13.3" Samsung NP900X3C with Ivy Bridge CPU

What are you missing? All drivers and software supplied with your computer get put onto a DVD when you use Samsung Recovery Solution to make a backup disk.

Most people won't notice any problems. For me, I suspect that the Sandisk U100 is the cause of the computer appearing to temporarily freeze when I start yet another program that causes Windows to dump some RAM to the swap files while concurrently trying to load more data.

John

 

If you have been using 5400rpm drives in a notebook, then the U100 may seem faster. However, for example,
I would not want to compare the two extracting files from a huge zip or other archive, converting from one form
of audio/video to another, copying over a huge DVD-sized or larger image, etc.

If you have loaded up all the apps you plan to run on your S9, and have run them to their fullest use with multiple
apps running at once and seen no issues, you will likely be fine.

However, and this is important:

The fastest performance from any SSD is day one.
It only gets slower from there.

Yes, every 6 months or year you can back everything up,
write zero's to the drive and get a "fresh start" but there will
always be degradation.

This drive is so incredibly slow day one,
that I don't even want to think about how it will crawl in the future.

But again, remember that Samsung does not expect 95%+ of buyers to
care.

And, as has been said here, bootup time means nothing, nada, zilch, irrelevant.
Samsung, or any manufacturer can tweak that with special software caching and other
tricks.

Seriously:
Take the A01US @ $1,299
For me, the price is not $1,299
It is $1,299 + the cost of whatever 128GB or larger decent SSD I drop in it.
The U100 goes in a drawer.

 

You should be doing weekly backups and keeping duplicate copies of your data.

Backup performance is the least of my worries, except on my wife's machine. Her personal data has grown from 60GB to 190GB. It takes quite a while to backup her machine, or make a copy of her data. Performance counts a lot in her case.

 

Just handled one of these at best buy while looking at the retina pros. It feels really nice, just wish they put more ram and a better ssd in, the keyboard didn't feel bad at all, much better than I anticipated.

 

I followed this discussion for quite a while as I am looking for a new laptop. While many seem to be unhappy with RAM and SDD options, hardly anyone complained about inhomogenous display illumination and battery life?

The battery capacity is almost half of what the MBA 13" offers and the display shows grey areas in its mid-low part instead of black, exspecially on high brightness because of a very inhomogenous illumination. For me these flaws are much more nogo decision points than the hardware specs. Moreover, the keyboard is really bad with no travel. Unfortunately, my hands-on experience with the 900x3c told me to watch out for other machines...

 

There must be some inconsistencies with the displays. You are the third person I recall with the complaint. The first was a review that measured it, then dejacky, now you.

Sounds like someone isn't doing a good quality control job.

 

sorry for the double-posting.

I guess my exspectations were quite high after all the great things I heard about that display. Then i read a review pointing at this issues and I could confirm it simply by looking at the black bar under a movie.

However, the battery capacity is more of an issue for me. Why getting a super-light machine if it doesnt last long without ac adapter? I really wonder how people get more than 5h "using" the 900x3c (WLan on, surfing etc). Even if the Samsung runs at 800Mhz only, 3600mAh will not yield 5h.

 

I guess the expectations are quite different in this point. There are users that need a notebook that can perform 7 hours on battery, others are OK with 3 hours and I could live with 30 minutes.

I even replaced the big battery on my lenovo x200s with the smallest available to save some weight.

 

I estimate (extrapolating from X3C vs. Z835 in notebookreview) the X3C would get about 5 hours on engadget's test. The macair got 6.5 in OSX and 4.5 in windows. So not double. It should be noted OSX is tuned to the mac hardware. It does have a better keyboard and 8GB ram option. The S9 display is superior if you're not looking at a lemon. The macair is also larger and heavier with a thicker bezel and dated design.

MacBook Air review (13-inch, mid 2012) -- Engadget

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=6447&review=samsung+series+9+np900x3b&p=3

 

i recently did a very rough battery test.
samsung claims upwards of 9 hours.
i actually got my computer to last something close to that in a one day test.
but i had my brightness fairly low and it was basically just turned on without doing much for long periods of time.
the screen would turn off, but it was never in a sleep mode.
i probably surfed the web for at least 4 hours on it.
played some music on it.
had either mathematica or excel opened at all times.
anyways, i doubt there are very many 2.6 pound ultralight computers
that can beat this computer in terms of battery life.
my only issue with this computer so far is the sucky elan touchpad driver.

