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  • T1beriu - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    The chart is missing the screen size.
  • Samus - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I would say it's 9" based on the model number but as usual, Samsung marketing at its finest. They spend billions on advertising and calling a 13 and 15 inch laptop a Notebook 9 was somehow green lighted? It would perhaps make sense if the Notebook 1-8 where well known products...but at the end of the day it's a very confusing naming scheme for average consumers.
  • lilmoe - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    For the average consumer visiting a Samsung store, it's inline with most of their electronics product naming scheme. Most people know what a Series 9 Samsung TV is.
  • name99 - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    Seriously? I follow tech closer than most people, and I don't have a clue what a Series 9 Samsung TV is or what the "Series 9" brand represents.
  • lilmoe - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    Hmmmm. Have you ever been to a samsung store? Hard to believe you missed their flagship product. They usually have the series 9 in the middle of the store with big fat fonts.
  • blzd - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    Samsung has stores?
  • andychow - Sunday, January 1, 2017 - link

    +1, I never heard that Samsung has stores. In Korea?
  • MrSpadge - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    +1
  • Samus - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    LMAO, I own a Samsung TV, a UN46-6500 something or other, 46" 3D etc...

    No f'ing clue what a series 9 is. The fact my TV is a series 6500 and the one under it was like a 4300, you saying they now have a series 9 almost reinforces my point. They went from a 4 digit series scheme to single digit? But the actual model tag says 9000 I bet right?

    As I said, they are all over the place. The company spends more on advertising than any consumer electronics company on the planet and you really have to question how well those returns are when only half of their divisions are turning profits. The smartphone and appliance divisions are likely to run record losses this year due to the Note 7 and recalling every top load washer made since 2013.
  • lilmoe - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    :/
    Ok
  • Samusux - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    Are you joking, Why are you even here...
  • uRtard - Friday, December 30, 2016 - link

    get a load of this dumbfuck lmao
  • Samus - Sunday, January 1, 2017 - link

    In 20 years my handle has never been trolled. Congrats on wasting the time and taking the effort to make an entirely fake user account you will use exclusively to respond to comments I leave that your alter ego disagrees with.

    Seek help.
  • prisonerX - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I can't understand why LTE isn't standard in laptops, or at least an common option.
  • kaidenshi - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    At one time, the Dell Latitude business class laptops had a GSM SIM slot and an extra PCIe slot for the modem. I've found this capability on the D620/630 and several models that came after it. I don't know if they still do this today; I haven't worked on a Latitude since about 2012, but I would be surprised if they stopped putting that functionality in them; the Latitude line was known for ease of repair and upgrades.
  • BrokenCrayons - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I can confirm the Latitude e6440 (Haswell-era hardware) can handle an internal mobile broadband card. We've got lots of them at the office. I also know the current Skylake Latitude e7470 has an LTE option for AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon so they're continuing to offer the capability to business buyers.

    Smartphone hotspots and tethering (or directly performing work on a phone) have made them less of a necessity for our traveling sorts though. I could see them abandoning the feature as a more likely case than carrying it forward to future models.
  • nathanddrews - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I just assume it's so that carriers/ISPs can sell a specific, locked down hotspot device under contract that you will need to upgrade annually instead of expensive laptops that might have a longer cycle.

    Personally, I miss the PCMCIA cellular cards (I don't miss the slow speeds, however). Most of the USB devices sold now are really unwieldy and feel like they'll snap off at any moment.
  • Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    The added hardware cost is insignificant however the added licensing cost is absolutely huge as fees are percentages of total device retail price. Simply adding LTE to a laptop possibly might add 15-20% to its price.
  • Samus - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    HP Elitebooks since G2 come with a Qualcomm Gobi 4000 in most configurations...especially the 1020/1040 (they have a sim slot on the EXTERIOR it's confusable with a microSD card since it ejects the same way, might be a dual purpose slot now that I think about it.

