NEC LaVie Z LZ750/NSB (antiglare IGZO 1440p 13.3", 795g, i7-4500U/4GB/256, ac, 1,5mm)

I am ordering this notebook from Japan. It is said to have a silent keyboard and fan behavior is okay. It is available from dynamism and from nec via tenso.
I would be happy if others jonied in so we can discuss. I preferred this laptop over the Ativ Book 9 primarily because of the keyboard noise. I will help with Japanese translation problems.

 

Hello Matthias, is this model only available in Japan?

 

Yes, I just ordered it via tenso.com from necdirect, where I could configure it and also buy a spare adapter.

NEC Direct > ƒm[ƒg > ƒ^ƒCƒvZ

I will be posting instructions on how to deal with driver dialogues if they are only in Japanese. You can also order from dynamism, where it is more expensive, but you get English direct support and pre-configured. I chose a custom-built i5/256/matte display configuration which seemed the most reasonable for my purposes (office etc.) one could also have gone with 128 since one could add space via SDcard. I am not sure if the card sticks out a lot though, or if it even sits flush.

It's kind of a decision out of being frustrated with the problems of the alternatives (Samsung: noisy keyboard <-> NEC quiet, Sony: fan issues, not that problematic on the NEC from what I read; also sharp edges on the Sony; etcpp) Since I would have gone with the NEC if it were sold here, I figured I will take the dive.

Note this is the second generation LaVie from October 2013. It has Haswell and the 1440p Display and is 100g lighter with same battery life as before. Don't trust the 9.x hours, it will be less of course! But the adapter is very light and compact (195g). I am somewhat confident everything will work out because of the fact that Dynamism are selling them internationally. This means I won't run into major problems.

 

I have the old Nec Lavie Z, with i7 3rd and 256gb. LZ750ZS
SD card sits flush in mine.

Fan noise is more than with an X1 same generation. If you throttle down Cpu to 25%, fan barely starts.
I have now win8.1 in EN but did not get around the JP menu for the battery app.
Most preinstalled software has no EN variant.

Battery holds about 4hrs.

If you want it to be light and easy to carry around, you made a good choice.
For desktop work, the keyboard is an acquired taste....

 

Hi dave, thanks a lot!
I heard the keyboard of the Haswell Z has been improved. I plan on throttling the cpu for specific applications with BES (there's a new beta version that can throttle multiple instances of a process simultaneously, BES = battle encoder), but all in all I still hope the Haswell will run cool enough to be silent without much throttling when browsing the web. I will report on fan behavior. Great the SD sits flush!! I want to run constant backups with a card sitting in there constantly.
Some user complained the fan got worse because of dust so I will try to prevent fan spinning as much as possible.
I guess the battery will be 4-5 hours in real life with the haswell i5, which is fine for me, esp. with fast charging (1 hour). If you have any information on DIY battery replacement, please post.
Did you just switch the OS to English, or did you install from CD a new OS?

-----
Regarding driver/Z-specific software installation, here's the link to Software Update:
121ware.com > (only relevant if one does a fresh install)

Google translate often does not work due to cookie issues. One has to copypaste text then. However, many times text is in the form of pngs. Of course Google is too stupid to provide screen OCR. Here's some help, though I haven't tested these yet:

Readers might be interested in this:
KanjiTomo - New OCR program for Japanese text - Reviewing the Kanji - Learning Japanese
Capture2Text - Japanese OCR Utility - Reviewing the Kanji - Learning Japanese
I haven't tested these yet.

 

Thanks for the JP translation links. I will check them out.

I switched original Win8 to EN.
So I still get some writings in JP when I log on or when it does updates between log-off and restart...

When updating to Win8.1, I got again everything all in JP.
Also when you create a new user, you get all in JP...
When moving to Win8.1, I also lost WiDi support until Intel released proper drivers this month.

About the software, I took out most of it.
Left on it the SmartUpdate (I think it's called - similar to VaioCare) but in JP :-( in order to see if NEC issues any updates for the laptop specifically.
Left also a Battery Monitor, still did not get around to understand what it says, but managed to set max. charging to 80% as I used the NEC frequently with power plugged in - power adapter is soo veeery light.
Did not look into any battery replacement for the moment, as it still holds well after one year.

