Samsung - Notebook 9 pro 15.6" 4K Ultra HD Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 8GB Memory - 256GB SSD - Pure Black

Here's my review of the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro (aka Samsung ATIV 9 Pro). My scores are based against other notebooks/laptops on the market at this time. Performance: 9/10 Overall system performance is much better than any “ultrabook” on the market due to its high-end specs. However, when you start comparing it to products in its class (15 inch non-gaming quad-core laptops with dedicated graphics), it’s not the best spec’d product out there. I7-6700HQ is the standard for notebook in its class at the time of its release. However, GTX 950M is a step or 2 below most of the competitors who have 960M or 970M. I’ve read that Samsung went with 950M to cut on power consumption and heat output. Either way, there’s nothing you could do on the 960M or 970M that will be significantly worse to do on 950M, so its close enough. Uses M.2 SATA SSD, so its not the fastest out there (that would be NVMe SSDs) but this is stil pretty fast. Computer boots in under 10 seconds (would be twice as fast without Windows 10 lock screen and login slowing me down). If you’re accustomed to SSDs already, this would be just an above average speed device. However, if you’re coming from a hard disk drive, this will be a significant improvement. Design: 10/10 I will admit, the design makes all the sacrifices of top-of-the-line specs worth it. Aluminum body looks amazing but gets cold during winter. Computer is better looking than any product in its class. Some might say a Macbook looks as good, but every Macbook I’ve ever seen looks the same to me. So no thanks. Dell XPS 15 might be the closest Windows product in overall design quality. Feels very solid and very durable. I feel like nothing will be cracking, bending, or breaking any time soon for me if ever. Battery life: 6/10 Like every quad-core, dedicated graphics card notebook out there, battery life here is not great. However based on all the reviews I’ve read and seen, this product is below average for its class. I get about 4-6 hrs battery life on normal use which is usually a full day for me. Gaming cuts it to about 2-3 hrs. Display: 10/10 Best display I’ve ever seen on a notebook. The clarity of this 4k display over 1080p or lower 15” notebooks is very apparent. A few applications suffer from poor scaling support for 4k displays like Apple iTunes and Adobe Photoshop CS. However, most applications (especially all Microsoft products) look very good in 4k. Unfortunately, it is not an Intel Kaby Lake processor, so it will not support things like 4k streaming through Netflix and Amazon Video due to no HDCP 2.2 support.Colors are very good. With “Outdoor” mode enabled it can be very bright (500 nits I think). Usability: 8/10 Good keyboard and trackpad. I have no complains. Enough I/O ports. However, it drops useful ports like VGA and optical disc drive to maintain the slim design. The large size and medium weight makes it not the easiest laptop to carry around, but its not a struggle as well at all. No 360, yoga, 2-in-1 nonsense here. This is a serious product for serious consumers. Although I am still waiting for a 2-in-1 with high-end specs and a reasonable price tag. Features: 8/10 Has some cool features like automatic backlight keyboard that turns on in a dark room, turns off in a bright room, or after a few seconds of no input (great for chronic online video watchers). Granular control of backlit keyboard brightness. Can monitor power consumption (withOUT 3rd party software). Can be set to autoboot when you open the lid and do nothing, sleep, hibernate, or turn off when you close the lid. Speakers are very good for a notebook. Several built-in battery saving settings. Has Sidesink that allows Android users to control and/or display their phones on their laptops. No optical disc drive. Not a 2-in-1, 360 product. Value: 8/10 Generally speaking, laptops are not great value for their performance when compared to desktops. Also, people who just email, browse web, and watch videos do not need this much power in the laptops and could go for a cheaper product. Non-upgradeable RAM at just 8 GB and comes with only 256 GB SSD which is expensive to expand. Most power users will need to upgrade to a 1 TB SSD later or keep an external storage. RAM should be good enough for most, but I would have loved the option to upgrade even if I had to do the upgrade myself. It is on the cheaper side of products in its class which is very surprising for a Samsung product. Overall: 8.6/10 Best design and display you can expect to get on a notebook. Very good speakers and some cool extra features. Limited RAM, slightly slower SSD, slightly lower-end video card, and less than average makes it not the best performing product in its class. Sadly some sacrifices were made to keep the slim, medium-weight, metal design. However, its significantly much cheaper than the competition like Dell XPS 15 and Asus Z. So you save some money and get the best designed and looking product available that performs well OR you could spend the few hundred extra dollars, get a slightly worse designed product with the slightly better performance. The choice was obvious for me. If you’re sitting on the fence, I would recommend waiting to see what the quad-core Kaby Lake products of 2017 will provide. However, if you are able to find a good deal on this product (like open-box for deep discounts or clearance sale in later 2017 or beyond), you should go ahead and buy. It’s a great product that overall that unfortunately could not be top-of-the-line in every category even for its time and class.

