Features & Specifications
This is where all the action is happening. The Series 5 Touch has the Intel Core i5 – 3317U (Ivy Bridge) processor that is fairly common across ultrabooks in this price bracket. The RAM gets a boost from 6GB from the non-touch 14-inch version, to 8GB in the new 13-inch Touch version. There is the Intel HD 4000 chip that will make do for the graphics but, but unlike the 14-inch version, the 13.3-inch one does not get a dedicated graphics chip. The 14-inch ultrabook versions alternate between the Nvidia GeForce GT 620M graphics and the AMD Radeon HD 7550M graphics.
This is where all the action is happening. The Series 5 Touch has the Intel Core i5 – 3317U (Ivy Bridge) processor that is fairly common across ultrabooks in this price bracket. The RAM gets a boost from 6GB from the non-touch 14-inch version, to 8GB in the new 13-inch Touch version. There is the Intel HD 4000 chip that will make do for the graphics but, but unlike the 14-inch version, the 13.3-inch one does not get a dedicated graphics chip. The 14-inch ultrabook versions alternate between the Nvidia GeForce GT 620M graphics and the AMD Radeon HD 7550M graphics.
The 13-inch display has a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. This an LED backlit display, but does stand out in the crowd for its natively higher brightness levels without compromising on colour richness or text readability. The proverbial cherry on the equally proverbial cake is the fact that this is possibly the closest we have come to a true matte display on an ultrabook. Yes, the Fujitsu Lifebook U772 was a fairly non-reflective display, but do remember that the Fujitsu is meant for the business users. Touchscreen works fairly well, but there are not many scenarios that we have been able to identify, which will make you want to use the touchscreen on a conventional ultrabook. It is an extra feature that is good to have, but that is essentially what it is.
In terms of storage, the Series 5 Touch has a 500GB hard drive and a 24GB ExpressCache flash. Unfortunately, 24GB is not enough for both Express Cache and Intel Fast Boot to work in parallel, and you would be restricted to deploying either one. Express Cache needs minimum 18GB for itself, and Fast Boot needs another 9GB.
Samsung preloads the machine with Windows 8 Pro (64-bit), and the setup is essentially a single partition, with a hidden recover partition.