The 13.3 inch Series 9 weighs less than three pounds, like the Air. It has a sleek metallic look, all black brushed metal. It’s only .64 inches thick. And like Apple’s latest superthin laptop, it’s expensive: starting at $1,599 this spring.
What do you get for that money? The Series 9 is powered by a second-generation Core i5 2537M processor – a dual-core ultra-low voltage version of Intel’s new “Sandy Bridge” CPUs that runs at 1.4GHz with turbo speeds up to 2.3GHz. It comes with 4GB of RAM, up to a 128GB SSD drive, 3 watt stereo speakers with a 1.5 watt subwoofer, and enough lithium polymer battery to allow Samsung to claim 6.5 hours of battery life.
Intel’s dual-core versions of the second-generation Core processors don’t ship for another six weeks or so, so the 9 Series laptops won’t be available until later in the first quarter of 2011. Stay tuned then for a full lab-tested hands-on review.
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