Samsung Launches 3200x1800 Pixel ATIV Book 9 Plus Laptop 397
sfcrazy writes "As expected Samsung has updated its Ultrabook family giving direct competition to Apple's MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. When Apple launched its MacBook Air with 12 hours of battery life every one was looking at only one company to outdo Apple and that company was Samsung and the leading Android maker did not disappoint. With the launch of ATIV Book 9 Plus featuring:
* 256GB SSD (seems 128GB would be the base model)
* 3200x1800 resolution
* Touch Screen
* Haswell Processor
* 12 Hours battery life
* More 'standard' ports as compared to Apple's proprietary ports."
* 256GB SSD (seems 128GB would be the base model)
* 3200x1800 resolution
* Touch Screen
* Haswell Processor
* 12 Hours battery life
* More 'standard' ports as compared to Apple's proprietary ports."
Resolution (Score:5, Interesting)
The high resolution is a major win over the Macbook Air. Typing this on a MBA and the one thing I wish it had was higher screen resolution.
Proprietary ports? (Score:5, Interesting)
Which port is that exactly? The USB, the HDMI, the SD slot, or the Thunderbolt ports. All of which are standards.
WTF is a muktworld? (Score:5, Interesting)
Just for windows? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Apple's has proprietary ports? (Score:3, Interesting)
"Proprietary" may be the wrong word, but Thunderbolt display output may certainly qualify.
Is there anybody other than Apple who makes a display which works with Thunderbolt?
Be wary... (Score:5, Interesting)
The touchpad broke twice.
The headphone socket produced a buzz every time the laptop was plugged into the mains.
The WiFi kept disconnecting
Out of date drivers that have never been updated.
No support for Windows 8.
Terrible support staff who were either incompetent, lazy, or bored.
Badly written system software: it takes a full 20 seconds to enable/disable the WiFi, no support for non-administrators, it's intrusive and yet it's also required for full system functionality.
Even if all the hardware on this new model is up to scratch, nothing else has changed, and this deal will leave you sour. Basically, don't expect any real after-sales support in the way you probably expect it from most other laptop manufacturers. If you think of it as an appliance (like a TV) and never upgrade it, you *may* be fine.
Re:Apple's has proprietary ports? (Score:5, Interesting)
Name one one fucked up port? Are you saying the Thunderbolt port that Intel created is a fucked up port? And the fact that Thunderbolt cables require a chip in them (that Intel made necessary) is now Apple's fault?
Seriously? You've been smoking too strange stuff.
Re: Resolution (Score:0, Interesting)
If you really want hassle-free, you would use windows. OSX needs 3rd party apps for everything. OSX is always trying to sell you apps. Windows has lots of great free apps, like NotePad++, but OSX wants you to pay for BBedit. Plus the OSX MS Office is far inferior. Also, it's way harder to fix a mac, always have to deal with permissions problems. For every good thing I like about OSX, I find some bad thing about it too. It's a wash at best. Plus, when I'm working, I don't want to have to stop to look up how to do XYZ on a Mac, when I already know how to do XYZ on windows.
Besides, shouldn't your WORK machine be a desktop? What kind of work can you get done on an AIR? Sometimes when working, I use up all 4 cores, 2 GPUS, 12GB of RAM, and 2 HD screens. Sometimes I use all that power on purpose. Sometimes I do it on accident. You never make a programming mistake that results in infinite loops, or trying to use like a zillion megabytes of RAM? And working without at least two monitors is so slow and unproductive. It's nuts.
I would get something like this for home use, set it up with work programs to be used in emergencies only. My work computer would stay in the office and be used at work.
Re:Resolution (Score:3, Interesting)
When you increase the DPI so you can actually read the content, some poorly designed programs struggle. You can see this for yourself by going into Display settings and increasing DPI from Smaller (100%) to Medium or Larger (125/150%). Windows doesn't "zoom" the content, but more or less forces changes in positioning and sizing of elements and font sizes. This screws with many apps that have positioning defined that is incompatible with this type of resizing. Honestly though, the problems encountered are minimal.
One basic example: iTunes (Updater) in Windows has a Label element with text such as "...blah blah blah, for more information, click this URL: ". To the right of the "URL" text is a Hyperlink control that is independent of that Label control containing the hyperlink. It is positioned explicitly so it fits the flow of text (at normal DPI). When you change the DPI in Windows, the text in the label changes position relative to the Hyperlink control, and the text overlaps.
So sure, if you left DPI at the normal setting, everything would work fine, but you probably couldn't read very much comfortably. You would want to increase DPI at such a high relative resolution, but as described, there are some shortfalls.
Re:Apple's has proprietary ports? (Score:5, Interesting)
Thunderbolt is proprietary - owned solely by Intel. Mini-Displayport was proprietary too (Apple). VESA finally incorporated it into the (full-sized) Displayport standard a few years back.
Article is horseshit. (Score:2, Interesting)
So in which departments does ATIV Book 9 Plus beat the MacBook AIR?
* Great design
What the hell does this even mean? The MacBook Air defined the "Ultrabook" form factor, which this is following onto. Oh, but somehow Apple is behind when this is the exact same form factor, with a bit of side moulding?
* 256GB SSD (seems 128GB would be the base model)
Exactly the same as MacBook Air, except the MacBook Air has faster storage, because it's PCI-E based instead of SATA.
* 3200x1800 resolution
Yes, that's more pixels then MacBook Air. However, there is no OS you can run on this thing that properly deals with Hi-DPI displays.
* Touch Screen
Do not want.
* Haswell Processor
Same as MacBook Air.
* 12 Hours battery life
Claimed 12 hour battery life. Is this a real "I can use it for 12 hours on wireless, with the backlight on, doing real work" or "It can idle with the backlight and all radios off, and every power management setting at maximum, and it will barely squeak out 12 hours" ? MacBook Air's 11 hour battery life is real world proven by reviewers.
* More 'standard' ports as compared to Apple's proprietary ports.
What the hell does this mean? Mini-VGA is not any standard you'll find on anything. What on the MacBook Air is "proprietary" to Apple, other than the MagSafe power? DisplayPort is a VESA standard. Thunderbolt is a licensable tech from Intel.
This article is astroturf garbage.