Here is a quick view of my new Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook. The performance you see here is after the SSD and memory upgrades. Other than slightly lower battery life than I would like, this is an awesome device for this price range.
Upgrade
The first thing I did after verifying that my unit was functional is to upgrade to an SSD. I feel strongly that mechanical drives in a lap top are a waste of time and a generally a bad idea. As this Ultrabook uses a 7mm drive, I had only a few models to choose from. Below are the selections I made for the upgrade.
Pretty easy upgrade
After removing the back which is a trick in and of itself, the rest is pretty easy. Unlock the clip for the ribbon cable and remove the screws and the drive just comes right out. Don’t try and remove the drive with the flex cable still attached.
Pricing for Laptop and Upgrade
Below is what everything cost me. I got the laptop on sale ($100 off) and invested it in the memory and SSD upgrade.
| Laptop | $599 |
| Corsair SSD | $129 |
| Corsair Memory | $36 |
| Total: | $764 |
As you hopefully saw from the video, this thing is pretty fast and makes for a great portable work station. It is only an I3 but more that fast enough to most things on the road. The only real complaint I have is the battery life is a bit short. It runs between 4.5-5 hours depending on what you are doing. In all fairness, I use it the screen pretty bright which has a big impact on battery life. If you are in the market for nice, fairly low cost laptop with a touch screen, definitely look at this one in your searches as the construction is very good and the unit is extremely well built. Add to that the upgrades and you will be quite impressed.
