Samsung Series 9

The design of Samsung’s Series 9 laptop obviously used the aerofoil as a key influence.

The brushed black metal surface of the lid and wrist-rest surround is duralumin, which Samsung says is the same as used in aircraft. The whole laptop is a mere 16mm thick, giving a very polished final appearance. Sadly, the polish may not last long: the surface fingerprints easily, as does the piano black plastic surrounding the keyboard. This all-too-rapidly turns your very sleek laptop into one that looks a little cheaper than you’d like. Though not too cheap, never fear.

Rather than allow USB ports and the like to disrupt the aerodynamic design, Samsung has made two flip out sections for access to USB 3, HDMI-out and USB 2 ports, microSD card reader and headphone jack. There are two downsides to this, apart from the obvious shortage of USB ports. The thickness of the Series 9, at 16mm, is wide enough to include all the ports – only the fins of the design element prevents this and putting design above usabililty here seems a case of misplaced priorities. In addition, the main use for microSD cards is in mobile phones. When removing the card from your phone often requires the phone to be switched off, the majority of people are more likely to plug the entire phone into a laptop, using a USB cable to transfer images or data. A full-sized SD card slot would have been a far more useful addition, as it allows the transfer of shots from most consumer digital cameras.

There’s no optical drive, and Gigabit Ethernet requires the use of a provided adapter. Fortunately, there’s also Bluetooth 3.0 and wireless-n to round out the connectivity.

The comparisons to Apple’s MacBook Air are almost inevitable. Like that laptop, the Samsung is incredibly lightweight at 1.3kg, and you can cut cheese with the edges. Handy for picnics? Perhaps, as long as it stands up to the treatment.

For ultra-slim laptops, the main concerns around build are the amount of flexibility in the lid, whether the chassis and hinge are strong enough to withstand the usual wear and tear, and the screen pressing against the keyboard, which can cause long term marking. In the case of the Series 9 laptop, the lid has a great deal of flexibility – we’d like a little more rigidity to be sure that the screen won’t suffer damage from bumps and knocks. The chassis, however, is robust, and reassuringly able to withstand moderate force. The screen touches the keys with only a little pressure applied to the lid, and even in a case or sleeve, it’s likely that the oils deposited on the keys will cause marking on the matte screen over time.

That screen is a 1366 x 768-pixel, 13.3-inch LED backlit display, which offers sharp detail and moderate levels of contrast. The matte surface gives the notebook a strong business feel, and the slightly muted colours that result tend only slightly towards the blue end of the spectrum. Text is crisp and easily readable on screen, though the vertical viewing angle isn’t huge. Tilt it too far back and the colour drops off dramatically. While the screen is perfectly adequate for a business laptop, it doesn’t live up to the promise of the rest of the Series 9’s sleek design.

Intel’s Sandy Bridge range includes processors that are designed to run at low power. Dubbed ultra low voltage, or ULV, these processors limit their overall processor multiplier in order to reduce power consumption. For the Samsung Series 9 model we tested, the 900X3A-A01NZ, the inclusion of a Core i5-2357M fits the overall intent to produce a thin, light laptop with long battery life. The processor speed is lower than many Sandy Bridge CPUs at 1.4GHz, but with Turbo Boost, it can reach 2.3GHz under heavy load. The integrated graphics is the same as in many other Sandy Bridge processors, but because the processor is ULV, it’s clocked slower (350MHz, compared to the usual 650MHz) and delivers noticeably lower performance.

How low? In our testing we found that this laptop didn’t meet the performance of any of our recently tested laptops. The graphics performance was around two-thirds that of standard form factor laptops with Intel graphics, and the processor was similarly underpowered. While it’s perfectly fine tackling a single task, and is ample for basic computing tasks and productivity apps, you may see slowing when you multitask. Beyond the processor, there’s 4GB RAM, and a 128GB solid state drive, which powers the fast-on boot and wake-from-sleep in the Series 9.

We expected battery life to be on a par with the MacBook Air, but we were somewhat disappointed to see the Samsung Series 9 conk out at around 3hrs 45mins when we ran our intensive benchmark on a loop, using high performance power settings. On the other hand, normal use should see you get five or six hours readily.

The keyboard is a backlit scrabble-tile style setup, with half-size function keys and directional arrows. Out of necessity for such a slender overall design, and especially since the keyboard is recessed to protect the screen from marking, the key pitch and travel is shallow. Having said that, the bounce in the keys is decent, but typing for extended periods will feel hard on your fingers.

The trackpad is sluggish and occasionally unresponsive. It’s very slippery, with no tactile resistance to speak of. In practice, we found that meant precision was more difficult without that feedback. The cursor gives the impression of ‘drifting’ as a result, too. The entire trackpad is clickable, but it can be hard to tell where the left and right click begin.

And the price?

At $2799, it’s more expensive than even the priciest of the MacBook Air options, and while that gets you the brand-spanking new Sandy Bridge processor and double the MacBook Air’s RAM, the top-of-the-line MacBook Air has twice the SSD capacity and dedicated graphics. While the design and overall appeal are great, I’d be tempted to hold out for a Sandy Bridge MacBook Air before I made a final decision.

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