Samsung is one of the leading manufacturers when it comes to any electronic products, including desktop computer components and laptops. Their latest laptop models can compare with the best of the best, and a lot of times, their price is also lower thanks to the company’s policy of using their own components (hard drives, displays, RAM modules, etc.) in their notebooks.
The Series 9 Ultrabook is easily the most impressive Ultrabook on the market – it combines great features and high performance with a very sleek design that doesn’t remind everyone of the MacBook Air (as is the case with most other manufacturers and their Ultrabooks) – it’s almost in a class of its own. Now it seems that the time has come for the popular notebook to get an upgrade, with Samsung demonstrating the second generation of the Series 9 Ultrabook at CES 2012 – and it’s really something.
The new Series 9 comes in three sizes – 13.3 inches, 14 inches and the elusive 15 inch version, all of which are simply awesome. The design has been altered, with Samsung going for a unibody construction, which let them reduce the thickness and weight of the laptops even further, but took away a bit of the uniqueness of the first model. Still, the new Series 9 do not remind of the MacBook Air – there are plenty of unique points, and that is quite surprising, as most of the times Unibody=Air, so Samsung should really be applauded for doing the impossible here.
image source: Dan_h
The 13 inch version is only 12.9mm thin at its thickest point with the lid closed, which is really impressive, while the 14 inch version is just a bit thicker at 14.9mm – still thinner than anything else on the market. The weight of the 13 inch version is only 2.5 pounds, which is also quite an achievement. The display bezel is very narrow, which allows for the displays to fit inside a smaller chassis, making these Ultrabooks very portable while not giving up screen real estate. All models have a 1600×900 pixels display – Samsung has finally decided that 1366×768 resolution units weren’t worth it, which is a good choice.
The hardware features and performance of the refreshed Series 9 Ultrabooks remain at the same high level as its predecessors, with Core i5 and i7 processors and 4 or 8 GB of DDR3 RAM providing the performance, a 128 or 256 GB mSata SSD providing the storage space and Intel’s own HD Graphics providing the video and 3D capabilities, which are pretty good on the Sandy Bridge CPU’s. There’s also word that the line could get Ivy Bridge processors by the time they’re released, but it hasn’t been confirmed.
The ports selection has changed a bit, with the new Series 9 having 2 USB ports (USB2.0/USB3.0) and an audio jack plus of course the usual Wifi and Bluetooth, as well as Intel’s WiDi adapter (instead of HDMI, apparently). That could be a problem for some users, but most people will like the extra USB port.
The price will start at around $1500 – that’s what you pay for the best Ultrabooks on the market, and frankly, they’re definitely worth it considering how good the first Series 9 Ultrabooks are.
1 Comment
this laptop has a mini-hdmi port.