Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus review: High-resolution, small-footprint premium laptop

Take a beautiful Windows ultrabook design. Add a super-high-resolution touch screen and longer-battery-life Intel Haswell processor. What could be wrong with that?

8.4

Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus

The Good

The <b>Ativ Book 9 Plus</b> laptop has a sturdy, slim design, ultra-high-res touch screen, and really good battery life.

The Bad

Costs several hundred more than we’d prefer; shrunken HDMI port; doesn’t convert to a tablet form -- strictly a laptop.

The Bottom Line

If you’re just looking for an all-around excellently made Windows touch ultrabook and don’t mind that it's on the expensive side (and doesn’t convert to a tablet), the improved Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus is worth the investment.

Nothing at all. The Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus is a rebirth of the Book 9/Series 9, a laptop line we've loved for years because of its solid shape, slim design, and strong performance. Samsung's rebranding of Windows laptops to "Ativ" is a little confusing, as is the splitting of the line into two thin laptops: the Book 9 Lite and Book 9 Plus. The Lite, which I've already reviewed, is plastic, has an AMD processor, and is a different type of product, but costs around $750. The Plus is a far better ultrabook, but it's $1,399, nearly twice the price. It comes with what amounts to the New Standard in premium Windows ultrabooks: a greater-than-1080p 3,200x1,800-resolution touch screen, plus improved battery life thanks to a Intel Haswell Core i5 processor inside.

Do you pull the trigger on the more expensive ultrabook? I would. The Book 9 Plus is one of my favorite Windows 8 laptops, feels great to use, and I'd pay a few hundred more for it, begrudgingly. Even the equivalently configured 13-inch MacBook Air, albeit with a lower-res non-touch screen, costs about $300 less. And other Windows laptops in this territory are available closer to $1,000.

Nevertheless, it's hard to beat the pure package that the Book 9 Plus offers. It might not convert to a tablet, but it sure is a sweet, but expensive, laptop.

Design: Perfected ultrabook
The Ativ Book 9 Plus is extremely similar to the older Book 9: gunmetal-blue on the outside, silver edges, a curved, tapered profile like an airfoil, and a footprint smaller than a 13-inch MacBook Air.

You can make an argument -- an easy one, in fact -- that the biggest thing holding back Windows 8 laptops is Windows 8 itself. Hardware manufacturers are clearly trying to do their best, but there's a decision to be made: design a flippy-convertible tablet-to-laptop beast, or just make a good laptop?

The Samsung Book 9 Plus opts for the latter path, and probably wisely so. It's heavier than the last Book 9/Series 9, weighing in at 3.2 pounds versus the sub-3-pound wonder it was previously. It's a little bit thicker, too, to accommodate the upper lid's new touch screen. You probably won't notice much; the last Book 9 was shockingly light, and this new model just feels normal.

Display: More pixels than you'll know what to do with
The last year has seen a lot of computers adopting high pixel-density "ultra-high-res" displays, higher than 1080p and boasting much crisper image quality. The improvements can be hard to appreciate: once you get over 1080p, the sharpness of text and image quality amounts to close-up detail more than jump-out clarity.

The Book 9 Plus wins the pixel arms race with a stunning 3,200x1,800-pixel 13.3-inch display; the Toshiba Kirabook clocks in 2,560x1,440 pixels, and the 13-inch Retina Display MacBook Pro has 2,550x1,660. That's phenomenal pixel density, and a huge leap from the 1,600x900-pixel display on the previous Book 9.

But, while that quality display is great for clarity and viewing high-resolution images, a lot of the value is theoretical, since many Windows 8 apps don't take advantage of this resolution yet, and it's unlikely your video diet will include content better than 1080p.

The glossy display may be a little harder to see in direct light versus the matte display the Book 9 used to have, but glossy works better for capacitive touch. Gaining that feature is a plus -- in fact, it's hard to believe this high-end laptop lacked touch until now. The upper lid opens up 180 degrees, lying flat with the keyboard on a table if you wish, but it won't flip into a tablet. Gaining touch means easier compatibility with Windows 8 apps. The IPS display looks excellent and bright from all angles.

But at the 3,200x1,800 resolution, desktop mode becomes a hopelessly small landscape of mini-icons and micro-text. In tile-based app mode, however, apps stay the same size but gain more fine detail when optimized (for pictures and text, in most cases). Text size can be optimized either way. To be honest, though, I was usually fine working in 1080p; the extra-high resolution is just PC gravy.

The onboard speakers deliver nice, strong sound, too. The 720p Webcam also looks better-than-average. Overall, the Book 9 Plus has a pretty stand out set of audiovisual components for its small size.

