We don’t need latops with 4K UHD screens. At least not yet. The benefits are minimal for most users, because you’ll end using scaled resolutions. That happens on Retina MacBooks since their launch, and for example the 15-inch Retina models have 2800×1800 native resolution, but you end using 1680×1050 or 1280×800 scaled resolutions.
With a UHD screen (3840×2160) you’ll end using 1920×1080 as the scaled resolution -unless you’ve got a really incredible eyesight. You’ll see beautiful detail and definition there, but the impact on battery is clear. The Toshiba Satellite P50T lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes on PCMark 8 Battery Life benchmark -3.5 hours on the Toshiba Radius 12 4K tested by Mossberg-, and although Samsung says this model lasts 6.5 hours, we’ll what’s the real number here. There’s an impact on performance too, although that is well managed by the GeForce GTX 950M included in the package.
The $1,599 price tag isn’t that bad for what Samsung offers in terms of specs, but if you value battery life, 4K laptops are not the way to go. In fact, the interesting one here is his little brother, the ATIV Book 9 Spin:
The $1,399 Samsung ATIV Book 9 Spin has a 13-inch QHD+ display that can rotate 360 degrees, turning this notebook into a tablet.
Not bad for a convertible laptop that offers the same specs minus the discrete GPU and that gimmicky screen. The resolution here (3.200 x 1.800) is nice and the format, with a 13.3 inches diagonal, is much more interesting for users that demand more portability.
