Samsung Ativ Q

There are two kinds of people: those who plug their phones into their computers, and the other 79.5% of smartphone owners (read: Android users). Apple — and heck, even Microsoft — originally built their smartphones to connect and sync with computers via iTunes and Zune (now Windows Phone). Although updates eventually untethered them, they still carry the legacy of PC syncing.

And then there’s Google, the dominant mobile OS provider that does everything through the cloud. They know that most people never plug their phones into anything except to charge them, so all syncing and storing should be automatic and wireless.

Samsung — which isn’t even a software company, but the largest smartphone manufacturer — is increasingly differentiating itself in both hardware and software, and not just with Android anymore. The latest ATIV Book 9 line of laptops includes some very interesting software that makes connecting to an Android smartphone particularly fun and useful, and in ways that none of the software giants are attempting. And the best part is: no cables required.

Hit and Miss Tech

The ATIV Book 9 Lite is the lower-end model of two terribly named new laptops. The Lite features a 1.4GHz quad-core Samsung-made processor built on AMD’s latest low-power architecture. Samsung is one of the only companies capable of building its own CPU, and this chip is more flexible than the stock AMD design, fluctuating its power consumption based on user needs. That means that your computer will speed up for harder tasks more effectively than a standard AMD-powered laptop, but at the cost of draining the battery faster.

With the stop-and-go processor, you could be typing along and suddenly letters won’t appear because the chip ramped down and everything will have seemed to stall. We’ve all experienced this behavior, and to some extent all computers do it. The Lite just does it a lot. And it does affect battery life; the Book 9 lasts about six hours on a single charge, which can drop down to four and a half under heavier use (heavy web browsing, streaming HD video) or seven hours with lighter use.

The non-customizable 13.3-inch laptop (courtesy of Samsung) comes with 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 128GB solid state drive (100GB usable), and a 1,366 x 768-pixel resolution display. For the price of $830, that is far from a bargain, especially considering the last laptop we reviewed, the HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11. Even upgrading the HP to have similar specs would cost $200 less than the ATIV, so what gives?

Hit and Miss Hardware

I loved the TouchSmart 11’s keyboard, but Samsung’s is better. Thanks to the larger body (13-inch vs. 11-inch) and slightly finer tuning, the keyboard is an absolute joy to use. In fact, the whole frame of the Book 9 Lite is consistently pleasant. By no means is this a gorgeous laptop, but aside from a pretty basic plastic frame, the wavy thin design is sleek. It all points to a very sharp attention to detail, such as how the power connector is small and fits perfectly without taking up too much space.

The ATIV Book 9 Lite has two USB connectors (one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0), a headphone jack, an HDMI mini output, a special Ethernet port (with an included dongle to fit the larger ethernet cable), a 3-in-1 card media card slot, and a VGA mini-out (no dongle included). It’s surprisingly generous of Samsung to include the Ethernet dongle in this all-wireless age, and the hideaway media card slot is fantastically designed — it’s non-intrusive and next to impossible to break.

While all of this is great, two obvious cuts sting far worse than any simple physical tweaks could hope to repair. The first is the glossy display, which has poor vertical viewing angles and is average to good. The touchscreen functions work just fine, and brightness levels are good enough to use outdoors with marginal brightness, but for the price there’s an expectation of better quality: better colors, better vibrancy and better viewing angles.

Second is the trackpad, which feels atrocious to use. The corners edges don’t read finger swipes, the sensitivity is too high, and it just doesn’t work well. The good news is that this (and more) can be fixed via the “Elan Smart-Pad” settings (search mouse, select settings, then mouse properties, then select Touchpad, and finally options). The level of customization is almost as good as what you can get on a Mac; in fact, the only reason there aren’t more options is because Windows 8 just doesn’t support as many gestures. After setting it to your liking, the trackpad will not only be usable, but almost as pleasant as the great keyboard.

You Phone's Best Friend

The real secret sauce (and perhaps the $200 price premium) of the ATIV Book 9 Lite is it’s SideSync software, an application that enables Samsung Galaxy smartphone owners (Galaxy S II and up and Galaxy Note II and up) to connect their phones and laptops “seamlessly.” Let’s be clear, there’s nothing seamless about it. The ATIV ships with the software but has to download another three or four pieces to be fully functional, and the phones all require three apps too. The installation process on both the phone and laptop sides is slow, frustrating, and all too easy to mess up. And if you are one of the unlucky souls who owns an unlocked Galaxy phone without Samsung’s app store built in, then you can’t get any of the cool functions offered.

