Lenovo IdeaPad U260 review

We mean this with no disrespect to Lenovo, but when you first lay eyes (or hands) on the incredibly attractive IdeaPad U260, it's pretty hard to believe that it was made by the company. Sure, the Chinese laptop manufacturer has always had a certain knack for creating very powerful and well-rounded ultraportables, but "drop-dead gorgeous" isn't exactly how we'd describe systems like the Lenovo IdeaPad U160, Edge 11, or ThinkPad X301. The U260 is indeed a total 180 for the company, and it's one of the most dapper and svelte laptops we've seen in a long time -- there's no question about it, its magnesium-aluminum alloy shell, leather palm rest, and glass touchpad even give the newest MacBook Airs a run for their money. But even better, the 12.5-inch system has the brawn to match that external beauty – its 0.7-inch shell has been injected with a Core i5 ULV processor, 4GB of RAM, and 320GB of storage. At $1,100 (the Core i3 version starts at $999), there's no denying that it's more than enticing, but is the U260 immune to Lenovo's typical ultraportable pain points, including poor battery life and tepid temperatures? We've been lucky enough to spend the last few days with the beautiful machine (yes, we took it on vacation!), so jump down below to find out in our full review!

Lenovo IdeaPad U260

Look and feel

It's obvious by now that we've got a real crush on the U260's bronzish, mocha exterior (it comes in an orange hue as well), and a glance at a few of the pictures in the gallery above makes it very easy to see why. It isn't as minimalistic as some others out there -- say Google's Cr-48 --but the soft-to-the-touch magnesium-aluminum alloy that envelops the system like a book cover gives the entire system a very clean and simplified look. Believe us, it's more than a welcome change from the glossy lids and rounded edges that we've gotten used to on the ThinkPad Edge family. The U260 also feels as high-end as it looks -- it may not have a unibody build, but it has a very rigid construction and that almost-rubbery metal lid not only seems to protect it from scratches, but feels really soft in hand. No, seriously, we've caught ourselves petting this thing a couple of times. Under the lid, the U260 loses its metal coverings, yet has an equally soft faux leather palm rest.

But, it's those aesthetic pieces combined with the U260's very slender design that really makes it turn heads. The system is a uniform 0.7-inches, which means there's no enlarged battery back or slight flare in the front to make it appear uneven, and when you open it up you certainly notice the svelteness of the screen. At 3.4-pounds, the U260 was just slightly heavier than pulling out a netbook at airport security, and it's just the right size and weight to comfortably transport it from the desk to the couch with one hand. Naturally, to maintain its lean body, Lenovo had to nix the DVD drive, but the U260 still houses a good array of ports along its edges. The right side is home to a USB socket and headphone jack, while the left houses USB, Ethernet, HDMI, and VGA ports. Unfortunately, there's no SD card slot, and while there's a place for an ExpressCard card slot, it doesn't open.

Keyboard, touchpad, and screen

There's no doubt that Lenovo knows how to make some of the best keyboards around (see: Thinkpad Edge, ThinkPad T410), but the one on the U260 leaves a bit more to be desired. Don't get us wrong, the squircle shaped, matte keys have a great curve to them and feel as if they were molded for our fingertips, however, the chiclet layout is a bit cramped and doesn't stretch to the edges of the panel. Instead, the right Shift key is noticeably smaller than the one on the left and even the Caps Lock and Tab keys on the left are shrunken. It's not a deal breaker, but it did take us a bit of time to get into the groove of typing this review. Our bigger complaint about the keyboard comes with its lack of a backlight. In fact, it actually seems like oversight to not include a backlit keyboard option on a higher end system like the U260, and we definitely found ourselves wishing it was a feature in a dimly lit airplane cabin.

However, the polished glass touchpad receives our highest stamp of approval. The smooth surface, which feels similar to that a piece of sea glass, was incredibly soft on our index finger and just let the cursor glide along. Additionally, the two dedicated right and left mouse buttons, although slightly mushy, were quite comfortable. While two-finger scrolling worked decently in Word and Chrome, the dedicated scroll strip happens to give you a bit more control.

