Samsung Ativ Q

Now that Windows 8.1 is rolling out, PC OEMs are updating their line of laptops, and Samsung is coming up with an updated ATIV Book 9 Plus laptop which now comes with Intel’s 4^th Gen Core i7 processor, and of course, Windows 8.1. Samsung will continue to supply the version powered by a Core i5 CPU so the i7 updates aims the most demanding users who may want the extra horse power for video editing. Serious gaming seems a bit out of the question since the 9+ does not have a discrete GPU, but uses Intel’s integrated 4000HD graphics processor instead.

The theoretical battery life number remains unchanged to 7.5 hours (55.5Wh battery), but we will take a closer look into this when we test that laptop for ourselves.

If you are not familiar with the ATIV Book 9 Plus, it was initially launched in London in June 2013 and is designed to be a powerful ultralight 13.3” at 3.06lbs. The light weight is impressive since the touch-screen is supposed to add some weight to the system. The best part of the laptop is its QHD+ touch display (3200×1800) that is rated with a 350nit brightness.

This version has also gets a maximum of 8GB of memory, which is a big deal for anyone working with big files. Photoshop is probably a popular example of memory-hungry app that everybody knows, but there are certainly others. In theory “unused” system memory is actually used to cache a lot of files, so RAM never goes completely unused a system. In terms of storage, the official specs show a 256GB SSD, and that seems to be the only option at this time.

Samsung is going to take pre-orders right away on Samsung.com and says that users will find this product on the shelves in “early November”. The core i7 version starts at $1799.99 while the current i5 one remains at $1399.99 with 128GB of SSD and 4GB of RAM. For more affordable version, the ATIV Book 9 Lite or the Ativ Book 7 may be of interest.