Samsung Notebook 7 Spin is a powerful laptop designed to stay put

Jason Cipriani

Updated 22 August 2016 at 8:28 am

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When you think of a laptop, what attributes come to mind? Portable and powerful are my top two. Now, forget at least one part of that equation while I tell you about Samsung’s Notebook 7 Spin.

For starters, it has a huge 15.6-inch touchscreen display, weighs five pounds, and is 0.78-inches thick. Clearly, it’s the exact opposite of portable. The last thing I want to carry around in my backpack is a laptop of this size and weight.

Then again, this is one powerful machine. Samsung equipped the Notebook 7 Spin with a 1TB hard drive, an additional 128GB solid state drive, 16GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce 940MX and an Intel Core i7 processor.

At $1,199, this laptop is designed to work hard and play hard. After using it for a couple of weeks, I can confirm that it does both.

Ports for days

One of the first things I noticed after unboxing the Notebook 7 Spin is the sheer number of ports along either side.

There are ten different ports: two USB 2.0, one USB 3.0, one USB Type-C, HDMI, 3.5mm headphone jack, SD Card slot, ethernet jack, charging port and, finally, a DisplayPort. Each one serves a purpose, sure, but do you really need that many ports on a laptop? Apple would disagree, of course.

So many ports

Image: jason cipriani/mashable

Image: JASON CIPRIANI/MASHABLE

Even Samsung’s own Notebook 9 offers fewer ports, a lighter body, and nearly the same specs.

Granted, both use cases are decidedly different. The aforementioned Notebook 9 is intended for students and workers who want a bigger screen, while keeping it portable.

The Notebook 7 Spin is clearly designed for someone who wants maximum performance, a killer display, and a somewhat permanent placement on a desk with roughly one gazillion things plugged into it.

There’s no slowing me down

I’m far from a power user when it comes to laptops. I spend most of my time in a web browser, text editor, and Twitter app. You won’t find me doing any hardcore gaming outside of the occasional Minecraft session.

With that said, I found the Notebook 7 Spin to be more than quick enough for my casual needs. In an honest effort to push its processor and graphics capabilities to the max, I did connect to my Xbox One and streamed some Call of Duty. Samsung’s laptop kept up, or in all likelihood stayed far ahead of what I was asking it to do.

As for battery life, you can expect to get through most of day’s worth of browsing and use on a single charge. Naturally, the harder you push the Notebook 7 Spin, the more battery it’s going to chew through.

Samsung has included fast charging capabilities which the company claims can fully charge the battery in 90 minutes. I tested this claim, and found the truth to be even better. I was able to charge the Notebook 7 Spin’s completely dead battery to 100% in 1 hour and 13 minutes.

Does it spin? Of course it spins!

Image: JASON CIPRIANI/MASHABLE

The 1,920 x 1,080 LCD is one sharp looking screen. As its namesake implies, the screen can rotate 360 degrees, meaning you fold the Notebook 7 Spin’s screen back, standing it on its edge and watch movies or YouTube videos without the need to make room for the bottom housing of the laptop.

During my testing, I watched a few shows on Netflix and some YouTube videos and I have zero complaints about the display quality. It’s clear, crisp, and bright.

As with other convertible Windows 10 devices, you’re prompted to enable tablet mode when the screen is rotated past a certain point. I found the Notebook 7 Spin’s touchscreen to be responsive, with taps and swipes registering as one would expect. Slower, less capable computers often have a slight delay when interacting with the screen via touch.

I’m yet to encounter a single touchscreen laptop, be it from HP or Samsung, with a strong enough hinge to hold the screen in place when you touch it, though.

When using a laptop in its traditional orientation, that is with your hands on the keyboard typing away, reach up and tap on the screen. It moves! The screen physically moves. This wobble annoys me to no end and is a fault I repeatedly gripe about with touchscreen laptops. Unfortunately, the Notebook 7 Spin is no exception here.

Big enough to include a number pad

Image: JASON CIPRIANI/MASHABLE

The Notebook 7 Spin includes a full size keyboard plus a number pad. Personally, I struggled adapting to the keyboard, frequently hitting errant keys. Maybe it’s due to the fact I normally type on the iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard cover or Apple’s Magic Keyboard, both of which are very different in terms of key travel and angle when compared to the Spin’s keyboard.

However, with more time using and hacking away at the keys I’m sure I could get used to it.

Image: JASON CIPRIANI/MASHABLE

As for the trackpad, it’s smooth and without issue. I disabled a couple of the standard features, such as pressing on the bottom-right corner for a right-click, but that boils down to personal preference.

Frequent travelers need not apply

Image: JASON CIPRIANI/MASHABLE

If you’re the type or person who is constantly on the go, toting a laptop in a bag with you along the way, there are just as capable and smaller solutions available for you. Look at Samsung’s own Notebook 9 as just one of many examples.

For someone who plans on primarily using the Notebook 7 Spin in one place, and wants a computer that can double as a hybrid entertainment center and computer in one, then the Notebook 7 Spin is worth checking out.