13.3" Samsung NP900X3C with Ivy Bridge CPU

What happens to the Samsung display if you apply the profile I posted here?

John

 

Though the SSD in the samsung is slower, it is msata while the ASUS is a proprietary connection. So the S9 is much easier to upgrade there. Some find the limited travel of the S9 keyboard irksome. I tried the 15" at BB and would say I couldn't see myself typing more than a couple pages at a time.

Aesthetically, I don't think it's even a contest, the S9 is one of the finest laptops you can find. The silver asus just looks low rent to me and its got a thick bezel. If the S9 had an i7, 8GB option with displayport it would pretty much be perfect for me, not sure if they ever will though. I'm going to wait until fall, but I may have to compromise.

 

My thoughts as well. Whether i7 and 8GB is technically impossible at the moment I don't know but I can't for the life of me figure out why they put a VGA port in there other than to save a bit of money.

Going to wait until the Lenovo X1C is released and then decide.

 

Does my comparison help you decide ?

 

Not really. For me it's about form factor and quality versus specs specs specs. I know I'd be happy with either screen.

 

well, I played with both and here's what i can say about form factor and quality:

form factor:
samsung wins by a long shot. lighter yet somehow sturdier feeling. when i had the zenbook when it first came out i thought it was excellent looking and feeling. after the ss9, that was no longer the case with the zenbook prime. in fact, it looked and felt cheap to me. it is also thicker.

quality- i feel like i covered that above. the touchpad and keyboard on the ss9 are excellent. while i can't say the asus seemed bad, it did not seem any better. i also dislike disjointed touchpad buttons (which the zenbook has).

 

Thanks, I'll try it out tonight and let you know.

 

Thanks! I definitely want to meet the AZP in person but floor models are in short supply just now. I know it's a major improvement over the original AZ, and I'd like to get my paws on it to compare in-person.

 

Can someone tell me how many frames per second (FPS) this computer can achieve playing Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2?

I'm wondering how much of a performance increase there is between the HD3000 and HD4000.

... and does this computer only come in i5? I could've sworn i saw a i7 version.

Thanks!

 

I believe you have seen the 15" model which comes with i7... apparently the 13" model comes with i7 in asia as well tho..

 

My last laptop (vaio sz1hp) is about to give up on me. I gotta say the s9 looks so freaking nice. Isn't there anyway of finding out if i7/256gb/8gb/DP is planned to come out. Who wants to carry an adapter around, is it really that little of space left over that they couldn't have put a full DP?

As I don't buy new laptops very often (last one is 6 yrs old now), it would be nice securing i7 and 8gb of ram at least, it would surprise me if it won't be made available, the question is only in how long? As for the ssd, it can always be upgraded if needed...

 

What is everyone getting for a Windows Experience Index on this?

 

seeing as most projectors are "old-fashion" the VGA is needed... unfortunately I might add...

 

Would it be possible to take another shot in the dark, comparing the backlit keyboards? Thank you!
Or if you could just state their differences, that might be enough

 

Full brightness on the S9 is actually not that bright, it's a teal color and bright just enough to be pretty visible in the dark, but backlit is not very visible in a room with lights. The zenbook prime is white backlit, and should be brighter based on the videos I've seen.

 

Effectively the keyboard backlighting makes the lettering on the keys more legible in moderately to poor lighting but it only really shows up in near darkness. I know from my X3B that it works fine - had a power cut one evening and I was able to carry on typing without difficulty. My point about legibility is also from experience: I had to carry around a USB-powered desk lamp in order to see the keys on my Lenovo T420s in sub-standard room lighting (the ThinkLight just made the keys shine).

John

 

Newegg 256GB Samsung 830: $189.99 + FS

Would this be a good SSD to put in the Series 9?

 

Unfortunately not. You need the mSATA form factor for the Series 9 machines.

 

Processor 6.9
RAM 5.9
Graphics 6.4
Game 6.4
Disk 7.4

 

Is it possible to place this notebook on the lap while surfing the net / watching youtube videos or will there be heat issues as the air intakes are at the bottom / back?

 

You would think they would make it happen as samsung likes to compete with apple and the macair has already pushed the spec that far. I'm guessing right now demand is so high they have no motivation to pursue the option, perhaps the proprietary module is the roadblock. If we don't see it in the W8 model, it could be a long wait.

 

I think the design itself will keep selling the current version even if they put out another model with maxed specs for us greedy ones That's alteast what i hope

 

General web surfing will not cause significant heat. YouTube can provide a significant processing load and heating will depend on whether the position of the computer on your lap blocks the two air inlets on the base. The fans suck in the air through the bottom and blow it out the back vents.

John

 

i posted my wei (with 16gb ram) here (last photo)

the asus was much brighter

 

This referred to the NP900X3C that this thread is about.
It only ships with 4GB RAM.

 

Following from post #463 it seems that an NP900XC model with:

i7 ivy bridge
+
256GB SSD is available in Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea & Switzerland

http://www.samsung.com/hk_en/support/model/NP900X3C-A01HK-techspecs
http://www.samsung.com/sg/consumer/pc-peripherals-printer/notebook-pc/ultra-portable/NP900X3C-A01SG
http://www.samsung.com/sec/consumer/it/ntpc-mininotebook/series9/NT900X3C-A74-spec
http://www.studentenrabatt.ch/noteb...256gb-ssd-graphic-memoryshared-win-7-pro.html

Still limited to 4Gb RAM however.

