Samsung Series 7 Gamer

Samsung's behemoth Series 7 Gamer is one of a new line of laptops for the Korean electronics giant, clearly an answer to products from the likes of Origin, Alienware, and Asus.

Big-boned and full of high-end components, the Series 7 Gamer comes in only one, $1,899 configuration. The good news is that there's a lot of meat in this laptop: a quad-core Core i7-3610QM processor, 16GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M graphics, a 750GB hard drive, and a 1,920x1,080-pixel-resolution 17-inch display that's flat-out gorgeous.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

Yes, it's heavy (9 pounds). Yes, it's expensive (nearly $2,000). Yes, it's a little ugly. However, it's one of the best-performing laptops we've ever seen, at a price that's not that unreasonable. Samsung's entry into PC gaming laptops is a success, although it's a surprisingly bulky and flashy product for a company that's been making sleek and minimal laptops otherwise.

Price as reviewed	$1,899
Processor	2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM
Memory	16GB, 1,333MHz DDR3
Hard drive	1.5TB 7,200rpm (2x750GB)
Chipset	Intel HM77
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M
Operating system	Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Dimensions (WD)	16.1x11.2 inches
Height	1.3-2 inches
Screen size (diagonal)	17.3 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter	9 pounds / 11.1 pounds
Category	Desktop replacement

With its lid closed, the big, black, shiny presence of the Samsung Series 7 Gamer blends in with the "gamer gear" look of so many other competing products. There's nothing on the surface that screams anything unique.

 The good: The Samsung Series 7 Gamer has a fantastic screen, plenty of ports, a blazing processor and graphics, and most of the features you'd be looking for in a gaming desktop replacement.

The bad: This clunky beast isn't a looker, and it's hardly priced to be relevant to most shoppers: at slightly under $2,000, this is a specialty item.

The bottom line: The Samsung Series 7 Gamer is huge, expensive, and unattractive, but it's also one of the best gaming laptops that we've seen this year. If you don't mind its beefy 17-inch form, you won’t be disappointed.