Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus - NP940X3G

Pricing structure will probably stay the same as the 2nd and 3rd generation Series 9.

i5, 128GB, 4GB, $1400 USD min
i7, 256GB, 8GB, $1700 USD min

ie,

http://www.adorama.com/SSG940X3GK01.html

 

You won't find any ultrabook anyhere with a 256GB SSD for $1200. Not even a Dell. Maybe the last generation. I know you can get an i7/256 Taichi for $1200.

 

Actually, its not. It's because UK pricing has VAT tax included, while US does it afterwards. Plus, VAT tax can be 25%. In lots of cases 1 pound device in UK = 1 dollar in US.

You can.

$1049 before sales pricing for the Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 11S with Core i5/8GB RAM/256GB SSD, and $999 with sales pricing.

IdeaPad Yoga 11S Convertible Ultrabook | Multimode Laptops and Ultrabooks from Lenovo | Lenovo (US)

Honestly, with these kind of systems, it doesn't matter whether its a Core i5 or i7(as long as its not i3). The fact that I could get a 256GB SSD in that pricing puts it in consideration for my next machine. I really hope they can maintain the same pricing with Haswell, just for their sake.

 

For an 11-inch 720p Ivy bridge machine, which is on sale immediately after its release precisely because it's already old tech. I think it's safe to say that smaller, last-gen machines aren't really offering a proper price comparison.

 

I'm saying that if you can get a Haswell MBA 13" with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD for 1300 (after a 100$ student discount), other vendors' systems should be even cheaper, knowing how crapple products are normally overpriced.

 

Well, the example of under $1200 given so far is an 11" Ivy Bridge machine, and your example is a $1400 laptop (without even a 1080p display or touchscreen). So, when you've found another product that makes $1200 for the Samsung look reasonable, let us know.

*edit* The US Apple website gives me $1340 as the cost of a student i5/8/256 MBA, with a $50 discount. Where are you getting $100 from?

 

I previously looked at macbook pro and there the discount was 100$, so I automatically applied it to the less expensive MBA, lol.

In any case, I won't bother if the price is above 1200 (don't care about touch screen). Also, need to see some benches first to make sure it has adequate cooling and decent IGP performance. Given the resolution, even simple browsing may be very choppy. On paper, the system looks great but after owning a 13 MBP retina, I have my doubts.

 

May I ask for your bad experiences with the Retina display in the MBP?

 

Choppy graphics when doing simple things like scrolling, switching between multiple tabs in a browser, etc. Also, poor application support for retina resulting in blurred icons and text, but that I can understand, it takes time for the software vendors to adjust.

 

I agree. Thank you for ending the speculation.

The longer you can wait the better. I seem to remember a few months back the ivy i7 S9 was like $1000 at MS store briefly, now that's a steal. And I got my X3B last year from them for $800, not bad for a machine that was $1400 6 months earlier. You can count on the Mac prices to not move an inch till the next model comes out.

 

I'm pretty sure BestBuy started discounting them the day they were released and still are. Amazon too.

Apple MacBook Pro & MacBook Air Laptops | Free Shipping - Best Buy

 

NCIX posted the 9+ on their site (on "backorder", no preorder) for $1500 USD base model.

Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus i5 4200U 4GB 128GB SSD 13.3in QHD+ LED Touchscreen Windows 8 Ultrabook

Their Canadian store allows you to order it and it will ship when it's available ($1500 CAD)

Anybody else waiting for the price drop on the ivy bridge ativ book 9? A matte option for the 9+ doesn't look like it's going to exist any time soon and the touch-screen/1800p isn't necessary at all for my needs.

 

They were dropping and now they are going back up. I am guessing if the new model really is $1500 (which I doubt) they will continue to go up and maybe to even more than the original list.

 

What? Why would last generation model's price go up when a new generation comes in to take its place?

 

Because if the new one costs meaningfully more, then the older version will already be appealing at its current lower price without anyone needing to discount it any further. There's no reason to discount it if it's already cheaper than the new machine.

 

Right. But I've never witnessed a case where a previous generation computer has gone UP in price when a new generation is released. I can pick up the ativ 9 1080p matte ivy bridge for $1490 on amazon right now. You think it's worth it if I really desire a matte screen? Is the battery life decent?