I am curious to hear from you how the delivery of your NEC works out. Are you shipping it to Europe?
I had ordered mine with conics.net and had it shipped via EMS to the US while on a project there.
The total cost of my NEC was only about 15% more that the listed JP price, much lower than what Dynamism quotes on their site.
And from time of posting in JP to time of delivery in Virginia it took only working 4 days. )

 

I guess these language annoyances won't be present when I fresh-install from a German install medium. I wonder if dynamism do a System Builder install of an English Windows, which would explain part of the price. I would want a CD though, I didn't find any mention of CDs on dynamism. At conics, they don't carry the NEC, though one can request it afaics.
I am getting it from necdirect/123ware via tenso (to Germany), I hope all will go well... Dynamism didn't have a spare adapter in stock, which was another reason for me to do it this way. I really hope all will go well. It will take some time because it is a NEC direct custom build. Tenso provides you with a Japanese address and forward your package anywhere, they even put several packages into one package to save costs/hassle. So far they seem very recommendable.

 

Just wanted to drop a note - to encourage you to keep posting your experience Matthias. I'm considering where to buy the LaVie Z myself.

I'm weighing necdirect via tenso or another method. I've also received a quote from conics.net - they've been responsive to my contact and questions, but they stated they don't do fresh installs of the English OS anymore - just via the language pack. I asked if this covered the system messages, etc. Conics.net said it would although Dave above seems to indicate it doesn't get everything.

Dynamism said they do a fresh install of a windows OS. I thought this might be my safest option for my first purchase of this nature, but of course - it is also quite a cost difference. So I'm also weighing the fact that I could go with Conics or direct and have some money left over to pay someone with more experience to do a fresh install if I need to.

 

That's very interesting, thank you! If you order via tenso/necdirect, and have difficulties filling out the forms, just post your questions. (But please try google translate first. At one point, you must enter your name in katakana letters, there is an english-katakana converter somewhere on the web. Ordering is fun If anyone is interested, I will send by email a screenshot of the data I entered at nec direct. Also, tenso has a service that will buy the item for you. tenso also collects items and sends them in one parcel if you want.
I think it is best to do a clean install oneself, and buy a windows 8.1 personal licence CD (system builder full licence OEM - yeah its confusing.from my knowledge, one needs this (computeruniverse.net, German): Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro
64 Bit DE SB OEM Vollversion DVD ,
deutsche Version
Ihre Online-Bestellung vom 11.11.2013
(Artikelnr.: 90530366)

I phoned microsoft and they told me I could install it on a UEFI-key system and easily change the key to my purchased key later, in case it takes the UEFI-key from the motherboard. the installation should then later be transferrable to a successor notebook with paragon or macrium. - I hope all works out.

Heres the katakana converter: English to Katakana Converter

 

Thanks Matthias, that is good information. I'll be interested in hearing about your experience when you do a fresh install. Here's a question:
It seems there might be two model numbers floating out there - I can't seem to find a difference between the two - which leads to my question is there a difference? If so what is it? Is one newer or better than the other in some way?

GL186Y/3Z
vs.
PC-LZ750NSB

here's the page that references both on separate tabs, I used google translate and couldn't find a difference between the two:
121ware.com > ƒm[ƒgPC > LaVie Z

 

that's the 100% identical model, I think the GL versios might be customized versions and the LZ the retail version, I don't know. It's definitely the identical hardware and none is "newer". Thanks for the page link, there's some software direct links there I think. Might be helpful.
I do not recommend waiting until I have received and configured my notebook. It hasn't even been shipped to Tenso, plus instructions for Tenso, plus shipping to Germany, plus customs/taxes delay, plus configuration, and I might not have time for a few weeks, and if you only THEN order your PC, it will be a *long* time until you actually have it. So readers please don't wait for feedback from me, it will all work out somehow if you order now by yourself. If dynamism can do it, then it is possible; and the Japanese driver software interfaces will presumably be pretty easy (just battery/mouse control).
If anything, it would be advantageous to bring together a couple of Z (fall 2013) users so there is a small support base. That will help the most.

 

Do not buy via Dynamism only for the software install. Price difference is too big. For me at least.
Conics helped me also auction off the included Office license in JP, so I saved another 7000 yen at that time.
If you want the NEC, then you should order it, wherever. If not in a hurry, you may want to hold off for Computex in June, to see if they announce any new changes for the 2015 model.
Just a few thoughts...

