Samsung's Windows 8 family: Simple, powerful and beautiful

Samsung Ativ SmartPC Pro, Samsung Ativ Tab & Samsung Ativ smartphone

by Hiranand Sunny Naresh 

04:45 AM Aug 31, 2012

The Ativ Tab

BERLIN - Samsung announced its new Ativ line in Berlin yesterday, describing it as being simple, powerful and beautiful. The five new products will all run on Microsoft's forthcoming operating systems Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.

The line-up is made up of two tablet/PC hybrids, the Ativ smartPC and the Ativ smartPC Pro, an Ativ tablet, an Ativ smartphone and Samsung's brand new Series 9 laptop range.

The Ativ SmartPC Pro

The Ativ smartPC and smartPC Pro are bundled with detachable, magnetic keyboards and boast decent touchpads with 11.6-inch displays - which come with HD resolution for the standard version and full HD for the Pro.

The Ativ smartphone

The touchscreen - which recognises up to 10-point multi-touch - was swift and responsive judging by my hands-on session with it. The devices also come with the S Pen technology, meaning that users will have an easy time creating and consuming information on the move.

Also, among the new entries is the Ativ Tab, a Windows 8 cousin of the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet. The new 10.1-inch tablet comes with a 1,366 x 768 display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, a 5-megapixel rear camera paired with a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera, and ports for micro-HDMI as well as USB. The device weighs a mere 570g and measures a slim 8.9mm thick.

Samsung was not able to share details at the launch, but it is safe to say that the Ativ Tab will not arrive any sooner than Oct 26.

Samsung claims that the Series 9 notebook is their lightest and most powerful laptop yet; one which is not only optimised for Windows 8 but also has a multi-touch touchpad, allowing users to enjoy the touch-centric operating system in its entirety.

Last in the showcase, the Ativ smartphone, based on Windows Phone 8, has a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon system-on-chip clocked at 1.5GHz, 1GB of RAM, a choice of 16GB or 32GB onboard storage, a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display, 8.7mm thick, a 2300mAh battery and an 8-megapixel camera.

Prices for the Ativ smart PC are estimated to begin from US$699 (S$876) and are due for release on Oct 26.

No prices and release dates were announced for the Ativ smartphone, Ativ tablet and Series 9 laptops.

Source: www.todayonline.com