Samsung Toshiba LG Ultrabook Shootout – CES 2012 Post Update

SAMSUNG SERIES 9 ‘ORIGINAL RELEASE’ ULTRABOOK

Before we start with the Samsung Series 9, I should tell you that approaching this Ultrabook with an open mind was very hard, simply because of the original frustration we experienced.  Our original review of the Series 9 was the first to point out that its wireless capabilities stopped inside the duralumin shell and we returned four units before finally giving up on a system that was to be our website travel companion.

Customer service was horrid to say the least and, after logging enough hours with customer support to make one’s head spin, I seemed to be lost in the crowd and, to this day, Samsung has yet to take an interest in my views and opinions to better the Samsung experience.  My frustration through not being able to connect wirelessly in any airports grew significantly when it couldn’t be done at Computex and we became a ‘hub’ to the growing number of similarly dissatisfied Series 9 customers wondering when a fix would be introduced.

blankAfter all, it shouldn’t have been a difficult venture as I provided Samsung with a video showing the wireless signals growing stronger and then weaker as I removed and then replaced the duralumin base of the Series 9. Along with the assistance of several others on various forums, I was also able to put forward suggestions with respect to moving an antenna lead into the monitor which, if you would believe it, was finally done without word to the public.

SERIES 9 ‘REVISED’ ULTRABOOK

Having let you know all too clearly of the angle of approach for the new series 9, I was surprised to learn that the series 9 had been completely revised and over 30,000 hours of development and design have gone into the new and revised Samsung Series 9 Ultrabook.

blankThe new Series 9 is available in 13.3″ and 15″ sizes and their claims of 9.8 second start up, 14 second wake time and up to 10 hour battery life are encouraging.  Samsung already owned top spot with respect to their display and both sizes retain the 1600×900 resolution with unparalleled 400 nits of brightness.  They have changed their single shell body to anodized aluminum and we can tell you first hand that fingerprints are a non-issue contrary to the original release.  We are certain that this will benefit significantly for wireless reception as well.

blankSamsung has very wisely removed the drop down ports that we saw in the original release and has remained with the simple configuration of an Intel i5-2467 processor, 4GB of memory and their 128GB SSD which, unfortunately, still only functions in SATA 2 mode.  Fret not though as we are expecting their release of their new SATA 3 mSATA soon enough for review which may be encouraging.  Pricing on the Series 9 13.3″ is expected to be $1399 with the 14″ bumping up to $1499.  This would put the Series 9 in roughly the same ball park as the Toshiba Z-Series for similar configuration.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *