Samsung’s ATIV Book 9 Ultrabook Is The MacBook Air Copycat We Were Expecting

Samsung announced its super thin new laptop Wednesday, which looks strikingly similar to Apple Inc.’s line of thin and light laptops. On Tuesday, reports falsely claimed Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi was cloning the MacBook. But Samsung also has a long history of borrowing from Apple.

Consumers can expect a lot of super thin and light laptops released in 2015. Samsung’s ATIV Book 9 Ultrabook, which the company will showcase at the upcoming International CES in January, is the first of many. The ATIV Book 9 Ultrabook is the thinnest and lightest laptop the manufacturer has launched to date, at just 0.45 inches thick and 2.09 pounds, and featuring a 12.2-inch display. The notebook is also thinner and lighter than the MacBook Air; its 13-inch model is 0.68 inches thick and 2.96 pounds.

Samsung has often catered to the budget market with its notebook computers; however the ATIV Book 9 is premium device with a $1,200 price tag for the model with 4GB of memory and a 128GB solid-state drive and $1,400 for the model with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive. Additionally, the ATIV Book 9 features a 2560x1600 (WQXGA) high-resolution display and an Intel Broadwell Core M processor and the Windows 8.1 operating system.

Samsung markets the productivity, display, audio and privacy protection on the ATIV Book 9. Users should get up to 10.5 hours of battery life from the notebook, in addition to reliable Internet connections with WiFi Amp.

The ATIV Book 9 has three primary security features. Users can set a drawing pattern on the touchpad as a pass code. They can also use the Fn10 key to activate a secret screen to hide sensitive content from onlookers. Finally, users can utilize camera and microphone record blocking to prevent malicious third parties from accessing their computer through these components.

The ATIV Book 9 will be available for pre-order during the first quarter of 2015. Samsung is expected to discuss availability details for the notebook during CES.