Two Minute Video: Samsung Takes On the MacBook Air

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This 13-inch Samsung Series 9 notebook I have here is a sexy slab, my friends. It tips the scales at 2.88 pounds thanks to Samsung’s use of aircraft-grade “Duralumin” which is apparently twice as strong as aluminum.

The backlit keyboard is one of the best I’ve used and the computer itself feels like it’s generally in hyperdrive—it boots in about 25 seconds, resumes from standby nearly instantly, and programs open up quickly thanks to the solid state hard drive and Core i5 processor.

I’m not crazy about the big Apple-style multi-touch trackpad—it’s sensitive to taps versus touch and though the lower left and right corners function as left and right mouse clicks, often anything but a deliberate click will first register as a touch that moves the cursor to the bottom corners of the screen. And I’d kill for a higher-resolution screen than 1366×768, especially given this thing’s premium price.

The battery life is rated at around seven hours, though I found real-world use to be more on the order of five hours. The price tag is a little on the high-ish side, too, at $1,650 but there’s a model with a Core i3 processor, two gigabytes of RAM and a 64-gigabyte hard drive for a more manageable $1,200 that’s worth checking out instead if you’re interested.

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