So, what's it like using the world's first laptop with a 12.5-inch display? To be honest, not that different than using a laptop with a 12.1-inch panel, considering the new screen still has the typical 1366 x 768 resolution. Okay, so it's not exactly great for pixel density, but that doesn't mean we're not seriously impressed with the anti-glare matte display. Yes, that means there's no glossiness or reflections, and yes, it's great! We actually were able to work on the laptop on a bright day without putting up any sort of shade. Too boot, the display is quite bright and the viewing angles are rather decent -- we had no problem sharing the screen in a tight airplane seat with our neighbor. We do have one complaint though -- the screen bezel is certainly glossy and can pick up its fair share of fingerprints.

Performance and battery life

Like the ThinkPad Edge 11, the U260 is available with both Core i3 and i5 ultra-low voltage processors -- Lenovo sent us the highest end configuration with a 1.33GHz Core i5 CPU and 4GB of RAM. As one would expect, the machine handled the brunt of our usual computing tasks, including simultaneously writing this review in Microsoft Word, chatting with friends in Trillian, checking our Twitter feed in TweetDeck, and surfing the web with multiple tabs open in Chrome. Even when we threw a 720p clip into the mix the system was able to keep up.

Speaking of HD content, the machine has no problems with full HD video, but as you can see from its 3DMark scores, it's definitely not a gaming rig. It should be fine for some light mainstream or Flash games, but you're not gonna want to fire up Black Ops on this thing, unless you're cool with playing at very, very low settings. We have to admit it would have been nice to see Lenovo put the U260 up with both discrete graphics and SSD options, though the latter can be accomplished on your own as the entire bottom of the system is removable. Obviously, we didn't test the waters on that with our review unit.

	PCMarkVantage	3DMark06	Battery Life
Lenovo IdeaPad U260	3858	1153	2:56
Lenovo IdeaPad U160 (Core i7 ULV)	3863	1175	3:10
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 11	2964	1105	4:42
Dell Inspiron M101z (Athlon II Neo K325)	2572	1311	3:35
ASUS Eee PC 1215N (Intel Atom D525)	1924	181/2480	5:42
Acer Aspire One 721 (Athlon II Neo K125)	1814	1235	3:30
Alienware M11x (Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300)	2689	654 / 5593	4:30

Unfortunately, battery life is the U260's (expected) Achilles heel. On our usual video rundown test, which loops the same standard definition video with brightness set at 65 percent, the integrated 20Whr, four-cell Lithium Polymer battery lasted just two hours and 56 minutes. In regular use -- basically surfing the web and writing this review -- the system ran for about three hours and 20 minutes. Obviously, for a highly mobile system like this, the endurance is pretty terrible, and because there's no way to swap out the battery, you're pretty much stuck dragging the AC adapter with this thing everywhere you go.

Thankfully, there's better news on the heat side of things. Given our experience with the U160, we expected the system to get rather warm, but for the most part the system stayed relatively cool thanks to its "breathable keyboard" and Intel's latest Advanced Cooling technology. While we did notice the bottom right edge getting slightly warm, the vents in the back kept the entire chassis, including the keyboard and touchpad, at room temperature.

Software-wise, Lenovo's actually done a decent job of keeping this one crapware free. However, like the U160 it has a "Smile Dock," which can be launched by clicking on that creepy smile icon on the desktop. You can search Google and check Weatherbug from the dock itself, but other than that it's pretty useless and takes up precious screen real estate. Oovoo and McAfee are also preloaded.

Wrap-up

How much are you willing to sacrifice for love? If you're anything like us, you're absolutely smitten with the U260's metal build, soft leather palm rest, brushed glass touchpad, and the fact that it packs Core i5 power in such a thin shell. But you're also asking yourself one question: can you live with just three to three and a half hours of battery life? For us the answer is sadly a flat no -- in fact, that sort of battery life is simply unacceptable in our book, especially when you consider that equally portable systems like the Toshiba Portege R705 or the new MacBook Airs last at least two hours longer on a charge. It's a sad story of an amazingly attractive and solid performing laptop brought down by a single fatal flaw -- but if you can get past the battery life, nearly everything else about the U260 is almost perfect.

