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Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook review

The latest Samsung Chrome OS laptop, the Series 5 500, seriously ups its game when it comes to the hardware specification, with the Atom processor of its predecessor replaced by a dual core 1.3GHz Celeron 867 and its 2GB of memory upgraded to 4GB. The hard disk is still a 16GB SSD, which means that the laptop boots almost instantly. The extra processor power means that apps reported as running slowly on previous Chomebooks, such as Angry Birds, run smoothly.

Samsung's previous Chromebooks were criticised for being underpowered and overly restrictive. A key issue was the inability to work on documents without access to Google's cloud. The newly released Chrome OS 20 and Google Drive let you work on your documents offline. They appear in the Google Drive tab of Chrome's file manager and work wherever you are. You can even play media and view images offline, too. Once you get back online, your docs are synced. You'll need a Google account to use a Chromebook, but all your settings and Chrome browser apps are imported when you log in if you already have an account. If not, creating an account is simple, fast and free.

The new Chromebook looks stunning and has excellent build quality and a slim, silver body that reminds us of Apple's smaller portables. The cut-down keyboard has flat and widely spaced Chiclet-style keys, and it’s remarkably accurate and comfortable to use. There's no numeric keypad or other additional keys on the right-hand side of the keyboard, but we're happy to do without most of these, although we missed the Page Up and Page Down buttons. Fortunately, you can access those functions by holding Alt and pressing the up and down arrow keys.

Its large touchpad is located dead centre on the wrist rest, which means you don't hit it by accident when you're typing. Plus, the touchpad’s size makes it easy to control your pointer accurately and use mouse gestures. The entire pad is a button, and you can press it anywhere, using one finger to left-click and two fingers to access right-click menus and options. Other gestures include the ability to scroll by placing two fingers anywhere on the touchpad and moving them. Because everything runs in the Chrome OS browser, it's worth noting that clicking a link opens it in a new tab, although you can open new browser windows too.

The Chromebook has two USB ports, an SD card reader and a single 3.5mm combined microphone and headphone port. You can use normal headphones in this, but if you want to connect a headset, you'll have to use one with a three-ring connector rather than two 3.5mm ones. The integrated speakers aren't very loud, but their audio quality is better than most netbooks', producing a decent mid-range and less tinniness on high frequencies than we expected. The laptop has a dual-band Wi-Fi adaptor that can connect to either 2.4GHz or 5GHz wireless networks, a Gigabit Ethernet port and a slot at the rear to take a mobile SIM.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 price and availability

Samsung has announced that its new Galaxy Note 10.1 will be available in both the UK and US today, Thursday, August 16th. That's almost five months since we first saw it back at MWC in March.

The listed prices for the device are as follows: The Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet with 16GB and Wi-Fi is £414 (inc VAT). The price for the Galaxy Note 10.1 with 16GB, Wi-Fi plus 3G is £509. That makes it fractionally more expensive than the equivalent iPad, a tough place to be in the tablet market.

It's important to note that at the time being, the tablet will only be available in the Samsung Store at Westfield Stratford, and will make it's way into into other retail stores in the coming weeks. When it goes on general sale, we'd expect competition between online retailers to squash those prices a little.

We had our first look at the Galaxy Note 10.1 back in February, and were generally impressed. Although in the intervening time its 1,280x800 display now looks a little dated next to Full HD Android devices and of course the new iPad.

Thankfully, the new Note does have features to set it apart from those devices. Samsung has introduced a new stylus called the S Pen, which can be used on a collection of pre-loaded software. Adobe Photoshop Touch, S Note and S Planner applications, the Samsung Learning Hub, and Polaris Office are some of the programs Samsung has provided for such usage.

The tablet has a 1.4GHz quad-core processor, 2GB RAM, up to 64GB of user memory, plus front and back cameras. The Galaxy note 10.1 also incorporates a new interface that will enable users to run a multi-screen feature in order to use two different applications at one time on the 10.1in screen.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is launched at a time in which the company is amid a patent trial with Californian tech juggarnaut, Apple. Both companies claim that the other has stolen intellectual property by copying technology used in their tablets. The judge overseeing the case has asked for the CEO's of Samsung and Apple to have “one last conversation” in an attempt to reach a resolution.

Samsung to invest $4 billion in Austin plants

Samsung Electronics co. will spend $4 billion renovating its plant in the U.S. to increase production of advanced chips used in smartphones and tablet computers.

Samsung's Tuesday announcement is its latest push into the lucrative logic chip business. In June, Samsung said it would spend nearly $2 billion to build a new production line in South Korea to ramp up mobile chips that work as a brain in smartphones and tablet computers.

The South Korean company said mass production in the Austin, Texas plant will start in the second half of next year. The U.S. plant also produces chips for Apple's iPhone and iPad.

Samsung is the world's largest maker of computer memory chips but is trying to reduce its exposure to the cyclical downturn of the memory chip industry.