P.S. I need a laptop by Aug 20th for school

 

It didn't go up -- it went down (anticipation of a newer model) and then went back up when the newer model seemed to be more expensive regardless. All that happened is some sales prices disappeared.

It's reportedly a fantastic machine -- it's light and sturdy, and attractive. The touchpad is excellent, and the screen is gorgeous, For what (might maybe be) a few hundred dollars less than the 9 plus, for a machine that's actually half-a-pound lighter, it might well be worth it. We won't really know until we get our grubby mitts on the 9 plus.

I personally wouldn't get it because I actually like glossy screens, and lack of a touchscreen is a dealbreaker for me. But, if you don't like touch and prefer a matte screen, the current model starts to look really good. Mobile tech review has a detailed video review of it, which paints it in quite glowing terms.

 

Because the demand for them may be as great or greater than the demand for the new generation, why else? Just look at the prices of the early X3Cs for instance. Or to put it another way, if the new generation costs $1500, has a gloss screen and touch which you don't want and the current generation has a matte screen and no touch which you do want for the original list price of $1099 (see NP900X3F-K01US) which do you think people will buy and why would anybody want to discount the price with that demand?

edit..I guess I should have read the three or four comments immediately above mine before responding since everybody else had already made the point I was trying to make myself.

 

Confirming another price point for one model up... NP940X3G-K02US... $1700

MacMall | Samsung Electronics ATIV BOOK 9 PLUS / 13.3 TOUCH SCREEN / NP940X3G-K02US

 

If it's always on sale is it really a sale? Anyway, Samsung needs to do a better job of matching those prices at launch, particularly the 256GB model.

 

According to the Samsung site there is no K02US..I wouldn't trust any of those until Samsung actually lists the specs and prices.

 

Sure it is if the Apple store is charging more.

 

13-inch MacBook Air

Hardware
1.3GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz
4GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
128GB Flash Storage

Price around the world: U$1,099.00 - £949.00 - €1,149.00 [Ireland Price]

Hardware
1.7GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
8GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
256GB Flash Storage

Price around the world: U$1,549.00 - £1,339.00 - €1,599.00 [Ireland Price]

Not mentioning Apple's student discount, Samsung needs at least to match these prices taking in consideration the retrospective of Windows devices offering more (screen in this case) for less price.

 

Does anyone know if Samsung is making an 11 inch version of this laptop? I've looked at the Sony Vaio Pro 11, but the keyboard and trackpad (not to mention the screen) on the Samsung looks way better. My main gripe with the Sony keyboard after testing it out were the arrow keys - just too cramped for everyday use. The lightness of that device is amazing though... but I think Samsung is nailing it with their design. I've also looked at the older Samsung Series 9 11 inch laptop and it has the older keyboard design that is cramped. The Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro has the right keyboard form factor, but that device appears to have other issues. If they can bring their new keyboard layout to an 11 inch Ativ Book Pro design and specs, I will open my wallet.

I've searched high and low looking for signs for an 11 inch version, but so far haven't come accross any mentions of it. Anyone have any knowledge if such a device will exist?

 

There have been no hints or rumours relating to a new 11" model and there was nothing in the 2012 line-up. Samsung might well consider that the size is too close to tablets.

John

 

Adding a better screen for the same price should be easier when the HD4400 equipped processors are around 50$ cheaper than their HD5000 counterparts.

 

Here we go..the shock to end all shocks. Amazon is listing the NP940X3G-K01US on their US website for $1399 and saying it is powered by an Intel Apple A4 processor. Normally Amazon gets things right but I wonder what this is all about. Oh, and no mention of touch and maybe this is how Samsung may get around the requirement for touch with Haswell processors.

Amazon.com: Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus NP940X3G-K01US 13.3-Inch Laptop: Computers & Accessories

 

If that is true then it is hilarious. The price-tag seems to be reasonable though. Are there any advantages of the A4 over usual Haswell chips?

 

Even Acer dropped the 11 inch model of their S7 after only one model year. I had that for a few weeks and the SSD in it was blazing fast. Over 1000 MBs on sequential read. It only weighed 2.2 pounds as well but I couldn't really see keeping it for the reason you say, I have an iPad and it serves the same function if not as well.

