Samsung -- buddy, pal, friend -- what are you doing?
I'm all for AI in everything, the connected, 5G in everything, and even Bixby, but how are you going to tell us adding an S Pen stylus to a laptop is any kind of meaningful PC innovation ... in 2018?
It's not that I don't appreciate a fine digital pen -- Apple Pencil, Surface Pen, and the Pixelbook Pen are all pretty nice -- but like, adding an S Pen and basically calling it a day? Kinda lazy.
SEE ALSO: Samsung unveils massive 146-inch 4K TV called 'The Wall'At its big CES 2018 press conference, Samsung spent much of its hour-long keynote talking about AI. And AI. And then more AI.
But somewhere near the end of the presentation, Alanna Cotton, vice president of Samsung Electronics America, introduced the Notebook 9 Pen.
She touted the 2-in-1 laptop's lightweight 2.2-pound design, and its 360-degree rotatable screen, and its S Pen.
No word on the performance, or the keyboard, or the trackpad, or battery life, or how sharp the screen is.
Just, enjoy your S Pen on your laptop.
Which has me scratching my head as I write this. Has PC and laptop innovation stalled to such a degree that a stylus is the best thing a company that proudly brags about how it spends $14 billion on research and development in a year can do?
Or is the stylus really The Next Big Thing, and I'm just not getting it?
Here it is ... the Samsung Notebook 9 Pen in all of its glory! Credit: Brian Wong/mashable Yes, yes -- a stylus is great for creatives and people who like to hand-write their notes. And that's all fine and stuff to bring the S Pen's innovations -- 4,096 levels of pressure, 0.7mm tip, Air Command features! -- over from the popular Galaxy Note phones, but I just can't help but feel underwhelmed.
A quick online check from Samsung shows some decent features it glossed over during the press conference. The Notebook 9 Pen comes in 13- and 15-inch display models. There's a bunch of handy ports including a USB-C, USB 3.0, HDMI, microSD card slot, and headphone jack.
Inside of the metal chassis is an 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, up to 16GB of RAM, and up to 512GB of SSD storage. These are pretty bomb-ass specs -- on par with a MacBook Pro!
But nah, let's just talk about the stylus.
CES is a huge showcase for tech innovations and trends that'll trickle out to products throughout the year. If a stylus is the best thing Samsung has up its sleeve, I'm very worried about the future of PCs.
