You'd be forgiven for thinking there was only one processor manufacturer when it comes to laptops - Intel's hold on the market is so complete. There is another option though, and it's one that's making a renewed push to claw back some market share. AMD has always made more of an impact on desktop PCs, but it's also been beavering away building Fusion processors, or APUs - chips that combine traditional processor cores with graphics capabilities. These are a natural fit for laptops, where a single processor makes for a far thinner machine than separate central processor and graphics units, and the fact that AMD bought ATI a good few years ago means that the graphics capabilities of AMD's chips should far surpass what Intel currently has on offer. Indeed, the APU inside this latest Samsung machine boasts a much improved graphics core over the first generation of APUs - namely a Radeon HD 7500G GPU. The graphics might be pushing things forward, but the A6-4455M is actually one of the lesser chips in AMD's new APU range, boasting just a pair of processor cores. When you consider that the likes of Intel's Core i3 can handle four threads at once, this automatically puts this chip at a disadvantage in raw computing terms. Sure enough, it lagged behind similarly specced machines in our tests. Spacious drive Samsung hasn't left AMD to do all the hard work though, and has built an attractive and potentially capable laptop around this core. This includes a 13.3-inch screen and a healthy
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