Product Listing

Samsung Series 9 900X3A - A Deadly Assault on Your Senses

By Leo Boon Yeow - 8 Sep 2011
Launch SRP: S$2488

Killer Looks

Killer Looks

Open the very sleek and sexy (yes as long as they are slim with curves, they are sleek and sexy) Series 9 up, and you will be greeted with even more black. The palm rest itself is covered with the same material as the lid, but unlike the MacBook Air, the edges are curved so that the metal wouldn’t cut into your skin too much causing discomfort. Brownie points for Samsung's consideration of consumer well-being there.

The beautiful matte black chiclet keys however are sitting on a kind of piano black plastic material, which surprisingly didn’t introduce much flex to the slightly recessed keyboard, allowing it to be fairly robust. The keys themselves are quite shallow, but have good bounce for that important tactile feel while typing. They are also back-lit, so that typing in the dark will not be a problem either.

Typing on the back-lit chiclet keys have a nice muffled but clicky feeling, not unlike other well-made chiclet keyboards.

The screen is also surrounded by a glossy black bezel, and trust us when we say it is not fingerprint friendly. So if you have an aversion towards ugly fingerprints, you’d do well to keep your fingers well away from the screen. Basically the same advice we would give when dealing with any notebook.

And surprise, surprise! There is a matte (1366x768 pixels resolution, anti-glare) screen on this little beauty. We haven’t seen a matte screen on a consumer machine since... a long time ago, and we think it is a refreshing change (that is also easy on the eyes). The 400 nits LED lit screen on the Series 9 is also extremely bright, good for when working under the afternoon sun (we don’t want to know why though). But when working in a dark room, be sure to turn it a couple of notches down, otherwise you’d be semi-blind within an hour.

The matte screen is a welcome change to common glossy screen for consumer notebooks, This is because it reduces glare - something which the Series 9 needs because it's so portable you'll be bringing it out all the time.

You can also rejoice for the very large trackpad (another feature we’ve seen before elsewhere) on the Samsung Series 9. This is by far the most functional feature that Samsung has implemented for its customers. Like the machine the Series 9 draws inspiration from, the trackpad is a large single piece, but it feels like plastic instead of glass. It is completely clickable, and there are no visible boundaries that separate the left-right buttons or the scrolling area. One of the downsides of having such a large trackpad however, is the unconscious interaction between the ball of your palm and trackpad. While there's no dedicated key to switch off the trackpad, that option is still available as part of a function key.

We love our trackpads big. Sure there aren't any physical indicators that tell you where is the right and left click. But after using for a while, we're fairly confident you'd be able to figure it out on your own and still enjoy using it.

Subtle design touches here and there (like the very interesting power button) defines the kind of design centric assault that Samsung wants to launch against what they see as their biggest rival - Apple.

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8.5
  • Design 9
  • Features 8.5
  • Performance 7.5
  • Value 7.5
  • Mobility 9.5
The Good
Good Design
Durable and lightweight
Premium finishing
The Bad
Very expensive
Specs not as strong as competition
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