Samsung Ativ Q

LONDON -- Samsung went head to head against Apple's MacBook Air when it first launched the Series 9 laptop. It paired high performance with decent battery life, all wrapped up inside an atom-splittingly thin frame.

It's back again to challenge for the top ultraportable spot. Along with a new name, the Ativ Book 9 Plus boasts a monster high-resolution screen, touch-screen operation for Windows 8, and boosted battery life.

Samsung hasn't given any word on availability or pricing yet, but don't expect it to come cheap.

Design

From the outside, the Plus looks basically the same as Samsung's Series 9 ultrabook that the Ativ Book replaces. It shares the same blue-gray color, as well as the curving metal edging. Samsung reckons it's designed to look like a magazine folded over. I'm not sure I quite see that, but it doesn't matter -- it looks great regardless.

It still has a full metal construction. Not only does that make it look and feel like a considerably more premium machine than plastic-clad laptops, but it should also help it take a few knocks and bumps on the road. I wasn't able to put it through CNET's usual stress tests, but I'm confident it won't fall apart at the first sign of trouble.

It's a 13-inch machine, with similar physical dimensions to its predecessor. Getting it into a backpack or carry sleeve will be no trouble at all thanks to its superskinny 13.6mm design. At 1.39kg (3.06 pounds), you won't need to hit the gym before trying to carry it anywhere, either.

The keyboard and touch pad look basically the same as the previous model's, but Samsung has apparently given them a couple of tweaks. The keys have been given more travel and a brighter backlight, while the touch pad has been made more responsive. Whether these tweaks make any noticeable difference in everyday use remains to be seen.

Screen

Samsung has upped the Series 9's screen resolution to a whopping 3,200x1,800 pixels, making it possibly the highest-resolution 13-inch laptop around (although it's the same as its stablemate, the Ativ Q). I wasn't able to spend much time poring over test images, but the examples I did see looked crisp and clear.

The extra serving of pixels should make high-definition images and ultra-high-definition videos look brilliant. There's not a whole lot of video around that supports that kind of resolution right now -- movie releases on Blu-ray top out at 1080p -- but as UHD TVs become more popular, expect more and more titles to be released that take advantage of this quantity of pixels.

The Book 9 Plus seemed satisfyingly bright in my hands-on time, with vivid colors, too. I only had a short while with it, and it was in a fairly dim room where even the dullest of screens will shine like a supernova. I'm looking forward to giving it a proper look in our lab conditions.

The display is touch-enabled in order to take full advantage of the big, colorful tiles of Windows 8. It supports 10 touch inputs and was satisfyingly responsive in my hands-on.

Specs and features

Samsung has tinkered with the 9's hinge to make it lock in place when open. Apparently this helps it stop wobbling around when you're poking and prodding at the touch screen. With the lock off, you're able to push the screen right back so it lies flat against the table. I'm not really sure why you'd want to, but there it is.

Under the hood is an Intel Core processor -- one of the new Haswell chips. Samsung didn't specify exactly which one it will be, but presumably you'll be able to choose different models depending on your power needs. And, of course, the depth of your wallet. It'll provide SSD storage options, which again will likely vary depending on the model you opt for.

Samsung reckons the battery is able to keep on chugging away for up to 12 hours. That puts it in the same ballpark as the updated 13-inch MacBook Air. As always, that'll be a best-case scenario figure, so your own times will depend on how you use it. Run the processor ragged with video encoding and the brightness ramped up and you shouldn't expect to get anything like 12 hours.

Outlook

The Ativ Book 9 Plus keeps the same sleek, attractive design as its predecessor but mixes in a glaringly high-resolution, touch-enabled display. It's almost certainly going to be a pricey piece of gear, but it could be worthwhile for media types for whom resolution is paramount.

The products keep coming. The latest announcement from Samsung is a new addition to its ATIV range and it's a hybrid in more ways than one. Similar to the ASUS Transformer Book Trio, announced earlier this month at Computex, Samsung just introduced its own dual-OS portable. It's called the ATIV Q, and it combines Android 4.2 and Windows 8. Under the hood, the device is powered by a Haswell-series Intel Core i5 processor and manages to fit a 13.3-inch, 3,200 x 1,800 touchscreen into a 1.29kg package that measures just 13.9mm thick. Other notable specs include an S Pen with 1,024 degrees of sensitivity. There's space for the stylus to be stored in the bottom corner of the device. Hardware considerations have also been folded into the design, with the processor housed inside the ATIV Q's hinge. Samsung says that this ensures that heat dissipates from the back of the device.

A software highlight from this particular Windows 8-Android team-up is the ability to share files (photos, documents... seemingly anything that can be opened with programs on the other OS) and share folders across the operating system divide. We can certainly see the usefulness in this approach -- sharing images to your favorite Android social app and generally unifying how you use the hybrid, regardless of OS. The ATIV Q will launch globally in Q3, and we've been told "in time for the back-to-school season", which sounds like sooner rather than later. We've managed to spend a bit of time with the new multi-talented slider: check out some first impressions after the break.

Update: We just added some video.

We immediately noticed the resolution bump provided by the Q's display. Samsung's new qHD+ panel ensures there are a whole lot of pixels on that 13.3-inch screen. The inclusion of Intel's new Haswell processors also means we're expecting battery life to power through a respectable number of hours, regardless of the new power-hungry display, though we'll have to wait for review models to arrive before we can confirm this.

Samsung says that the ATIV Q actually has four driving options. Tablet and typing are the two fundamental ones, of course, but you can add to that a floating mode (for stand-up typists: the screen remains parallel to the keyboard, and you type beneath), as well as a stand option, where you can flip the screen at right angles to the keyboard, displaying Windows or Android to someone seated opposite of you. The screen automatically flips to ensure your audience is looking at your all-important spreadsheets -- or cat GIFs -- right side up. The hinge felt rigid enough and there's access to a microSD slot within it. Given the size of the device, the choice to go with a mouse nub over a trackpad is understandable, if slightly disappointing. This editor prefers his Windows 8 machines with a decent trackpad and while the touchscreen should ameliorate a lot of gesture issues, we'd still prefer to have the option there.

Flipping between Windows and Android is effortless, with an onscreen tile on the desktop OS and a launch app on Google's mobile interface. We particularly liked the ability to transplant apps from the Android menu to our Windows tile collection -- there's a shortcut above the app menu when you select something from it. Dropping it on top will install it to Windows 8's Modern UI, and when we tapped to launch within Windows, it went straight into the app. There's no need to switch to Android in between.

The company's apparently worked hard to offer a very similar user experience to its Galaxy Tab range and our experience agreed with that -- it felt like a slightly thick Android tablet when we were swiping around the web, menus or obligatory rounds of Angry Birds. (There's also a built-in accelerometer for tilt-to-steer games). However, running on just a single Haswell processor (rather than splitting up the workload, as seen on the Transformer Book Trio) we're wondering how long the ATIV Q will run on the more lightweight workload of Android. Despite that, Samsung continues to work on its knack for mashing-up gadgets and we can't help but be intrigued by this one.