The ultra-thin Samsung Series 9 has been officially unveiled earlier this evening here in the Philippines. I was able to get my hands on a demo unit of this latest flagship notebook from Samsung for a brief time while waiting for the event to start and here are the things I found out.
It’s really, really thin and very light for a 13-inch notebook with very decent specs. The light weight can be attributed with the Duralumin material used. Very light yet more durable than aluminum. It’s the black MacBook Air that runs on Windows and a Core i5! It also has a sexy, curved design which makes it appealing to the eyes anyway you hold it. However, despite the brushed aluminum finish on its lid, it’s not really immune to fingerprints.
I like how they hid the ports on both sides of the Samsung Series 9. You can access the ports by pulling it down and because of its curved edge, you can still use it while lying flat on the surface. It’s not those latch-type port covers like we see in some laptops which can get damaged over time.
Nothing special with the island-style keyboard except that it’s ambient-lit so it lights up when it detects dark surrounding. The big single touchpad reminds me of this fruity laptop that we all know. No mouse jumping and the response is smooth from this Series 9. The area around the keyboard is prone to fingerprints as well.
Samsung also touted its SuperBright screen which is first used on this laptop. At first, I thought there’s nothing different compared to other notebook’s LED display when I was just fiddling with the desktop and system properties. But when I viewed some videos with lots of bright colors, the colors do pop out. It’s like viewing on a high-def LED TV.
Although it uses the next generation Core i5 2537M processor, I wish Samsung could also squeeze in a discrete graphics in it although the integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 is supposed to be a huge improvement from the previous version and will work as a low-end mobile GPU.
Samsung gave us something to be happy with the Samsung Series 9 despite having only integrated graphics in the form of the 128GB SSD, USB 3.0 port, high-speed Bluetooth 3.0 and a HD webcam. With the solid state drive, the Series 9 notebook can power back up in 3 seconds from its special powerless sleep mode. Very MacBook Air like! I couldn’t test the battery life but Samsung claims it can do 7 hours on its 6-cell Lithium-Polymer battery. I’ll probably give it around 5 hours which is still good for a Core i5 laptop.
The Samsung Series 9 notebook is already available in Samsung stores and making its way to resellers nationwide as we speak. It retails for Php79,999 which is expensive for a laptop but with these specs, features and design, it’s worth every cent for a person who’s always working on the go. What’s also important is that it comes with a 3-year warranty!
The Samsung Series 9 event was highlighted by the way with a fashion show. Fashion designers Rajo Laurel, Randy Ortiz and Rhett Eala came up with a line inspired by the sleek, sexy, thin and light Samsung Series 9 notebook. I posted event photos on our Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/officialPTB) if you’re interested with their designs.
Samsung 9 Series Specs:
- 2nd Generation Intel Core i5 Processor 2537M (1.40 GHz, 3MB; turbo up to 2.3 GHz)
- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) / Windows® 7 Professional (64 bit)
- 4GB DDR3 (up to 8GB)
- 128GB Solid State Drive (up to 256)
- 13.3-inch HD LED-backlit SuperBright Plus display (400 nit)
- Resolution: 1366×768
- Intel HD GT2 Integrated Graphics
- 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, WiMax
- USB 3.0
- 3 watt (1.5W x 2) stereo speakers and 1.5 watt sub-woofer
- 1.3megapixel HD Webcam
- Li-Po battery (up to 6.5 hours)
- 2.89 lbs.
- Php79,999
