<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Samsung ATIV Book 9 Lite Review\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nControl a Galaxy Far, Far Away\nThe Samsung ATIV Book 9 Lite has a feature called SideSync that lets you control your Galaxy phone via the laptop. Although SideSync is innovative, it doesn't justify the high price for the ATIV Lite, $830.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSlim Design\nThe ATIV Book 9 sports a design similar to the Samsung Series 9.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKeyboard\nThe ATIV has an excellent keyboard.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLight and Sleek\nThe ATIV has a sleek, wavy thin design. The attention to detail is clear: The power connector is small and fits perfectly without taking up too much space.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMediocre Display\nScreen quality was so-so, but it does incorporate touch.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSideSync\nThe best feature of the ATIV Book 9 Lite is SideSync. Getting notifications from your phone and controlling it via the laptop can easily become an essential part of your workflow.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpecs\nThe non-customizable 13.3-inch laptop has 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 128GB solid state drive (100GB usable space), and a 1,366 x 768-pixel resolution display.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nViewing Angle\nThe glossy display has poor vertical viewing angles.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCompared to MacBook Air\nFor another $170 you could get a MacBook Air 11-inch that lasts three hours longer and is at least twice as powerful and better in just about every way.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThickness vs. MacBook Air\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThere are two kinds of people: those who plug their phones into their computers, and the other 79.5% of smartphone owners (read: Android users). Apple \u2014 and heck, even Microsoft \u2014 originally built their smartphones to connect and sync with computers via iTunes and Zune (now Windows Phone). Although updates eventually untethered them, they still carry the legacy of PC syncing.\nAnd then there\u2019s Google, the dominant mobile OS provider that does everything through the cloud. They know that most people never plug their phones into anything except to charge them, so all syncing and storing should be automatic and wireless.\nSee also: 5 Free Android Apps for Tethering\nSamsung \u2014 which isn\u2019t even a software company, but the largest smartphone manufacturer \u2014 is increasingly differentiating itself in both hardware and software, and not just with Android anymore. The latest ATIV Book 9 line of laptops includes some very interesting software that makes connecting to an Android smartphone particularly fun and useful, and in ways that none of the software giants are attempting. And the best part is: no cables required.\nHit and Miss Tech\nThe ATIV Book 9 Lite is the lower-end model of two terribly named new laptops. The Lite features a 1.4GHz quad-core Samsung-made processor built on AMD\u2019s latest low-power architecture. Samsung is one of the only companies capable of building its own CPU, and this chip is more flexible than the stock AMD design, fluctuating its power consumption based on user needs. That means that your computer will speed up for harder tasks more effectively than a standard AMD-powered laptop, but at the cost of draining the battery faster.\nWith the stop-and-go processor, you could be typing along and suddenly letters won\u2019t appear because the chip ramped down and everything will have seemed to stall. We\u2019ve all experienced this behavior, and to some extent all computers do it. The Lite just does it a lot. And it does affect battery life; the Book 9 lasts about six hours on a single charge, which can drop down to four and a half under heavier use (heavy web browsing, streaming HD video) or seven hours with lighter use.\nThe non-customizable 13.3-inch laptop (courtesy of Samsung) comes with 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 128GB solid state drive (100GB usable), and a 1,366 x 768-pixel resolution display. For the price of $830, that is far from a bargain, especially considering the last laptop we reviewed, the HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11. Even upgrading the HP to have similar specs would cost $200 less than the ATIV, so what gives? \nHit and Miss Hardware\nI loved the TouchSmart 11\u2019s keyboard, but Samsung\u2019s is better. Thanks to the larger body (13-inch vs. 11-inch) and slightly finer tuning, the keyboard is an absolute joy to use. In fact, the whole frame of the Book 9 Lite is consistently pleasant. By no means is this a gorgeous laptop, but aside from a pretty basic plastic frame, the wavy thin design is sleek. It all points to a very sharp attention to detail, such as how the power connector is small and fits perfectly without taking up too much space.\n\nThe ATIV Book 9 Lite has two USB connectors (one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0), a headphone jack, an HDMI mini output, a special Ethernet port (with an included dongle to fit the larger ethernet cable), a 3-in-1 card media card slot, and a VGA mini-out (no dongle included). It\u2019s surprisingly generous of Samsung to include the Ethernet dongle in this all-wireless age, and the hideaway media card slot is fantastically designed \u2014 it\u2019s non-intrusive and next to impossible to break. \nWhile all of this is great, two obvious cuts sting far worse than any simple physical tweaks could hope to repair. The first is the glossy display, which has poor vertical viewing angles and is average to good. The touchscreen functions work just fine, and brightness levels are good enough to use outdoors with marginal brightness, but for the price there\u2019s an expectation of better quality: better colors, better vibrancy and better viewing angles.\nSecond is the trackpad, which feels atrocious to use. The corners edges don\u2019t read finger swipes, the sensitivity is too high, and it just doesn\u2019t work well. The good news is that this (and more) can be fixed via the \u201CElan Smart-Pad\u201D settings (search mouse, select settings, then mouse properties, then select Touchpad, and finally options). The level of customization is almost as good as what you can get on a Mac; in fact, the only reason there aren\u2019t more options is because Windows 8 just doesn\u2019t support as many gestures. After setting it to your liking, the trackpad will not only be usable, but almost as pleasant as the great keyboard.