7. Samsung P200-Pro: Features, Heat, Noise

Keyboard and Track Pad

Samsung manages to implement a keyboard that pretty much follows the standard layout with normal-sized keys — this is possible due to the wider housing frame of the widescreen display. Most noticeable is the Fn key at the left edge instead of the Ctrl key, as well as the absence of the left Windows key. The space bar is smaller than normal because the ^° key is added to its left. +/* and #/' have only half the width. Just like the Samsung X22-Pro T7500 Boyar, the P200-Pro also has the silver nano-coating on its keys, which Samsung promises has an anti-bacterial effect.

The keyboard resistance is soft; when typing a little bit harder, the keys are only stopped by the firm board underneath, and your fingers get tired after a while of this. Other than that, the keyboard is very stable and doesn’t bend at all. From the lower right quarter of the keyboard you can hear a slight twitter noise from pressing the keys. You can get access to the usual functions (brightness, volume, WLAN) via the Fn shortcut, and you can also choose from different energy options or access the recovery function.

The trackpad differs only slightly from the others. It works precisely and doesn’t over-respond to unintended touching while typing; it also supports horizontal and vertical scroll functions. The buttons are a little too soft; more resistance would be a little better.

Display

The Samsung notebook comes with a 12" anti-glare display with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels. The light distribution is even; only in the middle of the lower third can one see a peak in brightness. The illumination decreases towards the sides of the display, although your eye will not be able to detect these small differences. The maximum brightness of 211 cd/m² is seen at the peak mentioned earlier, while the minimum of 157 cd/m² was detected at the bottom right corner. On average, the panel has a brightness of 184 cd/m², and is bright enough to work with outside.

The black level of 0.52 is by far the darkest in the field and results in a display contrast of 354:1, but the black is still overlaid by a slight gray shimmer, and when displaying black the edges of the screen show some scattered light. All other colors are displayed matter-of-factly, but are a little bit dull.

The panel offers a comfortable viewing angle in all directions. The colors appear well from the sides, but if you look at the display from the top, they become dull very quickly; examined from the bottom, they become inverted. The maximum opening angle of more than 180° makes a perfect viewing angle possible in literally any situation. On the P200-Pro, just like the Toshiba system, you can completely turn off the back light to save energy during a work break.

Temperature

The P200-Pro is the only system that does not use a ULV processor, but because the housing is larger, it stays cooler than most of the other notebooks in spite of its much higher performance. The underbody warms up only a little bit under idling conditions. The exhaust air flow is very low — if you only use it for short while, you could even have it on your lap while wearing shorts, but if you’re planning on using it for a while, pants may be a better choice.

If the P200-Pro is put under load conditions the exhaust air will become unmistakably warmer. Also, the right side of the underbody, in particular the cooling air exit, heats up — this results in an uncomfortably warm area around the return key, but this does not affect the rest of the system or the hand rest area. Even under these conditions, you can use this laptop on your lap, if you wear jeans or similar pants.

Noise Level

At 33 dB(A) the Samsung is almost unnoticeably quiet when idle; the fan speed stays constant. Due to the performance and the thermal losses of the 2.1 GHz processor, the noise level climbs up to 37.9 dB(A) under full load, though at a maximum of 39.4 dB(A) under full load while playing a DVD, it remains quieter than many of the other thinner candidates when they are not playing a DVD. DVD playback alone results in a 36 dB(A) noise level.