Samsung ATIV Book 7 review: a high-end Ultrabook arriving just before Haswell

 If you've been waiting for Samsung to refresh last year's Series 9 Ultrabook, don't hold your breath; apart from a recent upgrade to 1080p resolution, it's basically stayed the same. That doesn't mean Samsung is taking a break from ultraportables, though: the company recently started shipping the Series 7 Ultra (now called the ATIV Book 7), which debuted at CES. Regardless of the name, the idea was always for it to be part of Samsung's performance line, ranking right below the flagship Series 9 family. To that end, it ships for $1,060 with all the specs you'd expect to find in a mid- to high-end Ultrabook: a Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD, a 13.3-inch, 1080p display and a stronger set of speakers than on the Series 9. Obviously, the fact that it's launching with Ivy Bridge is one knock against it, but how does it stack up otherwise? Might it be a good deal if it ever gets a CPU refresh?

 

Samsung ATIV Book 7 review

 

 

 

 

Look and feel

The ATIV Book 7 was announced at the same time as the Series 7 Chronos (now called the ATIV Book 8) and so, it shares much of the same design language, from the aluminum chassis to the metal keys and brushed texture. As with the higher-end Series 9, Samsung went easy on the gaudy touches: all you'll find here in the way of adornment is a flush power button above the keyboard, a small orange JBL logo and a thin band of chrome ringing the trackpad. The difference, of course, is that the ATIV Book 7 doesn't feel quite as high-end -- not that it was ever intended to be. Don't get us wrong: it's still a pretty machine, with clean lines and a modern feel. But with a lid that flexes slightly and a chassis that widens to a relatively thick 0.74 inch, it's not as sexy as its big brother -- nor as well-made, for that matter.

Samsung went easy on the gaudy touches.

Also, the ATIV Book 7 is heavier -- much heavier. At 3.64 pounds, it's about a third of a pound heavier than other touchscreen 13-inch models, like the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13. Particularly after testing Toshiba's 2.9-pound Kirabook, the ATIV Book 7 feels unnecessarily heavy. We can't see a reason for this to be on the bad side of three and a half pounds: there's no optical drive on board, and no discrete GPU. This has basically the same specs as other 13-inch Ultrabooks, and yet there's something about the design that weighs it down. (Spoiler alert: it ain't a heavy-duty battery, that's for sure.)
At least it makes room for a lot of ports. On board, you'll find an Ethernet jack crammed in, with a drop-down panel at the bottom to create more space when you actually need to wedge a cable in there. There are also three USB ports (one 3.0, two 2.0), along with an HDMI socket, a headphone jack, a Kensington lock slot and an SD card reader. There's also a proprietary port you can use to connect an optional VGA dongle, so feel free to ignore it if you don't end up buying the add-on.

Keyboard and trackpad

We're not sure how Samsung did it, but it managed to produce an Ultrabook keyboard where barely any of the keys had to be cut down in size. Everything from the Shift to the Backspace to the Enter button is amply sized, and easy to hit without looking. Even the arrow keys are pretty big, and that's usually the first area to be compromised when companies are looking to save space. What's funny, too, is that there's still plenty of unused space on either side of the keyboard, which creates the illusion that Samsung actually had room to spare.

The trackpad here is the best we've tested in recent memory.

If anything, we wish the keys had a bit more travel -- which they totally could have, seeing as how Samsung's priority clearly wasn't to build the thinnest-ever laptop. It's not a dealbreaker, by any means -- most Ultrabooks have flat keyboards -- but there were a few instances where I had to re-enter a letter after my press failed to register. I also felt myself hitting the keys with a little more pressure than I normally would, probably because I didn't trust that my presses would go through.
As befits a high-end machine, the ATIV Book 7 has backlighting on the keyboard, which you can control by hitting Fn-F10. In fact, you'll need to hit the Function key to do other things, too, like adjusting the screen brightness or changing the volume levels.
Hands down, the ATIV Book's Samsung-made trackpad is the best we've tested in recent memory. Everything works as it should: two-finger scrolls, pinch-to-zoom and, best of all, single-finger tracking. It's that last part that's most impressive to us, really -- plenty of Ultrabooks can zoom in smoothly, offering you lots of control as you re-scale the page. But few do a good job with simple one-finger navigation, for some reason. Here, though, the cursor goes where you want it to, with no stopping or stuttering -- a good thing when you're poking around the desktop in 1080p. What's more, the button itself is easy to press and it never (ever!) mistakes a left click for a right one. Why can't all Windows touchpads be like this?

Display and sound

No, it's not the 3,200 x 1,800 laptop display Samsung just showed off at SID, but the 13.3-inch, 1080p panel here is still crisp, with no obvious pixelation or jagged edges. We were especially fond of the potent colors, which stay vibrant even as you dip the screen forward or watch from the side. At times, the glossy finish can interfere with the viewing angles, but adjusting the brightness along its 350-nit range seems to mitigate that.
Would you rather your laptop's sound quality be shrill and tinny or quietly rich? That's the choice we've been forced to make with all sorts of Ultrabooks lately, first with the Toshiba Kirabook and ASUS Transformer Book and now with the ATIV Book 7. If you're like us, you'll take the balanced sound, even if it means you can't rock out at quite the volume Justin Timberlake requires. And that's what the ATIV Book 7 has to offer, really. I enjoyed listening to everything from jazz to punk rock to top 40 pop, but the maximum volume setting usually wasn't enough -- even traffic rumbling by an open window was enough to drown out the audio somewhat, which means creaky air conditioners are likely to be a problem too. The hitch, though, is that the sound gets more distorted the higher up the scale you go. All of which is to say, you should be fine if you're hanging out alone in a quiet space, but you might want to whip out a louder external speaker set once AC season gets underway.