Samsung has announced a new and improved model of their 13-inch Notebook 7 Spin ahead of CES. The device, an updated version of the 2016 model, will house a few new productivity-boosting features geared towards "working professionals, students and those looking for entertainment."

From a hardware perspective, the new Spin is only seeing modest improvements. Whereas users previously had to upgrade the Spin's base HDD to an SSD to get faster loading times, a 256GB SSD will ship with the new model out of the box.

Additionally, the 2018 Spin will have its former Intel Core i5-6200U mobile processor scrapped in favor of a faster quad-core i5 CPU. However, the Spin's 8GB RAM capacity is remaining in tact and there's no word on whether or not the new device will see a GPU upgrade.

As far as the Spin's new productivity features go, the device is receiving Active Pen stylus functionality (although the Pen is sold separately) for easier note-taking, "secure fingerprint log-in" functionality, increased battery capacity, a "far-field microphone to capture every detail of important meetings" and a 2lb weight reduction.

These are all certainly nice features to have on hand but they don't change much about the system as a whole. It seems Samsung is largely sticking to what's already been proven to work with little deviation.

Samsung hasn't announced any pricing information for the new Spin but the device will be available in the US during the first quarter of 2018.