Intel goes ULV for laptops to combat the oncoming tablet horde

Intel has been talking up its x86-powered smartphones and battery-sipping Atoms for tablets quite a bit recently, but the company hasn't forgotten its roots in traditional PC form-factors. At an investor event in San Francisco, CEO Paul Otellini announced a significant change to its line of notebook CPUs -- ultra low voltage will be the new norm, not just a niche chip for high-end ultra-portables. The baseline voltage for future CPUs will be in the 10 to 15 watt range, a huge drop from the 35w design of the mainstream Core line and lower than even current-gen ULV chips (which bottom out at 17w). The company also plans to make NVIDIA eat its words by putting the pedal to the metal on die shrinks -- releasing a 22nm Atom next year followed by a 14nm version in 2013. That could mean our fantasy of true all-day battery life in a sleek and sexy laptop will finally come true. Don't crush our dreams Intel!

Ars Technica

Dell XPS 14 review

When Dell told us of its plans to revive its tried and true XPS laptop line we were pretty darn excited. With so much brand dilution in the past few years -- there's been the Adamo XPS and the Studio XPS -- the products have noticeably strayed from providing the rock solid gaming and multimedia experience they were once known for. There's a reason XPS stands for Xtreme Performance System, right?! The new line, which includes 14-, 15-, 17-inch systems, has all the ingredients to set it back on track -- including Core i5 / i7 processors, NVIDIA GeForce 400M graphics with Optimus, JBL speakers, a backlit keyboard, an HD webcam and a solid aluminum lid – but has Dell succeeded in creating a well-rounded multimedia machine? And does it rival our oh-so-adored HP Envy line? We've spent the last week using the more mobile $899 XPS 14, so read on to find out in our full review!

Dell XPS 14 review

Look and feel

If you want our honest opinion -- and we're assuming you do -- the new Dell XPS machines aren't gorgeous, but they're not hideous, either. These rigs are fairly middle-of-the-road in terms of design, and that's probably the reason that the bigwigs in Round Rock haven't gone out of their way to highlight design on Dell's website or in ads. All of the machines have anodized aluminum lids and bottom panels, while the rest of the chassis is made of black and gray plastic. Similar to the Inspiron 14R and M101z, the design takes on more of a wedge shape as the battery is built-in to the base of the system so that it doesn't jut out. We tend to fancy the flared look, but it does give it a chunkier trunk. We'll say it flat out: if you're seeking a more attractive 14-inch PC, you really don't have to look any further than the HP Envy 14, but if you're content with a laptop that doesn't turn heads, the Dell XPS will fit the bill.

The 13.9 x 9.7 x 1.3-inch / 5.35-pound XPS 14 is the most mobile system within the new XPS line, but it's still larger and thicker than some comparable 14-inch laptops out there – the Envy 14 is thinner at 1.09-inches and the ASUS U43jc measures 13.7 x 9.6 x 1.2 inches. That said, it's not as heavy as HP's alternative, and Apple's 5.6-pound MacBook Pro 15 will weigh you down a pinch more. That extra girth does leave quite a bit of port space – the system is surrounded by two USB 2.0 ports, a USB / eSATA combo jack as well as HDMI, Ethernet and DisplayPort sockets. Where's the VGA port? That's the question we've been asking ourselves for the last week. It's a pretty big bummer considering there's quite a bit of leftover room to fit one in. There's also a headphone and headphone / mic ports, but you'll definitely prefer listening to music through the speakers – more on that soon. Lastly, the DVD drive and SD card slot live on the right edge. You can add a Blu-ray drive to the configuration for a whopping $450. (That price seems to go down if you go with an XPS 15 or 17.)