 

Theres's *always* some trade show that one should "wait for". I have been doing this all the time, and the strategy did not work: One never buys a computer It works like this:
1. Laptop A that fits your desires sufficienty, from manufacturer Y, is anounced, coming in 3 months.
2. You wait, 3 months pass, you want to buy, but now company Z announces Laptop B, coming in just 3 months, with B better A.
-> ad nauseam. It's always the right and wrong time to buy a pc, at any time, at max you win 3 months of tech advancement, but then loose month after month of waiting, all the while sitting there with your older, much worse laptop.

Not meant as criticism, I suppose you are aware of this too and of course there is a point in waiting for a trade show in this case, but one has to factor in that the probabality that NEC announces something new or upgrades the laptop, in the next 3 months, is imho <20%. For instance, the Ativ book 9 was not upgraded to haswell for ages, contrary to what one would expect. This means probablity is >80% that one will still be sitting there with one's old pc, with nothing gained, and then forced to buy a laptop that then looks less attractive then 3 months ago, when it already was "not good enough", leading to putting off the purchase in the first place. All this looks very ironical when one looks back at ones behaviour 4 years later, when all those laptops one could have chose from look much more alike in hindsight. ("pentium III 600MHh or 500?")

 

So, I tried to order.... looks like I missed the cutoff. The order is delayed until the end of May - I suppose because they'll be rolling out some kind of update.

 

Hmm, I have no idea why they delayed the order. Perhaps it has to do with increased demand due to the end of XP? Or a missing part in the supplies, which is not that uncommon. I doubt it has to do with an update, for one the notebook was released just on Nov 20 afaicr, and also why should they stop selling/producing the notebook? It would be interesting to know the reason though. It should be noted that when I ordered, I had a similarly long time for waiting. Maybe that's simply normal for user-configured systems at NEC. My order arrived at tenso just two/three days ago, several weeks waiting. In fact I warned about the long manufacturing times, in this thread. You may want to cancel the order and order a ready-built system (like the lz750, via kakaku), the only reason I did not do this is that I wanted a spare adapter and did not want to spend time searching for a shop that carried bot, and also I thought NEC direct would be the safest bet all in all. OTOH amazon might have been an option, I just did not check.
On a positive note, TENSO is very good. Note that you will have to upload some ID material (max 500 kb per pic) due to some new Japanese fraud protection law, before they will send it to you. Consolidation,of two parcels, as well as checking of the ID material, as well as sending out the parcel to Europe, was all very quick and prices were fair. I think I will be tempted to shop for Japanese stuff more often now.
BTW notebookcheck have now reviewed the Haswell Samsung 9 X3G (matte) and they explicitly complained about the loud, rattly keyboard. I was very happy to see them finally mention this in clear words. I am now holding my breath that the NEC's fan will be OK. If so, it'll clearly be the superior choice, IMHO.

 

my nec will be arriving tomorrow. there are new models out btw; the only change seems to be win 8.1 update and xx10 processors (4210U instead of 4200U). (it's good news that they are selling them with win 8.1 update 1 preinstalled because this entails that there will be no driver/software issues after an update / that NEC software will be up-to-date). update: my nec is still in customs, due to arrive end-of-week here.

 

What happened?
Did your NEC arrive or still in customs?

 

EMS damaged the label and sent it back to Japan It is now on the way back to Germany...

 

it arrived today, but I don't have time for tests until in 2 weeks. however, I can already tell you that the keyboard is excellent: very fast and silent. the exact opposite of the terrible samsung 9 keyboard. also, the computer is more beautiful than I thought: I does not look techy, but rather extremely classic, it looks like a black piano due to the clear cut edges. the only glossy part is the small think rim at the front. very minimalistic, clean design. I am ery happy so far. What remains to be tested is the touchpad (which feels okay) and the fan. I am not going to switch in on since it will take a lot of time to do real-world fan and touchpad tests due to driver updates, fine tuning/windows update, and du to the the fact that fan behaviour assessment needs a week of real, contrete everyday situation.
But as to haptics, design and keyboard, I'd rate it 5/5.

 

there is a german review at Notebook NEC LaVie Z LZ750/NSB (antiglare IGZO 1440p 13.3", 795g, i7-4500U/4GB/256, ac, 1,5mm) - ComputerBase Forum .

 

What's missing in the list of alternatives is the http://forum.notebookreview.com/toshiba/751925-2014-toshiba-port-g-z30-haswell-fullhd-ips-panel.html
It's incredibly feature packed. Especially the WWAN option will probably make me switch from Samsung Series 9.