 

Apple gets good battery times but other than that I know noting about them. In fact they may not even have turbo mode but I'm not sure about that. After looking at the Apple site they do get turbo. In fact their 1.3 goes all the way up to 2.6.

 

No chip maker contends with intel in the PC market on a performance basis. In the mobile space, things are different for now, but there's a reason intel can charge absurdly high prices for PC chips. I know apple is mulling over making their own chips for the mac, all I can say is good luck with that. Sounds like another apple maps fiasco waiting to happen. This is clearly amazon us not doing their do-diligence.

 

It won't be an Apple A4 - it's not even an x86 architecture...

Just a specification error on Amazon.

 

Amazon UK is more likely correct in this respect: Samsung ATIV Book 9 13.3-inch Touchscreen Notebook - Black (Intel Core i5 4200U 1.6GHz, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, LAN, WLAN, BT, Webcam, Integrated Graphics, Windows 8. However, it's almost the same in pounds as the US version in dollars (it includes 20% VAT but that's still a big, but typical, mark-up).

John

 

It would be nice if Samsung would post the specs and prices themselves. It seems odd they have not.

 

I agree...it seems so piecemeal to list only partial info on the site.

Do we know what the difference between the two machines will be:

NP940X3G-K01US
NP940X3G-K03US

 

No, we can only assume. The K01 will probably be 4/i5/128 and the K03 will probably be 4 or 8/i7/256

 

The Amazon US listing calls it both an Intel A4 and an Apple A4, so the listing is clearly confused. It also gets the weight wrong, 2.6lbs. Since that's the weight of the previous model, that probably also explains why touch isn't mentioned.

So the question is, is the price correct? Seems about right, so probably, although it might also be on the high side so they don't have to honor lower prices if it turns out to cost more. And if the price is correct, the real question then becomes what the step-up model will cost, and what the options for that step-up will be. I don't mind paying another $300 for more RAM and a 256 SSD, but if it's gonna be $500 more because the i7 is obligatory, then I start to lose interest. For $1900, it'd have to be the perfect laptop to get me to bite.

 

They could even make you go to i7/512GB to get 8GB. That would be criminal. Of course, if they made a lot of those and they just sat around, there could be some great clearance deals.

 

And just think the new Acer S7 Haswells come standard with 8GB ram, even the lowliest of them. A couple of sites say they are the best of the new crop of ultrabooks now that they have fixed the issues in the originals.

 

Ooh, I didn't realise those were out yet. I was turned off the previous one by the kinda mushy-feeling trackpad response, but perhaps that's been addressed. Any reviews you could point me to?

 

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Acer Aspire S7-392-9890 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Crystal White)

These two buyers have put up their experiences so far.

Think I might be getting one over the series 9 if it comes out at a more reasonable price for an i7/8gb ram/256 ssd. Plus they will ship with a 2,560 x 1,440 display in europe.

 

Ah, thanks. Those are very thorough for buyer reviews. Interesting that it's now back to "pre-order" -- I guess Amazon ran out. Those battery-life reports are very promising.

 

Acer Aspire S7 Preview: the Best New Ultrabook?

Acer upgrades Aspire S7 with Haswell and bigger battery, introduces S3 performance model | The Verge

And it is still under 3 pounds and still has the fastest SSD on the planet.

 

Welp


I bit the bullet and ordered the Ivy Bridge ATIV Book 9 (dat matte). If you will all allow me to ask an off-topic question, I'd like to ask : Why did the Series 9 come with the sexiest power brick I've ever seen, while the ATIV Book 9's were shipped with a normal black laptop power brick? Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

 

Can you post a photo of this "sexy" power brick? All the Series 9 PSUs I have seen look like this:



The photo doesn't show the lump on one end caused by Samsung's use of a 3-pin power connector.

John

 

No....

The K01 has non-glare and non-touchscreen and apperently has Windows 8 standard (?!?)
Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus 940X3G-K01 (item no. 90517265) - Laptops / Notebooks - computeruniverse

The K03 has a glare and touchscreen and Windows 8 Pro
Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus 940X3G-K03 W8 (item no. 90517545) - Laptops / Notebooks - computeruniverse

The rest of the specs are the same...
Where the hell is the i7/8GB/256GB model?!?! God damn it Samsung!!! Is that hard to put on the market?!?