Keyboard, touchpad and screen

Unlike every other laptop coming out of the gate, the XPS 14 doesn't have a chiclet keyboard. Not having the extra gaps between the keys was an adjustment -- we've gotten extremely adept at typing on those keyboards -- however, one we were able to make. The keyboard itself is quite firm, and there's no noticeable flex – although, the plastic keys have a slightly too much give. What happened to the rubbery feeling keys on the M1530 is beyond us, but we're happy to sign a petition to get Dell to bring 'em back! Still, we typed the entirety of this review at a very decent clip and we're big (big!) fans of the backlight. The backlight can be adjusted or turned off by either tapping the F6 key or sliding the toggle in Windows Mobility Center. The top row of function keys doubles as multimedia controls, and there's a strip of LED touch controls above it which includes shortcuts to WavesMax Audio settings, Windows Mobility Center and another that can be customized to launch a program or website of your choice.

Dell gets a major point in our book for using an "old school" touchpad with dedicated right and left mouse buttons. As we've said before, we've become increasingly fed up with the flaky integrated mouse button designs or ClickPads. The 3.2 by 1.8-inch pad isn't as wide as it could have been, but it does the trick for navigating the display. The two mouse buttons are slightly mushy, but we'd rather that than uncomfortable, firm buttons that have to be broken in.

The 1366x768-resolution, 14.0-inch WLED display is quite bright, and was crisp enough when watching a 720p Jackass 3D trailer. There's no higher resolution screen option on the 14 -- you've got to go up to the 15 or 17 to nab a 1920 x 1080-resolution display. The panel itself is decent, although vertical viewing angles are a bit problematic – tilting the screen back a bit while sitting on a table caused color distortion. Horizontal angles were better. Our biggest complaint about the screen comes with its glossy plastic bezel – we just would have liked to see a flush glass bezel here or something a lot less shiny and fingerprint prone. The hinge, which sits on top of the system to apparently bring it closer to you, feels solid and doesn't wobble much.

Smack in the center of the top bezel is an HD webcam – the first one ever to ship on a laptop. As you'd expect, the quality of our video in a video call over Skype was quite good – our buddy in San Francisco said he could tell that we had woken up early and that we'd recently gone to the dentist. It's hard for us to say if the native cam is better than some of the peripheral HD cams from Logitech and FreeTalk since we couldn't compare them side by side, but it's much better than the average VGA or 1.3 megapixel webcams, that's for sure. If you're a vlogger – you know, a video blogger! -- you'll love the fact that you can record 720p video right through Dell's Webcam Central software and upload straight to YouTube. Speaking of that software, it's definitely a time killer – we spent more time than we care to share distorting our face and putting on different accessories.

Speakers

Rarely do we dedicate a section of a laptop review to speakers, but the built-in high-fidelity JBL speakers on the XPS 14 are so impressive it only seemed right. Dell claims the speakers are the loudest, clearest and cleanest found in any laptop out there, and we have to admit they may just be right. Of course, we're waiting for a rebuttal from the HP Beats team in a matter of moments. The two 3W speakers above the keyboard (the XPS 15 and 17 both have subwoofers on the bottom) along with the Waves MaxxAudio technology software produced some of the best audio we've heard on a laptop...maybe ever. Keep in mind we are yet to test ASUS's giant NX90 with Bang & Olufsen speakers. Compared to our MacBook Pro 13 and the Envy 17, music in Windows Media Player and Pandora was noticeably fuller and more detailed. It is almost a faux surround sound, and even when we played Mafia II on the rig we were hearing voices from one speaker and the screeching of our tires through another. It's just an awesome audio experience.

Performance and graphics

The Dell XPS 14's 2.53GHz Core i5 460M processor and 4GB of DDR3 RAM didn't leave us with any performance complaints. Our typical day-to-day activities, which included simultaneously surfing the web with over ten tabs open in Firefox, checking Twitter via TweetDeck, chatting in Trillian, writing in Microsoft Word 2010 Starter, and light photo editing using Gimp, all went off without a hitch. The 500GB 7,200rpm hard drive was also quick to open applications, but it appears that you can easily swap it out for a faster SSD if that's your wont.

