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Samsung Series 9 vs. Apple MacBook Air
Samsung Series 9 vs. Apple MacBook Air
The Apple MacBook Air has long been the sexy-thin ultraportable of choice, and for years it's been unchallenged by Windows laptops...until now. The Samsung Series 9 has risen to try to out-Apple Apple with a sleek, attractive 13-incher all its own.
Who will come out on top in this battle of the superthin laptops?
Round 1: Sexiness and durability
Design and looks count for a lot, so here's where we examine the look, size, feel, and sex appeal of the devices.| player | Dan | Scott | Brian | the winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Samsung Series 9 (13-inch) | 4Feels cheaper than its $1,600-plus price would indicate, but by all means a very nice-looking machine. | 4It's slim, it's sleek, and it's obviously a riff on the MacBook Air, but the Series 9's black frame and backlit keyboard hold their own. It does have some plastic bits, though. | 5The Samsung Series 9 looks like a piece of modern art. Its wrapped sheet metal exterior design stands alone, and its plastic bezel doesn't bother me. | 4.3 |
 Apple MacBook Air Fall 2010 (Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz, 128GB SSD, 13.3-inch) | 5Still the champ, not just because it looks nice, but because it feels like it could take a bullet for you. | 5The all-metal thin-blade design of the MacBook Air is hard to beat. The screen bezel's still too big, but this is an envy-inducing laptop. | 5Apple still knows how to do it. Its unibody design is elegant, and to get a 13-inch laptop this thin still amazes. | 5 |
Round 2: Features
Looks matter, but it's what's inside that really counts. Which laptop packs the most features into its tiny frame?| player | Dan | Scott | Brian | the winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Series 9 (13-inch) | 4It adds most of the extras the MacBook Air lacks, but the small SSD drive is a bummer. | 4Bluetooth, a backlit keyboard, a new Core i5 processor, and plenty of ports, although they do require dongles--however, its SSD storage caps at 128GB. | 4The specs here are beefier with twice the RAM, a Core i5 processor, and Apple staples like a backlit keyboard. Plus flip-out ports for more connectivity. | 4 |
| Apple MacBook Air Fall 2010 (Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz, 128GB SSD, 13.3-inch) | 3The current Air adds a second USB port and an SD card slot over the original, and 256GB is a comfortable spot for storage. | 3The MacBook Air's sparse on ports and features, but it does offer twice the SSD storage on a model that costs even less than the Series 9. | 3The MacBook Air has fewer ports, and its main feature advantage is offering more storage space for less money. | 3 |
Round 3: Performance
Ultraportables still need the juice to handle the many tasks we throw at them. Who can best flex its processor power and muscle?| player | Dan | Scott | Brian | the winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Series 9 (13-inch) | 4These two laptops are surprisingly evenly matched, considering that the Series 9 has a newer Core-series processor. It's because Samsung uses a low-power ULV chip, which usually disappoints. | 4The Series 9 uses a low-voltage processor that's slower than normal laptops, but it's faster than the Air--it's a newer Sandy Bridge Core i5. Its integrated graphics are about as good as the Nvidia graphics on the Air. | 4You might think the Core i5 would dominate here, but its low-voltage design holds it back. Still, performance is solid. | 4 |
| Apple MacBook Air Fall 2010 (Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz, 128GB SSD, 13.3-inch) | 4The aging Core 2 Duo is fine for what most people would use the Air for. The real winner is the superquick boot and wake times. | 4The Air's Core 2 Duo processor is deceptively fast despite its age, especially in boot-up time, which trumps the Series 9. Graphically, the MacBook Air may be a bit better, but it's too close to call. | 4Graphics performance gets a slight edge, but users won't really see it. Start-up from sleep was snappier here, too. | 4 |
Round 4: Battery life
Battery life is key when you're talking ultraportables, so who has enough juice to go the distance?| player | Dan | Scott | Brian | the winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Series 9 (13-inch) | 4Both are in the same ballpark, as we'd expect from superthin laptops with low-voltage processors. | 4So close it's nearly a photo finish. The Series 9 edged out the MacBook Air at 322 minutes on our battery tests--that's over 5 hours of use. | 5If I can get almost 5.5 hours of juice out of an ultraslim body, that's top of the class for battery life. | 4.3 |
| Apple MacBook Air Fall 2010 (Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz, 128GB SSD, 13.3-inch) | 4Apple always does great on battery life, but since it seems to be so easy, the company should up its game and do better next time. | 4The 13-inch MacBook Air's 5-hour battery life is nothing to sneeze at, but at 298 minutes, it comes short of the larger 2011 MacBook Pros, which average 7 hours. | 4The MacBook Air comes in at just under 5 hours, an impressive feat of its own, but it's not better than the Series 9. | 4 |
Round 5: Value
Which laptop makes more dollars and sense for you?| player | Dan | Scott | Brian | the winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Series 9 (13-inch) | 2Wow. If you're going to present yourself as an alternative to the well-like MacBook Air, try undercutting the competition, not, uh, overcutting it (it's so outlandish we had to invent a word to describe it). | 3Sorry, Series 9: your $1,649 price tag is absurd. It's a great-looking laptop, but priced way too high for what it offers. | 4I always purchase an extended coverage plan for my laptops, and though $1,649 is a lot, that includes a three-year warranty. Apple's is only one year. | 3 |
| Apple MacBook Air Fall 2010 (Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz, 128GB SSD, 13.3-inch) | 4The MacBook Air has always been pricey. For $1,099 it'd be a steal, but compared with the Series 9 it comes off as reasonably priced. | 4Starting at $1,299, the 13-inch Air comes off as a relative bargain compared with the Series 9 (that's a hard feat to pull off, Samsung). | 4The $1,299 looks sweet to me, and doubling the SSD storage for $1,599 makes it a great value. But add $249 for the extended warranty, and you're in the same ballpark as the Series 9. | 4 |
The winner is...
