subject: Samsung Series 9 (13-inch) Laptop - A Comprehensive Review [print this page] Samsung Series 9 (13-inch) Laptop - A Comprehensive Review
The Samsung Series 9 Laptop is Samsung's attempt to rival the new sleek and slim Apple MacBook Air. With the new 13 inch and 11 inch MacBook Air attracting many buyers, Samsung is looking to enter the super portable market with the new Series 9 Laptop. This new laptop, innovated by Samsung, is thin, light, and aims to deliver the same premium experience as Apple does.
Design:
The design of the Series 9 is what makes this laptop stand out so much. The chassis of this laptop is only 0.64 inches thick, making it one of the thinnest laptops on the market today, even thinner than the MacBook Air. In comparison, the MacBook Air is 0.68 thick, .02 inches thicker than the Series 9. Samsung also went for solid build quality. The top cover of the laptop is made out of "Duralumin", a type of aluminum that's reportedly twice the strength of regular aluminum while being less heavy. However, in our testing, which this brushed aluminum was beautiful and created a solid design, it was not noticeably stronger or lighter. The curves on this laptop create one of the thinnest and lightest laptops on the market today.
Performance:
The performance of the Series 9 is on par with previous super portables and is even better than the MacBook Air in our tests. During our own personal testing, the Series 9 did better encoding and iTunes MP3 and also during our Photoshop rendering tests. We have concluded that the Intel Core i5 Processor in this computer outperforms and outpaces the Core 2 Duo in the MacBook Air. Like the Air, the Series 9 contains and SSD, or a Solid State Drive, a non-spinning type of hard drive than is faster and more energy efficient than standard hard drives. Samsung claims that this creates and 60% faster boot up time and will power on from stand by in 3 seconds. In our testing, these claims were accurate.
Other notable features include the Speaker system, which contains two 1.5 watt speakers mounted on either side of the laptop. The audio is crisp and clean, however, it can be weak at times. The graphics on this computer is the Intel HD Graphics 3000. This is an integrated graphics card so you won't see great gaming performance but it will play HD movies just fine. The display is a vibrant, HD, matte finish display. We would recommend this computer just for the display.
Battery life was excellent during our testing. Despite being an ultra-thin laptop with little room for a battery, Samsung managed to make the Series 9 squeeze out over five and a half hours on one single charge. Even with the more resource intensive Core i5 CPU, it still outlasts the MacBook Air.
Price:
The price is the only sticking point on this laptop. At just under $1,600, it is actually more expensive than the competing MacBook Air. A similar MacBook Air costs just under $200 less than the Series 9. However, with the new Sandy Bridge processors and a thinner design, the Series 9 does outperform the Air by a slight margin, even when compared at similar specs. Overall, Samsung has done a nice job with the new, highly- anticipated Series 9. With Samsung's quality and trust, it you have the money, you may want to consider shelling the extra bucks for a beautifully designed, slim laptop.