Keyboard and touch pad are on point
Yes, this keyboard is backlit; but, it's so subtly done that you may not notice in normal light. The bluish LED lighting works gently, just enough so that the keys are readable in all light conditions, versus seem "lit up." The raised keys are pretty flat, like on many thin laptops, but the keyboard is laid out with generous spaciousness, and feels good to type on.

The wide clickable touch pad is once again really good, with lots of multifinger gesture room, and it's easy to do off-edge swiping. Keyboards and touch pads matter, and Samsung generally nails both on the Book 9 Plus.

Mini-ports galore
OK, here's one thing I really wish were improved since the last Book 9: Samsung really loves mini-ports on the Book 9 Plus. HDMI and VGA video-out are conspicuously represented by micro-ports. There are two full USB 3.0 ports and an SD card slot, but would it be so hard to fit a regular HDMI port in, too? Just curious.

Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi are here, though, as you'd expect, but not 802.11ac, the new, faster Wi-Fi standard. Go figure.

A word on SideSync
Samsung's recent Windows-compatible laptops feature SideSync software that allows Samsung Galaxy tablets and phones to work side-by-side and share keyboards and screen space. It's clever stuff: you can mirror your phone or tablet's screen on the Book 9 Plus to monitor calls and notifications or even use apps while the other device is tucked away, and the Book 9 Plus' keyboard and touch pad can be used to operate the phone or tablet.

It could be helpful in a narrow workspace like a plane's tray-table, or during a cramped event like, say, a tech live blog. If you're already a Samsung device owner, it's a nice perk.

Performance and battery life
The Book 9 Plus amounts to a standard fourth-gen Intel Core i5 ultrabook under its skin, and, to no surprise, it performs like one. "Haswell" Intel processors in thin laptops add up to better onboard graphics and big leaps in battery life more than overall system speed. As you can see on the benchmark charts, the new Book 9 Plus with a fourth-gen 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 4200U processor had performance pretty close to the Book 9 running a last-gen 2GHz Intel Core i7 3527U.

Most importantly, note the leap in benchmark performance between this Book 9 Plus and the Book 9 Lite, Samsung's nearly half-the-price semi-similar-looking plastic laptop running a quad-core AMD processor. The Plus is much faster.

Battery life takes an expected leap, but not a jaw-dropping one: on our video-playback battery test, we were able to get over 8 hours (8 hours 29 minutes, to be exact). But, increasingly, many current-gen Windows ultrabooks are hitting those numbers. It's not industry-leading, but over 8 hours (and probably more, if you adjust settings) is plenty for a full day's work. It comes close to the Sony Vaio Pro 13.

Unsurprising, but still really good
The Ativ Book 9 Plus feels like an obvious connect-the-dots between last year's great design and some awaited overdue features, like touch display and a longer battery life. That's not a bad thing: after all, if you're after a go-to usable laptop, improvements often matter more than innovations. It's not the battery king like the MacBook Air, but it's extremely good, and the higher-than-1080p display keeps it on par with many premium Windows 8 laptops.

But this isn't a tremendous surprise; ultrabooks have been doing this for months (see the Toshiba Kirabook, and upcoming laptops like the Lenovo Yoga 2). Samsung used to be a little more aggressive with its PC designs; lately, it's been on a more conservative path, at least compared with the competition. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Samsung's top-end Windows thin laptop matches the competition and delivers an excellent product. It's not supercheap at $1,399, but it's not ultra-expensive, either. Still, only having 128GB of onboard SSD storage and 4GB of RAM for that price feels like a letdown.

This isn't a convertible tablet-laptop design. It's just a laptop. But for those who want one of the very best thin Windows 8 laptops out there, the Book 9 Plus is an easy pick. Just be ready to spend a few hundred more for the privilege.

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System configurations:

Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus
Windows 8 (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 4200U; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 1749MB (shared) Intel HD Graphics 4400: 128GB SSD

MacBook Air 13-inch (June 2013)
OSX 10.8.4 Mountain Lion; 1.3GHz Intel Core i5 4240U; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 1024MB (Shared) Intel HD Graphics 4000; 128GB Apple SSD

Samsung Ativ Book 9 (13-inch, Spring 2013)
Windows 8 Pro (64-bit); 2GHz Intel Core i7 3527U; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz; 32MB (Dedicated) Intel HD Graphics 4000; 256GB SSD

Sony Vaio Pro 13
Windows 8 (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 4200U; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz;1659MB (Shared) Intel HD Graphics 4400; 128GB Samsung SSD

Acer Aspire S7- 392-6411
Windows 8 (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 4200U; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 128MB (Dedicated) Intel HD Graphics 4400; 128GB SSD

Samsung Ativ Book 9 Lite
Windows 8 (64-bit) 1GHz AMD A4 Quad-Core; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 512MB AMD Radeon HD 8250; 128GB Samsung SSD