Winner
Apple MacBook Air (4.0 pts)
Runner-Up
Samsung Series 9 (3.9 pts)
In a surprisingly close battle, the Samsung Series 9 came close...but lost by a nose to the Apple MacBook Air. The Series 9's features and next-gen processor were big pluses, but that price tag was the killer in this one. Still, if you have a bottomless checking account, you'll be happy with either laptop.
Windows is easier to use than Mac OS X? Uh, have you ever used a Mac? Personally, I find the Mac OS X to be faster, better organized, more intuitive, more consistent, more reliable, and way easier to use than any Windows offering.
Two key advantages of Mac OS X over Windows. Software installs take seconds rather than 10's of minutes. Installing peripheral devices works perfectly every time.
it should have been a 5 to 4 across the board,
this is actually a tie. Looks is always going to be subjectable, so that's a toss, price to performance and features is where this goes back and forth.
Ignore them.
But yes on planet Sane in the Reality Galaxy, in the Technical Competence Universe, the apple looses hands down in this particular comparison.
But I guess in your humble opine USB 3 is sooo much better than USB 2, Firewire and Thunderbolt!
BTW my Mac (which has no viruses) has both the OSX and Windows 7 on it. If I wish I can also install Linux on it as well. I then have access to ALL SOFTWARE while you poor little series 9 has only windows software.
Did I mention ROTFLMAO at you!
Get a life!
And by the way, the Air only has USB 2. The Thunderbolt is on the Pro. This is a prizefight between Series 9 and the Air, not Apple versus the rest of the laptop industry.
btw, its ROFL, not ROTFL. nerd fail
btw, its ROFL, not ROTFL. nerd fail
"I, speaking for myself, an boycotting cnet."
Don't let the door hit ya...
I would love to see these things do photoshop tasks or try to play games.
Otherwise I think a fair comparrison would be to put an atom notebook in at 1/5th the price with an ssd in it, and watch it actually beat both of them in value and match performance.
In the fight game, it's what they call being fixed.
See what I did there?
And yes, once again we are presented with another biased-towards-Apple prizefight. Not that I'm saying the Series 9 should have won necessarily, but it was just a little fishy how things were neck and neck, with Samsung slightly ahead, until the last section where suddenly Apple is considered top dog. Not the first time this has happened, putting Apple ahead in a prizefight by playing up the "value" comparison at the end while underplaying the other sections where Apple doesn't happen to win...
What on earth are you raving on about?
@Xtream96, the standard processor in the MacBook Air is NOT 1.4GHz! its 1.86GHz. And about the performance? hmm...Its a lot faster than the netbooks with Intel Atom Processor.
Apple makes both the hardware and software, so you can get the best out of you notebook.
Samsung has an i5 processor while the Macbook has a core 2 duo. What would you rather have as your cpu?
Samsung comes with a standard 4gb or ram. The Macbook comes with 2gb at the $1299 price. You have to add another $100 to have it at 4gb. Not including the 3 year warranty at $249.
On top of that. You can get the Samsung at Amazon at $1599 and save on sales tax.
So in the end. If you get the Macbook Air it will cost you $1648 (configured) plus tax $152.44 (9.25% for me) = $1,800.44
You tell me which way this review was rigged.
The MacBook Air is carved out of a solid metal block. Rock solid and oozes quality. It's a sensual experience to use one.
Besides, the Series 9 is just a copy of the MacBook Air. They copied the keyboard, the trackpad, tried (and failed) to copy the thinness. Why own a copy when you can have the original for less money?
I honestly don't even care about either computer, buy what makes you happy. But I do get a kick out of the fan camps on both sides and how they "compare" the products. These cnet prizefights just tend to show blatant Apple bias. 5.0 Vs. 4.3 for Sexiness (whatever that is good for) and yet a 4.3 Vs. 4.0 for Battery life when the battery life is better on the 9 series by a failry wide margin seems slightly slanted.