Samsung previews Blu-ray notebooks, new netbooks, demos all-in-one PC
In New York City last night, Samsung gave a sneak peek at three new laptops that are headed to Best Buy for later this week, and also showed a prototype of an all-in-one PC that might or might not turn into a product.
Set to be sold through Best Buy starting this weekend, Samsung's new "Red" laptops include the 14" R480, 15" R580, and 17" R780. The R480, priced at $729.99, and R580, priced at $829.99, will be sold in Best Buy stores, while the R780 will be available only through BestBuy.com.
The R480 and R580 will be shipped with internal Blu-ray drives, whereas the R780 will not, noted Gary R. Schultz, product manager for mobile computing at Samsung Electronics America, Inc., during an interview at the event. But Samsung decided to leave the Blu-ray drive out of the R780 so as to keep its price point more in line with those of the 14" and 15" models. The R780 is priced at $929.99, or $100 more than the R580.
During last night's premiere event, Samsung situated each of these new laptops, along with several netbooks first rolled out at CES in January, in a variety of "vignettes," including a mock airport terminal, college dorm room, home office and living room. There, we found the new R480 laptop playing Blu-ray movies displayed on Samsung TVs.
The R480 laptop comes with an Intel Core i3 processor, 14" LED backlit HD LCD, Blu-ray drive, 4 GB of RAM, Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics, Wi-Fi, HDMI out, and 500 GB of storage. The R580 steps up to an Intel Core i5 processor, 15.6" LED backlit HD screen, Blu-ray drive, 4 GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics, Wi-Fi, HDMI out, and 500 GB of storage.
The R780 subtracts the Blu-ray, but leaves in the Intel Core i5 processor. It then adds a 17.3" LED backlit HD screen, DVD drive, 4 GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce 330M graphics, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 500 GB of storage.
Each of the three laptops from Samsung will ship with Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) pre-loaded.
One of Samsung's new netbooks, the N210, is also exclusive to Best Buy, and is already available in stores for $379. Other Samsung netbooks -- including the N135, N150, and ruggedized and "spill proof" NB30 -- are being sold in multiple venues. Samsung's netbook sales are particularly brisk on Amazon.com, said Shultz. The N220, also launched at CES, is not yet available to US consumers. All Samsung's new netbooks use Intel Atom 450 processors.
According to Schultz, research by Samsung indicates that, while consumers might intend to tote their netbooks along with them outside the house, 70% of all netbooks are actually still used strictly at home, as "secondary PCs" that are moved about only from room to room.
In the home office vignette, the company demo'd a "concept model" of an all-in-one PC. With the demo, aimed to gauge feedback from journalists for a possible product in this space, Schultz said.
Samsung rivals such as Sony and HP have long been out on the market with all-in-one PCs for the home. Now, Lenovo plans to introduce an enterprise-oriented all-in-one PC over the next year or two.