 

This gave me a good chuckle this morning. Gotta love opinions. Everyone has one.

That dated design is being copied by every OEM on the planet. That dated design includes the option for 8GB of RAM and has Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort.

 

I had a Vertex SSD in my old laptop, but really my use, don't know if I will notice much difference, I guess my biggest stresstest on the SSD is caching websites. The fact that it slows down over time is a general SSD problem, thats why we have TRIM right ? I assume this disk have TRIM ?

So far it seems I'm not gonna have a problem with this disk, maybe I replace it some day, but that will probably be because of lack of space.

I'm not a big fan or expert on Apple (I have an ipad2, that is pretty cool, but all the limitations frustrates the hell out of me) But I think I remember reading a review where the S9 had better battery than MBA.
What I don't like about S9 on battery is that it seems to downclock when on battery, 2 finger scrolling etc seems slower.

As for display I don't think I can reproduce your problem, I did a black background and test at half and full brightness, at half it's pitch black all over, at full brightness it's not as black, but still fairly good, and same all over.

The travel on keys takes some getting used to, Isn't this same problem on all 13mm ultrabooks ?

 

Just like... well, you know.

I think I dated that design.

 

To Samsung's credit, they didn't play copy cat. Their design is VERY striking and cool. On top of that, the 13.3" 2012 Series 9 machine has a great thin bezel LCD panel using PLS technology. The result is fantastic.

My son has one and loves it.

If Samsung will make two changes, I will love it too.

 

8GB RAM + mini-DisplayPort, I presume? (Need to spell it out clearly in case Samsung actually read our thoughts).

John

 

+1 for i7!!!

 

Yes. Exactly.

8GB of RAM is required. That isn't optional.

 

For me I'd be fine with an i7 256GB SSD, even without the ram.

But I'd also be willing to pay more for the full package.

 

WIndows 7 (and Windows 8) provides the TRIM function, and the drive simply gets cleaned up by it. So, yes, there is TRIM support, but SSD drives degrade over time, and they are still fastest when brand new. There is nothing that you can do about it, that is just the case. NAND and SSD's are complicated, and I can't explain them further.

Bottom line is - if you are happy with the drive now, you should be happy with it in the future - but be warned that it will be slower down the road. Will YOU notice it - probably not.

The black level that the other poster was referring to was during DVD playback, and may take more trained eyes to see. If you don't see it, again, it won't matter to you.

The key travel is basically using the Air as a standard. The Air does have more key travel and better overall keyboard feel. Yes, it is hard to put sufficient key travel in a super-thin notebook, no question.

You are happy with your notebook, so enjoy it.

 

I'm very happy with it, I was hours away from ending up with a UX31A when I found this had a PLS display. And now I see some issues with the UX31A I'm even more happy.

But really the touchpad is a bit frustrating. Disable tapping is not an option for me.

 

Try a free utility called Touchfreeze. I think v. 1.02 is latest.
It will disable the touchpad while you are typing.
It is a tiny little install, and can be uninstalled.
I think they ask for Paypal donations if you like it.
I have used it and it seems to work ok.
Just web search for Touchfreeze and you will see it.

 

The bashing of the ssd is way over.

For a normal office experience, as this machine is intended, this ssd will feel as fast as a vertex3 95% of the time as i use on my other work machine.

The n-cache ofviously works most of the time. I have old ssd that are way slower.

The 4k random read/write does tell a part of the story, and if you are used to a vertex3 you will feel the choking sometimes. And when it chokes it chokes like its like 5400.

But saying this is like 5400 hd speed is pure bs and completely out of proportions for this kind of product, and can only be said by people who have not had the actual product in hands.

There is a power dimension to it, and i would guess the sandisk u100 is having a far lower power usage than the sandforce, and as this product is for mobility this can have far more importance than the 5% choking.

As this product is unique in its class anyway, as it is smaller, lighter and with better screen than anything else, you can always plug in the new 256gb uber fast msata if you want. But give it a try before you do.

 

I said that if you have been using a notebook with a 5400rpm drive this may seem faster, and was referring to file copying, etc. I did not say that it was slower or would bench slower than a 5400rpm drive, but the random and 4K scores are horrible, and a AS SSD score under 150 is very, very bad, and can not be argued. It is one of the slowest SSD drives around, again, not disputable.

I do have the actual product in hands, right here, the A01US model.

I was disappointed, and am disappointed that Samsung chose to make a probable extra $50 profit per machine rather than provide a good drive that they make themselves.