	PCMarkVantage	3DMark06	Battery Life
Dell XPS 14 (Core i5-460M, NVIDIA 420M)	5796	6827 / 1955	2:58
HP Envy 14 (Core i5-450M, ATI HD 5650)	6038	6899/1928	3:51
Sony VAIO Z (Core i5-450M, NVIDIA 330M)	9949	6193	4:25
ASUS U33Jc (Core i3-370M, NVIDIA 310M)	5574	1860/3403	5:10
Toshiba Portege R705 (Intel Core i3-350M)	5024	1759	4:25

Being one of the first laptops to enter our "lab" with NVIDIA's newest GeForce 400M graphics cards, we were pretty eager to see how this guy fared against older systems and just how well it could power through some of our favorite games. As you can see in the chart above, the GeForce GT 420M card scored noticeably higher on 3DMark06, which just tests graphics, than the other systems we've reviewed with the previous generation GT 300M cards. However, it didn't score as high as the Envy 14's ATI HD 5650 GPU. Nevertheless, the GT 420M card blew through Batman: Arkham Asylum at 30fps and Shattered Horizon at 42fps. Our new favorite title – Mafia II – looked glorious on the screen and we were crusin' in our Smith Custom at 42fps and shooting our MP40 at 34fps. Obviously, the card was also able handle both 720p and 1080p video flawlessly.

Of course, we never had to lift a finger when it came to switching between Intel's integrated graphics and the discrete GPU, thanks to NVIDIA's Optimus. The GPU automatically flipped on when we launched the demo version of Mafia and even a 1080p clip. However, we should mention we couldn't get it to kick on when trying out the demo version of Lara Croft: Guardian of Light -- the software isn't listed in NVIDIA's profiles. We had to go into the Steam folder, find the game, and right click to launch it with the GPU on. Oh, how did we know the GPU wasn't on? Well, the lower frame rates were a good indicator, but also NVIDIA's got that new tool up there to help with that. Up until now, when we've wanted to see if the GPU was on or off we'd have to use a tool that NVIDIA designed for reviewers, however, the XPS comes with NVIDIA's latest Verde drivers, which actually displays the GPU activity at the moment as well as which programs are using it.

The G420M card also supports NVIDIA's new 3DTV Play technology, which allows you to plug in the laptop via HDMI to a three-dee TV and play your favorite 3D games or movies. Sadly, we don't own a 3DTV and thus, couldn't test it out. We're willing to bet that most of you are in the same boat.

The XPS 14 isn't immune to warm temperature and high fan noise. The system got considerably toasty when playing Mafia. The fan on the left side did go into overdrive, but the warm air got annoying enough on our lap that we opted to put it on a desk. During regular usage, the system was much cooler, though the palmrest did get a bit warm overtime.

Battery life and software

To be honest, we expected the Dell XPS 14 to last longer on a charge. On our video rundown test, which loops the same video at 65 percent brightness, the six-cell 56Wh battery with the GPU off lasted just shy of three hours. During regular use, we got closer to four hours before we had to scour around for an outlet. There are certainly other laptops with similar parts that last longer (eh hem, Envy 14!), and given the fact that Dell went with Optimus, it's a bit puzzling why the system didn't actually have better endurance. Dell does offer a nine-cell 92Wh battery for the XPS 14 for an extra $40, but, of course, that will add a bit more weight to the chassis.

Like most of Dell's recent machines, the XPS 14 boots to a very clean desktop with just Dell's dock centered at the top of the screen. As for deleteware, we're happy to say we didn't find all that much of it hiding within the Start menu. Dell does throw on Skype, CyberLink PowerDVD, Roxio Easy CD and DVD and McAfee, but there were no signs of website shortcuts disguised as programs!

