 Juice box |
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| Samsung Series 7 Chronos 700Z5A-S03 | Average watts per hour | ||
| Off (60 percent) | 0.34 | ||
| Sleep (10 percent) | 0.72 | ||
| Idle (25 percent) | 11.38 | ||
| Load (5 percent) | 56.55 | ||
| Raw kWh | 52.11 | ||
| Annual energy cost | $5.91 | ||
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
The integrated battery lasted 6 hours and 31 minutes in our video playback battery drain test. That's an excellent score, especially with onboard dedicated graphics. It's only about 20 minutes less than the battery life of the fall 2011 MacBook Pro, the current leader in the field. I'd consider buying this Samsung based on the battery score alone.
A one-year standard warranty is included with the Samsung Series 7 Chronos 700Z5A-S03. Samsung's support Web site offers a clear pull-down menu for bringing up your relevant laptop model, and commonly asked questions and driver/manual downloads are easily accessible. Samsung's 1-800 service number is also prominently displayed, which isn't always the case on support pages.
The Samsung Series 7 Chronos is Samsung's take on the over-$1,000, high-end 15-inch laptop. It's expensive, but no more so than similar premium alternatives from Sony, Dell, and Apple. Excellent battery life and plenty of features make it worth the investment, especially if you care about having a top-notch keyboard and matte screen. The finicky touch pad and lack of Blu-ray, however, keep us from recommending it unconditionally.
System configurations
Samsung Series 7 700Z5A-S03
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.2GHz Intel i7-2675QM; 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6750M / 1GB (Dedicated) Intel HD 3000; 750GB Hitachi 7,200rpm
Alienware M14x
Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit); 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-2820M; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 3GB Nvidia GeForce GT 555M + 64MB (Dedicated) Intel HD 3000; 720GB Seagate 7,200rpm
Dell XPS 15z
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-2620M; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 525M / 64MB (Shared) Intel HD 3000; 750GB Seagate 7,200rpm
Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Fall 2011)
OS X 10.7.2 Lion; 2.2GHz Intel Core i7; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 512MB AMD Radeon HD 6850M / 384MB (Shared) Intel HD 3000; 500GB Toshiba 5,400rpm
Toshiba Satellite P775-S7320
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) w/ SP1; 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-2670QM; 6GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 64MB Intel HD 3000; 750GB Hitachi 5,400rpm
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