Samsung One-Ups The MacBook Air With The Series 9… For Now

Despite Apple being their number one customer, Samsung’s done a healthy trade in ripping-off Cupertino’s gadgets and selling their own, often patent infringing doppelgangers… and with their new Series 9 ultraportable, Samsung now has the MacBook Air square in their sights.

Not that the Series 9 ultraportable is likely to cause the same legal problems for Samsung as their Samsung Galaxy S, Galaxy Player and Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android devices have caused them. Less a photocopy than a bonafide competitor, the Series 9 is a Windows-based aluminum bodied laptop that weighs the same as the MacBook Air, while beating it in both specs and thinness.

Measuring just 0.64 inches (or 0.04 inches thinner than the MacBook Air), the Samsung Series 9 starts at just $1,159.99 and comes with a 64GB SSD, a 3 second boot-up time, a 7 hour battery life and 2GB of RAM. So far, that’s pretty identical to the $999 entry-level MacBook Air for about $60, but the Samsung Series 9 has one big advantage over the Air: a 1.33GHz Intel Core i3 CPU that should sizably outperform the Core 2 Duo backed MacBook Air.

Not that that will last for long. The MacBook Air is due for an update in the coming months, and if Samsung can shove a Sandy Bridge chip into their ultraportable while maintaining maximum battery life, Apple can do it too. And probably better. And probably while maintaining that $999 price point.

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