Hasta La Gadget!

Welcome to The After Math, where we attempt to summarize this week’s tech news through numbers, decimal places and percentages.

This week’s been arguably less hectic than the last, but both Samsung and Facebook decided to up the tempo on Thursday. The Korean hardware maker announced a stack of new hardware, from tablets to cameras to desktop PCs, while Facebook’s Instagram went toe to toe with Twitter’s Vine, announcing a new video-sharing feature. On the very same day, Tesla had something to show, deftly switching batteries on its Model S faster than you’d be able to fill a gas tank. There were, however, six other days to the week, and we’ve pored over all of them for this week’s numeros.

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Transportation, Samsung

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Lenovo has announced a slew of touch-enabled devices, among them being five new IdeaPad notebooks: the S400 Touch, S500 Touch, S210 Touch, U330 Touch and U430 Touch. All the PCs run Windows 8 and feature touchscreen displays, allowing users to take advantage of the OS’s touch-centric design. We’ve got a run down of all the

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Samsung has just announced its ATIV Q tablet, a very interesting 13.3″ convertible tablet that can run both Windows 8 and Android (4.2.2) and allow seamless context switching file transfer from one OS to the other, thus giving you the […]

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Samsung’s long since decided to rebrand its Series 9 series as ATIV Book 9, but it’s only now that it’s got some new Ultrabooks to show off. While the ATIV Book 7 unfortunately jumped the Haswell gun, the higher-end ATIV Book 9 Plus is happy to benefit from those impressive battery savings we’ve already seen from Intel’s next-generation chips. In fact, Samsung is promising 12 hours of usage — and that’s despite the Plus model arriving with an eye-watering 13.3-inch, 3,200 x 1,800 qHD+ display. In addition, there’s up to 256GB SSD storage and 8GB of RAM, two USB 3.0 ports and mini-VGA and micro-HDMI sockets. The screen is protected by a layer of Gorilla Glass and, alongside adding touch functionality since the previous Series 9 Ultrabook, Samsung has crafted a new hinge for its latest flagship, offering two stop-points. Moving the screen through to a standard 105- to 110-degree pitch, the screen strongly resists. Better still, there’s really not that much give as we tapped our way through Windows 8. However, give it more of a sustained push, and the screen bends down to a flat 180-degree position, making it easier to show the screen around a table.

It’s joined by the humbler Book 9 Lite, with a lower (though unspecified) price. Powered by an unnamed 1.4GHz quad-core processor and housing up to a 256GB SSD drive, it promises a cold-boot time of eight seconds, or two seconds from sleep. It’s the same size screen (13.3 inches) as the Plus model, but resolution drops down to 1,366 x 768 — a noticeable difference when you observe the two side by side. Turn them off, however, and the interiors of the two machines are so similar that even the most hardened Samsung exec might be fooled (excepting for that Intel sticker on the high-end model). On the outside, though, the systems remain noticeably different. The Book 9 Plus gets a moody, matte finish to its aluminum unibody, while the Book 9 Lite has a glossy plastic surface. The cheaper Lite model reminds us of the finish on Samsung’s Galaxy smartphone series, but it’d be great to see Samsung bring this other, cooler finish to more products. Both Ultrabooks are expected to land in the US (and elsewhere) in time for back-to-school season. Check out the gallery below, and follow past the break for more impressions.

Filed under: Laptops, Samsung

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At its Premiere event in London today, Samsung unveiled the ATIV Q, a hybrid that can run both Android and Windows 8. On-stage, Executive Vice President DJ Lee said the “versatile and adaptable” device can switch between four positions: tablet, typing, stand and writing. The Q sports a 13.3-inch display with a 3,200 x 1,800 (qHD+) resolution (that works out to 275 ppi). Samsung says the panel is optimized for use in bright sunlight, and viewing angles are wide, at 178 degrees. There’s also an S Pen on board to take advantage of that spacious screen, which Galaxy Note fans will certainly appreciate.

Apart from the high-res display, the standout feature is the device’s dual-OS support. To switch between Android Jelly Bean and Windows, you simply have to press the Start button (no reboot required), and you can pin Android apps to the Windows screen and vice versa. Under the hood is a Core i5 Haswell processor which Samsung rates for up to nine hours of battery life. All this comes in a magnesium body that’s plenty portable: it weighs just 1.29kg (2.84 pounds) and measures just 13.9mm (0.5 inch). No pricing info was announced at the event in London, but we know the ATIV Q will launch in the UK later this year. For now, check out our hands-on.

Filed under: Laptops, Samsung

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