Samsung's 9 Series laptop is one of the sleekest and most stylish I've seen. Its black case, sharp angles and ultra-thin design make it very distinctive and sophisticated. It aims at being smooth and simple, and here it certainly succeeds.
Look and feel
The 9 Series is made of Duralumin, the same material used to make aeroplanes, which is light, but twice as strong as aluminium, and makes the device feel strong and solid. On the down side, the material is a bit of a fingerprint magnet, and looks smudgy fairly quickly.
Its extremely thin profile makes this notebook stand out. It weighs about 1.3kg, and measures 0.62-inches to 0.64-inches thick. Despite its size, Samsung has managed to include a decent number of ports.
The left port cover houses a USB 3.0 port, a mini HDMI socket and a jack for the Ethernet adapter that comes with the machine. The right contains a USB 2.0 port, a microSD card slot and a headphone jack. The only thing missing is a regular SD card slot. However, due to their concealed nature, I found the ports slightly cumbersome to access.
The keyboard has comfortable keys and is beautifully responsive, although the keys are marginally shallower than other laptops. However, they are well spaced, and the backlighting makes them highly visible and easy to type on. I also really liked that I could adjust the lighting, or turn it off completely, to save power.
The touch-pad is also bigger than on other Windows laptops. The click-pad has no buttons, with click spots under the front-half of the pad. The matte surface offers some friction, and is easy to navigate and tap-to-click, too.
Display
Summary:
Pros: Ultra-thin, stylish, high performance
Cons: Inaccessible ports, too pricey
I say: A great machine for those not limited by a budget
Price: R13 999 to R14 999, including VAT
Processor: Intel Core i5-2537M
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Processor speed: 1.4 GHz
RAM: 4GB
Weight: 1.3kg
Screen: 13.3-inches
Graphics card: Intel HD Graphics 3000
Web cam: 1.3MP
The 9 Series' display is another exceptional feature. Its 1366 x 768 resolution, 400-nit (unit of visible-light intensity) screen features the company's SuperBright Plus technology, and allows for extremely crisp and bright viewing. This, combined with the two surprisingly loud speakers, located on the right and left edges, made watching movies an absolute pleasure.
However, although loud, the speakers are not suitable for listening to music, as several artists tested, including Johnny Cash, Beethoven and The Sex Pistols, came out either tinny, or indistinct.
Another complaint is the screen dimmed when plugged in, and brightened when operating on battery. I'm not sure if this setting could be changed, but if it could, it was not readily apparent to me. I found this both annoying and nonsensical. It did, however, remain extremely crisp, even when used outdoors.
The laptop also comes with a 1.3MP HD Web cam built in at the top of the display, which produces clear images when chatting over IM.
Under the hood
What's under the hood did not disappoint. The 9 Series has a new and fast 1.4GHz Sandy Bridge Core i5 processor, and 4GB of RAM, and consistently opened applications quickly, without slowing down when running several applications simultaneously.
It also accelerates performance by dynamically allocating processing power where it is needed most, using Intel's intelligent Turbo Boost technology 2.0. Moreover, the company's Power Back technology, which claims to wake the system from sleep in three seconds, was spot on.
In terms of graphics, the machine features Intel's integrated HD 3000 graphics, and has no difficulty playing HD clips.
Battery life and software
The machine also stayed fairly cool unplugged and plugged in, only getting warm after quite a long time.
I found the software unobtrusive, keeping annoying pop-ups to a minimum. The Start menu includes Samsung's Control Centre, which is well designed, and allows many changes to be made to the system. In addition, you will find CyberLink's YouCam, Norton's Online Backup and Skype, among others.
In a nutshell
The 9 Series does not disappoint. Although super thin, it does not compromise on capability. It is superior in many ways to other Windows laptops that I've used. It is fast, has excellent graphics, and is ultra-portable, super-stylish and has all sorts of cool features, like the backlit keyboard and high-resolution display.
The price, however, caused me definite pause. At around R14 500, it is not for the average user, only niche users willing to fork out large sums for cool technology.
Share