This is without a doubt the finest notebook I have ever used. Build quality exceeds even macbook pro, screen is flawless,the glass trackpad is the most enjoyable of any I have tried, there are a rediculous number of ports and the performance is off the charts. Some things that look the same on paper when comparing features do not tell the whole story. The only thing I would change is the 8gb of ram, would be nice to be able to upgrade it.

I was looking for a bit more memory in the form of ssd, 250 gb is fairly limited in this high data world we live in. the display is killer, the touch screen works well but not quite as well as say a cell phone. I don't do gaming and haven't had a chance to run any demanding software but there seems to be no issues with the graphics card. The battery life is a little bit dissapointing but i guess thats the price of a 4k display. Overall for the price and the amount of hardware packed into this laptop I'm very happy with the purchase. Loads cheaper than a mac book pro or a dell xps 15 but still has competitive features. Additional battery and hard drive space can be added externally but obviously that would limit portability somewhat. If I had to do it again I can't see myself picking another machine. I may be slightly biased though because I have a Samsung phone and a Samsung printer, I've had good luck with those and when I have had an issue Samsung customer service proved to be legendary so i was confident buying another one of their products

My initial experience with this laptop was dismal to say the least. Among other things the display drivers were horrible at rendering color accurately and it had a very hard time dealing with programs that were not 4k optimized. Over the course of a year or so, Samsung has been continually improving things. Colors are great and older programs are handled much better than before. The biggest gripes I have are weight, performance and capacity. It got 50% bulkier than the old model. Even though it has a newer and higher level processor, it is really no better than the previous model it replaced. Storage capacity is roughly double (220Gb now) the old model but given the huge size of 4k vs. HD video, the disk is completely inadequate.

This is a solid notebook in all ways. The build is very good, it is stable and everything works as expected. It has updated its Samsung software a few times by now and it remains stable. It would have been nice if it was a little bit lighter, but I can live with it as it is. Fingerprints do show up on the computer body, but it is easy enough to clean that up. The screen is excellent and typing on the keypad is comfortable. I am pleased that I have bought this notebook.

I've owned several Dell's, an HP that was horrible, and now this Samsung Notebook Pro. This is hands down the best one I've ever owned...I'm not a computer nerd, I use for business and pleasure. This laptop rocks! It is so much easier to use than any other computer I've ever used. The display is amazing. I've had zero issues with the color... When I wake up the laptop, it is up and ready in less than 10 seconds...all I can say is AMAZING. I love it!

It is thin portable can definitly use an external hard drive due to the 256GB capacity. Dedicated graphics card is great for gaming but not at highest options since it will not run games well at 4k quality but standard hd they run great. With gaming and normal use it has a 2-3 hour battery life. However with the performance of the i7, the large amount of ram, 4k touch screen, and backlit keyboard it is a great portabulity option for work and play.

I had a Sony VAIO SB series for over 4 years and update it with this ATIV 9 PRO. High end specs all over the laptop. Feels premium and it has a gorgeous 4K display and very fast performance so far. Quite silent when playing games and heating is normal. Great tweaks from Samsung to make a lot of things easier. I'm enjoying this laptop so much.