Wrap-up

Without a doubt, the Dell XPS 14 packs some extremely attractive features: the system's JBL speakers are some of the best ever put into a laptop, its Core i5 processor combined with NVIDIA GeForce GT400M provides seriously solid gaming and performance muscle, and its HD webcam captures crisp video and pictures. When you consider you get all that for $899 it sounds rather amazing, but it's far from a perfect system – it's chunkier than the others out there, doesn't top the style charts, and its standard battery is gonna keep you close to a wall. If you're after a better combo of beauty and brawns, we have to say the $999 HP Envy 14 or $1,299 Envy 17 are your best bets, but the XPS certainly has enough going for it to make it worthy of its moniker.

Samsung Series 9 (NP900X3A) laptop review

Back at CES, Samsung pulled out quite a few surprises, and no, we're not referring to its Zoll-infused press conference -- although, that performance still gives us the willies. Of all the Korean company's announcements at the show, which we'll remind you included an impressive new LTE phone and range of SmartTVs, it was its Series 9 laptop that left us the most stunned. And well, a glance at that picture above should explain why we found ourselves counting down the days until its March launch date. The 2.8-pound system is a complete and total 180 from Samsung's typical bulky mainstream systems, yet its 0.64-inch thick chassis still crams in quite a bit of horsepower with a Core i5-2537M processor, a 128GB SSD, and 4GB of RAM. It's also built from some of the toughest stuff on earth, has a backlit keyboard, and an incredibly high quality 400 nit LCD. You see, the $1,699 machine teeters on having the absolute perfect balance of beauty and brawn, and certainty has the core ingredients to compete with that other extremely popular and super thin ultraportable -- but when you get it home and out of its fancy box, does it truly have the chops? Or is this just yet another rail thin and expensive Windows laptop that falls short? The time has come to find out – hit the break for our full review.

Samsung Series 9 review

Series 9 unboxing / Air compared

Look and feel

We're just going to come out and say it: the Series 9 is one of the most striking laptops we've ever seen. Unlike the Dell Adamo and the Sony VAIO X, which both seemed to try too hard to look like Apple's MacBook Air, the Series 9's deep black case and sharp angled edges give it a seriously distinct look. And it's one of sophistication and simplicity, if you ask us. The entire dark chassis may seem basic and highly minimalistic, but there are small intricacies like the chrome borders, hidden port covers, and wave-shaped hinges that just make this thing feel more like a computing piece of art than a basic bargain-basement PC. But beyond the aesthetics, the system just feels great in hand. The duralumin build, which is the same stuff used in airplane construction, feels insanely solid, and there's absolutely no bend to the top half of the chassis. Unfortunately, the bottom feels like it's made of plastic, though Samsung tells us it's made of a powder coated aluminum. Still, the metal lid and palmrest are very soft, and believe us, you won't be able to resist petting the surface. However, beware of fingerprint streaks -- specifically, the palmrest gets covered pretty quickly, though thankfully, Samsung includes a cloth in its high-end box.

But, of course, the first thing everybody notices about the 9 is its insanely thin profile. Yes, it's one really thin and light machine, and in terms of numbers, it comes extremely close to rivaling the MacBook Air. Samsung claims the Series 9 weighs 2.88 pounds and measures 0.62 to 0.64-inches thick. In comparison, the Air tips the scales to 2.9 pounds and is 0.11-inches at its thinnest point and 0.68 at its thickest. Still, the differences are as minimal in person as they are on paper -- while the Series 9 does seem slightly thicker in hand, it's really not a difference you'd notice everyday, and just like the Air, picking it up off your lap or table requires little to no muscle.

Samsung was able to find a home for quite a few ports on the svelte system as well. The left port cover pulls down to reveal one USB 3.0 port, a mini HDMI socket, and a jack for the included Ethernet adapter. The one on the right hides a USB port 2.0, a microSD card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It's a decent lineup, we just wish Samsung had gone with a regular SD card slot. Oh, and those worried that the port covers would retract when the system is sitting on the table will be happy to know that it isn't an issue.

