The Series 9 is a beautifully crafted machine. It's made mostly from a metal called duralumin, which up until now has only been used in aircraft construction. Samsung claims it's twice as strong as aluminum, and at 2.88 pounds, it does feel a hair lighter than the closest competition, the MacBook Air (2.9). Not only is it light, the Series 9 feels sturdier than the Air, especially if you pick it up by its corner. We also noted that the hinge is less fluid on the Series 9. You may not be able to open the lid with just one finger, but the display won't flop back when you carry it, either.Unlike the Air, the Series 9 isn't all metal on the outside. Some pieces of the deck and the base of the display connected to the hinge are high-grade, glossy plastic. It melds well with the duralumin style-wise, but is prone to fingerprint smudges in some areas.
Both notebooks are about the same size--12.9 x 8.9 x 0.62-0.64 inches (Series 9) and 12.8 x 8.9 x 0.11-0.68 inches (Air)--though Samsung managed to make its offering a bit slimmer at its thickest point while still adding a dash of flair. Unlike the Air, the edges don't taper in a straight line, but include a little arch and curve reminiscent of the wave design found on the Samsung NF310 and SF510.
Under the hood, aesthetic similarities to the MacBook Air abound, including an island-style keyboard and large touchpad, which might be mistaken for Apple's design work if they weren't in black. Though the design is minimalist, Samsung included a few extra touches, such as blue LED indicators in the keyboard and on the deck as well as the chrome-outlined power button on the upper right.
Beyond the actual notebook, Samsung also paid close attention to how the Series 9 is packaged. The box is also minimalist but elegant, right away giving owners the feeling they've purchased something high-end.Samsung boasts that the Series 9 boots up to 60 percent faster than hard-drive-based Windows laptops. It certainly booted quickly for us, but it didn't seem to leap to life quite as quickly as the MacBook Air. However, the Series 9 has another trick up its sleeve: closing the lid puts the system into hibernation, powering off the system completely. Opening the lid and waking from hibernation only takes about 3 seconds. Most people will use the laptop this way, and it's a speedy wake-up call indeed.
As for the CPU, it's an Intel Core i5-2547M, running at 1.4GHz. It operates at a slower speed than other Sandy Bridge laptops, more equivalent to the MacBook Air. We tried running a preliminary Street Fighter IV benchmark out of curiosity--we'll get more detailed formal results later on, but the integrated Sandy Bridge Intel graphics were capable of running the benchmark, although at lower-than-desired frame rates. Still, this laptop should be capable of playing some games. A 128GB SSD drive and 4GB of RAM are included in this $1,649 configuration.
Yes, $1,649 is a lot to pay, especially since that's more than even the highest-end $1,599 13-inch MacBook Air (which, though offering half the RAM, comes with twice the SSD storage at 256GB). However, the Samsung's sleek looks and beautiful feel offer nearly the same experience as an Air. Is it worth the investment? Check back in for our full benchmark results and review as soon as we're done putting the Series 9 through our tests.
