LONDON: It didn’t take until CES for Samsung to provide plenty of additional details in English to sites like Engadget. The company is actually calling the laptop the ATIV Book 9 Ultrabook, and it will apparently come in two different configurations, both available in the first quarter of 2015. The $1,200 version will come with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, while a model costing $200 more will include double the RAM and solid-state storage.]
Remember Ultrabooks? Intel’s svelte laptop platform — presumably designed to combat the Apple MacBook Air — was launched with great fanfare in 2011, but has faded from the headlines as 2-in-1 hybrid notebooks and dirt-cheap Windows 8.1 laptops and Chromebooks have gained greater popularity.
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In fact, it’s been seemingly months since there’s been a major Ultrabook announcement, but with CES right around the corner, there may be an uptick in new releases. Samsung has gotten the jump with the disclosure of its Series 9 2015 Edition Ultrabook on its Korean-language blog. Like its predecessors, the latest version eschews the budget-friendly route, focusing on superior specs and design.
Previous Series 9 versions — no longer sold by Samsung in the U.S. — were larger (13.3-inch and 15-inch) than the new model, which will feature a 12.2-inch display and weigh in at 2 pounds. It may also be a bit less powerful, coming with a new Intel Core M-5Y10c Broadwell processor instead of Core i5 and i7 options. Other specs currently known include 8GB of RAM and 256GB of solid-state storage.
The screen has a high resolution of 2,560×1,600 (WQXGA), a brightness of 700 nits, and an adaptive feature that adjusts lighting to the viewing environment. Thanks in part to the ultra power saving mode borrowed from the Galaxy S5, Samsung claims 12 hours of battery life from the Series 9 2015 Edition, which will ship with Windows 8.1.
The company will showcase the new Ultrabook at CES, where it will most likely provide details on pricing and availability. Samsung has reduced its laptop production (halting sales in Europe and South Africa) over the last year, so it will be interesting to see if this will reach markets beyond Asia — and for how much.