Keyboard and touchpad

The best news may come when you open up the Series 9's lid. In fact, we can confidently say the chiclet keyboard and touchpad duo is one of the best we've seen on a Windows laptop. The keyboard itself is extremely well laid out and the keys themselves feel nice and smooth. The panel doesn't bend, though we could have done without the glossy plastic surrounding the keys and the screen. Naturally, we're just elated to see the backlight and the fact that you can adjust the brightness manually with the F7 and F8 buttons. It really makes a world of difference when you get caught in dimly lit environments -- something we wish Apple had remembered when it cut out that feature on its new generation of Airs.

The touchpad -- or what Samsung is calling a SuperButton ClickPad -- has integrated mouse buttons, and it's actually the best we've seen on a shipping Windows laptop. It's still not a perfect experience, but it does use Synaptics' ClickPad Series 3 with image sensing technology. the traditional finger layout – a thumb on a mouse button and an index finger to navigate – is noticeably improved. Additionally, the 4.0 x 3.0-inch matte pad, which has a rubberish feel to it, is also quite spacious and lends itself nicely to multi-finger movements. However, two finger scrolling is still where things aren't exactly perfect – running two fingers down the pad while on this very site still made for a very jittery experience, though adding a bit more pressure helped move things along. However, some other gestures work as advertised – four fingers down brings you to the desktop and four up launches Aero. You can always customize the gestures, though for some reason, the menu for that is buried deep in the Control Panel's mouse settings tab.

The touchpad and keyboard provide hassle-free experiences on their own, but we found in our typical use, that our palms would swipe up against the pad while typing and would subsequently cause the cursor to jump across the screen. Making some adjustments to our wrist positioning helped ease the situation as did turning off the touchpad, but it's something we wish either Samsung or Synaptics would address with some palm rejection tweaks.

Screen

The 13.3-inch display on the Series 9 is yet another place the it rises above the rest. The 1366x768-resolution, 400-nit screen boasts Samsung's SuperBright Plus technology, and its one heck of a viewing experience. The matte screen (yes, it's also matte!) is extremely crisp and colors just look dazzling. The ambient light sensor automatically adjusts brightness, but we opted to disable that function while plugged in and cranked it up to the max. There's also good news for those that plan to do a bit more outdoor computing: without any brightness adjustments, the screen looked extremely crisp when we took it on a field trip to Times Square. Our only ungranted wish comes with the resolution – we would have liked to see a higher-end option, like the 13-inch MacBook Air's 1440 x 900-resolution panel or the VAIO Z's overly dense 1600x900 screen.

Samsung claims wide 160-degree viewing angles with the 9, and we can attest that both horizontal and vertical angles on this thing were top notch. Actually, horizontal angles are almost perfect; sitting to the far right of the system, we were still able to make out everything on the panel. It's indeed impressive. The 1.3 megapixel HD webcam above the display served up decently crisp images of our mug while chatting over Skype, though it seemed to have a slight issue adjusting the brightness as we moved around. The two speakers, which are located on the right and left edge, were surprisingly loud for their size. Unsurprisingly, the sound was rather tinny when listening to Adele's latest on Rdio.

Performance and graphics

We've established that the Series 9 has what it takes to compete on an aesthetics and ergonomics to a large degree, but a large chunk of your green is going to its higher end performance parts. So, is it worth it? The experience is certainly snappy, there's no doubt about that. The 1.4GHz Core i5-2537M processor and 4GB of RAM consistently opened applications quickly and didn't show any signs of slowing down when we worked simultaneously on this review in Microsoft Word 2010, intermittently wrote posts in Firefox 4, edited pictures in GIMP, checked our Twitter feed in TweetDeck, and even video chatted with a friend on Skype.

But don't underestimate the role of the 128GB SSD in launching apps and quickly resuming / booting Windows 7 Home Premium. Similar to what Apple's done with its MacBook Air, Samsung's worked on what it's calling Power Back, which promises to wake the system from sleep in three seconds. And our testing proved that claim to be exactly on the mark. The Air, on the other hand, resumes from sleep in a slightly faster 2.6 seconds, though the Series 9 has Apple's system beat on boot time -- it revved up Windows 7 Home Premium in 20 seconds flat, while our 13-inch Air took 25 seconds.

