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IFA 2011 | Samsung announces Series 7 CHRONOS, Tab 7.7 and hybrid Note tablet

Teaser
Variety of devices announced by Samsung at IFA presser

IFA doesn’t officially kick off till tomorrow, but that hasn’t stopped Samsung from announcing a bunch of goodies at today’s introductory press conference. In addition to a new entry to their Series laptops, a new Galaxy Tab has been announced along with a hybrid smartphone/tablet.

 

Samsung Series 7 CHRONOS

Samsung’s laptop lineup already includes the Series 3, Series 5 and Series 9 notebooks, and the odd numbering is now joined by the Series 7 CHRONOS laptops. Featuring an aluminum design, the notebooks will be available in 13, 14, and 15 inch models, but an extra inch of screen real estate has been eked out thanks to a slim bezel. The anti-reflective displays also sport an HD+ resolution of 1600x900 pixels and 300nits of brightness.

Samsung doesn’t appear to be skimping on the innards either, as the notebooks also come with an AMD Radeon HD6750M, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a 750GB HDD, and up to a Core i7 processor equipped with Intel’s Expresscache technology that adds 8GB of flash memory. As a result, Samsung is claiming two times faster web browsing on Internet Explorer as well as a 45% reduction in boot times. And if that wasn’t enough, the CHRONOS notebooks also last 9 hours per charge, while Samsung’s Battery Life Plus technology retains up to 80% capacity after 15,000 cycles.

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

We first heard of the Tab 7.7 towards the end of last month, and Samsung has now gone official with the device. Featuring a dual-core 1.4GHz processor and up to 64GB of storage, the 7.7” tablet is sure to catch eyes thanks to its gorgeous 1280x800 pixel Super AMOLED Plus display (similar to the one found on the highly successful Galaxy SII phone).

With Samsung’s custom TouchWiz UX recently being rolled out to the Tab 10.1, it looks as if the 7.7 will be receiving the custom Honeycomb skin as well. It's still unclear whether the UX will come with the tablet or via an OTA update, but we do know that the Tab 7.7 will be running Android Honeycomb 3.2, which is customized for 7” devices.

 

Samsung Galaxy Note

Possibly the most interesting device announced by Samsung today, the Galaxy Note could be the tablet-smartphone hybrid that we’ve all been waiting for. With a screen size of 5.3”, the Note is too large to be a pure smartphone, but Android Gingerbread 2.3 and cell capabilities prevent it from being grouped with most tablets.

However, no matter how you categorize it, the Note does have some impressive specs, as it comes with the same 1.4GHz dual-core processor and Super AMOLED display as the Tab 7.7. The tabletphone also comes with an 8MP rear camera, 1080p video capabilities, WiFi, and HSPA+.

Furthermore, Samsung is going a bit retro with this device, as the included “S Pen” stylus supposedly allows for more precise input. Unfortunately, early impressions by Engadget seem to indicate otherwise, as the glossy display didn’t do much to help the pen’s accuracy.

 

Samsung’s R&D department has definitely been busy over the past few months, and their new devices definitely address a necessary market. For the time being, Samsung has been a bit tight lipped about the release and pricing info for the gadgets, but that information should be forthcoming as IFA officially gets rolling tomorrow.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2011 09 > Samsung announces Series 7 CHRONOS, Tab 7.7 and hybrid Note tablet
Omar Qudsi, 2011-09- 1 (Update: 2021-05-18)