13.3" Samsung NP900X3C with Ivy Bridge CPU

Quick tip to X3C owners,
Noticed that ClearType wasn't set up for optimum viewing by default. After correcting it text looks much better. I can now use brightness level of 2 in the dark perfectly.

 

Anyone had an issue where if you play games at a resolution lower than 1600x900, the brightness/contrast will automatically get dimmer? If I set the resolution back to 1600x900, then it goes back to normal. I've looked in all the settings and can't find a setting for this.

 

If Samsung will sell me a NP900X3D (silver) in the USA, I'll be happy to test it again.

 

Isn't that the Intel dynamic contrast setting buried deep in the Intel graphics settings?

 

Thanks for the reply. I couldn't find anything called dynamic contrast in my graphic card or monitor settings. I followed the advice in this post and it had no affect. Also saw another person say they disabled "xcontrast" on their monitor and it fixed a slightly similar problem but I couldn't find xcontrast for our systems anywhere either.

 

Actually it is called Adaptive Contrast Enhancement. See the attached screenshot.

 

I have turned that option off but I still notice an annoying change in contrast/brightness as movies play, or if i switch from a dark window to a white one - is anyone aware of some other setting deep in intel video settings or elsewhere on the same intel graphics settings ui?

 

There's the auto movie color enhancer at the bottom of the Display page in Easy Settings.

John

 

Here is an issue I haven't been able to figure out. This is a A01-US PN btw.

Mutiple OS installs, both Samsung provided image and my own W7Pro. Up-to-date drivers from intel and Samsung. Up-to-date Display Manager ect.

When running at native 1600x900 the laptop screen itself flickers intermittently. Note, this is the laptop monitor, not an external display.

When I drop the resolution down to say 1440x900, the flickering is significantly reduced.

As a test I ran a LiveCD of Ubuntu 12.04 - same result

I have the option for adaptive brightness disabled. I've set the performance of the graphics to "Max performance" both on battery and plugged in.

One last observation. I never see any flicker during load or when in the BIOS.

Any ideas? I would like to avoid sending this to Samsung and getting some refurb in return.

 

That box wasn't checked for me.

This wasn't activated for me either. But I found if I checked it, and played a movie file, a popup would show at the top of the screen to let me know it switched to movie mode. When I would load Call of Duty 4, the color would change/get dimmer within 5 seconds of me opening the program, with no popup.

I tried installing the newest video driver 8.5.10.2712 (from their website, not their garbage Easy Software Manager) and it seems to have fixed the problem.

 

In my experience with some programs, just because you don't see a checkbox enabled in the UI of a dialog box doesn't mean a particular property isn't set and read from another location by the driver. The OEM version of the Intel drivers tend to suppress the display of all of the settings anyway. Glad you got this resolved.

 

Good point and I appreciate the help!

 

Anyone have clicking sounds coming from the USB ports? whenever I apply a torque on the computer (ie picking it up from the touchpad side when the screen is open), the computer clicks.

 

There's a review of the X3C at Tom's Hardware.

John

 

Hi Guys,

I picked up an X3c from the Microsoft Store yesterday and it's really great, exept for one thing. I noticed that there's some flashlighting/light leakage coming from the middle of the right-side bezel that is relatively easy to see on boot-up, during movie playback and on the desktop with a dark background. It's one of those things that's hard to "un-see" once I've seen it, but I am willing to make certain concessions because of how thin it is. I just want to see if this is a common occurance or if perhaps the bezel on mine was pinched in assembly, or some other anomaly that would allow for the flashlighting. The rest of the display is very uniform.

 

It isn't normal. If the store is close by as it sounds like it is, I would exchange the machine.

 

Thanks for the reply. Here are a couple photos showing the light leakage just for reference. Build date on the bottom of the case is September 2012.

 

Like I said, I would take it back and exchange it. The Microsoft folks won't mind. They didn't make the machine.

 

I'm having an issue with my NP900X3C.

When I boot up, none of the gestures work on my touchpad (swipe, drag, tap to click, etc). The only thing that works is moving the cursor around and press to click.

Going into the touchpad options and then exiting again makes everything work fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

Maybe we could set benchmarks for battery life. I'm a little bit worried that my battery is a slight lemon given that some people here are boasting 7hours of battery life. I'll continue to add more tests as I have time to complete them. Please add yours as well.

1. Looping a 720p movie with screen brightness at 6/8 and volume at 75%.
~5 hours battery life

2. Regular class note-taking on Microsoft Word. Brightness at 4/8 and volume at 0%.
Slightly over 6hours battery life

 

There is no way people are getting 7 hours of battery life with normal use..
You would literally have to turn off everything and run on the lowest possible settings to get those type of numbers.

 

5 hours seems pretty good to me.

 

My results on the X3B, your ivy bridge mileage may vary. Headphones.

1. All power savings on, wifi off, screen dim=1, cpu idle =14%/hour ~ 7 hours
2. Power savings on, wifi off, screen dim=1, dvd in media center (mounted iso, not external drive) = 17%/hour ~ 5.5 hours
3. Same with 1080p mkv ffdshow dxva= 22%/hour ~ 4.5 hours
4. Power savings on, wifi on, screen high bright, 1080p mkv streamed over network = 28%/ hours ~ 3.5 hours

 

Sorry for the late reply, but I haven't been on this thread for a while. What you are observing is definitely a characteristic of at least some of the 900X3B/C. For me it was so irritating that I returned it and decided to go another route. Now that I have had some time to think about it, I think it may well be that some models are not well constructed or have a defective part under the spacebar. Since only a few have mentioned it and every time it is brought up on this forum there is generally only one response, my hunch is that the majority of them have this problem. I find it hard to believe that most people would put up with it.

