Slim and good-looking, low price, okay battery life
All-plastic chassis, screen could be better, processor under performs
The Samsung Ativ Book 9 Lite is a low-priced ultrabook intended to be the less expensive cousin of the more powerful, workaholic Book 9 Plus. But has it sacrificed too much capability to keep the price down?
Design
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course, and if you prefer solid-looking metallic workhorses, the Book 9 Plus will probably ring your chimes. But the Book 9 Lite has its own style, and manages to stand out from many of its lower-priced rivals. Its plastic chassis remains fairly slim (17mm) and lightweight (1.58kg), and crucially, it's available at less than half the price, which will certainly make it more attractive for some.
To get the price down there have of course been sacrifices, some of which are understandable, and some of which may go just a bit too far. First up is the 13.3in touch screen, which eschews the Plus's excellent full HD display for a resolution of 1,366x768 pixels. It's not terrible by any means, and retains ten-point touch control, but it's a lot less eyeball-caressingly vibrant than its cousin, and the viewing angles are actually quite poor, meaning it's not so good for sharing. Sensitivity is reasonably good however, which is pretty much essential to get the most out of the touch-friendly Windows 8 operating system.
Ports and keyboard
There's a full range of connectivity options, with two USB ports (2.0 and 3.0) plus small ports for Ethernet, VGA, and HDMI, though each of these requires an adaptor. There's also an SD card slot protected by a spring-loaded cover.
The full-sized keyboard is responsive and tactile, with a sensitive touchpad that makes typing and navigating a joy rather than a chore. It isn't backlit, but you can't have everything, and the lack of lights should help a little with the battery life.
Processor and benchmarks
The quad-core AMD X4 processor is clocked at 1.4GHz, a significant step down from the Plus's 1.6GHz Intel i5 and it's the performance that really reveals the Lite as a budget device. Our PC Mark benchmark test gave it a score of 1,954, less than half that of the high-performing Plus. It also took an extremely tardy 8mins 39secs to reformat our ten-minute movie file -- a task the Plus managed in a little over 3mins. Frame rates while playing Portal were 165 fps however, which isn't bad too bad, though general gameplay felt rather sluggish -- this isn't the laptop to handle hi-res 3D gaming chores. Overall performance tended to feel a little slow, with occasional delays when opening apps and a generally relaxed approach to web browsing.
Battery-wise it managed a little over five hours of continuous use, which isn't bad for a budget device if not up there with the very best.
Conclusion
The Ativ Book 9 Lite delivers a significantly lower price than its higher-specced cousin, the 9 Plus, but the so-so screen and the processor's relatively poor performance may be a couple of compromises too far for some.
Software: Windows 8 64-bit
Processor: Quad-core 1.4GHz AMD X4
Memory: 4GB RAM
Display: 1.3in, 1366 x 768 pixels
Hard Drive: 128GB SSD
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics
Webcam: 720p HD
Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth
Ports: 1x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, headphone/microphone jack, power connector, SD card slot, 1x mini VGA, 1x micro HDMI, 1x mini Ethernet
Blu-ray player: No
Size: 324x224x17mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