    Anyway, newer models come with a Gobi 5000. Can always be added cheap if it isn't included with the configuration you order. You have to buy an HP card though since certain models are white listed, aka, don't put a Lenovo card in an HP.
  • arsjum - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    Anton,

    The pricing for previous models at Amazon is 869 and 1000, respectively - not 749 and 849, as you write here. You must have seen pricing for used units.
  • SharpEars - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    Limited to 8GB of RAM and a 1920x1080 screen at 15"? Junk!
  • ddriver - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    And with that puny battery... XPS for me thanks!
  • Samus - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I can't wrap my head around paying over $1000 for a high tech laptop that lacks Thunderbolt AND DisplayPort. I get that USB-C is the future but it only has one so you will need a hub or a device with a hub/passthru. And as others have mentioned, for it being a thicker machine than most others why does it have the smallest battery? 30wh? That's almost identical to the iPad Air,a 10" tablet. What the hell is in this laptop if the battery is so small!?
  • damianrobertjones - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    "Starts at 816 Grams"

    Strange for something like that to be in the title?
  • BrokenCrayons - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    When you're in this category of computing - stressing portability and mobility - battery capacity is just as important as weight. Thickness is, in my opinion, of secondary importance. Laptops exist on three dimensions so struggling and sacrificing to keep one as thin as possible doesn't make sense when the computer's other measurements remain unchanged. I still need a similar sized container to carry it. The fact that the three inch thick, padded container is 2mm thinner (or not because I don't swap laptop bags at the same rate I go through laptops, just doesn't matter very much to me. Battery capacity does though and I think Samsung et all are making something of an error in judgement by slimming down their computers to the detriment of its capabilities in the name of having a bullet point on marketing materials.
  • prisonerX - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    There are always people whining about things being too thin and they're always wrong. Thickness is of no utility in and of itself and thinness is an important factor in portability. The other dimensions determine screen size so they have a natural lower limit.

    Maybe you should get a one inch thick, laptop sized power brick for your three inch laptop bag. Then ask yourself why you're offended by the very existence of thin laptops. There are plenty of fat laptops, go focus on them and problem solved.
  • BrokenCrayons - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I'm not sure why you've gotten so upset. I specifically disclaimed my comments as my own personal opinion about the situation. Atop that, I do agree that thickness is of no utility without offering additional capabilities (or at least, resulting in the removal of compromises made to reduce it as is the apparent case with this laptop as Samsung could easily have increased battery capacity to improve competitiveness without compromising portability). As for my own current laptops, I have a Dell Vostro 1500 and a Latitude e6400. My power supplies are about 1.5 inches thick. The Vostro is quite a monster and is the larger of the two measuring 14.1 x 10.6 x 1.7 inches and tips the scales at over 6.6 lbs. Even with a petite stature and comparatively scrawny build, I have no trouble making a cross-airport dash to pick up a tight connecting flight with it and a handbag. Though I attribute some of that to lots of exercise and a good diet, I'm pretty sure some of these buff-n-tough burly men that want skinny laptops could get through O'Hare International with my laptop bag on their shoulder as well if they wanted. So yes, my three inch thick laptop bag has been stuffed with my chunky, adorable Vostro and PSU with no problems. :3

    Instead of whining to me about my preference for laptops, why don't you go focus on people with opinions that support and affirm yours? It'd cause your little heart so much less stress since you can't seem to keep your feelings roped in and under a lid.
  • Manch - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    ^^^^THIS^^^^ ROTFLMFAO!!!!
  • vladx - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    13" model allows upto 16GB while 15" model only 8GB, wtf?
  • Samus - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I don't really know why anybody except a Samsung fan boy would buy one of these over a HP Spectre or XPS 13. Boggles the mind.
  • lilmoe - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    Design, screen, keyboard, weight, brand, support, etc... This is a laptop that gets most things right without breaking the bank as far as its target market is concerned. Believe it or not, most people don't care for 6-8 hours+ of heavy usage laptop battery life. They're fine with 8-10 hours of light browsing and Youtube (should be achievable with KabyLake and MS Edge).

