14 DAY TRIAL // Announced at the end of June, Samsung's Series 3 mainstream notebooks have now started to become available in the US, where the 12-inch model can be purchased from Buy.com with a starting price of $735.
The Samsung Series 3 line includes mobile computers with displays ranging from 11.6 all the way up to 15.6 inches in size, but, despite the common naming scheme, these feature different specifications depending on the notebook's size.
The smaller models are specially designed in order to sport a thin and light design, but lack optical drives and removable batteries, while larger models get these features, but loose some of their portability.
Moving back to the 12-inch model that was recently listed online, this is powered by an Intel Core i5-2410M processor which has a base clock of 2.3GHz and a maximum Turbo Boost technology of 2.9GHz.
The fast Intel processor is seconded by 4GB of DDR3 system memory, a 500GB hard drive with a spindle speed of 5400RPM and graphics is provided by the Intel HD 3000 GPU that is built-in the notebook's Sandy Bridge CPU.
All these are tucked away under a chiclet style keyboard, while the 12-inch LED backlit display supports a resolution of 1366x768 pixels (Samsung's site states this measures 12.5-inch in diagonal, while the online listings mention 12.1-inches).
As far as connectivity options are concerned, the Samsung Series 3 model that was listed online includes the usual 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, and Gigabit Ethernet options as well as VGA and HDMI video outputs.
USB 3.0 support seems to be the only thing lacking, so users will have to settle with the two USB 2.0 ports included. The Samsung Series 5 notebooks comes with a non-removable 6-cell battery and weighs about 3.09 pounds.
As noted earlier, the notebook is available for purchase from Buy.com for $734.99, with free shipping. (via Liliputing)