Hands On With Samsung's Ultra-Thin Series 9 (2012)
18.05.12
LAS VEGAS At CES 2011, Samsung threw down the gauntlet to Apple's MacBook Airand anticipated Intel's massive marketing push for ultrabookswith the Series 9 ultraportable, a 13.3-inch laptop with a super-slim 0.6-inch profile. Now that ultrabooks are ubiquitous, Samsung has decided to remodel its featherweight flagship or halo product (which it still refers to as a high-end laptop rather than an ultrabook), replacing the Series 9 (NP900X3A-B01UB) with an even thinner unit supplied to us in pre-production formand slated to be available in both 13- and 15-inch flavors. We'll supplement this hands-on first impression of the 13-incher with full reviews with benchmarks when we receive production units.
Scheduled to ship in February, the new Series 9 2012 (model number NP900X3B) is even sleeker than its predecessor, drawing admiring comments even from PCMag editors who've seen the first crop of ultrabooks. It steps up from a commonplace 1,366 by 768 to a crisp 1,600 by 900 screen resolution, matching the Editors' Choice Asus Zenbook UX31-RSL8 . Rather than waiting for Intel's "Ivy Bridge" processors as many CES debutantes are expected to do, it sticks with the "Sandy Bridge" generation with a standard Core i5 chip in the $1,399.99 (list) base model and a speedy 1.7GHz Core i7-2637M in our prototype, which a Samsung rep tentatively pegged at $1,499.99 (list). The 4GB of RAM and 128GB solid-state drive are unchanged.
Source: PC Magazine