Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Samsung announced on July 1st a series of new models in the Samsung Series 9 line of ultrathin laptops.

NEW 2nd Gen 11-inch configurations:

• NP900X1B-A01US ($1,249, available in August) Intel Core i3-2357M CPU, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD
• NP900X1B-A02US ($1,049, available in August) Intel Core i3-2357M CPU, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD

NEW 2nd Gen 13-inch configurations:

• NP900X3A-A05US ($2,049, available now) Intel Core i7-2617M CPU, 6GB RAM, 256GB SSD
• NP900X3A-B02US ($1,649, available now) Intel Core i5-2467M CPU, 4GB RAM, 256GB SSD
• NP900X3A-B01US ($1,349, available now) Intel Core i5-2467M CPU, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD

Some differences should stick out:

1. CORE I7 AVAILABILITY
   The A05US model has an Intel Core i7 processor in it.  For those unaware – that’s a QUAD CORE chip.
2. 6GB STOCK MEMORY
   The same A05US model has 6GB RAM stock.  All Samsung Series 9 machines are upgradable to 8GB of RAM however so this doesn’t really matter much to folks with a little tinkering skills.
3. 256GB SOLID STATE DRIVES (SSD)
   The A05US and the B02US ship with 256GB SSD drives.  These drives are actually “mini-PCI-Express Full Slot” cards and… to be honest, I haven’t found them sold anywhere so upgrading to this “DIY” is not an option right now.  Besides, buying an SSD only to replace it with a larger one isn’t a really good way to spend cash.
4. CORE I5 2467M USE
   This is an odd thing.  The processor used in the first generation of Samsung Series 9 laptops used the Intel Core i5 2537M 1.40GHz, 3MB L3 cache w/SpeedBoost to 2.3Ghz.  The second gen used the Intel Core i5 2467M 1.60GHz, 3MB L3 cache w/SpeedBoost to 2.3GHz… meaning that the stock speed without managed overclocking is about 15% faster but the top speed is the same.

This incidentally is the reason for the drop of the in-store non-advertised price of the Samsung Series 9 at the Microsoft Store:  They’re getting rid of the previous generation.  There’s nothing really distinguishing the next gen much though other than the shipping 256GB drive and the availability of the i7 CPU.

So if I were you and was interested in a Ultrathin Laptop… I’d get down to the Microsoft Store and pick one up while you still can.