Samsung Series 9 13.3" Notebook Review - Mr Darth Vader-You're Notebook is Ready!!!

Samsung Series 9 Model Number 900X3A-A03 Notebook Review - REVISED 11/17/2011

Paging Mr Darth Vader....Your notebook is ready to go!!!!!!
Greetings! Yours truly just received a Samsung Series 9 13.3 Notebook and I have to say, this notebook is about as close to notebook perfection.....at least for my requirements and what I've seen from the competition so far. This notebook comes with a super speedy 128 GB SSD drive, Windows 7  and a gorgeous ultra bright and sharp matte anti glare LCD screen that is backlit by LEDs and is rated at 400 Nits of Brightness which is brighter than most desktop LCD monitors. It measures about .62" thick and weighs a tad less than 3 pounds with the 6 cell Lithium Ion Battery installed. The entire notebook is constructed and finished with a material used on aircraft called duralumin which is at least two times stronger that aluminum. This notebook does not exhibit any flex when touch typing or just holding the notebook. The hinges are smooth and the display screen is so thin but solidly constructed where it does not bend or exhibit any tendency to flex or change shape. The entire keyboard is back lit by LEDs which is a very nice touch and the finish does attract fingerprints as the black surfaces are like magnets. I suggest that you keep a microfiber cloth packed in the computer bag as this is one of the few shortcomings (read design flaws) of this notebook. It runs cool with zero fan noise and the second generation Sandy Bridge Core i5 Intel processor is plenty fast for most business applications.

Thin is In!!! or.....Cuts Like a Knife!
Samsung named it the Series 9
But they should have named it the Katana (Sword in Japanese)
IMHO & with apologies to Bryan Adams

What about battery life? I ran it down with surfing, WiFi and Bluetooth on and MS-Word and Excel open (4 GB of RAM installed and the LCD brightness set to about 33% or 1/3 of the brightest setting and I got about 5 and 1/4 hours of continuous run-time on the battery before it shut down. For an Intel equipped Core i5 notebook weighing just 2.9 LBs  that is a little more than 1/2" thick, the battery performance numbers are very impressive indeed.

Pay attention 007!!! Samsung also got the back-lit keyboard right.
Q wants his Samsung Series 9 returned from the field
 in the same condition as when it originally left...
Got that Bond?
Bond to Q...You must be joking?
Q to Bond... I never joke about my work 007!

I do not foresee any problems carrying this notebook anywhere as it is built to withstand the rigors of day-to-day business travel and usage and is supremely use-able. I am averaging a boot time from power off to the windows desktop in about 18 seconds. It comes to life after sleep mode in a few seconds and sips battery power when in the sleep mode.

The only knock I can see on this notebook is the omission of a USB 3.0 port and having  a built in micro SD memory card slot instead of a standard SD-HC-XC memory card slot reader writer. It just means you need to carry a USB SD card reader when you travel if you need to download photos from your digital camera.

I also like the fact that this notebook on average is about two to three hundred dollars cheaper than a comparably configured MacBook Air.

Samsung even figured out how to take the flex out of the chassis and LCD frame.
The entire notebook feels substantial......almost as if it was carved out of a solid block of titanium.
I can attest to the fact that it is a helluva a lot stronger and durable than it looks in the photos.

I really believe this is what Intel had in mind when they came up with the design specification for the Ultrabook. Take the Samsung Series 9 design and see if you can come with a package that can retail for under $1,000.00 with some design and material construction trade-offs.

I call the Samsung Series 9 Notebook the uber Ultrabook much in the same way the original Audi Quattro was affectionately nick-named the uber Quattro.

Audi S1 World Rally Champion Car 1981
Driven By Walter Rohrl
aka Uber Quattro

Asus UX31 Ultrabook Glitches and Teething Pains

The Asus UX31 Ultrabook, one of the most promising ultra thin notebooks released to market in October has some serious useability issues right out of the box and the early reviews have identified two problem areas with the notebook that I believe should be corrected before it is released for mass distribution. The trackpad driver does not work properly and you need to download the updated trackpad driver from the Asus web-site to fix it. Testers and early adopter/users have complained that the fixed driver is very rough around the edges and still needs work. The keyboard was also identified as a potential deal-breaker as it requires more than average pressure to engage the keys forcing key-stroking errors as you need to press down with much more force to make sure the keys register. I believe Asus will do the right thing and suspend shipment of these notebooks until the problems are corrected. The standard for thin notebooks is the MacBook Air and the Samsung Series 9. Both of those ultra-thin notebooks have smooth trackpads and keyboards that allow touch typists to type normally without having to worry about abnormal keyboard pressure.

