Anatomy
of Utrabooks (Part 6)
Samsung Series 9 900X3A
As a precursor of the real Ultrabook,
the Samsung series 9 is magnificent and very useful but the price makes it out
of the race.
People might think the Samsung Series 9
900X3A has started it all. Even before Ultrabook is a sparkle light to Intel,
Samsung's ultraportable has blended perfect design with the real performance
and be one of the thinnest Windows laptop ever seen.
Nearly 11 months have passed since the
Series 9 released, but it isn’t outdated. It seems to be stick together from
two pieces of metal that thin, roll and curve along the frame edge, stopping
only to fold up into a swivel, Samsung create outstanding shape. Dim and spakle
metal layer is around the place to set wrist, illuminated keypad emits flickering
light above.
It's pretty light by today's standard -
with 1.32kg, the Samsung is in the middle of the group this month - but it can
not compete with some rivals. The tugging at the base and lid reveal a more
flexible frame than rigidity Zenbook line.
However, this is small complaint and you
will forget it soon once you start typing on the excellent keyboard. Each key
bent down with a decisive action, a light boune at the end of typing brings
more comfort.
Multi-point touchpad is not as delicate.
The entire surface acts as a giant mouse button, buckling down with a light flick.
The single swipe with four fingers to activate Flip 3D feature of Windows, but
as ever, the touch features added feel temporary. Still faster than using
Windows-Tab key combination to switch between applications, and sometimes
touchpad ignore gestures.
After a modest change for the Series 9
pecification at the end of 2011, Samsung has appeared with Core i5, 4GB RAM and
128GB SSD - a combination achieved 0:46 points in our tests. It still lost the
best, but SSD has hidden the limitations of the processor; with continuous
read-write speed more than 200MB/second, applications loaded in a flash.
Samsung's anti-glare screen is too bright to
the eyes, and 680:1 contrast ratio that rivals have to inhale the smoke. However,
despite these great figures, images tend to be thin and unnatural color, with
dark scenes seem overly exposed. Of course, it is good quality screen but needs
alignment if it is too bright.
The maintenance of Series 9 lines requires
Samsung to arrange ports on the side lid. With a USB3 port, USB2, microSD,
micro-HDMI and Ethernet over proprietary adapter, Samsung has enough
connections to make us happy. The presence of dual-band 802.11n is welcome, as
well as Bluetooth 3.
Finally, the Samsung attraction is damaged
by short battery life. With only 5 hours 41 minutes in light use test, Series 9
is defeated by its best rivals.
Despite being the oldest laptop in the
tests, the Series 9 900X3A did the right things.After all, all outstanding features
are paid by too high price. So far it is the most expensive laptop is checked
and there is no reason to defend its second place.
|
Price: $2499
Light use battery: 5 hours 41 minutes
Performance: 3 stars
Battery: 4
stars
Feature/design: 4 stars
Value: 4 stars
Total: 4 stars
- Not only beautiful, Samsung's keyboard
is excellent.
- With a piece of metal bends around the
frame, Series 9 has a unique design.
|
Toshiba Portégé Z830
Toshiba Ultrabook become slim with
1.09kg, but cramming many business-friendly feature.
Portege Z830 is the most
entrepreneur-friendly Ultrabook in current Ultrabook line. Besieged by impressive
competitors, latest ultrabook of Toshiba offers a more practical approach.
In doesn’t mean this is a tedious business
laptop - no. Even compared to most slender rivals, Portege Z830 is also slim;
the lid and millimeters thick frame looks as if you can break them by a sight.
But looks can fool you. Z830's slim can
make it win the lightest Ultrabook title - it just weighs 1.09kg, and the
source is only added 300g - but not thin quality design.
Lid is more ductile than most Ultrabook -
even a slight force can bend the screen - but still feel stretch to turn back
from the occasional collision on the road. No elastic at the bottom of the
Toshiba.
While other Ultrabooks past it on raw
external appeal, it crams a lot of things on ultra-thin frame. USB3, SD card reader,
headphone and microphone sockets are in two sides; the back edge hides 2 USB2
ports, Gigabit Ethernet and big D-SUB and HDMI ports. Additional fingerprint
reader and TPM 1.2 module, nothing missing at all.
Its performance is competitive. As high-end
model, Z830 has 1.7GHz Core i5 processors, 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD - enough to
put it into prospective team this month. With a total of 0.6 point in our test,
low-voltage processors from Toshiba is very powerful. It also has efficient energy:
Toshiba lasted 8 hours 3 minutes in the light use battery test.
We may have doubts about the Z830 keypad -
the layout seems crowded, and almost without any movement for every single type
- but in fact it is very convenient. Even people with big hands will find most
easy way to reach fast typing speed, without looking at the keyboard.
Touchpad sometimes is criticized because of
too small size, but it's actually quite good. Zoom and two-finger scroll
functions work fine; the rapid response button with a single tap, definitely,
whilethe button below turn on and off the touchpad.
Beside using for business, the screen is slightly
disappointing. Anti-glare 1366x768 screen keeps reflections at minimum, and
low-resolution helps text be easier to read, even at a distance, but less accurate
color, as well as the contrast of the screen. The result is the color looks
weak despite strong brightness, and blue images. Along with poor speakers, this
is not Ultrabook for film addiction.
Final complaint to Z830 is cooling fan, a
common problem we saw with the previous models that weren’t not Ultrabook.
While not hear in office environment, it seems noisy in a quiet living room,
bringing annoying buzz, even when doing nothing.
However, the Z830 is a great business
laptop. Lightweight, strong and good connectivity, we can not think of another
1kg laptop offers a lot of things like that.
|
Price: $1721
Light Use Battery: 8 hours 8 minutes
Performance: 5 stars
Battery: 5
stars
Feature/Design: 4 stars
Value: 4 stars
Total: 5 stars
1. Illuminated keyboard and fingerprint
reader create a perfect business companion.
2. Despite weighing 1.09kg, Toshiba packed
more ports than any other Ultrabook. |
