14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung's Ativ series of laptops and tablets is relatively new compared to the company's other products, but it is quickly becoming just as well known, due to products like the Ativ Book 9 Plus.
We have noticed the Ativ Book 9 Lite being mentioned repeatedly recently, and pre-orders have actually been live for some time.
In fact, they started back in mid-July, in anticipation of what was supposed to be the mass release on July 28.
Now, a stronger laptop is approaching, whose shipments are only expected to start this month, August 2013. It is called Ativ Book 9 Plus.
The most notable asset of the 13.3-inch super-thin laptop is the native resolution of the LCD, of 3,200 x 1,800 pixels, which corresponds to 275 pixels per inch.
The LCD is a SuperBright+ touch screen (10-point touch input) with a brightness of 350 nits.
As if a frame thickness of 13.6 mm wouldn't have been enough to draw attention all on its own. The weight is pretty low too, at 1.39kg / 3.06 pounds.
Some might have trouble believing what sort of hardware components are within despite the thin package.
First off, a dual-core Haswell central processing unit from Intel is used, the Core i5-4200U, with a frequency of 1.6 GHz.
Integrated Intel HD Graphics 4400 are found inside the chip too. Not very powerful, but more than enough for the web, media playback, etc.
4 GB of DDR3-1600 MHz random access memory back up the chip, while 128 GB of storage space are available through an SSD (solid-state drive).
Other specs include a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a micro-HDMI output, mini-VGA (optional cable), a 1.8mm headphone / microphone combo jack, a 3-in-1 card reader, a webcam, integrated microphone and speakers, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, WiDi, and a battery that can last for 11 hours.
All in all, the price of $1,399.99 / €1,399.99 is actually justified. Shipments will begin on August 20.