Samsung's redesigned Notebook 9 Pro

When we met with Samsung at CES 2019, it made it clear its new Notebook 9 Pro and Notebook Flash as well as the previously announced Notebook 9 Pen are about design just as much as performance. 

For the Notebook 9 Pro, Samsung conducted a US-specific design study that influenced its choices on bezel design, profile taper and corner radii, a spokesman told CNET. The result is a very different design from its previous models.

Corners are sharper and its diamond-cut edges remind me of the chrome edges of a retro dinette. The thin aluminum body looks clean and modern, and with the thinner bezels around the 13.3-inch full HD display, you're looking at mostly screen whether you're using it as a laptop or tablet. 

With the keyboard, Samsung enlarged the key caps and reduced spacing between them to improve the typing experience and appearance. Looking to attract creatives, Samsung is including a full-size active pen this time instead of the smaller S-Pen. If you'd rather have the latter, you can find one tucked into the body of the Notebook 9 Pen, which the spokesman said takes its design cues from the Galaxy Note 9 phone. 

Samsung expects the new Notebook 9 Pro to be available in early 2019; no pricing is available yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it started upward of $1,000. 

The Notebook Flash, on the other hand, is aimed at budget-conscious buyers. Starting at $350 (roughly £275 , AU$490), it's running on a low-end Intel Celeron N4000, 4GB of memory and 64GB of eMMC flash storage. Those are the components you'd find in a similarly priced Chromebook, but this is running Windows 10 Home. 

The new Notebook Flash has round keys. 

Samsung sweetens the deal with faster Gigabit Wi-Fi, a fingerprint reader, a microSD slot that also takes faster, more efficient UFS cards, and a typewriter-style keyboard. To dress up its plastic chassis, Samsung gave it a textile pattern that looks and feels like twill. And while Samsung said it will be available in multiple colors, it will be available in just a charcoal color in the US at the moment, which looks a bit like concrete. 

The Samsung Notebook Flash will be available on Jan. 15 from Amazon and directly from Samsung. 

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