In early test reviews the Asus UX31 Ultrabook garnered praise and high marks for its sleek design, classy textured surface and the overall strength of the chassis, lid and covers using a reinforced aluminum unibody design.Weight is a shade under 3 pounds and is as thin or a little thinner than a Mac Book AIr. Performance is also one of its strong points along with a longer than normal battery life topping out at around six hours.

You can have the coolest and best styled notebook on the planet or universe but if you cannot type or use the trackpad for normal operations, then it pretty much is nothing but a cool looking gadget with no useable functionality. The whole idea is to preserve and extend the portability of the desktop computing experience without sacrificing the input method. I think the other notebook manufactures are taking a very close look at this situation and are taking more steps to test their product very thoroughly before releasing it to the channels. The pre-announced Toshiba, Sony and Lenovo Ultrabooks all promise to deliver very thin (about .6 inches thick) powerful notebooks with great battery life (more than 5 continuous hours of run-time) with the latest generation of Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 Processors).. I hope that they do not make the same mistake of releasing product before it has been thoroughly tested in the field.

Netbooks Now DOA! - Tablets Are The New Entry Level Notebook!

Wow! It did not take long for Tablet PCs to dominate the marketplace in such a short period of time. Ipad 2 and Android Tablet sales have skyrocketed over the last few months.

You can expect to see a lot of drastically price reduced Netbooks offered for sale this Holiday shopping season and you will probably see a bunch of them offered for around $100.00 on QVC and other national liquidators. This is clearly one of those situations that the computer manufacturers never planned for and the perfect storm of having a leapfrog class of product mass marketed totally destroying the viability of the Netbook product offerings in less than 12 months time. There is still a lot of inventory sitting on the shelves of big box warehouses and these Netbooks cannot be converted into Tablets so they will  in all likelihood be marked down very aggressively just in time for the Holiday season. The best Netbook to snag at a huge markdown is the Asus 1215N Seashell with the embedded Nvidia Ion 2 Graphics Video card or the Asus Lamborghini 12" LED notebook with the same Ion Graphics Chip. I would avoid any Netbook models unless they come equipped with the Nvidia Ion Graphics chip. Buying any other Netbook model would be a huge waste of money and you will be stuck with a boat anchor.

Check out this just published PC World Article:

Microsoft Posts Record Quarter But Says Tablets Cannibalizing Netbooks

Samsung Series 3 Princeton 11.6 NP300U1A VS Apple MacBook Air 11.6"

Here's a chart I prepared which compares all of the key technical features and specs of the Samsung Series 3 Princeton 11.6" NP300U1A Notebook versus the Apple MacBook Air 11.6" Notebook Computer. At about 50 to almost 70% less cost the Samsung Series 3 Princeton 11.6" NP300U1A notebook offers far more value than a similarly configured Apple MacBook Air 11.6" Notebook. The Samsung also has a working version of Microsoft Office 2010 pre-loaded on the hard disk. Please check out my hands-on review of this feature packed notebook here:

Samsung Series 3 Princeton Notebook 11.6" NP300U1A Review

Tale Of The Tape:

Samsung Series 3 11.6" NP300U1A vs. Apple MacBook Air 11.6" Notebook
MSRP	$599.99	$999.00
Lowest Price	$350.00	$999.00
Standard memory	4GB	2GB
Max memory	4GB	4GB
Disk Storage	320 GB Hard Disk	64 GB SSD
Screen Size	11.6" LED	11.6" LED
Operating System	Windows 7 Home Premium	Apple O/S
Processor	Intel Core i3 2357M Sandy Bridge	Intel Core i5
Connectivity	802.11 a/b/g/n Bluetooth 3.0 + EDR	802.11 a/b/g/n Bluetooth 4.0 + EDR
SDHC Memory Card Reader Writer	YES SD SDHC SDXC MMC	NO
USB Ports	3	2 + Thunderbolt
HDMI Output
Height	0.87	0.68
Width	10.9	11.8
Depth	7.9	7.56
Weight	2.84 lbs	2.3 lbs
Battery Capacity	4000maH	3500mAH

Hank Easton - Steely Dan Guitar Solo Medley

Hank Easton is an accomplished San Diego based jazz guitarist who performs in a local jazz band and is also the featured lead guitarist in Steely Damned, a Steely Dan tribute band also based in San Diego. A few years back, Hank performed an amazing medley of all of the best lead guitar parts from the very best Steely Dan Songs. We're talking Rikki Don't Lose That Number, Josie, Peg, Kid Charlemagne, Don't Take Me Alive, Bad Sneakers, Reelin' In The Years and My Old School. This guy is amazingly talented and nails every solo...and I mean nail it. His tone is exquisite and his playing chops will blow you away. Watch the video and you'll see what I mean. Just amazing. What a talented guitarist!

