Samsung's first Series 7 notebook now available in US
updated 06:35 am EDT, Fri October 28, 2011
Samsung Chronos 7 out now
The first of Samsung’s MacBook-like Series 7 notebooks is now available in the US. First unveiled in late August, the Chronos 7 14-inch (NP700Z3A-S01US) has landed on Amazon for $1099. The notebook is stands apart in its combination of aluminum and a 14-inch display packed into a 13.3-inch chassis thanks to an extra-thin bezel.
The notebook sports an Intel Core i5-2430M 2.4GHz processor matched with 6GB of RAM. Graphics is delivered by a discrete AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 1GB of its own GDDR5 VRAM. It also uses a hybrid drive arrangement pairing a 750GB spinning hard drive that is paired with an 8GB SSD, which combines to deliver decent storage and fast boot of 2-secs from sleep.
The Chronos 7 incorporates a chiclet keyboard, although it is not backlit. This is partnered with a large multi-touch trackpad. The device is ready for video chatting with a 1.3-megapixel webcam, while it also includes stereo speakers rated at 2 x 1.5 Watts.
Battery is an 8-cell type that is good for up a claimed nine hours of use. With a capacity of 1,500mAh, the battery will still work at 80 percent of its charge after about 1,500 full charges. It has two USB 3.0 ports, a legacy USB 2.0 port, HDMI output, Ethernet, and a proprietary video out that can be used for VGA.
