The Series 9 also does well when it comes to battery life, which is surprising, considering it's got a 15-inch screen. We managed to get seven hours and 36 minutes out of the Series 9. The average battery life of the past three ultraportables we've tested--all of which have 14-inch or smaller screens--is six hours and 21 minutes.

This year's Series 9 is even simpler and more minimalist than last year's design. It's housed in a solid black aluminum chassis, which has none of the plastic accents from last year's model. Its cover is a soft matte-black, with a small silver Samsung logo on the left side. The interior is also simple, with a solid aluminum keyboard deck, four pinprick-sized blue LEDs (including one on the Wi-Fi toggle function key and one on the power button), and a small rectangular power button. There are no additional buttons on the keyboard deck, though the keyboard has several function keys for adjusting screen brightness, volume, keyboard backlight, etc.

There aren't a ton of ports on the Series 9, but Samsung gives you a nice selection with what little space it has. On the left side of the machine there's a Sleep-and-Charge USB 2.0 port, as well as a combination headphone/microphone jack, a mini-HDMI output port, and a small proprietary port for plugging in an included port-to-ethernet dongle. On the right side you get two USB 3.0 ports, a micro-USB port, and a barely-noticeable SD card slot under a little door.

The keyboard and trackpad on the Series 9 are disappointing. The keyboard has island-style keys that are large and widely-spaced, but that are very, very shallow. Thanks to this lack of key travel, the keys offer weak tactile feedback, which makes it difficult to type accurately over long periods of time.