Hands-on with the Samsung ATIV Smart PC (aka the Series 5 Slate)

Would a Series 5 Slate be just as sweet under any other name? We’ve already got hands-on with the ATIV Smart PC Pro (called the Series 7 Slate in the US) and now we’re going to show you the wonder that is the ATIV Smart PC — aka, the Series 5 Slate on this side of the Atlantic. And what can we say? It’s a lot like the Series 7 we checked out, though this guy is of course a smidge thinner and lighter, given the fanless design and inclusion of an Atom-based Clover Trail processor instead of something in the Ivy Bridge family.

Another difference: that 11.6 inch display. It’s still bright, of course, but the resolution is a lower 1,366 x 768, as opposed to the 1080p panel used in the Series 7 / Smart PC Pro. That caveat aside, the Series 5 / Smart PC is still pretty sexy, with that vibrant display and brushed metal back — though, as mentioned in our hands-on with the dock, that beauty clashes a bit with the relative cheapness of the keyboard.

As you may have read, the two slates also have stylus slots, though the S Pen was nowhere in sight during our demo — perhaps to keep it out of the hands of sneaky bloggers. In the meantime, we’ve got some hands-on photos, but we encourage you to refer back to our Series 7 / Smart PC Pro hands-on to compare the designs, and get a better feel for the custom apps Samsung has bundled.

Gallery: Samsung ATIV Smart PC tablet hands-on