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Samsung Series 9 13-inch lands 1.9GHz Core i7, 256GB SSD edition for the power user set
When we looked at the 13-inch Samsung Series 9, we lamented that there was only one version on offer: if anyone wanted more than a Core i5 and a 128GB drive, their dreams were crushed. Samsung must feel that there's hope for us yet, as there's now a higher-end spec that slots in a 1.9GHz Core i7 and doubles the storage to 256GB. That's good news to us, even if the 4GB RAM ceiling will still have some avid Ultrabook fans turning elsewhere. Springing for the new flagship will set shoppers back by about $300 more than the previous top of the line, or $1,700 -- still pricey relative to the competition, but much more palatable you're searching for a premium Windows 7 ultraportable and aren't willing to budge on screen size.
Visualized: What the new Samsung Series 9 could have looked like
In case you haven't noticed, we've gotten multiple opportunities to talk shop with Samsung executives over the past couple days. After we finished grilling the R&D team on higher-res displays, we sat down with the designers behind the latest Series 9 Ultrabooks, and they surprised us by whipping out a late-stage prototype -- aka, a glimpse at what these laptops might have been, were it not for a little extra hemming and hawing and at least one executive veto. You know what they say: a picture tells a thousand words, and we've got quite a few embedded below for your viewing pleasure. If you're obsessed with minutiae like the keyboard backlighting color, however, follow past the break for more on all those rejected design ideas, and feel free to let us know in the comments which ones you would've preferred.%Gallery-155616%
