Samsung X420

The Samsung X120 ULV ultraportable was by far our favourite laptop of 2009, but not everyone wants something that’s quite so compact. So, if you don’t fancy squinting at an 11.6” screen, the X420 may be for you. It’s the next model up in Samsung’s X Series and while the specification is broadly similar to the X120, the X420 has a 14” screen and much better battery life. 

Bigger it may be, but the Samsung X420 is still relatively slim and light. The reduced power consumption of Intel’s ULV processors means that they generate less heat and that, in turn, means laptops that use them don’t need quite such elaborate cooling systems. The lack of an internal optical drive also plays a part in keeping the X420 down to 32mm thick and 1.8kg, of course, but Samsung does include an external DVD writer as part of the deal.

The X420’s design is essentially the same as the X120’s, just on a bigger scale. We liked the smoothly rounded look of that smaller laptop a lot, so we don’t have any complaints with this model.

The wide case means that there’s room for a full-size keyboard with large, well-spaced keys — the same as on the Samsung X120, in fact. There isn’t enough room for a separate numeric keypad, but the Return, Backspace and Shift keys are all full size.

Although we don’t have it to hand to compare, the X420’s trackpad looks like it’s the same size as that on the X120, although the buttons are in the usual place on the bottom edge rather than at either side. The pad works well enough, but there isn’t quite enough height to use certain multi-touch gestures — most notably a two-finger pinch.

There is room for a taller trackpad, but Samsung has used the empty space beneath it for a row of laptop status lights — not the best location, since they’re hidden from view by your hands when you’re using the keyboard.

The Samsung X420’s 14” screen has the same 1366 x 768 resolution as the 11.6” screen on the X120, so you’re not getting any extra on-screen space with this larger display diagonal. It does mean that everything looks that little bit larger though, and this is perhaps a more comfortable laptop to look at for long periods.

The screen is bright and clear, and the backlight can be cranked down to ‘off’ if you want to save power when you’re listening to music without having to fiddle with screensaver settings. Viewing angles are wide enough for three or four people to see the screen with ease, and the lid folds back far enough to make the X420 comfortable to use when it’s squashed onto your lap.

So far then, the Samsung X420 is simply a swollen X120, but it does diverge a little when it comes to the core specification. The processors in each laptop are both clocked at 1.3GHz, but the X420 has a Core 2 Duo SU7300 chip, while the X120 makes do with a Pentium SU4100. This makes little practical difference in terms of performance, however, not least since the two dual-core chips are almost identical — the SU7300 just has 1Mb of extra cache and supports hardware virtualisation (which might give it a performance edge when running virtual PCs).

There’s no measurable difference in 3D graphics performances either, which is hardly a surprise since both laptops use the same Intel GMA HD4500M chipset. But there is one major difference — battery life.

The 5900mAh battery in the Samsung X420 pushed it to three and quarter hours in BatteryEater Pro’s Classic test, and eight and a half hours in the light-use Reader test. That means you can expect to get around six hours of normal, Wi-Fi-enabled use, making it one of the longest-laptops we’ve reviewed at this price.

Both Amazon and Dabs are selling the Samsung X420 for £463 at the moment, which is the lowest price we can find from a reputable retailer.