If anyone finds the UK part number, I'd love to know it, though I expect price might be too high...

 

I can understand them making i5 and 128gb ssd.. but why in the world isn't 8 gb ram standard? Ram is so cheap and so easy to get a hold of, why not just make 8 standard? I don't get it.

 

yeah, i finally got my computer directly from amazon.
my initial impressions of this thing is great.
unbelievably light and compact.
yet the screen is 1600x900 and very sharp.
the speakers are surprisingly good to my ears.
the keyboard is good.
the touchpad needed some experimentation with the settings.
once i got the settings adjusted, it is decent.
i basically turned off all the features except for tapping, scrolling and zoom.
i think some of the other features got in my way.
i haven't had it long enough to test the 9 hour battery life claim.
despite having the sandisk ssd, it feels real snappy.
in fact my wei score for the hd is a 7.4
programs installed fairly quickly, it boots up and shuts down fast.
i did not choose to do a fresh install of windows.
i just chose to get rid of the bloatware using revo uninstaller and disabling some of the windows accessories.
pics of the wei and the crystal mark scores

 

It looks like there is just no room for more memory chips. The motherboard is already packed:


So it may take up until next version release, with redesigned motherboard, or release of qdp chips, around Q2 2013 according to Samsung roadmap: http://www.samsung.com/us/business/oem-solutions/pdfs/Current-and-Future-Memory-Tech IDF2011.pdf (slide 30).

 

Where is the article with this picture? I would sure like to have the high resolution source.

 

I could not find a higher resolution picture, or I would post it here.

Samsung met en pièces sa Série 9

 

Any one did a clean install on the NP900X3C ?
Care to give some feed back
I tried Samsung support, and they don't have all the proprietary software available for WIN 7 !

 

I think you nailed it. No 8GB DDP till mid 2013
Hmm, do I wait for dell now...

 

Processor 6.9
Ram 5.9
Graphics 6.4
Gaming Graphics 6.4
Primary Hard disk 7.5

------------

Also, separately, is anyone experiencing wifi problems?! It's been a bit hard for me to properly test it all out (settings/drivers/hardware/router) as i'm abroad and staying at friends or using public coffee houses..

but in my friends apartment with only 3 of us, it hangs every 10-15 minutes (it doesn't disconnect, just the internet stops working), then i can disconnect and immediately reconnect and it'll be fine. the other problem i've noticed is in some coffee shops when there are lots of people this machine won't get the internet, it'll connect but be beyond slow so nothing happens whilst other devices (including my phone) can browse just fine (not lightening fast) but they still can load pages etc.

i remember reading that there were problems with the wifi of last years model so just wondering if anyone out there has the same.

also what else did everyone score, bit disappointed with the ram!

 

anybody having trouble with the touchpad acting erratic.
i only got mine a day ago.
this computer is a dream machine.
but i had to experiment a lot with the settings to get the touchpad to work unobtrusively.
when i move my cursor, it sometimes acts erratically and jerky.
sometimes it seems to be selecting areas of the screen all on its own when i move it.
i hope i can get this issue fully resolved.
i believe it must be something buggy in the elan touchpad driver.
i wish samsung would have gone with synaptics instead.

 

See my suggestion here.

Have you used Easy Software Manager to make sure that the touchpad driver is the latest version?

John

 

Just been into Dixons and spent some time with 13" model - screen is pretty crap compared to my Dell Adamo 13 Desire which is nearly 3 years old. Adamo`s screen is just mind blowing, white LED backlit, glass edge to edge, ultra bright, just stunning. Has more ports, 256GB Samsung ssd, 3G built in, just a hair thicker. Will never sell it
S9 screen is matte, colours are not very colourful, looks dim. Design is very sexy, especially that super thin bezel - nice.

 

i went directly to the samsung support page to download the most recent touchpad driver.
it was the same version as the one installed on my computer.
nevertheless i installed it again.
after the reinstall the touchpad seems to be behaving better.
it is possible that i was too aggressive in my house cleaning of this computer using utilities like Tuneup utilities to clean the registry and remove unwanted programs.
i wonder if i made it more unstable by doing such things.
anyways so far so good.

 

yeah, i had trouble with the touchpad (overly sensitive) but choosing to disable the touch/tap = click function, so you actually have to click the button to select something does wonders.

regarding wifi. i actually just updated the driver and it hasn't disconnected once yet! (edit: and i just now followed your power saving instructions! after updating my driver I had to plug in the power, so it might actually be that, not the driver update - so thank you very much!!)

also all these people complaining about the sandisk not samsung hdd (rather than the 128 not 256).. it get's a 7.5 rating out of 7.9 on WEI.. what does the samsung hdd get and is it even noticeable the difference? this feels pretty damn fast!

 

Only thing about this computer that bothers me is the touchpad, everything else I'm very happy with so far.