SideSync is a two-pronged app on both the laptop and smartphone (I used a Galaxy Note II) that lets users command the phone via computer, specifically with the mouse and keyboard. That may not sound like much, but we’re using our smartphones more and more, even in front of a computer. If you’ve got the laptop and smartphone side by side, there’s no need to take your hands off the keyboard to respond to an SMS or switch out of your laptop application to check who used your favorite hashtag on Twitter. It makes the two devices work together, and it does a damn good job of it.

Of course, how useful this feature is will depend on how you use the phone. I typically sit with my laptop front and center, smartphone docked on the right. Notifications come into the phone all the time, so I switch between the two regularly. With SideSync, and thanks to Android’s usability, you can do just about anything on the phone via your computer's mouse and keyboard (notable exceptions include selecting physical buttons and swipe gestures). It’s not only remarkably useful, but hard to stop using. Just like switching from two monitors to one makes you feel handicapped, losing a direct connection from your laptop to smartphone feels… hollow, like there’s now something missing.

The other half of SideSync is to show the smartphone screen right on the laptop, live. It’s probably kitschy and useless to most people, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t totally impressive to show a smartphone right from your laptop, on the slightly bigger screen. Macs can do this with a paid app (Reflector) and an iPhone, but that still requires you do everything from the phone. Show the phone in landscape or portrait, show any app, and control the whole thing with your mouse and keyboard with a mock phone straight from your screen. For smartphone developers it’s a godsend, for everyone else it’s just really cool.

Samsung’s other piece of software that only works on the company’s own smartphones and laptops is HomeSync, a partial syncing competitor to iTunes or Microsoft’s Windows Phone. Available as both a native app and via the web, it syncs all of your media between the phone and laptop and can do so wirelessly.

Unlike iTunes and Zune, HomeSync requires that you manually push items you want to sync to the device. I was able to “send” Jay Z’s Magna Carta from my Note II to the Book 9 Lite easily over the air, but not effortlessly. There’s also a clear lack of finesse and style to Samsung’s app, which looks and feels similar to second-tier Windows apps.

The only real problem is that there's no app syncing, which almost makes HomeSync useless. Media can be saved instantly on Android through a number of services such as Google Plus, Google Drive, and Dropbox. HomeSync is more work and does less.

It’s the Software, Stupid

Without any of Samsung’s extras, the ATIV Book 9 Lite is a mostly well-designed laptop that’s definitely overpriced. It has a great frame, an excellent keyboard, a decent trackpad after some fine tuning, and the battery life is decent. But for another $170 you could get a MacBook Air 11-inch that lasts three hours longer and is at least twice as powerful and better in just about every way.

Or you could go the other way and spend $330 less for an equally powerful HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11, and put around $130 into a good Solid State Drive for good measure. So if you don’t own a Samsung smartphone, you would be stupid to buy this machine.

If you are the proud owner of a Galaxy phone (and I recommend at least a Galaxy S III — without an HD display the screen sharing will be next to useless), then don’t run away too quickly. SideSync alone isn’t worth the premium, but how you use it might be. My day consists of switching between a laptop, tablet, and smartphone regularly. I even have the amazing Logitech Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard K811, whose three Bluetooth antennas let me instantly switch between three different devices. But a keyboard only goes so far; SideSync enables you to make your smartphone an extension of the laptop directly. There isn’t anything quite like it, and it is powerful.

Now if Google made it, then we’d likely see a lot more functionality, like sharing Chrome windows from the laptop to smartphone and other Google-based services working together at the swipe of finger. Sadly that’s not the case, but considering the limitations, Samsung has pulled off something really incredible: marrying the phone and PC. Even Apple has a disconnect between the two relative to this, something plenty of app makers like DeskConnect are trying to fix.

Whether you care for it or not depends on how you operate. I stopped using the Note II as a connected device for a day, and I felt like I’d lost a finger to type with. It isn’t necessary, and it’s definitely crude, but there’s an empty feeling when it’s gone. Developers should consider the far more powerful ATIV Book 9 Plus instead, which comes at a heftier $1,400 starting price and far better components.

The Lowdown

What’s Good

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  Great build, excellent keyboard

  
  


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  SideSync software combined with a Samsung Galaxy phone is incredible

  
  

What’s Bad

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  Extremely overpriced, unless you have a compatible phone

  
  


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  More powerful ATIV Book 9 Plus has more value

  
  


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  So-so screen quality

  
  

Bottom Line: If you have a Galaxy phone, you'll love how Samsung's ATIV Book 9 Lite seamlessly communicates with it, but at the end of the day its specs don't justify the high price.

Images: Mashable, James Pikover