Samsung's Series 9 13.3" Ultrabook For 2012: Thinner And Lighter

[acku]

Last generation's Samsung Series 9 was a great example of Intel's Ultrabook initiative. The revamped Series 9, new for 2012, is even better. Forget about Apple's MacBook Air. Samsung's latest effort stands on its own merits as a great notebook.

Samsung's Series 9 13.3" Ultrabook For 2012: Thinner And Lighter : Read more

 

[mayankleoboy1]

Is the QS balance between quality/speed determined by any OEM customised driver ?

Because this samsung notebook takes more time than other i7's in 'quality' setting, but lesser time in 'performance' settings.

 

[mayankleoboy1]

in the screen quality/brightness benchmark, why u no compare with the new rMBP ?

 

[esrever]

Don't samsung ultra books overheat a lot?

 

[joytech22]

[citation][nom]esrever[/nom]Don't samsung ultra books overheat a lot?[/citation]
What..? No. That's the dell's and I'm not even joking.

I was watching a demo and their Dell XPS ultrabooks with GT640's in them continuously overheated during the demos and lowered the FPS catastrophically low.

They have these ultrabooks at my local Jb HiFi (Well.. the i5 version at least) and it was cool to the touch and very solid (I've noticed even Acer's ultrabooks don't feel flimsy as sh*t like their notebooks).

 

[Yargnit]

Looks awesome, but unfortunately the 'ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A' simply trounces it on a price/performance ratio. If there was a base model out for under $1200, preferably at $1000 like the Asus it'd be a very solid option. But the Asus for $1000 is just such a better value that it kind of make this look like a weak effort, which is too bad because it actually looks like a solid system.

 

[ojas]

Yo Tom's, why you no review Lenovo's Carbon X?

 

[ojas]

BTW i wish you'd have included a desktop processor's QuickSync benchmark for reference...

 

[ojas]

Hmmm...interesting, one of the most positive review's i've seen of an ultrabook-class notebook...i just have two questions:

1)Is the touchpad annoying? Compared to Apple's touchpads, for example.
2)Can you keep it in your lap, sitting or lying down slightly (you know, with the notebook against your knees)? Or does it get too warm?

These two are deal breakers for me, personally. So is the keyboard, but you've clearly stated what's wrong with that (touchpad too, but just wanted to know if it's a noticeable annoyance).

 

[veroxious]

BTW why was the Asus UX31A not used in the comparative benchmarks? We have the same form factor, Ivy Bridge i7 processor, 256GB SSD BUT the Asus sports a Full HD IPS panel that really impressed me for less money.

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]mayankleoboy1[/nom]in the screen quality/brightness benchmark, why u no compare with the new rMBP ?[/citation]
I haven't gone out to buy one yet

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]ojas[/nom]Yo Tom's, why you no review Lenovo's Carbon X?[/citation]
I have it here in the lab, and it'll be the next Ultrabook we look at (I have something special planned for it ;-)

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]ojas[/nom]Hmmm...interesting, one of the most positive review's i've seen of an ultrabook-class notebook...i just have two questions:1)Is the touchpad annoying? Compared to Apple's touchpads, for example.2)Can you keep it in your lap, sitting or lying down slightly (you know, with the notebook against your knees)? Or does it get too warm?These two are deal breakers for me, personally. So is the keyboard, but you've clearly stated what's wrong with that (touchpad too, but just wanted to know if it's a noticeable annoyance).[/citation]
I can't speak to the Samsung, but on the X1, the touchpad (which everyone seems to rave about) is sooo not good compared to the MBA's. It does not get too warm, though. Again, this is specific to the X1.

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]veroxious[/nom]BTW why was the Asus UX31A not used in the comparative benchmarks? We have the same form factor, Ivy Bridge i7 processor, 256GB SSD BUT the Asus sports a Full HD IPS panel that really impressed me for less money.[/citation]
I haven't gone out to buy one of those, either

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]techcurious[/nom]Andrew, on the third page in the PCMARK 7 table of scores, you say that the Samsung wins every sub category. And I believe bold font is normally used to highlight the best score in each test. However, the numbers themselves tell a different tale.Video Playback and Transcoding-Downscaling: 26.61853 MB/s vs 43.79059 MB/s (Lenovo Wins)andImage Manipulation: 9.51 Mpx/s vs 9.56 Mpx/s (Lenovo Wins again).[/citation]
Usually, that's the case. I think Andrew highlighted all one column to indicate it's the Samsung. I just went back and made sure that the *winning* numbers are in bold!