Sony Cybershot DSC-TX55 Digital Camera Hands On Review - Preview

Sony is just starting to ship the newest pocket-able TX digital camera, the Sony Cybershot DSC-TX55 and I have one on order which will be arriving soon for a complete hands-on review and evaluation. On paper, this digital camera is killer.

It is a little thicker than a penlight battery, features the latest and greatest 16 megapixel EXMOR CMOS sensor, and adds some new features, the most notable being the 10X digital zoom capability that stretches the 5X optical zoom to 10X zoom with no reduction in pixel count meaning you will get 10X zoom at full 16 megapixel resolution comparable to what you would achieve with a 10X optical zoom with little to no pixelation or digital artifacts associated with conventional digital zoom equipped cameras.

Here's a better explanation (from the Expert Reviews website (http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/digital-cameras/1286095/sony-clear-image-zoom-digital-enhancement-technology-detailed)

"The technology, which Consumer Reports claims is to be dubbed 'Clear Image Zoom,' uses a new form of interpolation called 'by-pixel super resolution'. Unlike traditional digital zoom capabilities, which simply enlarge the centre portion of an image and can cause severe image quality issues, Sony's new technology claims to use intelligent pattern matching to ensure that the zoomed image is as clear as it would have been had it been taking with optical zoom capabilities."

Sony calls this feature "Clear Image Digital Zoom" which is one of the first things I will be testing with sample photos posted to see if this revolutionary new technology works as advertised. It also has a 3.3" high resolution OLED screen and the camera features faster image processing and response times. Stay tuned as the review will be posted shortly.

When I first read the Sony press release about the Clear Image Digital Zoom technology, I was reminded of a key scene from the movie Blade Runner where Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) scans a photo into a special high tech scanner/printer and he enlarges (Enhances) the image using voice recognition and there is no loss in image quality as he magnifies the image by at least a power of 8-800X. This is a excellent example of te technology being invented after it is realistically imagined in a brilliant Science Fiction movie. Kudos to Ridley Scott and the production team of Blade Runner for getting the technology so right in 1982.

FROM THE SONY DSC-TX55 SALES TRAINING GUIDE:

Get Close with Clear Image Zoom

Clear image zoom BOOSTS magnification WITHOUT lowering the pixel count in the final image so your customer can zoom in and still get amazing, high resolution images.

Without Clear Image Zoom Fuzzy ears (not in a good way)

With Clear Image Zoom Adorable, whiskered perfection!

Clear image digital zoom maintains a high-resolution feel that is as precise as optical zoom and vastly expands the zoom range without lowering visible quality or pixel count in the final image. With By Pixel Super Resolution processing, the camera's 5x optical zoom range is extended, allowing full resolution 16.2MP images with a maximum digital 10x zoom.

How does Sony-exclusive By Pixel Super Resolution processing work?

• The DSC-TX55 includes a Sony-developed database that categorizes hundreds of patterns
• Each image is analyzed pixel by pixel, patterns are classified and compared to the database
• To double the size of the image, by pixel, it could mean creating 3 additional pixels from the original pixel
(four times more information compared to original pixel, causing possible degradation of image quality)
• To avoid degradation, By Pixel Super Resolution creates optimal new pixel data using the database
• Final picture is clear and detailed!

What is the customer benefit?

Photos
Clear image digital zoom boosts magnification without lowering the pixel count in the final image. Edge sharpness is superb and subtle textures such as leaves and wood grain (and lion fur!) exhibit outstanding realism. Your customers will enjoy photos that beautifully capture every precious moment.
Videos
Significantly boosts still image quality during movie recording. At a touch of the shutter button, 'Dual Rec' grabs detail-packed 12 megapixel-level still photos without interrupting Full HD video shooting.

Why Samsung is Rocking the PC and Tablet US Markets!

