Samsung's ATIV Smart PC 500T: An Atom-Based Windows 8 Tablet

Features
By Andrew Ku
published

Samsung takes Intel's Atom Z2760 SoC, the full version of Windows 8, and builds a tablet that begs to stay connected to its docking station. Is this the combination of freedom, performance, and battery life we've been waiting for, or are we left wanting?

Benchmark Results: Photoshop, iTunes, And WinRAR

We're able to use one set of tests to compare Samsung's ATIV Smart PC 500T against tablets. But when you drop the Atom-powered device into its docking station, it becomes more of a netbook or lightweight notebook. So, how does it perform in that role? Again, the full version of Windows 8 gives us access to our usual benchmark suite.

It's easy enough to install Photoshop, but using the software in any serious way (here, to apply filters to a TIF file) is painfully slow. Beyond our scripted test, we spent some time actually using Photoshop and found it to be impressively responsive, both with a mouse and the digitizer pen. It's really only when you tax the 500T's limited resources that they buckle.

Even though the Photoshop chart looks bad, the fact that a sub-2 W tablet takes four times longer to finish this workload than a 17 W Sandy Bridge-based notebook is respectable.

This task is a little more realistic on a tablet. It involves converting the Terminator 2 soundtrack from WAV to AAC. Intel's 1.7 W Atom Z2760 again takes the longest to finish up. But when you consider its power footprint, the outcome isn't altogether bad (particularly compared to the 35 W A8-3520).

The numbers in WinRAR are fairly similar, even though this test is better-optimized to take advantage of multiple cores.

Andrew Ku
42 Comments Comment from the forums
  • knowom
    Way overpriced would much rather just get a laptop.
    Reply
  • tanjo
    Too bad tablets can't get drunk and hook up; we'd love to see what the kids of Samsung's ATIV Smart PC 500T and Microsoft's Surface would look like.
    Don't know about the looks but they'd name it Samsoft.
    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    i wonder what a Surface with a Quad core Krait S4 would look like.
    Reply
  • DjEaZy
    ... An Atom-Based Windows 8 Tablet... two terrible things put together...
    Reply
  • hp79
    I got one of these from Staples for $600 when they first released it.
    The battery life is amazing for me. Probably due to that fact that I never blast the brightness because it'll hurt my eyes. I usually recharge the battery overnight, once in 1-3 days. It's like a cell phone (I actually charge my Galaxy Note every night), where it stays connected. Press the power button or standby in the Windows menu, and the screen turns off, but everything else is still going on in the background. I can listen to music and press the power button, and it's just like a smartphone. All this while sipping very little power.
    I can play movies on my 1080p TV using cheap hdmi cable, and after watching 4 hours of movies, it still has 60% battery left.

    I really like the digitizer too since I also use OneNote 2010 on my x230t, which gets synched on the xe500t's OneNote 2010.

    Because I don't have to worry about the battery life at all, sometimes I just keep it on, running a movie or something while working on my desktop or laptop.

    Now the bad things are obviously the slower CPU, and everywhere-glassy plastic feel.
    There are also bugs in the drivers where the touch interface often stops working, especially in Skype. There were several updates on the drivers and bios, but I think they better keep working on it.
    Reply
  • jonjonjon
    this is so ridiculous how bad ms screwed this up. windows 8 could not be more a disaster. why would you release a arm and intel x86 version of the same tablet? with that said why use arm at all. maybe i don't see ms's infinite wisdom. if i buy a windows tablet i'm expecting that i can run all my x86 programs on it. i would love to be in some ms management meetings i'm sure you could get some good laughs. poor ms i almost feel bad for them.
    Reply
  • demirci
    "72% of Nvidia's Tegra 3, and 92% of Qualcomm's S4 Pro"
    This is not correct according to the graph.
    Reply
  • JOSHSKORN
    Talk to me when a tablet can run Crysis 3 on its highest settings. Then, I'll buy one. Then, the Desktop PC will be dead.
    Reply
  • killerclick
    Windows Vista had 2.2% after two months on the market.
    Windows 8 market share after two months - 1.65%, meaning it gained only 0.6% Nov 26 - Dec 26
    At the same time Windows 7 gained 0.4% to just over 45%.

    Metro is dead, it should be obvious even to Microsoft now.

    Reply
  • killerclick
    JOSHSKORNTalk to me when a tablet can run Crysis 3 on its highest settings. Then, I'll buy one. Then, the Desktop PC will be dead.
    No problem, they'll make Crysis 3 for Windows tablets, so it'll run exactly the same on the PC. It's what Microsoft is expecting devs to do with their apps.
    Reply