If you’ve been following our reviews of Windows 8 laptops, you know we haven’t been too kind to the slider form factor. It’s not like we set out to pan these machines, but time and again we’ve found that the propped-up display ruins the typing experience. Keep that in mind as we begin our review of the Slidebook S20, MSI’s flagship Win 8 device, priced at $1,200 in the US. It’s a bold move from a company whose bread and butter is not ultraportables, but gaming systems. In fact, the 11.6-inch S20 is the outfit’s only high-end Windows 8 Ultrabook. So the company must have quite a bit of confidence in that form factor, then, if it didn’t bother with dockable tablets or some other kind of convertible design. Could that mean the S20 has something all the others don’t?
Samsung has just launched their latest “toy” for big boys, the Series 9 Premium Ultrabook, and while it might not seem all that new to you, that is because this particular model comes with Full HD resolution capability, which is a surefire way of gaining the interest of anyone who is shopping for a spanking new Ultrabook now. The latest model in the Series 9 range, will of course, bask in the glory of an LED-backlit 1920×1080 full HD display, one that is touted to offer up to 40% additional screen content compared to the standard 1600×900 HD+ display.
Other than that, you will find its SuperBright technology to deliver up to 50% more brightness compared to regular laptop displays for more vivid colors. The Samsung Series 9 Premium Ultrabook is said to be the ideal travel companion, and since it has Samsung’s PowerPlus charging technology that works in tandem with an advanced Lithium-Polyester battery, it has a lifespan of up to 1,500 cycles, which means the product is capable of lasting up to three times more compared to your average notebook battery. An Intel Core i7 processor runs proceedings from within, aided by a 256GB solid state drive and Windows 8 Pro in tow. [Press Release]
Lenovo’s still being vague about a release date for its ThinkPad Helix, but it’s at least narrowed down the retail window somewhat. Though the 11.6-inch, 1080p Ultrabook had already been officially delayed and marked for a Spring release, the company is now confirming via its Twitter account that consumers can look for it to launch sometime in April. That’s specifically for the US market, as no other word on overseas availability has been announced. When it does finally go on sale stateside, look for the reversible Windows 8 device to carry a $1,499 price tag and potential AT&T-friendly LTE.
With the Samsung Series 5 UltraTouch you’ve got one of the companies most solid deliveries of an Ultrabook-level computer upgraded with Windows 8 and a full 10-point touch display. With this notebook you’re going to be working with 3rd Gen Intel Core i5 processor power under the hood, a lovely 13.3 LED HD screen, and a market cost well under a thousand bucks. Sound like a value proposition you’ll want to add to your already burgeoning Samsung device collection?
Hardware
This notebook, also known as model NP540U3C-A01US, is not the thinnest beast on the block, nor is it the lightest. But it’s no monster, either. Instead what you’re getting is a 12.4 x 8.6 x 0.6-inch notebook made from a mix of aluminum and plastic parts, certainly sturdy enough – and aesthetically pleasing enough on the outside – to be your daily driver in a public place. As an Ultrabook such as this will likely be used by you for doing work first and foremost, it’s important to take a peek at the keyboard right out of the box.
What you’ve got here is a top-class keyboard that’s not unlike what we’ve seen from the generation of Samsung notebooks that’ve come out over the past year. If you’re used to working with a MacBook, not a PC, you’ll still feel rather at home with this layout and pressure sensitivity. The keyboard features a real no-nonsense set of keys as well, so no worries pecking away at the bits you’re not wanting to hit.
The display is certainly nice looking, and if you’re not used to the ultra-high-definition eye-shattering screens that are also out there on the market today, you’ll have a great time with the 1366 x 768 resolution here with LED HD technology and 10-finger touch. That means that if you’ve got an app that needs every single one of your fingers at once, you’ll be able to do it here. Covering this display you’ve got Corning Gorilla Glass – resistant against scratches and damage like a pro. This display is also 300 nits bright, working with SuperBright Technology so you know you’re backed up by a brand that means business.
Inside you’ll be working with 8GB of system memory, a hard drive of 128GB (SSD), and a find little web camera peeking up at you above the screen. You’ve also got Intel HD Graphics 4000, perfectly generous for your everyday movie watching, and you’ll be connecting to the web either wirelessly with Intel WiDi and Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 802.11 a/b/g/n or wired with this machine’s built-in ethernet port.
Next to your ethernet port (which pops open or closes down for a more compact experience, mind you), you’ll see one USB 3.0 port, HDMI out, and your very own headphone/microphone jack. Lucky you! On the right you’ve got another two USB 2.0 ports and a multi-card reader (SD/SDHC/SDXC). Altogether you’ve got a really solid package, certainly one you can bring home to mother.
