Hasta La Gadget!

Samsung‘s second ATIV Smart PC hybrid, the Smart PC Pro, is the more serious of the Windows 8 docking pair, packing a more powerful processor but giving up battery life along the way. Under the hoot is an Intel Core i5 CPU with 4GB of RAM and up to a 256GB SSD, while runtimes are up to 8hrs. Read on for our first-impressions.

At first glance it would be easy to mistake the Smart PC and Smart PC Pro, though the latter is slightly thicker and – when you snap the slate out of the keyboard dock – noticeably heavier in the hand. It still has an S Pen for digital handwriting and sketching (Samsung unfortunately didn’t leave a stylus to hand to actually test) but you now get a 1080p display, which is bright and colorful (though still falls short of the resolution on, say, the new iPad).

The power under the hood pays dividends, though. Apps loaded quickly and we were able to flick between them with no lag, though the software isn’t final; we couldn’t get screen rotation to work, and we couldn’t write S Note memos with our fingertip.

The keyboard is perhaps the weakest point. Key travel is unsurprisingly shallow, which isn’t a deal-breaker, but the light weight of the ‘board means the Smart PC Pro is prone to rocking back from the weight of the top section. Add to that the somewhat plasticky feel, which is less tactile than the slate part.

Of course, “more serious” also means “more expensive” and the ATIV Smart PC Pro carries a heavy premium over its more humble sibling. Samsung will be asking $1,119 for the tablet with a 128GB SSD when it hits shelves on October 26 in the US.

Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro hands-on is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung’s Windows 8 range was a surprise addition to the IFA 2012 line-up, kicking off with the ATIV smart PC. A hybrid tablet/notebook following in ASUS’ Transformer footsteps by pairing a slate “brains” section with a detachable keyboard dock, the ATIV Smart PC runs Windows 8 and impressively promises up to 13.5hrs of battery life. We grabbed some hands-on time.

The similarities with Samsung’s Android range is clear, though the ATIV Smart PC is a little heavier than the Android slate norm. The touchscreen – which recognizes up to 10-point multitouch – was swift and responsive, though, whipping through the Metro-style Windows 8 homescreen neatly, and revealing a section of new Samsung apps including S Note.

That works with the Samsung S Pen – just as with the Note II, Samsung has used an active digitizer and a special stylus, which docks into a silo on the side of the slate – for handwritten notes and annotations. Unfortunately that pen wasn’t present in Samsung’s demo unit, but the concept is the same as we’ve seen on the Android phablet, and notes will actually synchronize between the two despite the different platforms.

Detached – something of a struggle on these prototype units, but an aspect Samsung promises will be made easier in retail versions – the slate section supports portrait and landscape orientation use, flipping automatically between the two. There was some lag noticeable in actually using apps, though it’s unclear if that’s down to the Intel Atom processor or the pre-final software.

Still, that processor helps keep runtime so long, which is essential if the ATIV Smart PC is to compete with Apple’s iPad. Samsung is betting that enough users will want to do content creation with their tablet to make the extra bulk worthwhile (and ignore what’s a plasticky and fingerprint-prone casing). Whether that will hold true with a $649 starting price (or from $749 with the keyboard dock) when it lands in the US on October 26 remains to be seen.

Samsung ATIV Smart PC hands-on is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Would a Series 5 Slate be just as sweet under any other name? We’ve already got hands-on with the ATIV Smart PC Pro (called the Series 7 Slate in the US) and now we’re going to show you the wonder that is the ATIV Smart PC — aka, the Series 5 Slate on this side of the Atlantic. And what can we say? It’s a lot like the Series 7 we checked out, though this guy is of course a smidge thinner and lighter, given the fanless design and inclusion of an Atom-based Clover Trail processor instead of something in the Ivy Bridge family.

Another difference: that 11.6 inch display. It’s still bright, of course, but the resolution is a lower 1,366 x 768, as opposed to the 1080p panel used in the Series 7 / Smart PC Pro. That caveat aside, the Series 5 / Smart PC is still pretty sexy, with that vibrant display and brushed metal back — though, as mentioned in our hands-on with the dock, that beauty clashes a bit with the relative cheapness of the keyboard.

As you may have read, the two slates also have stylus slots, though the S Pen was nowhere in sight during our demo — perhaps to keep it out of the hands of sneaky bloggers. In the meantime, we’ve got some hands-on photos, but we encourage you to refer back to our Series 7 / Smart PC Pro hands-on to compare the designs, and get a better feel for the custom apps Samsung has bundled.

Dana Wollman contributed to this report.

Continue reading Hands-on with the Samsung ATIV Smart PC (aka the Series 5 Slate)

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets

Hands-on with the Samsung ATIV Smart PC (aka the Series 5 Slate) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 14:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung didn’t leave its ATIV introductions to just an ARM tablet and a phone. We first saw them as the Series 5 and Series 7 tablets, which will likely be their final US names; to recap, though, the newly branded ATIV Smart PC and ATIV Smart PC Pro both look to capture some of that Transformer-like aura by mating an 11.6-inch tablet with a detachable keyboard dock for a laptop experience. Some of Samsung’s own Galaxy Note vibe rubs off on them, too — both carry an S Pen and a bundled S Note app for some on-the-spot writing. They likewise share support for 3G and 4G as well as micro-HDMI and USB, but there’s a clear difference depending on what you buy. Going for the regular Smart PC loads in a modest Clover Trail-based Intel Atom processor and a 1,366 x 768 display, but offers a lengthy 13.5-hour battery life, 2GB of RAM, up to a 128GB flash drive, a rear 8-megapixel camera and a 2-megapixel front camera. Slap that “Pro” moniker on the front and you have to drop to eight hours of battery life and a 5-megapixel rear camera, but you’ll get a much faster Core i5 processor, a 1080p display, 4GB of RAM and as much as a 256GB SSD. Unlike the ATIV Tab, we do know the Smart PCs will be available in the US on October 26th at $649 for a base Smart PC/Series 5, $749 for a bundle with the keyboard and $1,119 for a Smart PC Pro/Series 7 with a 128GB SSD built-in.

Continue reading Samsung calling its dockable Windows 8 tablets ATIV Smart PC and Smart PC Pro outside the US

Filed under: Tablets

Samsung calling its dockable Windows 8 tablets ATIV Smart PC and Smart PC Pro outside the US originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 14:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, well, well, what have we here? It’s yet another beautiful tablet from the folks at Samsung. We’ve got our hands on the Samsung ATIV Tab running Windows 8 on a low-power ARM processor (aka Windows RT) and it looks and feels fantastic — and familiar. Yep, if you’ve ever seen or played with a Samsung Galaxy Tab, you’ll know what you’re in for, a solid and beautiful tablet with a brushed aluminum back. The screen is extremely vivid, and yeah, we had to turn it down to get some decent shots of the thing.

The big tell, however, is the new square Windows button on the bottom bezel. Yep, this thing is rocking Windows RT, in all of its glory. The other big tip off: there’s no stylus on the slate. You’re going to be using you finger to navigate through the operating system — sorry S Pen fans. The tablet is extremely zippy, as well — and no question why — the device is rocking a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor on top of 2GB of memory. Obviously the tablet is best suited to the tile UI, though you can swap between that and the older familiar one by clicking the right tile.

We’ll get you more information as it become available — in the meantime, please enjoy the following image gallery.

Continue reading Samsung Windows RT ATIV Tab hands-on (video)

Filed under: Tablets

Samsung Windows RT ATIV Tab hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 13:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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