Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook Gets an $899 Price at J&R

The new Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook that was recently released in Korea has now shown up at J&R.com for Pre-Order where it is displaying a $899 price tag.  This is in line with other recent ultrabook prices such as the Toshiba Portege Z835 that retails for $849.99 at Best Buy.  That said, the Toshiba Z835-P330 comes with an Intel Core i3 1.4GHz processor while the Samsung Series 5 steps it up a notch and offers an Intel Core i5-2467M 1.6GHz processor.

The full specs for the Samsung Series 5 NP530U3B-A01USavailable at J&R is as follows:

• Screen: 13.3" HD LED Backlit Display (1366×768) with Anti-Glare coating
• Processor: Intel Core i5-2467M 1.6GHz with Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 up to 2.3GHz
• Memory: 4GB DDR3 SDRAM
• Storage: 500GB SATA Hard Drive with 16GB Express Cache
• Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN, Intel WiDi, Bluetooth V3.0
• Ports: 4-in-1 Multi Card Slot (SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC), 1 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0 ports, Headphone/Microphone Combo, HDMI, Ethernet RJ-45 LAN
• Weight: 3.24lbs
• Dimensions: 12.4 (W) x 8.6 (D) x 0.58 – 0.69 (H) inches

Also showing up on J&R is the larger sized 14” screen Samsung Series 5 NP530U4B-A01US Ultrabook that carries the following specs:

• Screen: 14" HD LED Backlit Display (1366×768) with Anti-Glare coating
• Processor: Intel Core i5-2467M 1.6GHz with Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 up to 2.3GHz
• Memory: 4GB DDR3 SDRAM
• Storage: 500GB SATA Hard Drive with 16GB Express Cache
• Optical Drive: DVD Burner
• Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN, Intel WiDi, Bluetooth V3.0
• Ports: 4-in-1 Multi Card Slot (SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC), 1 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0 ports, Headphone/Microphone Combo, HDMI, Ethernet RJ-45 LAN
• Weight: 4lbs
• Dimensions: 0.83 inches thick

The Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook has an SSD for fast wakeup from Hibernation and Sleep, but the OS is on the hard drive so don’t expect a superfast bootup time from being powered off.  Some nice features of the Series 5 NP530U3B-A01US model include an anti-glare screen to reduce eye strain, ample selection of full sized ports and no need for dongles and it still stays very light at 3.24lbs.  That said, the 3.24lb weight is actually over what Intel deems as a typical “Ultrabook”, Intel defines an Ultrabook as something that is under 3.1lbs.  At least it meets the requirement for thinness, an Ultrabook should be less than 0.8” thick and this Samsung Series 5 13.3” Ultrabook is only 0.69” thick. 

The Samsung Series 5 14” Ultrabook is way over the 3.1lb limit as it has a 4lb weight.  Samsung put an optical drive inside too which means the thickness goes up to 0.83” and is also over the 0.8” limit that Intel defines as being Ultrabook.  Oh well, manufacturers are free to call a product what they want despite definitions, so there you go.  We’ll definitely see these Ultrabooks at CES 2012 along with a slew of others.