If every action has an equal and opposite reaction, then consider the Samsung Series 9 NP900X3A to be a direct response to Apple's MacBook Air. It's been a long time since we've seen two notebooks so seemingly intertwined — in purpose, design, performance and even price. For all that you could love about a MacBook Air, nearly the same could be said for the sleek, black Series 9, a 13.3in. notebook packed with exceptional design and undeniable geek appeal.
At $1,649 (the Series 9 is listed as 'coming soon' on Samsung's UK website, but UK pricing has yet to be finalised), the real question will be whether you're able to afford it. Weighing 1.35kg and packing a 1.4GHz second-generation Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD drive, it's got some of the best performance-per-pound that we've ever seen. It starts fast and feels great to work on.
However, this system makes the MacBook Air look like a bargain by comparison, and that's saying something: (in the US) the 13.3in. MacBook Air starts at just $1,299 for that same 128GB SSD drive (although with half the RAM). Amazingly, the $1,649 configuration is the low end for the Series 9 — there's also a $1,699 version that adds Windows 7 Professional, which is the configuration we were sent for review. That price is 15in. MacBook Pro territory — lofty, indeed. (Note: the Windows 7 Pro option is not currently listed on Samsung's UK website.)
We've seen high-end design-heavy Windows notebooks before, although not for a while — the Dell Adamo and Adamo XPS come to mind. The Series 9 is a better overall notebook than those — but if this system cost £750, we'd really be far more bullish.
As it is, the Series 9 is way above standard notebook pricing. This is a luxury system, especially with £300-range 11.6in. AMD Fusion notebooks presenting pretty reasonable alternatives.
If you're a Windows notebook user but have been secretly envying devices like the MacBook Air — and price is no object — then your gleaming onyx saviour has arrived. Otherwise, you might want to wait for the 11.6in. Series 9 coming in about a month, which will cost a little less — or, find a more affordable alternative, provided you can live without super-sleek duraluminium. But, if you can stomach the price, this is one of the best, thin, usable ultraportable PCs we've ever come across.
The Samsung Series 9 NP900X3A has an instantly eye-catching look: sleek brushed-black metal (Duralumin, a material used in aircraft construction), with gracefully curved edges around the back, give the thin notebook the appearance of a blade, or a cross-section of a wing with aerofoil. It's also extremely light: unlike the surprisingly dense iPad, the Series 9 actually feels lighter in the hand than you'd expect. At 1.35kg, it's nearly identical to the 13-inch MacBook Air.
The Series 9 is a bit thicker, though, measuring from 1.59cm to 1.63cm at its thickest. Although the MacBook Air measures 1.7cm at its thickest, its front edge comes to a thinner 0.3cm point. The Series 9 feels and looks thicker, but these differences are small quibbles. Both notebooks are super-thin and pack flat into bags, adding little bulk.
Inside, the Series 9 has more brushed metal, but also some glossy plastic trim around parts of the screen area and keyboard. The top lid feels too flexible when opening and closing, and part of the chassis even exhibited small squeaks when we pressed down on it. That's not to say the construction isn't very solid, but it just doesn't feel as rock solid as Apple's MacBook Air. It's miles above similar thin Windows notebooks, however, even if we expected more for the price.
The tiny AC adapter is similar in size to many smartphone chargers, with a removable plug that can be replaced with travel tips. The plug goes into the rear of the Series 9's left side, jutting out. It's not the elegant solution that Apple's flush magnetic power cord is, and the charger's awkward 'wall-wart' size makes it a challenging fit for some outlets.
Going with an SSD drive gives the Series 9 faster boot-up times: by our stopwatch, the NP900X3A took 24 seconds from a cold boot-up. That's faster than many Windows notebooks, but slower than the relatively lightning-quick MacBook Air. The Series 9 has another neat trick up its sleeve: closing the lid puts the system straight into a no-power hibernation state, from which it woke up, after lifting the lid, in just 6 seconds. This is how most people will use the notebook, charging up as needed.
The 13.3in. screen has a matte finish, in contrast to nearly every other consumer notebook. Some will love this — many people gripe that the MacBooks are far too glossy. On the Series 9, the matte finish definitely helps images and text pop in brightly lit areas. The screen has a maximum resolution of 1,366 by 768 pixels, but its brightness and viewable angles surpass many other notebooks we've seen. Movies and pictures look excellent, with stellar viewing angles that don't degrade no matter how far the screen is tilted. (We hate to keep comparing to the MacBook Air, but its resolution, in case you're curious, is higher at 1,440 by 900. Still, we think the Series 9 screen looks even better.)
