Laptops with large screens don’t always make the best traveling companions — they tend to be big, heavy, and offer short battery life. And then there’s Samsung’s new Ativ Book 9 2014 Edition. It’s a notebook with a 15.6 inch full HD display and 14 hours of battery life.
It also happens to be just 0.63 inches thick and weighs less than 4.1 pounds.
While that makes the Ativ Book 9 a bit heavier than some of Samsung’s other ultrabooks, it’s still probably one of the thinnest and lightest 15.6 inch laptops you’re likely to find.
The notebook features an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 Haswell processor, Intel HD 4400 graphics, 8GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of solid state storage. Since it’s a bit larger than some ultrabooks, there’s room for things like a full-sized HDMI port, and 3 USB ports (two are USB 3.0 ports and one is a USB 2.0 port).
There’s also a mini VGA port, an SD card slot, and an Ethernet port — but you’ll need to use an adapter to connect an Ethernet cable.
Samsung says the 1920 x 1080 pixel display is 20 percent brighter than previous generation Ativ Book 9 screens and offers wide viewing angles. But it’s the 14 hour battery life claim that really grabbed my attention. I’ve been using a 13 inch Samsung Series 9 ultrabook with a 2nd generation Intel Core i5 processor since late 2011, and while I love the size, weight, and display I could do with better battery life. My ultrabook ran for up to 6 hours when I bought it, but over a year later it has a battery that’s only good for about 4.5 hours of run time.
Samsung hasn’t yet announced the price or launch date for the new Ativ Book 9 2014 Edition.
The new side profile lacks the elegant design of pre-2013 models and becomes a negative. It wasn’t necessary to shape it this poorly, just to offer space for one more port on each side.
Not sure who often/long you stare at your computer from the side, but I for one prefer function over form.
Form can follow function without becoming ugly in the hands of a good designer.
I didn’t say not to offer the functionality, I said an ugly shape wasn’t necessary to offer it.
So let me guess then Brad, you want this? See if Sammy will send you a demo unit, oh, and keep this one… 🙂