It’s crunch time. I’ve been without a decent notebook for months and with CES fast approaching, I need to make a decision. I have a short-list of Ultrabooks and because there’s no-one in this room to discuss it with, I’m going to talk to myself.
Why Ultrabook?
I’ve tested three devices on the ultra-low voltage 2nd-gen Core platform so far and I really like what I see. The dynamic range of processing is just what I need; Quick Sync Video is the solution for my on-the-go video crunching and upload tasks, 1080p video playback is going to be great for home use and at around the 1KG mark, it meets my portability requirements spot-on. 5hrs is the battery life target for average use although anything more than that makes a day on the road less stressful! The Ultrabook platform delivers the perfect balance that I need right now.
You can tune in, ask questions and steer the testing on Saturday 3rd Dec at 2100 MEZ/CET (Your timezone details here.) I’ll be live for about 2 hours so please, drop in and join-in on Ultrabooknews.com/live . Follow@ultrabooknews on Twitter for reminders.
I want to publicly thank Morgan, @morganmobile who’s just packaged up an Acer S3 and shipped it off from Finland to us here in Germany. Who needs PR people when you’ve got contacts like that! He’s been busy testing a number of solutions and I plan to get his thoughts here in text soon.
We’ll be running the Samsun 900X1B live review on Saturday [details here] and finalizing a written review over the next 3 or 4 days. After that we’ll be getting it together with the Acer S3 for a week. I’ll let you all know about the live session for that.
Once the S3 is out the way we should be lined-up with the Toshiba Z830. I know a lot of you have been waiting for a review of that so my apologies about the delay. It’s expected within the next 2 weeks. As for the Lenovo U300S, I’m working on it. [Any Lenovo PR people out there?]
The 11.6” Samsung 900X1B, the 1KG sibling to the 13” 900X3A that we tested a while back, arrived today and I’ve had a solid afternoon of testing, and enjoying, this pre-Ultrabook. I won’t call it an Ultrabook alternative because just like the Apple MacBook Air it pre-dates the Ultrabook launch but uses the same design principles…and it’s just as good. With an 11.6” screen it obviously goes up against the Asus UX21 and Apple MacBook Air. Here are some first impressions, relatively detailed, that might help you raise or lower the 900X1B on your list.
I reported recently on the US announcement of the updated version of the 11” Samsung Series 9, the 900X1B which would finally bring Sandy Bridge to the Samsung 11” products. For those looking for power and style in the US it’s definitely worth looking at. Luckily, it’s coming to Europe too.
Samsung Germany yesterday announced the 900X1B which is the same model and will be available for 1099 Euro from the 22nd July. That’s next Friday. Expect discounting to bring that to 999 Euros in a very short while making it the first device we’ve seen that fits all the requirements for an Ultrabook.
As with the US model you’ve got the Core i3-2357M CPU but Samsung Germany are paring this with 4GB RAM and the 64GB SSD. The high brightness screen is there along with USB3 and the fast-start software. All in all it’s looking like a great setup for the ultra mobile warrior because the weight is an amazing 1.06KG. That’s 200-300gm lighter than netbooks with the same sort of battery life!
