A new Intel processor generation also means incremental updates for a lot of systems, including Samsung’s Notebook 9 lineup. It isn’t the only change under the hood either, although details are still a little scarce at the moment.
First and foremost, the processor options in the Notebook 9 are now listed as seventh-generation Core i5 and i7 in the 13-inch model, or just the Core i7 in the 15-inch model. The processor in our Notebook 9 review unit from spring 2016 packed a dual-core Core i5-6500U, and we were underwhelmed by its performance in comparison to similarly priced systems like the XPS 13.
Similarly, our previous system’s drive was a SATA SSD, a 256GB Samsung MZNLN256HCHP-000, to be precise. It performed well as far as a SATA drive goes, but we’re used to seeing NVMe drives in more expensive systems. Samsung has responded by including one in the updated Notebook 9, but like the CPU, it isn’t clear exactly which model is inside.
Another notable addition is a fingerprint sensor. Windows 10 has native support for a variety of biometric authentication tools through Windows Hello, so this should speed up the login process for a lot of users.
Apart from that, it looks like most of the components are the same. Both the 13- and 15-inch models still pack a 1080p panel, which in our testing excelled in terms of brightness and contrast ratio, but fell behind in color accuracy and gamut. The former tends to be more important for most users, which makes the screen a solid choice, although it still falls behind higher-end options.
Whether a processor and hard drive upgrade are enough to boost the middling Notebook 9 to a more competitive position remains to be seen, but it should help ameliorate some of the issues we saw in our review. We’ll likely see more of the Notebook 9 at CES in just a few weeks, and will update you on the specifics as they become available.
After five years with Apple silicon, from the original M1 MacBook Air to the M5 MacBook Air released earlier this year, I've watched these chips mature not just on the spec sheet, but in real-world workflows and overall efficiency.
The new M6 chip might sound like a routine generational upgrade, but it's the company's first chip built on a 2nm manufacturing process, which brings meaningful improvements over previous Apple chips.
Gemini Notebook’s mobile app now has a built-in recorder for capturing lectures and meetings as sources. You can record directly where you’ll use the material, skipping the separate recording app and the file upload afterward.
Google announced the feature on X, highlighting classroom lectures and team meetings as potential uses. It also works for capturing your own thoughts, so you can talk through an idea and bring that explanation into your notebook while it’s still fresh.
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?