When it comes time to buy a new notebook, many people don’t think of the name Samsung. It’s unfortunate because this model is actually quite good. It offers high performance and long battery life, it has an attractive design and its LED backlit screen is quite impressive. It also has a fingerprint reader for added security and a reasonably good graphics processor as well.
The keyboard on the X460 is finished in a silver ion powder which Samsung claims makes it anti-bacterial. It is quite comfortable to use and is a good size without feeling cramped. The screen is 14.1inches with a native resolution of 1280×800. We would have liked to see a slightly higher resolution on the screen as watching HD media will mean a certain level of interpolation will be needed and the desktop space feels a little limited at this resolution. However, in our video tests, we found that the HD video (720p and 1080p) looked perfect.
The design is quite attractive although the mixture of gloss black plastic and black brushed metal on the lid is questionable. However, this is purely down to personal preference. On the whole, the unit is quite solidly designed. The display isn’t too flexible and its hinges are quite strong and offer a good amount of resistance. The base is quite thin and the whole unit only weighs 1.9kg making it quite easy to lug around.
The unit is powered by an Intel Centrino 2 processor, which isn’t as powerful as Core 2 notebooks we have seen but in our applications test we didn’t detect any slow down. Running programs like Photoshop or video editing software, you will see a slow in speed but for most uses, it will be fine.
It has 4GB of RAM and an nVidia GeForce Go 9200M graphics chip. It won’t play the newest games on the market well but can easily handle something older. This isn’t a gaming notebook though and you wouldn’t buy it expecting it to run games well. The graphics capabilities are more an indicator of how well it will handle intensive tasks like HD video and graphics heavy programs.
We tested the battery life using a standard run down test looping a DVD. It lasted 2 hours 35 minutes. This is an excellent rating for a 6 cell battery. This test is designed to see how it will run in an extreme circumstance. It will last much longer when using the notebook with regular applications.
The X460 has HDMI and VGA out, three USB 2.0 ports and a 7in1 card reader. It has Gigabit LAN, Intel 802.11a/b/g/n 1 x 2 (MIMO) Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It also has a standard 1.3 Megapixel webcam in the display bezel. The speakers produce good sound but are a little tinny and don’t provide a great deal of volume. That being said, they are on-par with most notebook speakers.
There are more impressive Notebooks on the market but that doesn’t mean this one should be overlooked. It offers good performance for price and will handle most tasks. If you find the design appealing, you may want to look into picking one up.
The X460 has a retail price of $2759.