Graphics-wise, the Series 9 packs Intel's integrated HD 3000 graphics, and as we saw with the Lenovo ThinkPad X220, the performance is markedly improved over the last Core integrated options. It had no problems handling the local and Flash HD clips we threw at it. How does it compare to the NVIDIA's GeForce 320M in the Air? Well, as the benchmarks show, NVIDIA's option is still a stronger choice, but like we said, Intel's solution was extremely nimble when it came to watching 1080p clips.

	PCMarkVantage	3DMark06	Battery Life
Samsung Series 9 (Core i5-2537M)	7582	2240	4:20
13-inch MacBook Air (Core 2 Duo, GeForce 320M)	5170	4643	4:45
ThinkPad X220 (Core i5-2520M)	7635	3517	7:19
ASUS U36Jc (Core i5 / NVIDIA GeForce 310M)	5981	2048 / 3524	5:30
Lenovo IdeaPad U260 (Core i5)	3858	1153	2:56
Dell Vostro V13 (Core 2 Duo)	2687	556	2:39
Toshiba Portege R705 (Core i3-350M)	5024	1739 / 3686	4:25
HP Pavilion dm1z (AMD Zacate E350)	2510	2213	5:02
Notes: the higher the score the better. For 3DMark06, the first number reflects score with GPU off, the second with it on.

Battery life and software

Give its standard voltage processor, we never really had that high of hopes for the Series 9's battery life, and actually, we doubted Samsung's claim of seven hours. However, it fared much better than we anticipated. On our standard video rundown test, which loops the same video at 65 percent brightness and WiFi on, the six-cell 6300mAH battery lasted four hours and twenty minutes. That's quite a taxing test, and in typical use with brightness hovering around 75 percent, we got closer to five hours of juice. Yes, of course, that's not as long as the X220 we just tested, but that had a much larger battery and an additional slice cell. Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air lasts 25 minutes longer on a charge on our battery test, but in use we got closer to 6.5 hours of use with similar brightness adjustments. Either way, we're content with the Series 9's endurance considering its high performance parts and the fact that dragging around its small, one piece charger isn't a bother. We should also note that the rig stayed fairly cool during both corded and cordless use -- the keyboard got slightly warm, but only after quite a bit of use.

Like most of Samsung's laptops, the Series 9 is preloaded with a bit of the company's own utilities. Listed under Samsung in the Start menu are Easy File Share, Easy Migration, Easy Network Management, and other "Easy" tools. Shockingly, the rest of the system is pretty bare on third-party software.

Wrap-up

Finally! The Series 9 gets right what so many other ultrathin PCs have repeatedly gotten wrong. It's got a brand spankin' new and speedy Sandy Bridge Core i5 processor, a fast 128GB SSD as well as a high quality screen and stunning exterior. And on top of all that, it doesn't require that you drag along the AC adapter everywhere you go. But just as we're about to say the Series 9 hits it out of the park, we're hit in the face with its $1,649 price tag. No matter how you slice it, this ultraportable is still meant for a niche user who's willing to shell out over $1,600 for a laptop (although, we are seeing it listed for $1,599 at Best Buy). And while it may have more processing power than Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air and a backlit keyboard, Apple's offering shaves off $350, has a higher resolution display, slightly longer battery life, stronger graphics performance, and a better multitouch touchpad experience, and ultimately, we assume that will be enough for those seeking an incredibly thin laptop. That said, the Series 9 has the horsepower to be one's main system and finally proves that PC manufacturers can build an incredibly thin, head-turning laptop without sacrificing the vitals. And well, despite the Samsung tax, that's quite a feat.

Update: The touchpad, while excellent, does not use Synaptics' ClickPad Series 3 design. Rather, it's built on the company's ClickPad Series 1.5 technology, with Series 3-enabled notebooks slated to arrive later this year.