You're probably familiar with Samsung smartphones, Samsung TVs, and maybe even Samsung home appliances, like futuristic refrigerators. People know Samsung for a lot of reasons, but their PC business generally isn't one of them. While the South Korean tech giant sells a number of laptops, it knows that those devices aren't as prevalent in the general consumer consciousness as competing Dell, HP, and Lenovo PCs.

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Samsung wants to change this with the Notebook 9 Pen. The new flagship convertible packs in many of the features you'd expect of a 2018 ultrabook—a design with premium materials, an 8th-gen Intel processor, integrated graphics, and biometric security—along with a few classic Samsung creations like the company's S Pen stylus. But it takes more than similar specs to compete with the top two-in-ones available today, and the compromises presented by the Notebook 9 Pen may be too great to convince some users.

Look and feel

Hold the Notebook 9 Pen while blindfolded and you may think it's a device that follows the same design language as modern ultrabooks. But open your eyes and you'll be disappointed: while the Notebook 9 weighs just 2.2 pounds, its design makes it look like it could be a much heftier machine.

Specs at a glance: Samsung Notebook 9 Pen Screen 13.3-inch FHD LED touchscreen OS Windows 10 Home CPU Intel Core i7-8550U (up to 4GHz) RAM 8GB HDD 256GB SSD GPU Intel UHD Graphics 620 Networking 802.11ac (2×2) Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.1 Ports HDMI, headphone/mic combo, one USB Type-C (up to 5Gbps, 4K display out with optional adapter, charging), one USB 3.0, microSD card slot Size 12.22×8.13×0.65 inches Weight 2.2 pounds Battery 4-cell lithium-ion 5120mAh Warranty 1 year Starting price $1,399 Price as reviewed $1,399 Other perks S Pen, IR camera, fingerprint reader

Measuring 12.22×8.13×0.65 inches, it's not the most svelte convertible available, and its thick chassis, big hinges, and nonchalantly wide bezels surrounding the display give this two-in-one an antiquated, boring feel. Compared to HP Spectre x360, the Dell XPS 13 laptop, and even the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, the Notebook 9 Pen feels more 2013 than it does 2018.

Its shell might not be as sophisticated as what some of the competition offers, but the Notebook 9 Pen boasts many useful hardware features. It's made of a special material called Metal 12, a mixture of magnesium and aluminum, that Samsung specifically developed to keep the Notebook 9 Pen light while also durable. I didn't drop the convertible while using it, but it did withstand some bumps and dings caused by haphazard handling. The 13.3-inch FHD touchscreen shines bright, produces vibrant colors, and responds quickly to touch and S Pen input. We'll dive into the S Pen features in a future section, but know that Samsung's signature stylus lives in an embedded slit in the front-edge of the laptop's chassis.

The Notebook 9 Pen also has a fingerprint reader and an IR camera for two types of Windows Hello biometric authentication. I'm not crazy about the fingerprint reader's location, as it encroaches on the right Shift key's space and forces it to be about half the size of the left Shift key. Samsung could have easily put the fingerprint reader on the right palm rest, like Lenovo did with the same sensor on the X1 Carbon. While the Notebook 9 Pen is slightly smaller than the 14-inch X1 Carbon, the palm rest wouldn't have felt any smaller if it had had the fingerprint reader embedded into it.

An interesting array of ports stamps the Notebook 9 Pen's edges, which is the only positive side effect of the convertible's heft. The left edge holds a charging port, an HDMI port, a USB Type-C port (supporting speeds up to 5Gbps, 4K display out, and charging), and the headphone/mic combo jack, while the right edge holds a USB 3.0 port, a microSD card slot, and the power button.

The proprietary charging port wastes valuable space. The only real benefit is that it supports fast-charging with Samsung's provided cable. Since the one Type-C charging port supports regular charging, I would have preferred Samsung nix the proprietary port and stick another Type-C (preferably Thunderbolt 3) port on the Notebook 9 Pen. I wouldn't be surprised if many users abandon the provided charging cable for a longer, more convenient Type-C cable that they already have in their cable arsenal.

