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August 28, 2008

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Samsung to release “lighter than air” notebook

Posted Aug. 28, ’08, 3:51 PM PT by David Dahlquist
Category | Apple » News

samsung.jpgSamsung is jumping into the ultra-thin notebook market with its new X360 notebook. Set for worldwide release in October, the X360 is aimed primarily at the MacBook Air’s target market of people willing to spend a boatload of money in exchange for a smaller, weaker notebook.

Described by Samsung as being “lighter than air” (get it?), the X360 is indeed lighter than the MacBook Air at a mere 2.8 pounds compared to the Air’s 3 pounds.

Of course sacrifices had to be made in order to achieve this level of lightness. Samsung used a slower, ultra-low voltage Core 2 Duo processor, and made the notebook a bit thicker than the Air. So in effect, it’s lighter than air, but not thinner.

The X360’s ports, however, put the MacBook Air to shame, including Ethernet, an ExpressCard/34 slot, and a multi-format card reader—all of which the Air lacks. The X360 also offers three USB ports, HDMI and VGA out, and even a (assumably optional) fingerprint reader.

This looks like another case of a manufacturer stepping up to Apple and besting their niche product, much like how Dell bested the Mac Mini with their Studio Hybrid line. Once Apple updates their product line, however, I think they’ll get the last laugh.


4 Comments

Kelmon said:

"Once Apple updates their product line, however, I think they’ll get the last laugh."

Don't bet on it - adding in these other features would be an admission by Apple that they were wrong in the design of the Air. While there is a lot to like about the Air, the total lack of expansion ports is a major problem. That other manufacturers are banging out laptops with very similar dimensions but the inclusion of these ports just continues to highlight that the compromises made in the Air's design weren't necessary. I really don't see Apple releasing a new version of the Air and announcing that it now has Ethernet built-in, for example.

August 28, 2008 11:58 PM
Tony D said:

I would be happy if they just added FireWire so it can be used in target mode. A FW800 port, as its backward compatible with FW400, would be awesome. But an ExpressCard slot would be perfect. However I'm not getting my hopes up....

August 29, 2008 9:07 AM
PricyMac said:

Samsung's new lighter notebook is WEIGHED DOWN by Windows Vista. That alone dissuades me from buying it.

August 29, 2008 10:03 AM
Nathan said:

X360 not to be confused with the Xbox360.

August 30, 2008 5:40 PM

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