The other day I accidentally referred to the upcoming 12.5 inch Samsung 350U2B as the first member of the Samsung Series 3 lineup expected to go on sale in the US. But it turns out the 11.6 inch model is already available from Staples.
As expected, the 11.6 inch notebook is available exclusively from the office supplies retailer for now. While the laptop has a suggested retail price of $679, Staples is currently offering the Series 3 notebook for $599.99. Students can also get a $100 rebate with a valid student ID.
The Samsung Series 3 11.6 inch notebook has a 1366 x 768 pixel display, a 1.3 GHz Intel Core i3-2357M processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, and a 320GB hard drive. It has a 6 cell, 4000mAh battery, VGA and HDMI ports, and 3 USB ports. The laptop supports 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth. It runs Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.
The notebook measures 10.9″ x 7.9″ x 1″ and weighs about 2.8 pounds.
While the slightly larger 12.5 inch model has a faster 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5-2410M processor and larger 500GB hard drive, that model also costs substantially more with a suggested retail price of $749. The 11.6 inch model also appears to score reasonably well on the Windows Experience Index, meaning you should be able to get much-better-than-netbook performance out of this ultraportable laptop.
if i didn’t already have a mba i’d get one of these and add an ssd.