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Keyboard and trackpad

Samsung placed a standard, full-sized keyboard slightly recessed into the Notebook 9 Pen's chassis. While the chiclet keys have a fairly comfortable 1.2mm of travel, their satin, Metal 12 finish makes them a bit slippery for my liking. Nevertheless, I typed at close to my normal speed on this keyboard and even forgot about the diminutive right Shift key after a while.

The Precision touchpad isn't anything to write home about, but it delivers on the promised multi-point gestures. Similar to the trackpad on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, I wish the Notebook 9 Pen's trackpad was more spacious. I've definitely gotten used to the massive trackpad trend found on most ultrabooks—while I didn't think I'd ever need so much space for my fingers, it's immediately noticeable when you don't have it and your fingers are tapping and pushing on unresponsive surfaces.

S Pen with a two-in-one

The S Pen has accompanied a number of Samsung devices since it debuted with Note smartphones, and it's meant to make note-taking and precision work easier on this convertible. However, its location on the device is an inconvenience. The S Pen lives inside the convertible's chassis, flush with its rounded front edge, requiring a forceful push to get it to spring forth from its holding cell. It's difficult to get the pen out when the Notebook 9 Pen sits on a desk or a table in laptop mode. The easiest way to get it out is to angle the chassis up toward you first. It would be easier to release the pen if Samsung positioned it on either the left or right edge of the notebook, next to any of its ports.

Although it is seen as a secondary input method, you should be able to navigate the PC with the stylus as easily as you could with the trackpad. With the combination of the S Pen and your fingers (for the occasional tap on the touchscreen), using the Notebook 9 Pen is quite easy even without the keyboard or trackpad. Not only is there very little latency when writing with the S Pen, but the convertible also has decent handwriting-to-text recognition. Writing Web addresses and other things into text boxes almost always produces the proper text after the PC converts it—granted, I have decent handwriting, so the Notebook 9 Pen only incorrectly translated a handful of my handwritten commands.

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

The S Pen makes for a pleasant note-taking and artists' tool in apps like Samsung Notes and Autodesk Sketchbook thanks to its 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. The PC was just OK at rejecting unwanted input from my palm, which inevitably rested on the screen while I sketched and took notes. A few unwanted strokes appeared across the digital pages of my work, but thankfully they didn't appear very often.

While the digital productions of the S Pen were good, this version of Samsung's stylus itself isn't my favorite. I love that Samsung has included it in a number of devices since the Note smartphones, but this particular S Pen hasn't been properly adapted for use with a 13.3-inch convertible. In short: this S Pen is too short. It feels like a smartphone stylus, not a pen-like stylus that you'd use for an entire class period to take notes on a two-in-one.

I understand keeping this S Pen form to let it hide stealthily in the chassis of the Notebook 9 Pen. It's also meant to be the same as the stylus in the Note 8 smartphone, and you can even use the smartphone's stylus with the Notebook 9 Pen if you wish. The pen's slim design also allows it to function without a battery, unlike so many other pens that work with popular convertibles. However, the shortness of the S Pen gives it a strange, cheap feeling in your hand as you write with it. Ultimately, I would have been happier with the S Pen that came with the Tab S3.

You'll also have to watch out for the S Pen's side button while writing with it. The button brings up Air Command, Samsung's quick-access menu for pen-related apps and programs, making it easy to access things like new notes, existing notes, and the Smart Selection tool no matter what you're doing on the convertible. However, for me, that side button sits right underneath where my thumb and index fingers sit while writing. Air Command doesn't seem to pop up when you tap that button while you're actively putting tip to screen, but the menu will come up if you're simply hovering the S Pen over the screen and you accidentally press the side button.

The Air Command menu also pops up automatically on the right side of the display as soon as you take the S Pen out of its holster. Air Command hasn't changed too much since we reviewed the Tab S3, but the Smart Selection tool has a cool new gif feature that will keep Internet nerds entertained. Choosing the "gif-maker" setting in Smart Select lets you draw a rectangle around part of your screen's contents and record a gif that's up to 15 seconds long. It's one of the easiest ways I've seen to make a gif out of your favorite YouTube video or a friend's face while video chatting with them. Since I prefer to speak in gif whenever possible—especially on Twitter—I'd use this feature too much if the Notebook 9 Pen was my primary PC.