The Samsung Series 9 laptop is Samsung’s attempt to compete with Apple’s sleek new 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, infused with Samsung innovation, is thin, light and aims to provide the same premium experience that Apple offers.
Design:
The Series 9 design 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. By comparison, the MacBook Air is 0.68 inches thick, 0.02 inches thicker than the Series 9. Samsung also opted for solid build quality. The top cover of the laptop is made from “Duralumin,” a type of aluminum that is reportedly twice as strong as regular aluminum and less heavy. However, in our tests, this brushed aluminum was beautiful and created a solid design, not noticeably stronger or lighter. The curves of this laptop create one of the thinnest and lightest laptops on the market today.
Performance:
The Series 9’s performance is on par with previous superportables and even better than the MacBook Air in our tests. During our own personal tests, the Series 9 had better encoding and iTunes MP3s and also during our rendering tests in Photoshop. We have concluded that the Intel Core i5 processor in this computer outperforms the Core 2 Duo in the MacBook Air. Like the Air, the Series 9 contains an SSD, or solid-state drive, a type of non-spinning hard drive that is faster and more power efficient than standard hard drives. Samsung claims this creates a 60% faster boot time and will power up from standby in 3 seconds. In our tests, these claims were accurate.
Other notable features include the speaker system, which contains two 1.5-watt speakers mounted on each side of the laptop. Audio is crisp and clean, however it can be weak at times. The graphics on this computer are Intel HD Graphics 3000. This is an integrated graphics card, so you won’t see great gaming performance, but it will play HD movies smoothly. The display is a vibrant, HD, matte finish display. We would recommend this computer for the screen alone.
Battery life was excellent during our tests. Despite being an ultra-thin laptop with little room for a battery, Samsung managed to get the Series 9 to squeeze out more than five and a half hours on a single charge. Even with the more resource-hungry Core i5 CPU, it still outlasts the MacBook Air.
Price:
The price is the only sticking point for this laptop. At just under $1,600, it’s actually more expensive than the competition’s MacBook Air. A similar MacBook Air costs just under $200 less than the Series 9. However, with new Sandy Bridge processors and a slimmer design, the Series 9 beats the Air by a slight margin, even when compared to similar specs. . Overall, Samsung has done a good job with the highly anticipated new Series 9. With Samsung’s quality and trust, if you have the money, you might want to consider spending the extra bucks on a beautifully designed, slim laptop.