Well, it was fun while it lasted. The ultrabook -- a concept built around mimicking the best parts of Apple's MacBook Air -- has now become so broad that nearly anything qualifies, at least if this latest example from Samsung is any indicator.
Samsung 530U4BI
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The 14-inch Series 5 is a perfectly fine laptop. It may even be the right laptop for you. But at 3.9 pounds and 0.8 inch thick, one thing it is not is a superslim, superportable laptop, along the lines of other ultrabooks we've seen, such as the Dell XPS 13 or Toshiba Portege Z835.
As a reasonably compact $949 14-inch laptop (most retailers are selling it for $879), the Series 5 does a good job of offering the same mainstream-level performance we've been getting from the current crop of ultrabooks, but with an optical drive, more ports and connections, and a big 500GB hard drive.
But that's exactly the problem. Ultrabooks are supposed to rely on solid-state drive (SSD) storage; this model skirts the issue by adding a 16GB SSD for quick bootup to a standard 500GB hard disk. And the tray-loading optical drive does nothing for thickness and weight. HP's 14-inch Envy Spectre is guilty of some of the same transgressions, but at least has a full-size SSD and a smaller footprint.
I'm sure we'll see many more average-size laptops being pitched as ultrabooks in the coming months. If they're anything like the Samsung Series 5, they'll be well-made, functional products, but ones that will quickly dilute the ultrabook concept -- the first exciting new idea in laptops in several years -- into nothingness.