous things
Samsung Notebook 9 NP900X5N-X01US has exactly 15 inches display with 1920×1080 resolution and no touch support. From what I can gather reading user reviews, the display boasts excellent image quality. It also has solid brightness, 350 nits in regular and 500 nits in outdoor mode. The webcam on top captures 720p video.
The notebook’s 66Whr battery is integrated, with many users reporting 8-10 hours operating time. For a 15″ laptop that is very good battery life. You can use the laptop for most things without keeping it charged all the time.
Because the metal is so thin it looks like plastic, but the laptop is actually made of magnesium alloy.
Reasons to buy this
Samsung Notebook 9 NP900X5N-X01US makes a wonderful notebook for those who really need heavyweight performance. The biggest things for you are the Core i7 processor and solid-state drive. The system suffices for daily image editing use, for example.
Looking for a stylish business laptop? This Samsung should be good. First, it looks neat, conveying a professional image to your stakeholders. In addition, it weighs only 2.73 pounds so carrying it on business travels is a breeze.
If you have a knack for gaming don’t disregard the 940MX graphics card. If you don’t need to crank up the maximum settings on every game, this GeForce graphics engine is all you need.
Reasons not to buy this
If you are only looking for a simple home laptop the Samsung is probably an overkill. It never hurts to have some performance in reserves, but for budget laptop seekers this beast is too expensive I’d say.
Verdict
Samsung Notebook 9 NP900X5N-X01US lets power users express their need to operate demanding programs without system going on its knees. The Core i7 processor together with PCI-e solid-state drive are a snappy combo indeed – both applications and the OS itself will operate and response quickly. What is more, also gaming is very possible on this rig due to GeForce graphics card under the hood. If the price doesn’t hurt you this Samsung will be close to perfect laptop for heavy use!