I plan to replace it with a faster 128 or 256 if I choose to keep it.

Other than that, I told kayrune to enjoy his machine, and pointed out that all SSD's degrade in time.

I still feel it is equivalent to buying a nice car and finding out that they put an engine or transmission from a cheaper manufacturer in it.
(yes, I understand that the CPU and memory are better equated to the engine and transmission, but you get the point).

Samsung cheaped-out on the SSD.
Does it matter to most users - no.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, but this is not my problem.

This is:

 

Every OEM? Not samsung at least. It does have good specs (except an average display) but that utilitarian silver-grey isn't doing it for me anymore. Black would be cool though.

 

I would gladly have paid the extra for the extra for the performance myself, but this way i can choose my ssd myself, and get the the absolutely best, as i am an ssd nerd. But i think my own preferences is special.

I think people should judge for themselves, my guess is 95% will be perfectly satisfied. The benchmarks does not tell the true story, ncache works. And anyway the ssd can be replaced. If there was one component that could be the weak link, this is the perfect one.

 

For $1300+ and a computer that will be used into 2014, 8GB is not optional for me, it's a minimum requirement and non-negotiable. 4GB was a requirement in 2010.

No mini-displayport is almost a dealbreaker, but right now just adds fuel to the fire. 8GB and 256GB and I can overlook the no miniDP.

 

I'm coming from a Sony Z1 where the SSD was smooth as butter. I have already encountered some severe "choking" while trying to install applications while transferring files from an external drive at the same time. Its been several years (mechanical drive days) since I experienced that type of issue and I'm not liking it. Lucky for me, I got this X3C for free as a replacement for my slightly damaged Z1 at the Microsoft store, so I'm ready and willing to upgrade the drive.

Which 256 GB replacement do people recommend?

 

Last week, I bought a Samsung NP900X3C 13" Ivy i7 3517U 4GB RAM 256GB SSD Liteonit LMT-256M3M Home Premium 64bit. I paid 13000HKD here in Hong Kong, which is 1675US$.
Very satisfied, boot up in 9seconds.

 

Whats your windows experience index score for the liteonit ssd ?

 

Having finally used the Samsung Series 9 13" in person, here are my thoughts about it versus the 2012 Apple MacBook Air 13" (which I own).

- The Samsung is gorgeous. I think it's the most aesthetically pleasing laptop that I've ever seen. The bezel on the MacBook Air seems really wide compared to the NP900X3C. The NP900X3C also has a smaller footprint by about 0.5" on both sides.

- I can't feel the weight difference between 2.6 lbs and 3 lbs. However, when you add the AC adapters both come out to about 3.5 lbs. The Apple AC adapter is very sleek and not a two-cord power brick. Therefore it takes up less space in my backpack. I carry my laptop in my backpack every day so physical size and weight make a difference.

- 1600x900 (NP900X3C) versus 1440x900 (MacBook Air) makes no difference. This was originally my major deciding factor in wanting the Samsung, but now that I've used both I realize that with both laptops having a vertical resolution of 900 pixels, the 160 pixel horizontal difference is a lot less than I thought. I still think Samsung's 400 nit matte screen is better than anything else out there. The Asus ZenBook Prime may have 1920x1080 resolution, but realistically at 13" 1600x900 is the max it should be at. I have no problems with my vision but sometimes even I had to zoom in when testing out Office Word and Excel on the NP900X3C.

- The NP900X3C boots up way, way faster than the MacBook Air in Boot Camp (which takes 60 seconds). This makes no difference in how I use it but it may be a consideration for others.

- Keyboard clicking on the Samsung is slightly louder, but otherwise it's the same as the MacBook Air. I've read reviews saying that Apple has the best laptop keyboards out there but I don't feel any other difference between the two. I do prefer Samsung's trackpad because it's touch and not click. The major downside however is that it's very sensitive where random palm brushes will click on whatever the cursor happens to be over.

- Opening and running random applications I can't see any speed difference between the two SSDs. My MacBook Air has a newer Toshiba SSD which is supposed to be equal to the Samsung 830 SSD but in my own real world use it's faster than an HDD but not to the point of being really noticeable.

- I don't know the battery life of the NP900X3C, but my 2012 MacBook Air gets 6 hours in Boot Camp (doing office-type work) which was a very pleasant surprise. I was expecting closer to 4.5 hours but I guess Ivy Bridge is really that efficient.