 

(for some reason my post was lost.)
-> hi oled!
-> according to notebookcheck, the portege has a loud rattly keyboard and the fan kicks in just as early as does the NEC's. That's why I didn't get it. Other than that you have a tie (lightweight, superior 2560-IGZO screen, smaller and imho nicer chassis, vs. more RAM and WWAN, more runtime). I can live with 4GB RAM and fast charging instead of long battery life. I don't need an integrated WWAN module. I don't know if the SC card sticks out in the toshiba. it doesn't with the nec. That's important to me because I constantly backup to a 128 GB SD for security reasons (hd failure/theft (put sd card in purse/pocket when I am not at the laptop).

 

note: buyers may consider taking a 128 gb configuration and then replace with an 840 evo. seems to economical and will bring a boost in many situations, I suppose. I am ordering one and will report if there is anything to take care of. i think this is what you may want to get: Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA Review - HotHardware (500 gb or 250 models).

 

How difficult is it to get inside to replace the SSD?

I have two other questions as well:
1) Is it hard to adjust to the keyboard's shallow key travel? I recall hearing the keyboard had key travel of 1.2mm, which sounds short even for an ultrabook.
2) Is the chassis sturdy despite the light weight? In particular, how well protected is the LCD panel compared to the competition?

The combination of 795g and 1440P sounds pretty nice.

 

- replacement of the ssd is extremely easy, just with a standard screw driver. replacement can be done by a kid.
- key travel is a matter of taste. I personally very much prefer shallow key travel provided there is good even feedback and the pressure is "just right". Adjusting is a matter of one-two hours and afterwards you may not want to get back to a different keyboard because typing on the NEC is less exhausting and quicker, and very precise. The keyboard really is the best imho. However it is a matter of taste. You may hate the keyboard if you want loud acustic keyboard noise or if you are more of the type of person who needs a "rough, sturdy" experience. The NEC is great for fast effortless typing in a library. It's similar to the Sony Vaio's keyboard in terms of feedback, but more silent than the sony, tough the sony is quite silent already.I never understood the problem with key travel. The "key to a good keyboard" is not a large key travel, but the precise adjustment of the mechanism so it will be "just right". Short travel/long travel is not a matter of good/bad, but of taste and adjustment.
- The chassis is very sturdy. be careful, due to the weight it might fall down quickly. the front of the nec has an angle that might be susceptible to damage if it falls right onto that edge. Whilst the chassis is very sturdy, the finish might (I don't know) be susceptible to scratches.You may need protection/keep the plastic bag/then buya decent protector neoprene, perhaps.Or put in into a laptop pouch wihtin a bag.
- The LCD is sufficiently protected, but I recall that the samsung X3E was even better, but I'm not sure. I do not have the impression that the panel is at risk in everyday travel and use. the biggest problem is, you should not put the laltop into a bag with the front faceing the buttom, and then no sushion. this will damage it in the lon run. jsut turn it around (with the hinge towards the bottom of your bag, or the -sides, or put a soft cloth there or use neoprene, or be careful.
- keyboard and build qualitiy and screen are all very good and nothing to be concerned about. the only critisism I have are that for my taste the touchpad is not fast enough (it's not slower that the samsung, but I would like it faster), and that the fan kicks in as often as the samsung x3e/900x3g (no improvement over samsung here). If you do cpu intensive work, keep that in mind. It will be complentely silent only when you simply do typing stuff. otherwise, the fan will come in occasionally. there is a power saving shortcut combination that will toggle throttle cpu (power plan) at the press of Fn-F...

 

i also recommend you buy the 128 ssd and replace it with a 840 evo (256 or 512). I have not yet done so, so don't blame me if there should be a problem, but there shouldn't.
The proven way to order is via 121ware and tenso, which will allow configuration and tenso provides reliable and fast service and they helped fine with problems and questions. myself and another user did so and it worked fine.

 

Hi, I'm new to notebookreview.com forums, and as a fellow NEC LaVie Z LZ750 owner, I was wondering if someone would be kind enough to help me out.

I've managed to lose access to the flash drive recovery section by taking my laptop apart, and disconnecting the bio battery. This unfortunately resulted in a loss of access to the drive data, including the recovery partition. Also unfortunately, before doing this, I didn't backup the hard drive, as I didn't realize that the hard drive was encrypted by default through the bios.


I was wondering if someone would be kind enough let me know either:

1. Who to contact at NEC to obtain a recovery disc/image; or
2. If anyone could help me acquire the default drive image (including recovery partition). In exchange for any assistance, I can offer $60 by PayPal for your time and consideration.

