Notebook 9 Specs, Release: Samsung Claims Sleek New Laptops Are The Lightest On The Market

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Samsung may not be keeping its PC division around for much longer as the company stopped selling PCs in Europe a few years ago, and there are rumors that it wants to sell the division to Lenovo.

However, the company is still making PCs, and ahead of CES, Samsung has announced a couple of systems with the claim that they are the lightest on the market with 1.8 lbs.

The new Notebook 9 has a 13.3 inches and 15 inches version, with the 13.3 inches weighing just 1.8lbs, which is a full pound less than the HP Spectre x360, and it is even 0.2lbs less than Apple's MacBook.

Even the 15 inches version, at 2.17lbs, has a lot lower weight than its 13 inches competitors. The new Samsungs are thin, and has 14.9mm for the large screen, 13.9mm for the small screen.

The Notebook 9 uses Intel Kaby Lake i5 and i7 processors, which are assumed to be ultra low power Y series parts. Although the different screen-sizes offer different diagonals, they seem to be otherwise equivalent with 1920×1080, 350 nits brightness with a 500 nit outdoor mode.

Samsung has also claim that they are high dynamic range screens, but the company did not specify if they support HDR-10 or some other specification. The 13.3 inches offers a SATA SSD, up to 256GB, and up to 16GB RAM, while the 15 inches offers an upgrade to an NVMe SSD and up to 256GB, though oddly the speculation sheet says that this only goes up to 8GB RAM, according to Myinforms.

Both PCs include 2×2 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1, a 720p webcam, and an integrated fingerprint reader with Windows Hello support. They also feature two USB 3.1 generation 1 ports, one USB Type C port, which is also used for charging, an HDMI port, a microSD reader, and a headset jack. The 15 inches device adds a USB 2 port into the mix.

The PCs lack Thunderbolt 3, which invariably means they do not have all the features a user might desire in a system. Also the use of SATA on the 13 inches device is also a going to be a little disappointing to potential users.

Given the light weight and slim size, don't be surprised to find a compromise somewhere. That's the battery. Both systems only come with a 30Wh battery and Samsung have only estimated seven hours of battery life.

The competing PCs may weigh a pound more, but they are boasting three-to-six more hours of life away from an outlet in return. As a partial compensation, the Notebook 9's battery supports fast charging as full charge can be done in 80 minutes, and more than two hours worth can be added in 20 minutes.

The Notebook 9 is not too picky on its charger, as Samsung said that even smartphone chargers that support USB Type C will be able to charge the PC, but at an obviously slower rate than the 45W charger that Samsung provides, according to Arstechnica.

There is not officially released update about its Pricing and availability yet, but it is expected that more will be revealed at CES.