Samsung Ativ Book 8 review

Its ten-point touchscreen was very responsive, but we were disappointed that the screen hinge was just as flimsy as it was before with the Series 7 Chronos. This makes it particularly ill-suited to touch-based games and applications, but even more sedate tasks like tapping through files and icons on our desktop made it wobble uncontrollably, so much so that it actually put us off using the touchscreen altogether.

This is a shame, but it’s no great loss when the large all-in-one touchpad is so easy to use. Pinch-zooming could have been a little smoother, but for most tasks it’s just as responsive as the touchscreen. Windows 8 shortcuts worked every time and there’s plenty of space to move your cursor round the screen. Unlike other touchpads, the entire surface is clickable, but the lower half gives the best feedback.

The keyboard was also a joy to use. Keys were well-spaced and gave lots of tactile feedback, and there’s room for a numeric keypad on the side as well.

The Ativ Book 8 has a good range of ports. There’s no optical drive, but you’ll find two USB3 and two USB ports, HDMI and VGA outputs for connecting the laptop up to an external display, a Gigabit Ethernet port, an SD card reader and a combined headphone and microphone jack. Its JBL speakers were very good, though, so we didn’t feel the need to reach for a pair of headphones when listening to music.

The most disappointing part of the Ativ Book 8 was its battery life. The Series 7 Chronos managed a huge nine and a half hours in our light use test, but the Ativ Book 8 lasted just 6 hours and 36 minutes under the same conditions. This is still good by general laptop standards, but it’s not quite as extraordinary as the Series 7 Chronos.

The Ativ Book 8 is a great desktop replacement, but when it’s more expensive and has a worse battery life than its predecessor, we can’t help feeling a little disappointed with it. There are much cheaper and more powerful general purpose laptops you can buy, but at this price, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display is the much better choice.