The problem is mainly that it registers click when you just want to move the cursor, or do 2 finger scroll.

I have tapping on, 2 finger tap = middle button, 2 finger scroll with no extras, zoom, 3 and 4 finger swipe. Problems I experience

Sometimes movement register as click
Sometimes movement register as click and hold (marking text)

Sometimes 2 finger scroll register as click (middle button)
Sometimes 2 finger scroll register as zoom

 

i think cantbearsed pinpointed my problem with the touchpad.
by turning off the tapping feature it has gotten much better.
but i still think the elan driver needs some improvements like adding sensitivity controls, etc.
thanks cantbearsed.

 

The first mistake I made was increasing the scrolling speed in the Windows Control Panel applet for the Mouse. Reset that back to the default.

For the ELAN settings, I turned on two finger scroll, and two finger tap for right mouse clicks. I think that was about it. Worked great for me.

 

yeah the touch pad is pretty poor. another thing i've noticed over the last few days (having turned the tapping feature off) is that you can sometimes left click even when you are trying to right click and often you do left and right click and left again.

a good example is trying to open a link on a webpage in a new tab. i've worked out if you right click (right down the far bottom right hand side) it will also left click for you. so try and keep your left and right clicking away from the extreme ends.

i'm basically looking for a better driver with better software. I still really want the reverse scrolling and have it elasticated (i.e. it slows down smoothly after you've lifted your fingers off) and that it doesn't move way too fast or slowly.

and anyone on the hdd speed?

edit: not a problem suhlash, lots of good tips on here to improve functionality

 

Glossy screens tend to look better (no anti-glare coating to diffuse the image quality) but matte are more usable.

don't relay on the download pages being up-to-date. Use Easy Software Manager. Mine shows that the newest touchpad driver is 10.17.16.1.

If you look into the touchpad driver installation package you will find a program called "ETDAniConf.exe". Extract it then run it. It includes a sensitivity control that is missing from Samsung's version of the pad control. Other issues with the touchpad have been discussed in this thread.

By default, running on mains power uses minimal power saving for the WiFi card whereas the default, when running on battery, is to maximise the power savings which won't sustain a good connection where the WiFi system is congested - a bit like having to speak louder when everyone around you is also talking.

We here aren't happy (but I suspect that >95% of customers are very happy with their purchase) although Samsung don't promise which make of SSD is supplied. Given that 128GB isn't much space the time will soon come when you want something bigger, whereupon there are now buying choices.

See my comment above.

John

 

The U100 gets a decent sequential read and write score ONLY.
Having decent sequential read and write is enough to get it fast bootup time,
and the 7.5 WEI rating.

However:

- My 2 1/2 year old INTEL X25-M has always scored a 7.9 on more than 4 different motherboards over the same period of time. The Crucial M4, Samsung 830, Sandisk Extreme (not a U100) and several others all get a 7.9 on my systems. I had a 3 year-old SONY Z Core 2 Duo that I put an X25-M in at SATA 1 speed, and it got 7.9.

- Windows 7 is not new, it came out before the SSD boom, and 7.9 is expected for any decent SSD.

- Other than the sequential read and write scores, the U100 gets the lowest random read/write scores and 4K scores, etc. that I have ever seen for any SSD. In fact, I have USB flash thumb-drives that get better scores than it does!

- The U100 is a very, very slow SSD, period. Samsung is trying to hit a price point and maximize their profit by buying an SSD that is less expensive than one that they actually product themselves, the m830. Apple would NEVER accept a U100 version for their product line, not even for the least expensive Air model. Samsung is guessing that if people see a reasonably fast bootup time and reasonably fast program loading time, they will be happy with their new S9 and its SSD. They will deal with the 5% or less that know better and call foul.

Again, 7.5 is NOT a decent WEI score for any SSD.
Run AS SSD or other reliable benchmark for the full story.

 

Totally agree aamsel. Samsung should really be ashamed of themselves.

On the other hand, if they want to drop the price $200 then I wouldn't mind as much. But premium prices warrant premium components.

 

could someone pls explain where I would notice that this is a bad SSD ? In what way do I have to use my PC to notice it, what do I have to do ?

I'm sure you are corret it's a $h!tty SSD, but I really don't care about benchmark numbers, I care about real life experience.

What I do know, is that I considered this notebook vs asus ux31a, the asus, even thou it had a faster cpu, top of the line ssd takes 2 times as long to boot up.

don't get me wrong, I don't like that samsung put a $h!tty component in a notebook thats top of the line and I payed premium cash for, but pls educate me, how can I in real life action notice that this ssd fails ?

 

Boot time is a single measure and influenced by many factors.

I/O performance it important to me for many tasks including backup, video encoding, virtual machine load and performance, working with large binary objects like multi layered pictures, code development and compilation, etc. In other words, heavily I/O bound chores.

The masses don't know any better nor care. I know better and care.

 

Doesn't affect me then, since I usually don't do any of those things. So I should be happy

 

As much as I wanted this laptop, I'm going to end up getting a retina mbp when there is stock at my local store. I can't justify a higher price than the air when the processor/ssd/keyboard are all inferior and without option for 8gb ram.