Samsung Unveils Ultrabook With Disc Drive
Component Rare in Feather-light PC Category
It seems like "Ultrabooks" will soon be all the rage in the PC market. Boasting ridiculous processing power and a feather-light frame, they really do represent the future of portable computing. Unfortunately, they're expensive and lack an important component: an optical disc drive. But industry heavyweight Samsung says it's about to change at least one of those two problems.
On Monday, Samsung unveiled a new line of Ultrabooks it calls Series 5 Ultra. There will be two models of the device, with both a 13-inch and 14-inch model available in late December. Importantly, the 14-inch model features the largest display yet seen in an Ultrabook, but there's something else about it catching all the attention: it also comes with an optical disc drive.
To save weight and space, most Ultrabook manufacturers -- from Acer to Apple -- have cut out the optical disc drive, leaving folks without the option of watching movies or uploading/installing software from a DVD or Blu-ray. For some Internet-savvy folks this hasn't been a big problem, but for those of us who like having that option available, it's gone some way towards preventing the Ultrabook from emerging as a must-have device.
There are a couple obvious trade-offs with the 14-inch version of the Series 5 Ultra: it's heavier and larger than most other Ultrabooks, weighing a fairly hefty four pounds. Still, many tech experts are calling Samsung's ability to cram an optical disc drive into this thing a "feat," particularly because other major manufacturers, most notably Apple, have not yet figured out how to do it.
Besides the optical disc drive, there are some other impressive components inside this device: an Intel i5 processor, either a solid state or hybrid hard drive (the consumer chooses their preference), and even a very beefy Radeon HD 7550M graphics card. There's really no reason why this computer wouldn't be able to play the latest and most demanding PC games, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Unfortunately, we'll have to pay a pretty hefty price to get that optical disc drive and all that processing power. The 13-inch version goes on sale in Korea later this month for an estimated $1,300, with the 14-inch model available for about $45 more.
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