I’ve had the Samsung Series 9 for a little more than a week now.  It has been a difficult device to review.  It is such a mix of awesome, scary and annoying.

Disclaimer: I am picky.  Really picky.  Especially about computer equipment.  Take everything I say with a grain of salt, knowing that I am nit-picking.

The Good
It’s actually quite fetching.  It looks like an expensive slim leather binder with pencil already inside it.  It catches people’s eyes right away.  Most people have a similar reaction to the MacBook Air and I can confidently say that the form factor is equally as sexy and a huge win for Samsung.  The machine is powerful and quick with 4G of ram.  They didn’t load the thing up with bloatware, so it has been running quite well.  It will get hot, especially after running video, but mostly it is safe to put right over your tender areas.

The Bad
I think know I am going to drop this and break it.   It is so fragile.  I have dropped the iPad before and it has held up pretty well.  I have no confidence about this.  It’s not Gorilla Glass, so it’s the screen I am most worried about.  Samsung has a 3 year warranty, so that eases my mind somewhat.

The Ugly
The first real annoyance is the Micro-HDMI output.  This is the ONLY way to output the video.  How am I supposed to project during a meeting?  There is literally no such thing as a Micro-HDMI -> VGA converter. Well, none that I can find and be confident in.  Apparently you could dasiy-chain 3 or 4 adapters together with duct tape, but who wants to do that?  It would make the thing incredibly ugly.  I just don’t get it.

The second super ugly thing is the AC adapter.  The MacBook Air has a nicely integrated adapter.  It’s magnetic, so no fear of it being ripped out.  Additionally it lays flat against the laptop.  The Samsung Series 9 adapter juts out in a pretty ugly way.  (Side note:  “Pretty Ugly” is an oxymoron)  I wish they had the ability on the fat side (plug) to rotate the plug 90 degrees.  Right now, it’s a total pain to plug-in in tight quarters.

The Not Sure
I am still trying to understand how to use the trackpad properly.  Mac people love their track pad.  I have never been a huge fan of all these gestures.  It is confusing my simple mind. I configured the settings and it seems to be OK, but I need to use it for alot longer to make sure.

Summary
So far, I don’t want to return it and I haven’t brought my iPad to work in a week.  Biggest downside is my terror of dropping it on the floor and breaking it.