 

[techcurious]

It was about 3 months ago when I had the pleasure of acquiring this same ultrabook with these same exact specs for a client. I have to admit I was surprised and disappointed to find that Samsung didn't use their own SSD in it. But I was blown away by the 12 second boot up time (all the way to desktop)! And this was after I loaded it with antivirus and MS Office and many other programs! (On my desktop, my SSD has to wait for about 15 seconds of BIOS POST). Oddly enough though, within the first 24 hours of use while I was still setting it up for my client and removing the recovery partition, the SSD simply failed. So, I went back to the store and swapped it out for another (the ultrabook, not the SSD). New one has been working flawlessly since.
I did not find the "right click" confusing at all. It's not that hard to keep in mind that to activate the right click I need to move to the lower end of the touchpad. All you need to do is dedicate 2 minutes to test, practice and familiarize yourself with the boundaries of the touchpad. I love Macbook touchpads, and this is the closest any Windows PC touchpad has ever come as far as I have tried. I loved it.
@ ojas.. No, it never got too warm while I used it for 48 hours. However, I did not use it to encode videos nor did I do something silly like play "Battlefield 3" on it. So I can't say it will remain cool while doing that. But during regular use (including many software installations), it stayed cool!
This is my favorite Ultrabook and my only recommendation to clients and friends.
Oh, and it really does feel incredibly light and it has a very high quality premium feel overall, justifying the price tag.

 

[Guest]

this is purely out of curiosity, appreciate it if someone can fill me in. why would samsung be using a lite-on ssd instead of one of their own? especially considering samsung ssds are not too shabby at all.

 

[Guest]

Where's my 16:10 display? Why is this so fucking impossible when MBP's have it?

 

[mayankleoboy1]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]I haven't gone out to buy one yet[/citation]

i thought Apple would have sent a review sample to you. A positive review from Toms is a big thing...

 

[jaquith]

Well a few things, first the Samsung has a horrible keyboard, the SSD (mSATA) is slow, everything requires a dongle, WiFi dropouts, and mixed bag performance so you have to question why some of these common issues are lacking in this article. I've tried one. Comparisons - You're comparing performance to an iPad?! What about the MacBook Air/Pro (MBA/MBP)?? Why not compare NB's with the same CPU and similar specs - none of this made any sense to me. Examples: Geekbench and SSD

My office I use an HP EliteBook Mobile Workstation and some of us use others including ASUS, but for home, travel or even work it's still tough to ignore the MBA or MBP which is one of Samsung's major competitors in this category. None of these notebooks are really any good for gaming.

Now if all you're doing is smurfing the web, checking your email, Facebook, documents, and a slew of other typical tasks then any of the notebooks or tablets are 'good enough.'

 

[Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer]

[citation][nom]nxdnk[/nom]Where's my 16:10 display? Why is this so fucking impossible when MBP's have it?[/citation]
Normally, I'd agree with you...but my two exceptions are 1600x900 (why wouldn't you take that over 1440x900) and 1920x1080 as a replacement for 1680x1050 (though it's bull$#!+ that manufacturers are using it in place of 1920x1200).

 

[dalethepcman]

wow samsung is using the apple tax model to price their systems.. @ $1700 you could buy a macbook air and an asus ultrabook.

 

[ojas]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]I have it here in the lab, and it'll be the next Ultrabook we look at (I have something special planned for it ;-)[/citation]
Yesssssss!

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]I can't speak to the Samsung, but on the X1, the touchpad (which everyone seems to rave about) is sooo not good compared to the MBA's. It does not get too warm, though. Again, this is specific to the X1.[/citation]
Surprising, especially after the rave reviews (read a few)...but i wanted to read tom's review to be sure
Shame really, tbh...

[citation][nom]techcurious[/nom]@ ojas.. No, it never got too warm while I used it for 48 hours. However, I did not use it to encode videos nor did I do something silly like play "Battlefield 3" on it. So I can't say it will remain cool while doing that. But during regular use (including many software installations), it stayed cool!This is my favorite Ultrabook and my only recommendation to clients and friends.Oh, and it really does feel incredibly light and it has a very high quality premium feel overall, justifying the price tag.[/citation]
Thanks for filling me in. Yeah i meant for normal non-gaming tasks...i'm not going to buy an ultrabook to game, i have my desktop for that
Heat and the keyboard and touchpad have been the biggest complaints of all the ultrabooks i've reviewed...

 

[Wisecracker]

A fool and $1,700.00 are soon parted ...

 

[SuperVeloce]

[citation][nom]Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer[/nom]Normally, I'd agree with you...but my two exceptions are 1600x900 (why wouldn't you take that over 1440x900) and 1920x1080 as a replacement for 1680x1050 (though it's bull$#!+ that manufacturers are using it in place of 1920x1200).[/citation]
exactly because of your closing statement. 1920x1080 is more of a replacement for 1920x1200 rather than 1680x1050