Samsung NP535U4C-A01US Pro Reviews

We might be a bit apprehensive about recommending the AMD-based Series 5 at the full MSRP of $849.99, but the street price of just $649.99 makes this a much more attractive deal for people who want decent multimedia capabilities in an ultrathin laptop. The AMD A10-4655M APU delivers much of the same raw performance as the latest Intel Core i5 processors with very few exceptions. In fact, the Radeon HD 7620G graphics built into the A10-4655M APU provide a significantly superior gaming performance over Intel Integrated graphics ... at least with newer games. Again, the only performance bottleneck we experienced with the Series 5 compared to a typical Intel-based Ultrabook was the included 750GB hard drive. Since all Ultrabooks use a SSD or HDD with mSATA SSD for cache, it's unfair to compare these laptops without spending the extra $100 to upgrade the Series 5 with a SSD. Once upgraded, the SSD allowed this AMD-based ultrathin to compete head-to-head with the latest Ultrabooks; generally exceeding the performance of the ASUS Zenbook UX32 Ultrabook equipped with an Intel Core i5 processor. Keep in mind that the ASUS UX32 is priced at $899, so for just $749 ($649 street price plus $100 SSD upgrade) you can have a laptop with better overall performance.

The 4-pound Samsung Series 5 isn't as light and portable as some slim 14-inch laptops, but this AMD-powered version can be found at a significant discount if you shop around.