Windows 10 Surface faces new rival in Samsung Notebook 9 Pro with S Pen
The S Pen on Samsung's 13-inch Notebook 9 Pro slides into a slot on the front of the machine.
Samsung has unwrapped the Notebook 9 Pro with a built-in S Pen to entice fans of the stylus historically linked to its Note phablets.
Earlier this year Samsung brought the S Pen to its Windows 10 Galaxy Book 12 2-in-1s for both the consumer and enterprise, and it's now extending the stylus to consumer notebooks with the new Notebook 9 Pro.
Samsung says the "embedded" S Pen is always on and never needs charging. That's probably because the stylus slides into a slot at the front of the notebook, rather than its Galaxy set-up, which lacks a dedicated slot.
The Notebook 9 Pro has a 360-degree hinge touchscreen, differentiating it from the existing Notebook 9 series, which features a 180-degree screen and lacks touch input.
The Notebook 9 Pro comes just a week after Microsoft unveiled its updated Surface Pro 2-in-1 and the new Surface Pen, which is compatible across its Surface devices, but costs an extra $99.
Samsung's S Pen for the Galaxy Book and Notebook 9 Pro share the new Surface Pen's 4,096 pressure points. And in line with Microsoft's Windows Ink push, Samsung has added support for Windows Ink Workspace to take advantage of this Windows 10 feature.
It also supports Microsoft's Windows Hello facial-recognition login, which can be used with multiple profiles and to set up private folders controlled by the primary user.
The Notebook 9 Pro also brings across the Galaxy Note's S Pen-enabled Air Command feature for note taking, document editing, and drawing.
Samsung's Notebook 9 Pro will be available in 13.3-inch and 15-inch variants, which are both powered by Intel's seventh generation Core i7 processors, with a common a 256GB solid-state drive and Full HD LED touch display at a 1,920 x 1,080-pixel resolution.
The smaller of the two has 8GB DDR4 RAM, while the larger has 16GB DDR4 RAM.
It also features a USB Type-C port, which supports charging, two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, and a MicroSD slot.
Samsung hasn't revealed pricing or availability yet.