To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more

Samsung Series 9 (900X3B) review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £1199
inc VAT

The best Windows Ultrabook there is, and an Ultimate award winner

Specifications

13.3 in 1,600×900 display, 1.2kg, 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-2467M, 4.00GB RAM, 128GB disk, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

http://www.johnlewis.com
[/vc_column_text]

The Series 9’s keyboard is superb. Each full-size key felt springy and responsive, so we were always sure that our key presses had registered. All the punctuation keys are in the right places and the function keys also double as multimedia shortcuts, but only if you hold the Fn key first.

Samsung Series 9

We were also surprised by the multi-touch trackpad – although we don’t usually like all-in-one touchpads that lack physical buttons, the one on the Series 9 works reasonably well. Left clicks can be activated with a tap and right clicks with a two-finger tap, as well as physically clicking in the right corner of the touchpad. Multi-touch gestures were responsive and easy to perform, with none of the hit-and-miss activations of some multi-touch models.

Samsung Series 9

We were hugely impressed by the high resolution screen, which is among the best we’ve seen from an Ultrabook– the 13.3in display looks fantastic at its native 1,600×900. Like Samsung’s other new laptops, it has a matt screen finish that helps diffuse light reflections and an incredibly bright 300-nit backlight. There’s not a huge amount of contrast, but colours were vibrant we were very impressed with the excellent viewing angles – there’s plenty of tilt, but you don’t always need to use it to achieve accurate colours.

This updated Series 9 feels like the version we should have got last year – it has vastly superior build quality, an improved screen and a more sensible chassis layout that makes it feel every inch the premium product it should be. It’s priced accordingly, at around £100 more than a 13-inch Apple MacBook Air and £200 more than Ultrabooks such as the Asus ZenBook UX31, but it’s still the best Windows Ultrabook there is.

Pages: 1 2

Basic Specifications

Rating *****
Processor Intel Core i5-2467M
Processor clock speed 1.6GHz
Memory 4.00GB
Memory slots 2
Memory slots free 0
Maximum memory 8GB
Size 17x328x227mm
Weight 1.2kg
Sound Realtek HD Audio
Pointing device touchpad

Display

Viewable size 13.3 in
Native resolution 1,600×900
Graphics Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000
Graphics/video ports mini DisplayPort, micro-HDMI
Graphics Memory 384MB

Storage

Total storage capacity 128GB
Optical drive type none

Ports and Expansion

USB ports 2
Bluetooth yes
Wired network ports none
Wireless networking support 802.11n
PC Card slots none
Supported memory cards SDXC, MMC
Other ports minijack headset port, 1x USB 3.0

Miscellaneous

Carrying case No
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore option restore partition
Software included Microsoft Office 2010 Starter Edition
Optional extras none

Buying Information

Warranty two years RTB
Price £1,199
Details www.samsung.co.uk
Supplier http://www.johnlewis.com