Samsung has revamped and rebranded its Series 9 laptops range.  The new models, dubbed the ATIV Book 9 Plus and the ATIV Book 9 Lite, will feature a slim and sleek Windows 8 offering when they go on sale later in the year.

The ATIV Book 9 Plus is an updated ATIV Book 9, which also goes under the Series 9 moniker, and is an ultra-thin and lightweight Windows 8 laptop running a Core i5/i7 processor with up to 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage space.

Sitting at the top of the pile, the ATIV Book 9 Plus has a premium finish with an aluminium, uni-body design, and a Windows 8 optimised touch screen, says Samsung.

That premium offering is also true of the touchscreen. It's an almost crystal clear QHD+ (3200 x 1800) display on a 13.3-inch screen. For those counting, that's a ppi of 276. The MacBook Pro with Retina display is a paltry 227 ppi in comparison.

Thanks to the Intel Haswell processor, battery life is impressive too: you'll get 12 hours of battery life on a single charge.

"It boots up from cold in less than six seconds and wakes up from sleep in under one second, allowing you to access the information and programmes you need almost straight away," says Samsung, continuing to try to impress.

Productivity is further enhanced by Samsung’s SideSync technology, making it easy to share content between your ATIV Book 9 Plus and Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

Those not needing to go full out top of the range can opt for the ATIV Book 9 Lite. Still fairly powerful, it sits slightly below the standard Samsung Book 9 model, as the name suggests.

It will weigh 1.39kg and measure 319.6 x 222.9 x 13.6mm.

The ATIV Book 9 Lite will come with Windows 8, a 13.3-inch 1366 x 768 optional touchscreen display and a quad-core processor from AMD. RAM options go up to 4GB, while you'll also get a 256GB SSD drive for storage. It has a battery life of 8.5 hours.

Heavier than the 9 Plus, it will weigh 1.44kg compared to 1.39Kg but come in white as well as black.