On to the keyboard and touchpad: simply put, they rock. The keyboard is so similar in feel and size to the MacBook Air that it looks pressed from the same mould. The keys have less height than raised keyboards on larger notebooks, but extended typing feels snappy and responsive. The keyboard is backlit, too, unlike the MacBook Air's. The large multitouch clickpad uses Synaptics Series 1.5 technology. It's not a 'click anywhere' pad (it uses a lever-style clicking mechanism, like Apple's MacBooks), but its image-sensing technology and accuracy rivals most other notebooks. The matte glass surface feels great and is amply sized for multifinger gestures. It's not as big as the epic one on the MacBook Air, but it's close.
The stereo speakers hide behind tiny grilles at the front side edges, barely visible unless you tilt and check. The volume and sound quality is more than good enough for movies, TV shows and webchat — even music, although they're obviously not going to surpass a good pair of headphones. The included 1.3-megapixel webcam has a maximum resolution of 1,280 by 1,024 pixels, delivering better-than-average pictures and light sensitivity; the bundled ArcSoft YouCam software has a number of weird backdrops and effects for you to play with, too.
Ports and connections are always a challenge on ultraslim notebooks, and the Series 9 is no exception. The newest MacBook Air only has two USB ports and no Ethernet port (it costs £25 extra as a USB dongle), but does have an SD card slot. Comparatively, the Series 9 has it beat on paper: HDMI, one USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0 port and Ethernet connectivity. However, these ports are accessed via two flip-down doors on either side, and some require converter cables. A proprietary port connects to an included dongle that has an Ethernet port; a mini-HDMI-out jack is included, but requires the proper cable to use; and a microSD card slot is included instead of standard SD. If you want to transfer pictures from your camera, you're back to being stuck with a USB SD card adapter. One of the two USB ports allows sleep-and-charge (powering a plugged-in USB device while the Series 9 is hibernating or shut down).
A small annoyance — or convenience, depending on how you like your ports — is that all of these ports are hidden away behind tiny flip-down doors on either side of the Series 9's chassis, tucked away under a sloping edge. They're shades of what used to be on the first-generation MacBook Air. We were concerned the doors would flip shut once we laid the notebook down on a table, but as long as the surface was even and flat, we found no problems. Plugging in lots of cables at once could get messy, though.
The included 4GB of RAM can be expanded up to 8GB; however, you're stuck with 128GB of SSD storage space. Apple's MacBook Air offers double the storage — 256GB — on its £1,378 13.3in. configuration. The default 128GB will be enough for some, but it falls short for those who want to put their whole media lives on a single notebook.
The 13.3in. Series 9 has a second-generation Intel Core i5 CPU, but it's not the same processor we've seen on recent fast mainstream notebooks. This Core i5-2537M CPU runs at 1.4GHz, and is a low-voltage processor more akin to the Core 2 Duo on the MacBook Air. Our benchmark tests show that, in terms of multitasking, it lags behind recent 'Sandy Bridge' notebooks. However, it's pretty close to the 13.3in. MacBook Air we recently reviewed.
The Series 9 fared better on single-tasking, and to many people it will feel perfectly fine for most uses. You're paying for portability with system speed. We found that our review unit ran a little warm after using it for video streaming and games: a set of small rear vents are tucked behind the screen's hinge, but two grilles under the chassis felt like they were pushing some warm air (along with some quiet fan noise) to the underside as well.
The Series 9 uses Intel second-generation integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000, just like Apple's 13.3in. MacBook Pro. These integrated graphics are capable of being used for games and graphics-intensive programs, and yielded functional but not spectacular results, suffering a bit from the Series 9's slower CPU: Unreal Tournament III, a graphically non-demanding game, ran at 32.9 frames per second (fps) with medium settings at native 1,366-by-768-pixel resolution. Street Fighter IV benchmarked at around 1fps, which, according to Street Fighter IV's tool is 'unplayable'. Bottom line: these graphics are better than were ever possible on thin-and-light notebooks using last year's Intel integrated graphics, but they're not quite as good as the Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics on the MacBook Air.
Despite being so thin, the Series 9 definitely delivers on battery life: we achieved 5 hours and 22 minutes using our video playback battery drain test, which is excellent for such a lightweight system. In fact, it bests the MacBook Air by nearly half an hour. Given how often you'll use a highly portable notebook like this, battery life matters immensely. This is enough to get you through a 'plane flight, if not a transatlantic one.