The Book 9 series from Samsung has always been 1 of our favorite laptop lines & 1 of the early e.x,of how a Windows based ultra book style laptop could compete with Apple MacBook Air.Recent models have had 13″ displays,high resolution touchscreen & steep prices with the flagship Ativ Book 9 Plus starting at 1399 Dollars.That model was an excellent overall e.x of the style but not especially different from what the competition offered.The new Samsung Ativ Book 9 is a bit of a twist on the formula dropping the screen size down to 12.2″ & getting the weight close to 2 pounds (0.9kg).In the hand its incredibly light but still feels sturdy & well constructed.One of the reasons its so small is that this model moves to Intel Broadwell GEN Core M CPU a processor designed for very slim laptops,tablets & hybrids that will sell at a premium price.
We hope you like super skinny laptops because you are going to be seeing a hell of a lot more of them in 2015.Samsung just took the veil off its new Book 9 Ultrabook which comes in at just 0.45″ thick & 2.09 pounds.Thats insanely compact for a 12.2″ machine & indeed its the thinnest & lightest notebook Samsung has released yet.Given Sammys history with razor thin laptops thats saying a lot.Like so many other slim machines that have come out lately the Book 9 uses 1 of Intel new Core M processors which were designed specifically to allow for skinnier designs.Its aluminum body is both thinner & lighter than the 11″ MacBook Air despite repping a squarish 12.2″ 2,560×1,600 display.A non touch display Samsung bracing for the more mouse friendly Windows 10 already even though the Book 9 will ship with 8.1.Inside is a Core M 5Y10c 1 of Intel mobile desktop hybrid chips that let laptops slim down like crazy but at the cost of a some processing power.Its a similar brain to the 1 that left us feeling cold after using similarly slick Lenovo Yoga Pro 3 & the ATIV Book 9 is no doubt similarly form over function but damned if its not a pleasure to touch & type on.
Visually the Book 9 looks similar to previous iterations.The aluminum interior & exterior are all black & the sides have a curved profile that makes the notebook seem even slimmer than its dimensions would suggest.Inside the black backlit keyboard & chrome lined touchpad are just as attractive as before & equally comfortable for typing.While it lacks a touch screen it will have a special mode that will boost its brightness from 350 nits to 700 nits making it much easier to view when outdoors.Internally the Book 9 mid range confi is built around a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 4200U processor an Intel HD Graphics 4400 graphics unit,8GB of memory & a 128GB solid state drive.While the series consists of prebuilt models other Book 9 confi use higher end components.These include Intel Core i7 processors & a 256GB solid state drive.Solid state drives offer fast data transfer performance but they generally cost more per GB compared to hard disk drives.Mainstream solid state drives do come in capacities of up to 512GB or 1TB but because the Book 9 storage options top out at 256GB its limited catalog can be an issue.If your ultrabook needs enough storage to hold a music library or other large files the Book 9 would have to be supplemented with cloud or external storage.Still the series upgrade options provide a performance ceiling that is more than capable of handling office or multimedia applications.
Final Verdict : There is not much else to say about how the new Book 9 feels other than that its smaller in all the best & worst ways.A 12.2″ display is scratching at my personal limit for screen real estate but its easy to appreciate such a thin,light & luxurious machine.And while the keyboard & touchpad feel as comfortable & tactile as they have on Samsung 13″ & 15″ models the remarkable decrease in size will take some adjustment.But thats pretty much the story with the new Book 9 the most premium features inside the most premium build for the most premium price you can find in a Windows 8.1 laptop.A cynical look at the new Book 9 could easily be seen as Samsung showing its hand too early but someone has to go 1st right ??Besides the Book 9 is more prepared to offer the MacBook experience in a Windows device than any of its rivals short of well BootCamp on a MacBook Air.The 12.2″ Book 9 will be available for pre order some time in Q1 2015 until then keep an eye on this space for our full review.
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