\nYou Phone's Best Friend\nThe real secret sauce (and perhaps the $200 price premium) of the ATIV Book 9 Lite is it\u2019s SideSync software, an application that enables Samsung Galaxy smartphone owners (Galaxy S II and up and Galaxy Note II and up) to connect their phones and laptops \u201Cseamlessly.\u201D Let\u2019s be clear, there\u2019s nothing seamless about it. The ATIV ships with the software but has to download another three or four pieces to be fully functional, and the phones all require three apps too. The installation process on both the phone and laptop sides is slow, frustrating, and all too easy to mess up. And if you are one of the unlucky souls who owns an unlocked Galaxy phone without Samsung\u2019s app store built in, then you can\u2019t get any of the cool functions offered.\n\nSideSync is a two-pronged app on both the laptop and smartphone (I used a Galaxy Note II) that lets users command the phone via computer, specifically with the mouse and keyboard. That may not sound like much, but we\u2019re using our smartphones more and more, even in front of a computer. If you\u2019ve got the laptop and smartphone side by side, there\u2019s no need to take your hands off the keyboard to respond to an SMS or switch out of your laptop application to check who used your favorite hashtag on Twitter. It makes the two devices work together, and it does a damn good job of it.\nOf course, how useful this feature is will depend on how you use the phone. I typically sit with my laptop front and center, smartphone docked on the right. Notifications come into the phone all the time, so I switch between the two regularly. With SideSync, and thanks to Android\u2019s usability, you can do just about anything on the phone via your computer's mouse and keyboard (notable exceptions include selecting physical buttons and swipe gestures). It\u2019s not only remarkably useful, but hard to stop using. Just like switching from two monitors to one makes you feel handicapped, losing a direct connection from your laptop to smartphone feels\u2026 hollow, like there\u2019s now something missing. \nThe other half of SideSync is to show the smartphone screen right on the laptop, live. It\u2019s probably kitschy and useless to most people, but I\u2019ll be damned if it isn\u2019t totally impressive to show a smartphone right from your laptop, on the slightly bigger screen. Macs can do this with a paid app (Reflector) and an iPhone, but that still requires you do everything from the phone. Show the phone in landscape or portrait, show any app, and control the whole thing with your mouse and keyboard with a mock phone straight from your screen. For smartphone developers it\u2019s a godsend, for everyone else it\u2019s just really cool. \nSamsung\u2019s other piece of software that only works on the company\u2019s own smartphones and laptops is HomeSync, a partial syncing competitor to iTunes or Microsoft\u2019s Windows Phone. Available as both a native app and via the web, it syncs all of your media between the phone and laptop and can do so wirelessly.\nUnlike iTunes and Zune, HomeSync requires that you manually push items you want to sync to the device. I was able to \u201Csend\u201D Jay Z\u2019s Magna Carta from my Note II to the Book 9 Lite easily over the air, but not effortlessly. There\u2019s also a clear lack of finesse and style to Samsung\u2019s app, which looks and feels similar to second-tier Windows apps. \nThe only real problem is that there's no app syncing, which almost makes HomeSync useless. Media can be saved instantly on Android through a number of services such as Google Plus, Google Drive, and Dropbox. HomeSync is more work and does less. \nIt\u2019s the Software, Stupid\nWithout any of Samsung\u2019s extras, the ATIV Book 9 Lite is a mostly well-designed laptop that\u2019s definitely overpriced. It has a great frame, an excellent keyboard, a decent trackpad after some fine tuning, and the battery life is decent. But for another $170 you could get a MacBook Air 11-inch that lasts three hours longer and is at least twice as powerful and better in just about every way.\nOr you could go the other way and spend $330 less for an equally powerful HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11, and put around $130 into a good Solid State Drive for good measure. So if you don\u2019t own a Samsung smartphone, you would be stupid to buy this machine.\nIf you are the proud owner of a Galaxy phone (and I recommend at least a Galaxy S III \u2014 without an HD display the screen sharing will be next to useless), then don\u2019t run away too quickly. SideSync alone isn\u2019t worth the premium, but how you use it might be. My day consists of switching between a laptop, tablet, and smartphone regularly. I even have the amazing Logitech Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard K811, whose three Bluetooth antennas let me instantly switch between three different devices. But a keyboard only goes so far; SideSync enables you to make your smartphone an extension of the laptop directly. There isn\u2019t anything quite like it, and it is powerful.\nNow if Google made it, then we\u2019d likely see a lot more functionality, like sharing Chrome windows from the laptop to smartphone and other Google-based services working together at the swipe of finger. Sadly that\u2019s not the case, but considering the limitations, Samsung has pulled off something really incredible: marrying the phone and PC. Even Apple has a disconnect between the two relative to this, something plenty of app makers like DeskConnect are trying to fix.\nWhether you care for it or not depends on how you operate. I stopped using the Note II as a connected device for a day, and I felt like I\u2019d lost a finger to type with. It isn\u2019t necessary, and it\u2019s definitely crude, but there\u2019s an empty feeling when it\u2019s gone. Developers should consider the far more powerful ATIV Book 9 Plus instead, which comes at a heftier $1,400 starting price and far better components.\nThe Lowdown\nWhat\u2019s Good\n\nGreat build, excellent keyboard\nSideSync software combined with a Samsung Galaxy phone is incredible\n\nWhat\u2019s Bad\n\nExtremely overpriced, unless you have a compatible phone\nMore powerful ATIV Book 9 Plus has more value\nSo-so screen quality\n\nBottom Line: If you have a Galaxy phone, you'll love how Samsung's ATIV Book 9 Lite seamlessly communicates with it, but at the end of the day its specs don't justify the high price.\nImages: Mashable, James Pikover"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/10/08/samsung-ativ-book-9-lite-review/>