Samsung ATIV Smart PC: Revisiting Clover Trail Convertibles
by Vivek Gowri on March 18, 2013 12:00 AM ESTSamsung ATIV Smart PC: Display
The ATIV Smart PC uses an 11.6” 1366x768 PLS capacitive multitouch display, with a Wacom digitizer. On paper, this is perfectly good, but there’s a problem here—like many of the older tablet PCs, there’s a grainy quality to the panel. When I say grainy, I’m referring to a slight sparkle or shimmer to the display, almost as though there are a number of specks in the panel. It’s not due to the active digitizer—Wacom’s EMR (electromagnetic resonance) system sits behind the display, as opposed to N-Trig digitizers which sit in front of the panel, so this is likely due to the Atmel capacitive touch digitizer.
The Smart PC Pro has a similar problem with screen grain (though to a lesser degree), but interestingly enough the Microsoft Surface Pro, which also has a Samsung-sourced PLS 1080p panel and an Atmel capacitive touch digitizer, has almost no digitizer grain. It’s really distracting, and I’m not sure why it isn’t mentioned more often. It’s actually really rare to see panels with digitizer grain now that the days of passive digitizers are over, and I seem to be seeing it more and more often with Samsung products (the Series 7 All-In-One is another one with noticeable grain). It’s a somewhat concerning trend, because it’s been a legitimately long time since this has been an issue on devices with capacitive touchscreens.
It’s a shame, because the performance is actually not bad—regardless of how the graphs look, the panel is pleasantly contrasty, with good color accuracy and a solid if not blinding maximum brightness. Every high end tablet these days has to come with a fantastic display, and even a tablet with a comparatively mediocre display like this one would still be one of the single best notebook/ultrabook panels out there. But yes, with a resolution of 1366x768 on an 11.6" panel, it does lag behind in terms of pixel density as well as performance compared to the cream of the crop of the tablet class.
Because this is Samsung, it’s a Super PLS (Plane-to-Line Switching) panel instead of IPS (In-Plane Switching). PLS was developed by Samsung and derived from IPS and supposedly offers a number of incremental improvements, including lower panel cost and higher brightness, but it’s quite hard to tell the difference between the two display technologies in day-to-day use. I do like that with the merging of small ultraportables and tablets, it’s getting much more common to find small and inexpensive mobile computers containing wide angle display technologies.
The Wacom digitizer is also a great feature to have, and I’m glad to see a resurgence in the number of Wacom-enabled devices hitting the market since the launch of Windows 8. Obviously, the most prominent of the lot is Surface Pro, but many of the other Intel-based tablets (ATIV Smart PC and Pro, VivoTab, ThinkPad Tablet 2, etc.) are coming with active pen support as well. I can’t remember the last time we had so many consumer focused active-digitizer tablets on the market, to be honest. For Samsung, this clearly ties in with their inking efforts with the Galaxy Note lineup on the Android side of things, and so we see digital inking applications like S-Note bundled in with the ATIV. And if you rely on OneNote for, say, notetaking in class, it’s a pretty wonderful inclusion.
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paulbram - Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - link
You REALLY need to check out the HP Envy X2. I just picked up this thing from Staples for $525. It includes the keyboard dock with a second battery in it. In my opinion, it is the best of the convertibles AND it is the cheapest!!!The build quality in particular is really quite amazing. It feels like a MacBook air with a detachable screen.
hughtwg - Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - link
I agree. While I much prefer using a stylus than getting greasy fingerprints all over my screen the poor stylus support in Windows 8 make using a stylus less than ideal. Other than my touchpad not registering multi-touch gestures when waking from sleep the X2 has been great. Hopefully HP will fix the touch pad soon.nerd1 - Wednesday, March 20, 2013 - link
Actually HP initially claimed their tablet supports active digitizer (maybe atmel) but so far no one confirmed than. That's was a major dealbreaker for me.new-paradigm - Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - link
The Asus Vivotab also has a wacom digitiser built in. Not sure why anyone would choose the plasticky build of the Samsung to be honest.new-paradigm - Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - link
http://www.asus.com/vivo/en/vivoTab.htmnew-paradigm - Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - link
Also, I think you may be getting your vivotabs confused. The vivotab has a wacom digitiser and the second battery in the keyboard dock, the vivotab smart has neither.Would also have liked a comment on the usability of the tablet whilst docked, as I found from looking at them in the shops that the heavy weight of the tablet causes them to fall over backwards when prodding at the screen whilst it is being used docked on a desk or table.
paulbram - Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - link
Not sure about the others, but I can say that I use my HP Envy X2 on my lap all the time and it doesn't seem to be too top heavy. They actually prevent the screen from going back too far, likely to prevent this problem.nordicpc - Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - link
I love my Ativ. I got one as soon as I could, Staples had them without the keyboard dock back when Win 8 launched. It's been a very solid tablet with way more functionality and performance than I could have ever hoped for. I used a Transformer 2 before, and this is no question better. The only thing that this review missed was the occasional lockups that the OS experiences while in sleep. You have to do a hard shutdown sometimes when the system has been offline for a while. I don't know if he didn't experience it, or if he was asked by Samsung to not note it because they have a fix coming soon, but it seems to be an issue with both my Ativ and my employee's Asus Smart. Seriously though, the Ativ Smart has totally replaced my AMD-based Asus Eee-PC, and I'm incredibly happy with it. Faster than an AMD Athlon X2 with all-day battery life and a very good (although low-res) screen.rburnham - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
This is the tablet I went with. I had a similar Acer tablet initially, but that unit had a problem where it would go into sleep mode and not come out of it without a reset. I returned it and got the Samsung unit and I have been pleased with it. It's a little too big for one-handed use, but other than that it does what I want. The Atom processor really makes a case for Windows RT not being needed at all. Space be a little tight, but with a micro SD card, I can hold all the data I need on the go. Definitely an option worth considering.