Hands-on
This device is only surprisingly heavy because I’m so very used to handling computers now that are lighter than they have any business being. When you’re working with Ultrabooks and MacBook Airs and the like every single day of the week, having one like this UltraTouch will seem like a slight change. But as it is with most notebooks and such, the weight and the shape of this machine feels natural rather quickly.
The location of each of the ports feels quite natural, and though it does still feel a bit odd to be pulling open the ethernet port on the left hand side whenever it’s needed, it’s not been a burdon in any way. Toss this and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and the GALAXY S 4 in your pockets and backpack and you’re set!
Software
Samsung is particularly proud of its collection of apps made specifically for Windows 8, including such winners as Quick Starter. With Quick Starter, you’re able to grab your own toolbar and start button (otherwise willfully yanked from your life by Windows 8) so you’ll have a more familiar user interface if you’ve never used Windows 8 before. You’ll also have all kinds of awesome AllShare Play action going on – particularly awesome if you’re a Samsung Galaxy S III or GALAXY S 4 or Galaxy Note user.
System – SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. 530U3C/530U4C/532U3C
Manufacturer
Samsung Electronics
Product Type
Notebook
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 8 (64-bit)
Motherboard
SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. NP540U3C-A01UB
Processor
Intel Core i5-3317U
Processor ID
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9
Processor Frequency
1.70 GHz
Processors
1
Threads
4
Cores
2
L1 Instruction Cache
32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache
32.0 KB
L2 Cache
256 KB
L3 Cache
3.00 MB
Memory
3.71 GB DDR3 SDRAM 799MHz
FSB
99.8 MHz
BIOS
Phoenix Technologies Ltd. P06ABH
With AllShare Play you’ll be connecting with your mobile devices with ease, sharing your media from device to device in a personal mobile network instantly. This interface also works with Samsung Smart TVs and tablets as well as smartphones.
Benchmark Score – Acer Aspire M5-481PT
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (64-bit) – Microsoft Windows 8 (64-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
5173
7046
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
9610
Memory
Memory performance
6351
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
6026
Above and you’ll also find some read-outs we’ve taken of the notebook. You’ll see some additional details about what this Ultrabook is packing as well as some benchmark results from our standard test: Geekbench. Feel free to head back to our archive of reviewed devices to compare and contrast as well!
Battery Time
Off the wall connection we’ve found the Samsung Series 5 UltraTouch to be getting a little over 5 hours of battery life. That’s without streaming video – if you’re going to be doing heavy processing tasks, this may not be the workhorse for you. Instead you’ll find this device best for daily work on-the-go without demanding a full 8-hour workday spread without power.
That said, battery life on this device isn’t all that different from the rest of the Ultrabooks out there right now. You’ll find a machine like the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 working with essentially the same amount of battery time where the newest era of MacBook Air units are some of the only mobile notebooks we’ve worked with that last longer in the field. Choose wisely!
Wrap-up
With the Samsung Series 5 UltraTouch you’ve got an Ultrabook that’s ready to be your best buddy in college, your friendly office companion, or your coffee shop cohort. While the Samsung notebook line doesn’t hold quite the “cool” factor their smartphones and tablets have earned over the past few years, they still connect in more ways than any other machine – particularly if you want to work with the oddity that is AllShare.
The model we’ve reviewed here will cost you a cool $859.99 USD and is available everywhere fine Ultrabooks are sold. We’d recommend, as always, heading out to your local notebook dealer to see how this unit feels before picking one up for yourself. Samsung has made a fabulous notebook here, and you’re going to want to take it out for a test drive before you make the big jump.
Samsung’s ATIV Smart PC has been giving Americans a blend of LTE data and Windows 8 for some time, but we’re sure that some would like a little more oomph. The company agrees — it just released a version of the ATIV Smart PC Pro equipped with AT&T-capable LTE. If you’ve got a not-insubstantial $1,600 to commit to a tablet, you can stay online beyond WiFi while wielding a laptop-grade 1.7GHz Core i5, 4GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and as much as eight hours of runtime.
Ultrabook fans aren’t left out from Samsung’s upgrades. A newer Premium trim level for the 13-inch Series 9 swaps out the regular 1,600 x 900 LCD for a full 1080p screen. The higher resolution bumps the price to a slightly intimidating $1,900, although Samsung does outfit the PC with a 1.9GHz Core i7, 4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Between this and the Smart PC Pro, it’s safe to say that the company can accommodate the highest of the high end.
