While we love the look of Samsung's X360, its latest entry into the superslim laptop market, we cannot help but wonder about the background to the name (fairly similar to a well-known games console) and also whether or not it is fair for tech media to continually refer to the machine as a 'MacBook Air killer'.
First up, however, we wanted to see what Graham Barlow, editor over on MacFormat magazine thought of the 'MacBook Air killer' meme.
"It looks like a fantastically well designed computer," Barlow told us.
"But at the end of the day there's no point comparing it to a MacBook Air beyond the superficial thinness, since it's not capable of running OS X, the Mac's operating system, which is the main point of owning a Mac and not a PC."
A fair point, well made.
Happy with Apple comparisons
Meanwhile Dinesh Chand, Product Marketing Manager for Samsung's Mobile Computing division, had the following to say about the 'MacBook Air killer' tag:
"Different products will always have different capabilities across different platforms. We feel that the X360's comprehensive feature set and styling gives the product a direct appeal to our target audiences in the Business and Consumer space, many of whom will be very familiar with running the Windows Vista platform, and may be running it on their current machines."
And, in what is a clear reference to Apple, Chand added: "Whilst we are not in direct competition with certain vendors in the premium mobile computing space, we are happy with the form factor comparisons that have been attributed to the X360 as an alternative choice for PC Users"
Bizarre naming rituals
As for the X360 moniker, TechRadar's eager Beavis, Gareth informs us that in the IFA questions and answers session earlier this month, Samsung execs gave the following explanation for the name, after stressing that it had no relationship to Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming console whatsoever:
"X360 relates to the X factor, 3 means 13.1 inch screen, 6 is high end, and 0 because we times by ten," was the frankly bizarre reasoning Samsung gave for the name.
