Samsung Series 7 notebooks have big screens in small footprints by VR-Zone.com
Even if the rumours about Samsung's interest in HP's PC business were refuted by the company, if Samsung's Series 7 notebook announcement is anything to go by, the company has a bright future in the notebook market. The Series 7 is Samsung's new performance line of notebooks, but possibly the most impressive feature is the fact that Samsung claims that they've managed to stuff a larger screen size inside a smaller chassis size, but is this even possible?
One slight issue with the announcement is that various Samsung websites contain slightly different details with regards to the exact specifications and features, so we'll suggest a smidgen of caution here. The Series 7 carries the sub brand Chronos borrowed from the Greek god of time, as Samsung claims to have added several new features that helps to reduce the boot time of the system and in general speed things up.
Most of the speed increase comes from what Samsung calls ExpressCache, which sounds a lot like Intel's Smart Response technology, but apparently it's not, as Samsung is using a much smaller 8GB SSD, whereas Intel's Smart Response requires at least 20GB of SSD storage. It works more closely to that of a Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive; albeit with the SSD part being fitted to the notebooks PCB rather than inside the hard drive. Combine this with something that Samsung calls FastStart and you end up with a claimed POST time of two seconds and a cold boot time of 19 seconds.
In terms of battery life, Samsung claims an impressive 9h on a single charge and the company goes on to say that its "Life Plus" battery technology keeps 80 percent of the cells original capacity for up to 1,500 re-charge cycles. As such Samsung claims that its batteries can last up to five times as long as some of its competitors.
This is all great stuff, but the real selling point of the Series 7 in our opinion is that Samsung has managed to squeeze a larger screen size into a smaller notebook size. As such, the model with a 14-inch screen is the size of a 13.3-inch notebook, the model with the 15-inch screen the size of a 14-inch notebook and the model with the 15.6-inch screen the size of a 15-inch notebook. If that wasn't good enough, Samsung is offering 1600x900 resolution panels across the board, all sporting 300nits brightness. It gets even better though, as all four models have matt screens, which is a really welcomed addition and hopefully something that Samsung's competitors will pick up on.
As for the actual hardware specs, well, Samsung will be launching with Intel's updated Core i7 and Core i5 processors and all but the 14-inch model (or is that 13-inch?) will come with a quad core CPU, while the smaller model will have to make do with a dual core CPU. All models also have discrete AMD graphics, 6GB of DDR3 memory and a 750GB hard drive as standard. Do keep in mind that this is the US spec and this might be different in other markets. The rest of the specs can be found in the somewhat messy table below.
We almost forgot to mention that the keyboards features blue backlight and that Samsung has of course implemented a pair of USB 3.0 ports and a slot-loaded optical drive in all models. The trackpad is also massive and very similar to the one found on Apple's MacBook's. Price wise we're looking at a starting price of
US$999.99 (S$1,205) stretching all the way to
US$1,299 (S$1,565) and Samsung is expecting to start selling the Series 7 on the 2nd of October in the US. Check out the video below for some additional details.
Source:
Samsung Tomorrow and
BusinessWire
VIDEO:
[Interview] about Samsung Notebook Series 7: Chronos
Samsung Series 7 notebooks have big screens in small footprints
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