Intel is looking to equip its next-generation of ultrabooks with its upcoming Haswell processor. The Haswell processor promises extreme power-saving capabilities while also offering great performance. It is also said that Intel’s Haswell ultrabooks will be deeply integrated with Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Blue OS in order to maximize power efficiency and laptop performance.
According to CNET’s sources, the Haswell ultrabooks will be much faster than ultrabooks currently utilizing Intel’s Ivy-Bridge processors. While running Windows Blue, they will also be coming with improved Standby capabilities that will allow your device to stay connected to social networks, e-mails, and other push-services while the ultrabook is asleep. When you turn your device back on, everything will automatically be up-to-date.
Back in 2011, Intel bragged about its new Haswell chips being able to last up to 24 hours on a single charge, and being able to survive 10 days on standby. It will certainly be appealing to customers who’s main priority is having a laptop with a great battery life. According to Paul Otellni, CEO of Intel, the Haswell CPUs will have “the single largest generation-to-generation battery life improvement in Intel history.”
Intel is speculated to be launching its Haswell CPUs in June, and it will be implemented in both ultrabooks, and hybrid laptops (half tablet, half laptop). That’s around the same time-frame that Microsoft plans on launching Windows Blue. The combination between Intel’s upcoming processor and Microsoft’s upcoming operating system is said to be bringing ultrabooks that “act more like a smartphone or tablet OS”.
Logitec is releasing 2 LAN adapter models “LAN-TXU2H3A” and “LAN-GTJU3H3″ usable by laptops without a LAN port such as Ultrabook, Tablet PC, MacBook Air, and MacBook Retina, to access wired high-speed internet. Both models are compatible with USB2.0, and “LAN-GTJU3H3″ is also a USB3.0 compliant model and is more compact. Attaching these new LAN adapter to your LAN port-less device enables you to use not only wired internet but also 3 other USB devices at the …
Lenovo’s taking the wraps off of its newest ThinkPad here at Engadget Expand, but in fact, the T431s represents more than just a minor spec bump. It’s actually the first ThinkPad borne out of Lenovo’s latest “clean sheet” development initiative — an 18-month process that the company briefed me on here. Regarding the laptop at hand, the 14-incher boasts a slimmer, sexier and more understated design, all while remaining very much a ThinkPad. It’s being classified as an Ultrabook, yet it still meets the Mil-SPEC 8 standard for rigidity and durability. In other words, the weight loss isn’t coming at the expense of ruggedness.
As for specs, it’s rocking a 1,600 x 900 matte display with 250 nits of brightness, integrated Intel HD graphics, a 720p front-facing webcam, 4GB of RAM (with optional upgrades boosting it as high as 12GB), a 47WHr (three-cell) sealed battery, an optionally backlit keyboard, Bluetooth 4.0 and built-in support for both WiFi and WWAN connections. It measures in at 13.03 x 8.89 x 0.8 inches while weighing 3.6 pounds, and it’s easily one of the sturdiest Ultrabooks we’ve had the pleasure of wrapping our paws around.
[CeBIT 2013] Yesterday, I met with Karen Regis, Director, Ultrabook Marketing at Intel and she showed me a reference design prototype for an Ultrabook featuring the Intel fourth generation of Intel Core i-series processors (codenamed Haswell).
The 17 millimeter thick device was shown at CES for the first time, and Intel has built only four units like this one. The processor manufacturer has made it easier to detach the touch display by adding a button and a green light to unlock the docking connector (see the demo in the video).
The Samsung Series 5 UltraTouch combines the company’s Series 5 Ultrabook with a touchscreen covered in Corning Gorilla Glass, so you know it’s capable of taking all of your abusive pokes and prods for as long as you’re using it. The reason for the inclusion of a touchscreen is so you could make full use of Windows 8 on the laptop, which is able to recognize up to ten points of contact, meaning each finger will be recognized by the UltraTouch’s touchscreen. But does throwing a touchscreen on a laptop equipped with Windows 8 mean you should spend close to $1000 for it? That’s precisely the point of our review of the Samsung Series 5 UltraTouch. So without further ado, let’s get down to business.
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Samsung has just launched their latest “toy” for big boys, the Series 9 Premium Ultrabook, and while it might not seem all that new to you, that is because this particular model comes with Full HD resolution capability, which is a surefire way of gaining the interest of anyone who is shopping for a spanking new Ultrabook now. The latest model in the Series 9 range, will of course, bask in the glory of an LED-backlit 1920×1080 full HD display, one that is touted to offer up to 40% additional screen content compared to the standard 1600×900 HD+ display.