 

If true, this is excellent news. Good find, but I'm still leary. Don't worry about the higher spec model, the may be waiting on the RAM.

 

After reading about high tech news for a while, I decided to give some of my thoughts on two latest flagships of new Haswell-based ultrabooks, which are Sony VAIO Pro 13 and Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus. From a perspective of a college student who travels a lot, when it comes to laptops, I think the most important criteria are portability. I have always sought for the most perfect laptop, as I defined “the thinnest, most light-weight and longest battery life possible. All is my personal opinion so constructive discussion is welcome.
Some notes before the comparison: There are tons of cool laptops out there. But there are specific reasons why I only concentrate on these two laptops. Here are some notable:
1. Sizes: 13.x’ is the perfect size for a portable laptop. From my experience, 11.x’ is too small for me sacrifices some of battery room; and 14.x’ and up is considered bulky. Plus, I feel 13.x backpacks/messengers look just stylish.

2. Dedicated graphic cards: No NVidia 7xxMs here because they are just too power hungry and are completely a waste for someone who just works with Word, Excel, Outlook and Chrome (like non-gaming college students or serious businessmen). If you want to do heavy gaming, look somewhere else such as custom-built desktops or gaming laptops like Alienware. Thin + light-weight + good battery life = not good gaming!

3. No Apple? The MacBook Air series has been around for quite a while and is the pioneer in super thin and light-weight laptop market. I am sure that the MacBook Air 13 will give you the best experience on a laptop: top brand, very high quality, stable and hassle-free Mac OSX. Although it’s not the thinnest nor the most light-weight on the market, but its design looks really sleek. However, there are some downsides. The first thing is the resolution. Oh, come on! 1400x900? Really? After moving to Full HD laptops, I am sure you will never look back. Getting used to the ample room on desktop hugely affects my workflow. Learn your Pro siblings! Secondly, I just have a feeling that Mac OSX is aimed for multimedia production. While stuff like Photoshop, Maya or Cubase on OSX is very mainstream, I find Windows is much more flexible. Microsoft is a channel-driven company, with hundreds of thousands of programmers, developers and other experts at partner firms around the world. (Maybe it just my bias since I have had hard time playing around with Mac OSX. Apple is just too sensitive to its technology and security, which may be good or bad.)

4. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch: A great laptop. Putting a 14’ screen on a 13’ case? OMG, that’s superb. I have always hated screens with large bezel. Plus, the design of the X1 looks very thin yet the Roll Cage case is sturdy and the spill-resistant island-style keyboard is absolutely lovely. Probably the most rugged business-class ultrabook right now with the screen folds nearly 180 degrees back, lying almost flat. With extra business features and reliability, it had been the best laptop a business man can get in my mind for a long time. However, there are a couple of reasons why I don’t include this nearly perfect ultrabook on the comparison. First, I find the screen a bit disappointing. Though it is a matte-finish Corning Gorilla glass, the resolution of 1600x900 does not meet my requirement. Also, it’s still an Ivy-based laptop. Although the benchmark of its Intel Core i7 3667U is impressive, it is still not as efficient as Haswell CPU. The SSD size is also limited to 256GB, which I find somewhat insufficient and there is no way around to upgrade to third party 512 SSDs. Finally, the battery life is not so good and many customers reports battery life is much shorter than 5.2h as advertised. Too many downsides, but still very good laptop.

5. Acer Aspire S7: It is the thinnest ultrabook on the market. This laptop line have just been refreshed with new Intel Haswell-based CPU Core i7 4500U, RAM upgraded from 4GB to 8GB, and 2560 x 1440 resolution from 1080p and significantly increased battery life (from 4,680mAh to 6,280mAh). These are really significant. However, the thickness has to be more compromising (from 0.47 to 0.51 inches). Luckily the weight just increases by 0.01 lbs. which is essentially zero. What makes me really like about this laptop is the two-sided Corning Gorilla glass that protects the 1080p touch screen and adds more stiffness and sturdiness to the case. The user should be really satisfied with this laptop. However, what make me not very excited about this laptop are the brand name and the quality control. The brand Acer just reminds me of low and mid-end laptop manufacturer due to its quality control issue in the past. Hope that the issue has been addressed because I have never experienced Acer products for a long time. Plus, the limits on the hardware when its first release just does not get me a good first impression in the first place. The design looks so-so and not very sturdy. We also have to use many dongles to get proper connectivity like VGA and Ethernet.


