Announced back in June at the Samsung Premiere 2013 event, Samsung Malaysia today announced the availability of the ATIV Book 9 Lite Ultrabook. A more affordable alternative to the premium ATIV Book 9 Plus, the mid-range Ultrabook is now available both in touch and non-touch displays with prices starting from RM1999.
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Interestingly, the two variants of the ATIV Book 9 Lite are not powered by Intel’s fourth-generation Haswell CPUs. Instead, just like their international counterparts at Samsung Premiere 2013, Samsung Malaysia lists the CPU on the Ultrabooks as “1.4GHz quad-core processors”. A Samsung Malaysia exec confirmed that the chip used here is specially designed by AMD. It is highly likely to be a variation of the company’s APUs, considering that the GPU listed on the laptops is the Radeon 8250 – an integrated GPU in the AMD Temash APU family.
Besides that, it’s a pretty standard affair for the ATIV Book 9 Lite as an Ultrabook. For both variants, there is a 128GB SSD and 4GB of RAM equipped, and will come bundled with Windows 8. Connectivity wise, the Ultrabook sports two USB ports (1 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0 with sleep-and-charge), mini-VGA port, micro-HDMI port, mini-Ethernet port, a 720p webcam and a 3-in-1 card reader. Even the displays are the same – a 13.3-inch 1366 x 768 panel – with the exception of one variant having a touch-enabled display.
However, it must also be noted that the touch-enabled variant is both slightly thicker and heavier than the non-touch variant, at 17.4mm thick and weighing 1.58kg compared to 16.9mm and 1.44kg. The Ultrabooks also pack a pretty small battery, too; there’s only a two-cell 30Wh battery pack on both variants. Nevertheless, Samsung is claiming an 8-hour battery life on these laptops.
In addition, Samsung Malaysia will also be offering a 14-day money back guarantee for the ATIV Book 9 Lite. Customers who purchased the laptops between 23 August and 22 September can return the laptop for a full refund if they do not satisfy their needs.
The Samsung ATIV Book 9 Lite is available from today, and will retail for RM1999 and RM2399 for the non-touch and touch-enabled variants respectively. Bundled together with the laptops is an Ethernet adaptor, while the other adaptors are optional and available for purchase at Samsung stores. In addition, the non-touch variant is only available in Marble White, while the touch-enabled variant in Mineral Ash Black. Finally, a company rep has also confirmed that the top-of-the-range ATIV Book 9 Plus will be coming to Malaysia sometime next month. For more information, head on to Samsung Malaysia’s product listing for the ATIV Book 9 Lite here (non-touch) and here (touch-enabled).