    The consumers buying these don't value tech the same way you, or I, do. I personally don't bother with ultrabooks, at least not yet. I bought a Haswell i7 4700MQ HP Probook 2.5 years ago in the cheapest configuration, and replaced the RAM (Samsung RAM is extremely hard to find, jeez), replaced the sub-par screen, and slapped a 512GB 850 Pro SSD with 25% OP. Still going pretty damn strong, with 8-10 hours of browsing battery life and 5-7 hours of Visual Studio (had to changed the battery 2 months ago though). I just love the screwless entry to the internals. I'll pass on USB-C until they ship them fully functional and actually "universal", ain't missing much there.

    Trackpad is absolutely a horrible nightmare though. I mostly use a USB mouse.

    I'll replace this laptop with a similarly built HP Probook or Thinkpad with a 2nd Gen Quad/Octo core Ryzen SoC (yes, SoC, hopefully with HBM). Intel drivers are absolute SHIT, can't wait to get rid of their parts. Visual Studio is going multi-threaded anyway, so I'm good if AMD gets single threaded performance on par/better than mobile Skylake, I'm almost positive they'll best Intel in multi-threaded performance.
  • evancox10 - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    You're point about getting most things right without breaking the bank would be valid, except that both of these are MORE expensive than the XPS13.
  • lilmoe - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    4GB of RAM is a sin for a $800 machine. For the same configuration, and in most markets (outside the US), the Samsung laptop is cheaper, better configured and has a better screen. I actually like the XPS line better, but the design is rather aggressive for most people, sort-of close to how aggressive/masculine HTC's designs are.
  • evancox10 - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    And I have a hard time believing that the other factors you listed are significantly better or worse between these brands. The one intangible you listed that has the most weight with the average consumer would be support, but if that's what you're looking for you go with Apple.
  • vladx - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    Some people don't want OS X as their default OS and your average user doesn't know how to install bootcamp for Windows.
  • lilmoe - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    Eh... this might be offensive to many here, but we need to stop treating Macs as a separate category. Apple is just one of many Windows OEMs. Apple's latest Macbooks are a desperate attempt to get average consumers to start using OSX using cool gimmicks.

    In this respect, Macbooks are horrible Windows PCs. In my experience the vocal OSX crowd are usually designers, journalist and/or enthusiast. These segments are a minority when it comes to overall Macs sales, just like the Linux on "Windows PCs". The latest Macbooks serves to prove this fact.

    Back to the point; it's all about brand and design. The guys at Apple aren't idiots.

    Anandtech and the rest of the tech blogsphere need to be more in touch with reality, and stop treating Macs as a separate category, because they're not. They're just one of many Windows PCs.
  • Samus - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    It is amusing how many clients I have running Windows 7 on their MacBook. I'm not talking parallels either, full on boot camp and they never go into OSX
  • Samus - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    I also have a hard time believing his predicted "battery life of 10 hours on edge" comment when an iPad Air 2 with a 800mw dual cord CPU, 10" screen and nearly identical battery capacity can barely surf for 10 hours.

    I'd guess it achieves 5-6 hours of light browsing before suspending itself.
  • lilmoe - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    I was being conservative really....
  • Samus - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    HP Trackpads have a firmware update to fix them across all models from the Probook 250 to the Elitebooks 1040. Get it. At the very least update the drivers. Every single person I've ever had complain about HP Trackpads says it's on pay with Apple after an update. And this isn't an HP thing. It's a Synoptics/Elontec thing. Acer, Asus and Lenovo all have issues with them. The difference is HP actually rolls out fixes across the board.
  • lilmoe - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    Right. You'd think I'd have all my drivers up to date.
  • fanofanand - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    I am actually surprised this isn't $2k+ for the specs. I'm guessing the $1k laptops have very weak specs.

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