Now, to our two main characters:
Sony VAIO Pro 13


Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus



Side by side comparison:
Model Sony VAIO Pro 13 Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus
CPU 4th gen Intel Core i7 4500U 4th gen Intel Core i7 4500U
RAM 8GB 8GB
HDD 512GB 256GB SSD
Resolution 1920 x 1080 IPS TRILUMINOS 3200 x 1800 QHD+ (PLS ?)
Thickness 0.68 inches/ 17.27 mm 0.54 inches/ 13.6 mm
Weight 2.34 lbs./ 1.06 kg 3.06 lbs./ 1.39 kg
Battery 6h 30’ 12h

Performance: There is barely any difference in performance since the internal hardware is basically the same, except for the capacity of SSD used. Personally, I would go with VAIO since I use a lot of HDD space to store data and my used space has never dropped below 400GB for about a half of a year. It much depends on how much data you have to deal with every day.
Display: Both screens are glossy. However, this is so obvious that Samsung win this round. The 3200 x 1800 resolution will make the screen look fantastic. It renders text unbelievably sharp, while colors and images 'pop'. Actually, the first manufacturer that comes up with the quad HD idea is not Samsung. It’s Fujitsu UH90/L. I don’t have good impression with Fujitsu since the ultrabook is 14’ and Fujitsu products are usually very pricey. Someone may notice the display technology and doubt the quality of Samsung display. According to my reasoning, the Samsung ATIV Book’s predecessor is Samsung Series 9 which is using PLS technology (aka better IPS). So I think the new flagship of Samsung would do very well on display quality. The only drawback is how to drive this enormous screen. Let’s hope in the future Windows 8.1 will improve its handling of high DPI displays since MacBook Pro is typical of High DPI rendering fail. If you multi-task a lot and open a bunch of windows at the same time than you will not regret going with the highest resolution possible.
Portability: Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus is the thinnest ultrabook second to Acer Aspire S7 while Sony VAIO Pro 13 is the lightest of all ultrabooks available on the market. It really comes down to personal preference between lighter or thinner. I would personally choose Sony VAIO because I travel a lot and I really love how easy I can handle the whole laptop with only one hand. With thinness of below 0.7 inches (MacBook air is 0.75 inches thin) and weight of below 3.0 lbs., you cannot go wrong with any of these ultrabooks for their portability. Many people agree that the thinner laptop, the more stylish it looks and they who only want the best of the best may be interested in the “absolute” thinnest or lightest ultrabook.
Battery: Samsung is theoretically better in this department. I don’t trust any advertised hours because different manufacturers test their products in different ways and for some reasons they are always higher than in real life use. With external (sliced) battery, both Sony VAIO and Acer Aspire will give about 13 hours of battery but then the laptops would be too bulky to be an ultrabook with significant addition to the thickness and weight.
Connectivity: Both give essential ports to connect daily-used devices like USB 3.0, HDMI and headphone are there. Due to their physical characteristic, no one can demand them to have VGA and Ethernet port since the ports themselves are pretty big. But with the advance in technology, wireless Internet and HDMI technology would simply replace the need for those ports.
Price: The base model of Sony VAIO Pro 13 is priced 1250 makes it one of the highest starting price ultrabook. With all upgrades to max options, the price is 2050 which is higher than MacBook Air counterpart. For the Samsung ATIV Book 9 +, the regular model (Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256 SSD) is hinted to be $1932. The premium-looking reasonably-priced Acer Aspire S7 is priced $1650 for its max-option model.
Overall, I would tend toward the Sony VAIO Pro 13 because it offers 512GB SSD option which is important to me. Hope that Samsung will extend their configuration option of their new flagship line of ultrabook.

 

Other sites quote the K01 has a glossy screen....

 

All other listings say it comes with touchsreen.

edit: oops, see post above