Last month I reviewed Samsung’s sexy new Series 9 Ultraportable on our sister site gHacks, and loved it.  This highly desirable little laptop sported an 13.3 inch screen, a new SandyBridge Core i5 processor and was even lighter than the Macbook Air.

The latest toy to arrive from Samsung is their RF711 gaming laptop, and it couldn’t be further from the Series 9 in terms of profile and performance.  Indeed the Series 9 and the RF711 represent two extremes of Samsung’s laptop range, so I was looking forward to what it had to offer.

The RF711 is the model just below their top of the line 3D machine (which I may yet get to test).  It’s a brute of a laptop too with a SandyBridge quad-core, Core i7 2630, running at 2GHz, a huge 6Gb of DDR3 Ram in two slots, two 500Gb hard disks (though alas only slower 5400rpm models and no SSDs) and a 17.3 inch LED screen with a resolution of 1600 x 900.  The headline feature though is the switchable graphics.  These auto switch between the Intel integrated graphics for general usage and the powerful nVidia GeForce GT540M gaming graphics with 1GB of dedicated DDR3 memory.

With additional features and ports it’s well serviced with Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 3.0, a 1.3MP webcam, 2 USB 2.0 and, very helpfully, 2 USB 3.0 ports. a 4-in1 memory card reader and the usual extras you’d find for headphones, microphone and the like.  Finally there’s a DVD-writer / Blu-Ray Reader combo drive.

I’m not convinced of the need for a blu-ray drive though, especially given the fact that the screen doesn’t have a full-HD resolution (which is a very common, and annoying trend with laptops these days).  That 17.3 inch screen makes it a beast of a laptop, at 415.8 mm wide, 276.1 mm deep and 37.9 mm high.  It weighs in at a hefty 2.9Kg (6.39lbs) without it’s charger.

It’s a very pretty laptop I have to say.  The screen is the same type of super-bright panel in the Series 9.  You’ll only ever need to run it at full brightness in direct sunlight, where it’s perfectly usable.  It is quite reflective though so not best for offices or places with large amounts of overhead lights.

The keyboard is full-width with very generously proportioned keys and a full numeric pad.  I found a gap between the main keyboard and the numeric pad would have helped however as, being used to a normal desktop keyboard, I was often hitting the wrong keys until I got used to it.  The keyboard is good in use though with plenty of travel and plenty of space between the scrabble-tile keys to help you avoid hitting the wrong one.

The trackpad supports some multi-touch gestures but it’s not clickable, requiring traditional buttons.  While this isn’t a problem, it’s a disappointment given the lovely fully clickable multi-touch trackpad I used on the Series 9.

Above the keyboard are the stereo speakers featuring “realistic 3D audio with SRS premium sound”.  In use though I found them slightly tinny with distortion at high volume.  You’ll certainly want to play around with the equalizer settings on the audio panel but otherwise they provide a lot of volume for a laptop.

The main case is plastic, though its of a very high quality and until you get right up close is easily mistaken for metal.  Overall it is very impressive in build quality with almost no flex in the base or the screen.  This is a laptop that will be very happy being carried between LAN parties.

Of the other features on offer, you can charge external USB devices from the laptop while its sleeping, which is a nice touch and it starts and shuts down very quickly.  Samsung are very good at providing customised BIOSes for their laptops.  Sadly it’s still a BIOS in this machine, there’s no quicker UEFI option yet.

I had some reservations about the standard Samsung software installation with the Series 9 and it’s the same build on the RF711.  There’s no Internet Explorer 9 and no Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (at least not yet) and a lot of extra games which you have to pay for to play beyond a certain time.  Also there’s the obligatory sales video showing off the laptop you’ve just bought, an odd choice I think.

There is an extremely good backup and restore option though for making images of the operating system with your games and software installed, which is available on the F4 key at boot.  This also includes many useful troubleshooting tools and integrates very well with Windows 7′s startup repair options.  This is an excellent feature for a laptop to have.

In general usage the RF711 is very quick and responsive, though you can feel the 2GHz processor not quite living up to its potential when paired with so much memory.  This leaves it sometimes feeling like it’s capable of more, but not quite there yet.  For day to day use I certainly would have no complaints using this as a desktop replacement machine, though you can probably forget carrying any desktop replacement laptop to work and back every day.

Battery life is very good given the machine only comes with a 4400mAH battery.  Very light use will give you four and half hours which is excellent for a machine with such a large screen, but running full out on Call of Duty Black Ops it gave up after just 44 minutes.

On gaming I just ran Black Ops on it and it coped effortlessly with the game on medium-high settings.  When I turned everything up to maximum it complained, so clearly the GT540M graphics aren’t a substitute for a full desktop graphics card.  This result is excellent though, even factoring in the battery life, for a laptop and overall I was very impressed.

Upgrade options are excellent too with clearly marked panels on the underside for upgrading both the memory and the two installed hard disks.  This is something commonly overlooked on a laptop and it’s certainly attention to detail that’s worthy of note.

Generally you might think this isn’t such a bargain, but then you look at the price.  An equivalent Dell or Lenovo laptop will set you back around $2,500 (£2,000) and Sony’s equivalent will cost around $2,300 (£1,800).  You might be surprised to hear then that all this grunt can be found brand new online for just $1,099 (£899) which at this price makes it an absolute bargain!  There aren’t many laptops you’ll find these days with gaming graphics, Blu-Ray, Core i7 processor (it’s also available cheaper with a Core i5 or i3), 6Gb of Ram (also available slightly cheaper with less) and twin hard disks for this price, if any at all.

The RF711, like all laptops, isn’t without its faults and it’s clear to see where the costs have been kept down.  I wish it came with a larger battery but there’s very little else I can realistically criticise.  If you want a gaming laptop for LAN parties or a well-specified desktop replacement, this has all the hardware you’ll need and comes in at a price that’s very difficult to argue with.

Overall this is one of the best value desktop-replacement laptops money can buy, 8/10.