The torrent of Ultrabooks shows no sign of abating, but until now one major manufacturer has been conspicuously absent from the slim and light fracas. We caught a glimpse of Samsung’s sensible Series 5 – a semi-successful attempt to subvert the Ultrabook template by restoring the optical drive into a swollen 14in chassis – but now the spotlight falls on to the real deal: its no-expenses-spared refresh of the Series 9.
The transformation is remarkable. By taking the design ethos of the original and starting afresh, Samsung has produced a physically stunning laptop. It was hardly overweight before, but Samsung has pared down the chassis to a mere sliver of navy blue. Tapering from a few millimetres thick at its front edge to only 15mm at the rear – yes, that includes the rubber feet – the Series 9 is the dictionary definition of svelte.
And in a world where looks are as important as feel, Samsung strikes another blow: the Series 9 is outstandingly well made. It’s easily the equal of its price rivals, Apple’s MacBook Air or, for the Windows purists, Asus’ Zenbook UX31E. It feels deliciously solid in the hand, barely flinching as we attempted to flex it out of shape. For a laptop that weighs only 1.16kg, it’s a stunning feat of engineering.
Samsung has also addressed the connectivity issues of its predecessor: the ports are no longer hidden on dropdown flaps on the edges. Instead, the silver metallic strip running around the edge flares out as it reaches the hinge. Here, there’s just enough room for USB 3, micro-HDMI and a miniaturised Gigabit Ethernet connection on the left edge, while a USB 2 port on the other is accompanied by an SD card slot and mini-VGA. Bear in mind, though, that while an adapter for the miniature Ethernet connection is included, the full-sized D-SUB adapter is a £22 optional extra.
Stop pawing the Series 9 long enough to turn it on, and there are some neat touches. The most obvious is the brightness sensor that lights up the keyboard as the ambient light dims. Four brightness levels ensure the keys never disappear out of sight, and the backlighting only kicks in when it’s needed, thus conserving battery power.
Display
The brightness sensor keeps the matte 13.3in display in check, too, automatically adjusting the backlight to suit your surroundings. We did notice it shifting a little too readily on the odd occasion, but that’s nit-picking. With the LED backlight capable of reaching a brilliant 472cd/m2, and the matte display banishing distracting reflections, the Series 9 remains usable in almost any lighting conditions without having to reach for the brightness control.
In quality terms, though, the Samsung’s display blows away the current competition. The 1,600 x 900 resolution makes for a crisp, well-proportioned desktop; viewing angles are unbelievably wide, both vertically and horizontally; and the 760:1 contrast ratio means the picture oozes solidity and depth. Colour accuracy isn’t exemplary – the factory calibration of the MacBook Air helps it retain its lead here – and there’s a tendency for skin tones to look just a little too ruddy and warm, but it’s by no means bad. For now, this is the gold standard by which all other Ultrabook displays will be judged.
The Series 9’s audio performance is unusually assured. Quite how Samsung has crammed in such a tuneful set of speakers, we have no idea. There’s little real bass, but just enough body, clarity and volume to make any genre of music listenable.
Performance
Flick the lid open, and Windows 7 resumes from sleep in a couple of seconds. It isn’t quite as spritely as some, however, and this is probably due to the SanDisk SSD. While sequential read and write speeds reach 431MB/sec and 309MB/sec respectively, the performance with small 4K files is poor, with read and write speeds slowing to 9.6MB/sec and 6.75MB/sec.
And as it might be reasonable to expect a generous specification at this price, the Series 9 is disappointing. The Core i5-2467M processor is more often found in the cheaper Ultrabook models, and is partnered with the usual 4GB of DDR3 RAM. With a result of 0.55 in our benchmarks, the Series 9 is fast enough, but it’s behind the cheaper Asus Zenbook UX31E. One benefit such modest hardware brings is that the Series 9 is almost silent; it was only once we loaded up our Crysis benchmark that the Series 9’s chassis warmed to the touch, and the tiny internal fans whirred into action.
And somehow Samsung has also wrung reasonable stamina from the Series 9’s tiny chassis. With hardly any room for a battery, the Series 9 lasted a reasonable 6hrs 57mins in our light-use battery test. Heavy use wasn’t quite as impressive, with the battery running dry in 1hr 53mins.
Keyboard & touchpad
Our time with the Samsung threw up little in the way of serious annoyances. While there’s the nagging doubt that the keyboard isn’t quite as good as some of the Ultrabook competition, it’s largely trouble-free. The Scrabble-tile keys have very little travel, but the light spring at the end of each keystroke and the sensible layout make amends. It was only once we really picked up the touch-typing pace that we craved a little more feedback from each dig of the finger.
The touchpad will prove more controversial. Like many of its peers, it integrates the buttons into the pad itself; dab anywhere, and it gives way with a quiet, muffled click – just like a MacBook Air. Strangely, though, depressing the pad only registers a button press if you click in the bottom-left or bottom-right corner – click anywhere else, and it does nothing at all. It’s a baffling and annoying design decision.
Other than that, the pad works well. All the usual two-finger gestures – zooming, rotating and scrolling – feel fluid, and the combination of three-fingered swipes flicks between applications, minimises the currently open ones, or opens Flip 3D. It’s still nowhere near as slick as the Apple touchpad/OS X combination, but it’s the match of any of its Ultrabook rivals.
Conclusion
Despite its weaknesses, the Series 9 is a bewitching prospect: the combination of beauty, burly build and a class-leading display are enough to set anyone’s credit card twitching. And you’ve got to hand it to Samsung: the pricing is bold at £100 dearer than a comparable MacBook Air, and £200 more than the Asus Zenbook UX31E.
There are caveats. For £1,200, we’d expect nothing less than brilliance, and Samsung’s Series 9 isn’t quite there yet. That touchpad blots its copybook, the specification isn’t what we’d like, and although it’s the most desirable Ultrabook we’ve yet seen, we can’t help feeling tempted to opt for a MacBook Air, a copy of Windows 7 and a handful of change. It’s good, but not quite good enough.
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