Samsung is making a power statement this year, with its premium line of business laptops. The South Korean tech giant has just unveiled this year’s newest ATIV 9 Pro laptop, alongside a brand new 2-in-1 version, called ATIV Book 9 Spin.
The Pro version of the ATIV Book 9, features a 4K 15.6 inch 3840 x 2160 pixel resolution display, powered by an nVidia GeForce GTX 950M.
A 6th generation Skylake CPU is almost mandatory for any new laptop at this point, and the new Samsung ATIV Book 9 Pro is no exception, powered by a 2.6GHz Intel Core i7, with an entry level memory option of 8GB, and 256GB SSD.
The new model also features one USB Type-C port, three USB 3.0 Type-A ports, and one 4K-capable HDMI output connector, along the stock mic port and SD card slot.
The metal-finish laptop also features options typical of its category, such as the back-lit keyboard, and four-speaker setup.
Compared to the MacBook Pro, the ATIV 9 Pro is a slightly lighter, weighing in at 4.45 lb, with a battery life lasting up to 6.5 hours. With that said, considering the hardware included in this device, such as the high-end nVidia GPU, and 4K touchscreen, this is a device that falls into the desktop-replacement category, with a design that is very much desk-bound, putting battery life as a secondary priority , and acceptable tradeoff for performance.
ATIV Book 9 Spin
As previously mentioned, the ATIV Book 9 Pro has been unveiled alongside an entry level 2-in-1 version, replacing the Pro suffix with Spin.
The smaller device features a non-4K, 13.3 inches display, which matches the display size of the Microsoft Surface Book, with a similar resolution, at least in the way of pixel count, but with a different QHD aspect ratio, set to 3200 x 1800 pixels.
While the processor powering this convertible laptop/tablet is the same Intel Core i7, it features a slower 2.5GHz clock speed. With that in mind, the storage and RAM options are identical to its Pro counterpart.
Also, in terms of ports, the Spin does not feature the Type-C connector, but it does include three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and microSD slot.
The sound system on this model features 2-speaker audio, as well as backlit keyboard.
The battery life on this device is also understandably longer than the Pro version, extending the daily use of this device to 7.3 hours.
Windows 10 ready
Both laptops ship with Microsoft Windows 10, in a bit to increase the options available in the 2-in-1 plainfield, against competitors like the Microsoft Surface, Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, and Asus Transformer Book.