Updated November 1, 2011
Samsung is taking no prisoners in the US Notebook PC and Tablet Market. Samsung started testing the waters a few years ago with notebook computers and although they were reliable, they were nothing to write home about style and feature wise. Today, that has all changed. Much in the same way Hyundai has taken the US subcompact and compact and premium upscale large sedan segment with their newly styled Elantra, Sonata,Genesis and Equus Samsung has pulled all the stops out in taking the leadership position in the US when it comes to notebook and tablet computers.

READ MY IN-DEPTH REVIEW OF THE
SAMSUNG SERIES 3 11.6" NOTEBOOK NP300U1A
HERE:

A little background on Samsung. Samsung is a huge Korean technology conglomerate that is in of itself a world class innovator and manufacturer of PC computer components including flash memory, memory chips, LED and LCD displays and a whole host of semiconductor and micro electronics products that are marketed and sold worldwide. Sony decided back in 2003 to form an LCD manufacturing partnership with Samsung to reduce their capital expenditures. This solidified Samsung's leadership position with manufacturing flat panel screens  They are also a leading supplier of these components to to other computer manufacturers. They manufacture world class SSD hard drives and conventional spinning hard disks, DRAM memory and SODIMM memory simms and are one of the largest and most innovative flat panel LED manufacturers in  the world with OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) bleeding edge technology that has appeared in their line of Samsung Android smartphones and consumer digital cameras. They have also been selling LCD and LED televisions within the US for some time now and have gotten rave reviews from technology and consumer magazines. Ditto their extensive line of appliances (Refrigerators, Dishwashers, Vacuum Cleaners Ranges, etc). They even manufacture washing machines under the Sears Kenmore brand name. Most all of their appliances are extremely reliable and are class leaders wen it comes to efficiency design and price performance...read value for the money. They are taking that same formula and are applying it big time to their current and future line of notebooks and tablets.

Samsung introduced their line of Q notebooks which were some of the first thin and powerful 13, 14 and 15 inch notebooks that had glass covering the LED displays for enhanced color and sharpness and wider viewing angles. They also came out with ultra bright (400 nit LED displays) for their Series 9 11.6 and 13.3 notebooks which are the first real alternatives to the Apple Mac Book Air thin notebook computers. Offering more features for the money, these Series 9 notebooks were every bit as sexy as the MacBook Air but offered more features like an SD slot and more standard USB ports. Battery life is comparable and they are one of the best selling lines of Samsung Notebooks in the consumer and the business market segments.

Samsung also announced and quietly started shipping their value line of thin notebooks called the Series 3 or Princeton family of notebooks. With super aggressively low pricing they were able to sell a ton of the Series 3 Princeton 11.6" Core i3 Notebooks just in time for the September back to school season. They wisely partnered and sold the notebook at a low price $599.00 through Staples and the price has dipped through newer Staples sales promotions to an unheard of price of $350.00. Yes you heard that correctly. Samsung is dead serious about dominating the US market for notebook computers.

When it comes to value or price performance, no other computer company, even Acer or Asus touches Samsung on price performance or bang for the buck. There's a revolution going on in the US notebook industry and Samsung is leading the charge.All of the other Notebook computer companies have to be playing their A game to stay up with Samsung now. You just need to stop by a local Office Max or Best Buy store to compare Samsung notebooks against their competitors, Apple, Lenovo, Asus, Acer, Toshiba, Sony,  HP and you will see what I mean.

From a sales and marketing perspective, Samsung is running on all 8 cylinders in the US markets. They have forged exclusive channels with Staples and Best Buy adding Office Depot and Office Max with select brands of their notebook and tablet lines. Some of the Costcos had initially sold the Series 9 ultra thin notebook in the summer.

Aggressive pricing with coupons and trade-in programs has boosted sales of Samsung notebooks this past quarter and they are prepared to take advantage of the holiday season. They have been hiring corporate sales reps to push the Samsung line of notebooks into corporate America and have been working with leasing firms like GE capital to accelerate the technology refresh at the fortune 1000 companies. Trade publications like PC magazine, PC World and even Consumer Reports have been cranking out glowing reviews of th e latest and greatest Samsung notebooks. I expect to see more advertising and marketing dollars spent in the coming year to elevate the sales figures to where they may quickly gain the number one or two sales slot for selling PCs in North America. Their tablets are also selling very well and I expect to see more feature creep from Notebooks moving to Tablets and vice versa. Samsung can pull this off as their time to market is lightning fast and they can easily introduce new models at the drop of a hat and change their pricing to accommodate most any corporate or individual buyer.

We all will benefit as this will result in all of the manufacturers having to make downward price adjustments just to stay competitive with Samsung notebook and tablet offerings.