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Samsung doesn't offer many laptop models in the US, and when they do, they're generally stunningly designed high end machines with an attention to assembly and materials that brings to mind luxury sports cars and Apple products. Rumors swirled in 2015 that Samsung was going to abandon their PC efforts, and in fact we didn't see significant new models. Near the end of 2015 Samsung reaffirmed their commitment to making laptops and we saw two new models, our 13.3" Samsung ATIV Book 9 Spin and the 15.6" ATIV Book 9 Pro. The Pro goes after the Dell XPS 15 and 15" Retina MacBook Pro; a new segment for Samsung. The Spin is the ATIV Book 9 Plus and older Series 9 reborn with the popular 360 degree hinge, like those of the Lenovo Yoga models and HP Spectre x360. It competes with the Spectre and Yoga 900 directly, and indirectly with the 13" MacBook Pro with Retina display and even the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, though it lacks the pen input and detachable keyboard of these two Microsoft products. There are those who buy the Surface Pro and Surface Book simply because they want a light, prestigious and well made laptop, even though they don't need the pen and pure tablet features, and that's where this Samsung competes nicely.
For those who want a traditional laptop without the 360 degree hinge, but prefer something that's insanely light without compromise, there's the spring 2016 Samsung Notebook 9, available in 13 and 15 inch sizes. The 13" weighs just 1.9 lbs. and sells for $999, which the 15" is 2.9 pounds and costs $1,199.
Specs at a Glance
There's only a high end configuration with a $1,399 list price (sometimes discounted to $1,299 at Best Buy, the largest store to offer the ATIV Book 9 Spin). It has an Intel 6th generation Skylake Core i7-6500U clocked at 2.5 GHz with Turbo Boost to 3.1 GHz, 8 gigs of RAM and a 256 gig SSD. Dual band Qualcomm Atheros WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth and a lovely QHD+ 3200 x 1800 anti-glare touch screen are standard. The ATIV has Intel 520 integrated graphics (you won't find dedicated graphics on a 13" laptop this thin and light). This is one of the lightest 2-in-1 13.3" convertibles on the market, and it weighs just 2.87 pounds. The recently announced Lenovo Yoga 900s is even lighter, but it runs on the lower power, slower Intel Core M platform.
Design and Ergonomics
If it's still stunning, don't change it. That could be Samsung's motto for their Series 9 and ATIV Book 9 laptops that sport ever slimmer interpretations of a design they created several years ago. I honestly love the look and feel, and have no desire to see them change the industrial design. This is one of the slimmest laptops on the market, and it's just as light as the QHD Dell XPS 13, and that's a traditional laptop without the beefy hinges of a convertible. The Samsung's unibody casing is matte black aluminum alloy with die cut sides for that signature bare aluminum flat cut look on the sides. It's rigid and thin like a Katana and there's absolutely no flex. Samsung's QA on their high end laptops (which is all they make these days) is exacting and impressive. Every major internal component and even the bottom cover had a QA signoff in permanent marker. Not a seam is out of place and there are no sharp edges, not even the straight cut sides. I've dropped ours 2 feet onto a wooden coffee table twice by accident, and it didn't suffer at all--not even a scratch.
The metal bottom cover is affixed with tiny Phillips head screws and it's easy to remove for service and upgrade--there are no annoying plastic clips to fight, the cover apparently doesn't need them to stay perfectly aligned in place. Our only complaint is that the bottom surface is fairly slippery and that combined with the light weight mean the laptop slides on my legs unless my legs are perfectly level. The stereo 2 watt speakers fire from the bottom edge near the curve so they're not quite muffled by a desk or your legs. They're incredibly loud and full for a 13" laptop--Samsung does an excellent job with audio.
The hinges are firm yet you can open the lid with one hand. There's relatively little bounce when using the touch screen thanks to the firm hinges. The hinges rotate 360 degrees so you can use the ATIV Book 9 Spin in laptop, tablet, tent and presentation modes. Whether in tablet, laptop or presentation mode, the ATIV Book 9 Spin keeps cool. There are no bottom vents, rather the vents are along the back edge where the display meets the body, so you won't have to worry about your legs blocking ventilation. We rarely heard the fan unless playing a demanding game like Civ 5. For those who find the Core i7 HP Spectre x360 a little too toasty, the Samsung is a chilly alternative.
Ports are typical for a 13" Ultrabook, with 3 USB 3.0, full size HDMI, 3.5mm audio and a microSD card slot. We'd have liked a USB-C port, but only the bigger ATIV Book 9 Pro gets one. The power button is on the side and there are volume controls on the side as well (for use in tablet mode). The laptop has the usual Fn row multimedia controls with volume, brightness, display output, WiFi on/off and more. The keyboard is backlit in white for good contrast with the black keys and interior. Despite low 1.3mm key travel, I had no trouble typing out several long reviews thanks to nicely damped keys and good tactile feel. It's a very pleasing keyboard. The trackpad is offset to the right relative to the spacebar, and that takes a little getting used to.
The large glass trackpad is superb--every bit as good as the new late 2015 Dell XPS 13, XPS 15 Infinity and the Surface Book. The surface is slicker and quicker than Dell's and is more like the Mac's. It's precise and reliable for cursor movement and two-finger right-clicks and pinch zooming work well.
Display
Samsung's uses thier own PLS (an IPS-like technology) QHD+ panel. They've used an anti-glare coating that's very effective, and it's rare to see a touch screen that's not glossy. The anti-glare coating does reduce black levels a bit, but it's a tradeoff I'll take because glare is such an issue on reflective glossy displays. The 3200 x 1800 panel has 276 PPI, which is high for a laptop and is the same PPI as Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. It's a crisp and sharp looking display and even tiny text is easy to read. Color saturation is excellent and it exceeds 100% of sRGB and covers 86% of Adobe RGB. That's significantly better than the 75% Adobe RGB average in this price segment. Color calibration from the factory is almost perfect, and Samsung has several color modes you can choose from--some derived from their TV heritage.
It's not absolute perfection however, PLS panels don't represent yellows accurately when the laptop is running on battery power (apparently driving the yellows uses more power than other colors, so yellows look dirty or mustardy). When we raised brightness above 60% on battery power, yellows looked good (Windows' folder icons and Sponge Bob both look as they should). When plugged into the AC adapter, yellows are always rendered correctly. So it's livable and easy to work with--if you're a photo or video pro either raise the brightness above 60% or plug in the AC adapter when you need color accuracy. Contrast isn't stellar according to our colorimeter at 450:1, but it's hard to measure on the latest generation PLS displays with dynamic color and contrast. It doesn't look low contrast, in fact it's one of the nicer displays on the market.
Brightness is very high, and our unit hit 377 nits, surpassing Samsung's 350 nit claim. The ATIV Book 9 Spin has an outdoor mode (reminiscent of Samsung Galaxy phones) that boosts brightness to an unusual and insane 700 nits. Outdoor mode combined with the anti-glare coating make the Ultrabook very usable outdoors.
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