Samsung unveils two new ultrabooks

Samsung unveiled two new ultrabooks, a 13" model and a 14" model. Both the variants sport Intel's second generation i5 processors.

The 13" model comes with 4gb of RAM, a 500 GB hard disk and a built in 16GB of ExpressCache, which is essentially a hard-disk-SSD hybrid. The OS is installed on the 16GB partition, allowing for blazing fast boot speeds while the 500GB hard drive (5400 RPM) serves as a storage drive. The ultrabook can also be configured to house a whopping 8GB of RAM. The 13 inch weighs in at a meager 1.42 kilograms.

The so called bigger brother, the 14 inch model sports the same Intel i5 processor, but comes with a higher 6GB of RAM. It also features a 1TB hard drive (5400 RPM) along with a 16GB of ExpressCache. A key addition to the 15 inch variant is the AMD Radeon HD 7550M graphic card with a whopping 1GB memory. Adding discrete graphics to the ultrabook segment could be a winning move for Samsung. The bigger screen and discrete graphics add to the weight of the ultrabook, but not by a whole lot as it weighs in at just 1.79 kilograms.

Both machines come with a slew of ports such as USB 3.0, USB 2.0 and memory card slots (SD,SDHC,SDXC,MMC). Windows 7 Home Premium comes pre-installed on both the machines.

It would be interesting to see how Samsung's offerings compete with the HP Folio and the Wipro E.go. The HP Folio comes with stock 128 GB SSD and the E.go flaunts the "slimmest ultrabook" status. Not to mention, Samsung claims a 6 hour battery life on their ultrabooks, a significant 3 hours less than what HP is offering on the Folio, but then again, the Folio costs Rs. 70,000 while the Samsung offerings are much cheaper at Rs. 48,900 and Rs. 54,300 for the 13" and 14" models respectively.