back to article Samsung Ultrabook specced up by retailer

Samsung's upcoming Ultrabook, the Series 5 line member NP530U3B-A01, has been specced up on a US retail site ahead of its formal launch - which will presumably take place next week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook The 13.3in, 1366 x 768 machine is based on a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-2467M CPU …

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  1. Tchou
    Pint

    Good job Samsung...

    ... the chick is nice.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Fuzz

    1366x768 and a hybrid drive - yawn

    not much else to say, dull dull dull. Nobody wants computers like this, they're too expensive for most people and not high enough spec for people prepared to pay that kind of money.

  3. Jess
    Thumb Down

    For $99 more

    you could buy a Macbook air

    1. Darryl

      and this is one of the 'cheaper' ones. Seriously, why buy one of these low resolution clones?

    2. dogged
      FAIL

      but then you'd own a Macbook air, on which you could look at web pages read twitter, not something you could do any work on.

      Call me back when it runs VS2010.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        OK granted you have to go buy Windows to install on the MBA, but you end up with a better machine for not much more. Plus, you're allowed into the really cool coffee shops because you have an Apple logo.

      2. Prag Fest
        Stop

        Phone is ringing...

        Google parallels, VS runs fine on my Air.

      3. Piro Silver badge

        Eh, you could always just install 7

        Easily done. Still a better machine..

      4. Chris Sanderson

        To be fair I can work all day on mine

        Macbook 11" owner and I use it all day long if I'm working from home. Granted I have to connect to a number of different web apps or Netilla to access shared networks as works security mean I can't use VPN on a personal device but I have office on there, can dual boot it if I want and also do some development while sat on the train... all that and it barely requires more space than an iPad but I get a full keyboard, nice screen etc.

        As for VS2010 (I'm not a dev) I assume you mean Visual Studio? I don't personally but a friend runs it perfectly fine on a 13" macbook air. You can dual boot (as mentioned earlier) or run something like virtualbox/parallels etc.

  4. LomaxFC
    FAIL

    Ultra

    How does 13.3in, 1366 x 768 equate to 'Ultra' exactly?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Boring

    Most of these ultrabooks haven't been released yet but they're already going the way the netbooks went after a short while: all vendors sticking to the same spec, same crappy insufficient resolution, same ports, same looks and same price tag... all indistinguishable from one another.

    The only thing ultrabooks are achieving so far is making the Mac Air look like a distinct bargain.

  6. chipxtreme
    Thumb Down

    Small screen resolution puts me off completely. No sale here

  7. Antidisestablishmentarianist

    VGA

    Check out the awkward treatment of the VGA port. Time for these to die. Yeah yeah I know, road warriors doing presentations all day need them. But I'm sure they've got room for a VGA dongle amongst all the other crap they invariably take with them.

    1. Neil Greatorex

      "Road Warrior" WTF?

      Sales droids are not "warriors" of any kind. Also any sales git that wanted to start a powerpoint presentation would be out of the door pronto.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Stopped reading when the article got to 1366 x 768...

  9. Peter 48
    Thumb Down

    still no dedicated graphics

    Until they stick a dedicated graphics chip into these ultrabooks they are a no-go for me (Sketchup simply doesn't play well with integrated intel graphics). A decent ips or even amoled screen would be a major bonus too. Oh well, maybe next year.

  10. Levente Szileszky

    So it's OK on thickness, has a small, low-resolution screen and very slow CPU?

    I thought Ultrabooks supposed to be speedy but very thin, lightweight with higher resolution displays and good thermal envelope in return for putting up with that PoS Intel integrated graphics.

    This must be some Samsung "For Profit" Ultrabook version: very slow processor, shitty display resolution on a small screen and a (hybrid but still) spinning disk for storage?

    Oh yes, it's thin, I guess.

    Samsung, for comparison's sake take a look at this non-Ultrabook Vaio: http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SYCTOProcess?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&LBomId=8198552921666377664&categoryId=8198552921644768015

    Yes, for the same price it comes with a decent CPU, 1600x900, switchable Radeon HD6630 1GB and Intel junk (WiDi-enabled), fingerprint reader

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mine's a Macbook Air running Parallels for the Windows apps I still need to run.

    What did they do - just pop down the Apple store - buy a MBA and said to their designers 'you are all sacked' and just gave the factory the MBA and said copy this.

    1. Gordon 10

      Not unless the factory

      Copied it really badly.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hybrid drive = cheap option

    Macbook Air uses proper solid state flash memory. Sure it gives you more capacity but not as fast, probably uses more power and in this type of device do you need more than 64/128/256Gb you can get on the 'Air'?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Basically it's a 13" MBA copy that is physically bigger (thicker), with a worse resolution, a cheap hybrid drive (not proper flash) and slower processor. Do really see WHY would you buy this instead of a MBA - even if you did just buy a copy of Windows 7 and install it instead of Lion??

    If I wanted an ultra notebook I would be looking to be as small and light as possible - so would probably go for the Apple 11" MBA for just $99 more than this one.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This will die just like all the other manufacturers who try and copy the Apple iPad and end up creating a machine that is 'worse' for about the same money. If you want to compete with the Macbook Air you could at least try and make it as good for significantly less money or better for about the same money. This is near enough a turkey as it's not as good yet almost the same price and a genuine solid state drive is much better suited to a mobile device (less power, faster, more reliable / rugged) than one of those hybrid drives.

    Apple should actually make more of the fact that you can just buy a copy of Windows 7 and install that if you don't want to run Lion or Windows in a Parallels VM.

    1. Gordon 10

      Totally agree

      Judging by all these laughable so called ultra book Steve Job's ghost must be pissing itself.

      Given something of apples to copy they still can't get it right.

      All they need is same spec, nice design and more ports and 100 quid less.

      How fucking hard can it be?

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Neil Greatorex

    I am a ‘road warrior’. The amusing fact is that I earn massive multiples of the salaries that you sad techies earn. This is mainly because I have some social skills and wash fairly frequently. The comment about PowerPoint made me laugh. You are without doubt too junior/insignificant for someone like myself to bother with so you are unlikely to have to sit through many PowerPoint presentations. Keep on dreaming though……

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "I am a ‘road warrior’"

      ROFL

      Enjoy your huge salary (and your Audi/BMW) you swaggering, self important buffoon.

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. asdf

      funny that power point sales drone

      These days in many markets a good experienced developer will command a better salary than some sad sack yes man middle manager pm with a clipboard and a tie.

  16. WTFF

    1366 x 768 - WTF

    Go back 10 or so years and 1024x768 was a good spec for a laptop. Today 768 is just not good enough for any serious work. Like others commenting those numbers are enough for me to say not interested.

    When will Samsung/Sony/Lenovo etc realise that if you're prepared/able to pay a high price you're probably not just palying games - see Fuzz comment.

  17. dancecat
    Unhappy

    What about the last piece of vaporware??

    It's been a year since they showed off the Sliding PC 7 at CES and it's still nowhere to be seen.

    I'll believe it when I see it in PC World. Then I'll get it from somewhere else.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ asdf

    I work for a very large software company with thousands of developers. Please rest assured that none of them earn anything like the amount us sales guys earn. It is all about the bonus you see. We earn higher basic salaries than devs and then we tend to double/triple that with our bonuses.

    And before you all jump in and call me arrogant please remember that I would not be posting this if Neil Greatorex had not slagged off my chosen profession :-)

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Screen!

    The 10.1" screen on my Dell mini 1012 runs at 1366x786. Why on earth is this thing 13 inches?♠

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