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 Ativ Book 8 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £1399
inc VAT

A great general purpose laptop with a beautiful display and dedicated graphics, but this is a step down from its cheaper predecessor

Specifications

15.6 in 1,920×1,080 display, 2.5kg, 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-3635QM, 8.00GB RAM, 1,000GB disk, Windows 8

http://www.woolworths.co.uk
[/vc_column_text]

Its ten-point touchscreen was very responsive, but we were disappointed that the screen hinge was just as flimsy as it was before with the Series 7 Chronos. This makes it particularly ill-suited to touch-based games and applications, but even more sedate tasks like tapping through files and icons on our desktop made it wobble uncontrollably, so much so that it actually put us off using the touchscreen altogether.

This is a shame, but it’s no great loss when the large all-in-one touchpad is so easy to use. Pinch-zooming could have been a little smoother, but for most tasks it’s just as responsive as the touchscreen. Windows 8 shortcuts worked every time and there’s plenty of space to move your cursor round the screen. Unlike other touchpads, the entire surface is clickable, but the lower half gives the best feedback.

Samsung Ativ Book 8

The keyboard was also a joy to use. Keys were well-spaced and gave lots of tactile feedback, and there’s room for a numeric keypad on the side as well.

The Ativ Book 8 has a good range of ports. There’s no optical drive, but you’ll find two USB3 and two USB ports, HDMI and VGA outputs for connecting the laptop up to an external display, a Gigabit Ethernet port, an SD card reader and a combined headphone and microphone jack. Its JBL speakers were very good, though, so we didn’t feel the need to reach for a pair of headphones when listening to music.

Samsung Ativ Book 8

The most disappointing part of the Ativ Book 8 was its battery life. The Series 7 Chronos managed a huge nine and a half hours in our light use test, but the Ativ Book 8 lasted just 6 hours and 36 minutes under the same conditions. This is still good by general laptop standards, but it’s not quite as extraordinary as the Series 7 Chronos.

The Ativ Book 8 is a great desktop replacement, but when it’s more expensive and has a worse battery life than its predecessor, we can’t help feeling a little disappointed with it. There are much cheaper and more powerful general purpose laptops you can buy, but at this price, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display is the much better choice.

Pages: 1 2

Basic Specifications

Rating ****
Processor Intel Core i7-3635QM
Processor clock speed 2.4GHz
Memory 8.00GB
Memory slots 1
Memory slots free 0
Maximum memory 8GB
Size 23x376x250mm
Weight 2.5kg
Sound Realtek HD Audio
Pointing device touchpad and touchscreen

Display

Viewable size 15.6 in
Native resolution 1,920×1,080
Graphics Processor AMD Radeon HD 8870M
Graphics/video ports VGA, HDMI
Graphics Memory 2,048MB

Storage

Total storage capacity 1,000GB
Optical drive type none

Ports and Expansion

USB ports 5
Bluetooth yes
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support 802.11n
PC Card slots N/A
Supported memory cards SD, SDHC, SDXC
Other ports headphone, microphone

Miscellaneous

Carrying case No
Operating system Windows 8
Operating system restore option restore partition
Software included N/A
Optional extras N/A

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB
Price £1,399
Details www.samsung.co.uk
Supplier http://www.woolworths.co.uk

Read more

Reviews