While Samsung's Ativ hardware is relatively tame — especially compared to some other Windows 8 tablets we've seen this week — the company did section off a part of its IFA booth to show off a few experiments in industrial design. Quarantined behind the glass were various Windows 8 laptop / tablet hybrids that range from familiar ("Slide" and "Swivel") to slightly less so ("Binder" with a slide-on keyboard and "Pop Up" with ports only visible on the hinge) and even an asymmetrical "Memo PC" that's specifically conceptualized with future Samsung mascot the S Pen in mind. We would be surprised if a few of these ideas made it to production level, but for now they're just for show.

More enticing, however, were the functional prototypes on an adjacent table — including a 13-inch Samsung Series 9 laptop with two WQHD (2560 x 1440) displays, one on each side of the lid à la the Asus Taichi. The single-screen WQHD Series 9 was impressive in its own right, especially given how thin and light the frame was while retaining that approximately 220ppi pixel density (about on par with the 15-inch "Retina" MacBook Pro). It's not a consumer-facing product at this point, but it's also clear this is the direction Samsung (and indeed all laptop makers) are going.