Also on an unrelated note, I was wondering if people were still considering a group meet up this fall for fellow NEC Lavie Z owners.

Last, I agree with matthias about upgrading the flash drive. I'm in the process of replacing the stock drive with a Samsung 840 EVO 512 for addi
Thanks,

-Michael

 

Is there a reason why you don't want to try to install windows afresh from DVD, onto the EVO, and then install the drivers from the NEC homepage later? That's what I still plan to do, I haven't been using my NEC at all since it arrived for personal reasons not related to the notebook.

NEC don't do support for the Z internationally. They declined helping me after I wrote to them. Your best bet is claiming you are in Japan, and writing them in Japanse, I am afraid. But I might be wrong.

What do you think of the upcoming Zenbook UX305 Notebooks & Ultrabooks - ASUS ZenBook UX305 - ASUS ?
I don't think it will be in the stores this year despite their claims (just a feeling), but shurely in early 2015.
It 50% heavier, and I think a bit wider, but other than that it's the first thing that seriously challenges the NEC. I will sure investigate after its release, if it would make a replacement. Only reason would be if the fan gets too annoying, or if I want 1600p @200% for some reason, or FHD.Unsure about SDD upgrade options on that one. But that's off-topic, I'm waiting for s.b. to start a thread on that one. At least I no longer fear I might have to consider the Broadwell Macbook Air even though I would have preferred a 12,5" form factor on the Asus.

 

I think you're right. I should just try to install a fresh version of windows 8 (US) onto the EVO. I'm having difficulty translating the NEC Japan website to find out where on their site to download the drivers. Any chance you could provide a link to the driver download page on NEC?

Regarding the Zenbook, I think I would pass. At a weight of 1.2kg, I'd probably go with a slightly heavier Panasonic LX with 14" screen, and 20 hours of battery life. The thinness isn't as important to me as weight, noise, screen quality, key travel, battery life, and durability (in that order). The added cost is not an issue. I like that the fan doesn't kick on in the toughbooks for web browsing and office work, and I enjoy that I can drop the laptop off a desk without worry, especially with small children in the house.

 

You should find smartupdate on the nec or 121ware.com website, I think. I have accumulated various official sources of software for theh NEC Z, but it's a bit chaotic in my bookmarks and in text files and I don't have time at the moment. I will do the fresh install in 1 month. I recomment to install 8.1 Update 1 in the end. I will install from a 8.1 DVD. Sorry that's all I can say, but if you have difficulties, please post and I will try to help.
It would be great if you wrote in a notepad text the steps you did so we can track down errors and it would also help me... Be careful with UEFI settings... you may want to try japan goggles iphone app to read japanese OCR text, haven't tested it yet though. otherwise for text google translate was helpful.
You may want to search for clean install threads in this forum. I don't understand why secure boot should be disabled, in the samsung 9 clean install thread. http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...stall-windows-8-samsung-series-9-laptops.html
read a bit into the thread to get an idea.
also be careful if you have pro or non-pro dvd, vs. motherboard key. try to get some help on windows8 forums, or call microsoft and tell them that you want to install your dvd onto a notebook with preinstalled windows. they help for free in the activation hotline, at least here in germany.
other than that, if you can wait 3-4 weeks we can do it together.

 

Have bought the LZ750/S and the fan has more buzz than on the old model I have.
I mean, literally the sound of it is more ...zzzzzz... at high speed. I worry that the thing got somehow damaged during shipping.
Could anybody share his impressions on the fan noise?

Thanks.

 

So I have an older Lavie Z silver i7 with the fan output on the side. That fan was quiet even if it came on a lot and blew out really hot air onto my hand if I'm holding it. This new HZ has a much improved hinge and nicer black matte finish but the fan grinds when I tilt machine. I had to open it and spray some WD40 (which now I hear is not the best) I also placed some blu tack under the fan. It helped it to some degree but it still grinds. I wonder if I need to replace the fan already. Also while the unit had a slight dent on the bottom it had nothing to do with the fan. I pretty easily straightened it with a small hammer. One thing I might do is place blu tack above the fan so the bottom piece doesn't resonate the sound.

 

Hi! I'd like to ask for help.
My dad is a japanese and sent me a LaVie LZ750/HS all the way from Japan to the Philippines.
Though I can read the japanese characters, I can't ready all of it.
And I really want to change it into english language.
But is it impossible?
Because it's in Windows Home Pro?
What can I do to change the language.