Samsung aims to be no.1 in laptops – we talk to the top men in Seoul

3. DESIGN – PROTOTYPES AND PROBLEMS

The Series 9’s outer shell is a lovely piece of engineering, being precision cut from a single piece of aluminium by a computer-controlled lathe accurate to one thousandth of a millimetre. However the shape of that outer shell wasn’t decided on by a computer or an engineer, but instead Samsung’s design team. We got to talk to Series 9 designer Jungwhan Hong about the 20-strong team’s inspiration behind the laptop, which had some 33,000 hours of work put into it.

Jungwhan Hong was the lead designer on the Series 9

Now, no discussion of product design would be complete without a remarkably meaningless acronym, in this department Samsung has come up with S.T.A.R., which stands for Simple, Thoughtful, Authentic and Remarkable. They aren’t the worst set of adjectives, but they could apply to practically any product or manufacturer. Another brilliant piece of near-meaningless word spew was ‘Evolution of Premium DNA with Signature Detail’. Thankfully, Samsung’s designers are far, far better at making good-looking and practical products than they are at writing compelling marketing twaddle.

Rapid Prototypes from a 3D printer which help the design team experiment with ideas

Hong talked about the issues they had with the original Series 9 laptops, which we felt pointed the way for later Ultrabook-branded releases, but lacked the luxurious finish and general build quality of its successor. One key issue was the ports, which had been hidden behind drop down doors on the first model, but this had compromised the ease of use of the laptop and so practicality was put before appearance. Another compromise can be seen in the only plastic part of the chassis, which sits just below the hinge – between the screen and the keyboard. This was deemed necessary to get the best possible Wi-Fi performance, as the original all-metal shell was hindering the built-in antennas.

A rapid prototype of the Series 9 showing the keyboard and screen

Hong showed us a number of the Rapid Prototypes that the team had produced during the design process, these were made using a 3D printer in a matter of hours. This allowed the design team to very quickly get an idea of how any change would affect the overall feel of the device. Finally, a first hand-built prototype was made to show to Samsung’s CEO Choi Gee-sung, a very nervous moment for the team. The prototype has a different surface treatment and a darker colour. Hong talked about the final finish evoking “a meteorite stone coming down from space, the Series 9 combines the best tech from earth and materials from the cosmos”. This outlook matches the Series 9 with Samsung’s Galaxy branding for its smartphone range.

An early, but fully-functioning prototype of the Series 9

Having said that, there’s little about the Series 9 which really stands out. Despite all the talk, the core mantra appears to be less-is-more. This approach is to be purposed further next year, with even less design, and a “minimal organic” appearance, under the moniker ‘SuperPure’. It’s not that we dislike the appearance of the current Samsung products (the Series 9 and Galaxy S3), but we can’t see how, or why, you’d want to strip away even more character from them.