- Canadian prices: Samsung NP900X3C is $1300. Apple MacBook Air is $1229. In my case, my MacBook Air had an educational discount (-$70 I think) and I also upgraded to 8GB RAM and bought the Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adapter which ended being $1354 all in after taxes. I also received that $100 gift card to iTunes/App Store as per Apple's current student promo. However, if you're going the OS X Boot Camp route you'll need a Windows license (if you don't already) which adds to the cost. You also lose a lot of harddrive space having two OSs.

Part of me still wants the Samsung NP900X3C but in my honest opinion, both laptops are overall pretty equal. Features and specs may be slightly different, but I think anyone would be happy either either laptop. Both are very good builds.

 

Assuming you regularly use Boot Camp on the Air, are the keyboard differences and extra keys needed (2 instead of 1, and 3 instead of 2) a big deal, or did you learn them quickly, or remap things?

The Air is not a perfect screen, but it is, perhaps a perfect resolution for a 13" panel.

I think for my non-perfect eyes, the issues with 1600x900 are simple things like the url bar and Google search bar in Firefox which AFAIK can not be made larger. Going to 110% or 125% DPI, or CNTRL - Shift - + in Firefox makes everything bigger, but not the url bar or Google search bar, and there are other issues where custom DPI settings have no effect.

With XP there were DPI adjustment (3rd party) utilities that made things larger with few drawbacks, but I don't know of any for Windows 7/8?

 

Regarding the Firefox search bar, are you really referring to the default search field in the top right portion of Firefox? If so, do you want to make the field bigger vertically or horizontally?

Horizontal is easy. Just drag the separator between the URL field and the Search field to the left.

 

Well, you'll have to wait a year then. No 8GB this year.

 

Vertically.
So far, all I have found is a Theme Font and Size Changer add-on for Firefox, but it does not help much
and screws with a lot of other things badly.

 

Negative ghostrider. There are other 8GB options already on the market and more coming. Samsung needs to get in the game ASAP.

 

Windows has its display scaling: Control Panel > Display. The Medium (125%) may be too big but you can create a custom scaling of, say 112%. I found that initially I needed to use this when I first got my X3B but once I was used to the display I reverted to the standard 100%.

John

 

I have no problems with the keys' positions and I haven't remapped any keys either. But I've been using both Macs and PCs for a long. I think it took me at most a few hours to adjust the way I position my hands and fingers over certain keys when I got this MacBook Air.

Mind you that Windows has other issues with MacBooks. For example, the backlit keyboard and brightness always forgets your settings and resets to default (being max brightness) at boot up. And the front facing camera still isn't supported.

 

Has anyone found the small left shift key to be bothersome?

 

Isn't that a standard feature on a non-US keyboard?

John

 

The scaling is imperfect.
As I said, it does not affect many applications properly.
Quite a few things get messed up from scaling.

 

What is the hard way to affect the vertical sizing?
I have not found one that works.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply you could do anything to make the field taller.

 

hello dart22
The core was 7.9
How do you compare that with score of other SSD's?

 

Some more info on the Liteonit 256GB SSD in my NP900X3C:
Spec LMT-256M3M

I perrformed CrystalDiskMark with following results:
read/write MB/s
seq: 487/413
512k: 387/380
4k: 23/40
4kQD32: 238/126

I am not a specialist, but that seems good when I compare it to following test reviews:
Test OCZ Vertex 4 256 GB SSD (VTX4-25SAT3-256G) - Notebookcheck.com Tests

4k test is a bit lower. Is that important?

 

So the LMT-256M3M is a Marvel based SSD, not unlike the crucial M4

mSATA SSD

 

Those numbers are excellent.

 

Did you try it with Windows 7. I know that I had numerous problems with scaling under earlier versions of Windows but I didn't notice problems when trying scaling under Win 7.

Good results that are similar to the Crucial M4 (the Liteon write speeds seem to be better) or the Samsung PM830


John

 

Actually, Liteon States that the controller is a "Marvel 88SS9174 Flash controller"
But the photo @ Liteons websie shows it with a Toshiba NAND as opposed to the micron chips that crucial usually uses, which might explain the higher write speeds !

 

That is the same as in the Crucial m4. However, different SSD manufacturers make their own tweaks. The Liteon's faster write speeds might, for example, be a consequence of using faster cache RAM. Anyway, that Liteon SSD looks to be a lot better than the Sandisk 128GB mSATA and is much better than a previous generation Liteon 2.5" SSD.

John