Return the laptop if you can and try for another one.

 

Hi I recently bought this laptop.

Got a couple of questions. Should I tick the battery life extender option in the settings menu?

And also I'm running Ubuntu using VM Ware but every time I move the trackpad Num Lock keeps getting turned on and off.

It's very annoying and making it completely unusable. Does anyone have a solution for this? I've tried turning Num Lock off from the VM Ware bios but the problem's still there.

Thanks.

 

Enable this option if/ when you don't need the maximum battery run time (ie if you use the computer plugged into the mains most of the time). It works by only charging the battery to 80%. Much of the damage to the chemistry occurs when charging in the 90 to 100% range.

I also see this with my XP in a VMware Player. I've not tried to trouble-shoot it because I only go there if I need 16 bit compatibility for anything ancient. Perhaps you should take it up with VMware. It's automatically creating something that doesn't exist on the Series 9.

John

 

Thanks, I guess I will try Virtual Box then.

 

I'm interested in buying a NP900X3C, is it the right time to buy one? Are there going to be any updates soon? Maybe a price drop? It's available in Belgium (at a reputable store) for $1800. $1530 if I buy it online at LDLC.com.

One more thing, is the issue with the trackpad resolved yet? (stuttery tracking, unwanted clicking in the middle of the trackpad,...)

Thanks!

 

Why don't you have a look at Amazon UK.

It may even work out cheaper than in Belgium.

At the moment it's £922 (€1146.)

Here's the link:

Samsung Series 9 NP900X3C 13.3 inch Ultrabook (Intel Core i5 3317UM 1.7GHz, 4Gb RAM, 128Gb SSD, LAN, WLAN, BT, Webcam, Integrated Graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

 

So I bought one and I really like it. I'm still catching up on the discussion in this thread, and reading through all the posts of people complaining about 4 Gb and "will it be enough in 18 months"? In 18 months Windows 8 will be the OS of choice. Windows 7 used less RAM than Vista, and Windows 8 is even leaner (it's a tablet OS). So no, you will not need more RAM than today.

The trackpad is the best I've used on a Windows machine, and I really recommend tweaking the driver settings, I was able to get rid of all the annoyances by changing settings.

For the SSD upgrade, can anyone post benchmarks before and after upgrading to what's considered a "good" SSD? It already feels pretty fast so I'm wondering how much more speed I can expect.

FYI, the best way to remove the Windows/Intel stickers is to peel it off, and then keep sticking the removed sticker on and off the left-over goo until it's all stuck at the bottom of the sticker. It's quick and no chemicals required.

 

Well, the problem with Amazon and other international shops is that they don't offer that laptop with an AZERTY keyboard... In France and Belgium that's the standard... Since I'm used to it for over 10 years, I'd rather not switch to QWERTY

 

See my Crucial m4 mSATA review.

John

 

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Wow. Unbelievable, I'm looking forward to upgrading.

 

Having difficulty with HD streaming. Very noticeable when I'm watching netflix, gets extremely choppy. WE also have a Folio 13 which does not have this issue so I'm pretty confident it isnt an internet problem. I updated to the latest graphics driver. Seems like something this processesor should easily be able to handle. Any suggestions?

After playing with it some more it seems to be worse when on battery power

 

here is a freshly baked review from notebookcheck (in German)
Test-Update Samsung Serie 9 900X3C-A04DE Subnotebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests
It got a high rating of 90%.
English version will probably follow soon.

 

For canadian members Futureshop has the NP900X3C-A01CA for 949$ until October 7th.
I just price matched my machine purchased two weeks ago and saved 170$

 

Hi guys,

question: how does the 1600x900 resolution stack up in terms of pixelation? How sharp is the text? I'm in the process of switching back to windows from a Retina Macbook Pro (which needed to be repaired three times already over various hardware issues, and now the USB ports stopped working again -> I've had it). The only good thing about the Retina was the screen (alhtough even that had issues -> ghosting, burn-in), so I'm looking for something that offers retina-like text reproduction. My candidates right now are the NP900X3C and the Asus UX31a. I've checked out the latter and the screen is indistinguishable from the Retina's in terms of crispness, brightness and color-reproduction. However, I've had Asus devices before and the quality's just not there.

Anyway - does the screen reproduce text without pixelation?

 

Are you using WiFi or wired network? Try the latter or put the computer very close to the router. The Series 9 WiFi is barely adequate for streaming video.

John

 

I don't think you'll be disappointed. The 13" has one of the best screens on the market. It's not "retina", but I don't notice pixelation. Honestly, until windows scaling improves, I wouldn't want any higher resolution. Some people may argue, but I would say this is the best 13" laptop on the market, as long as you can make do with 4GB. The Asus is ok, but definitely a lottery as to whether you'll get a quality unit (go ahead and read through their forum).

 

I love my 900X3C and it's display. I find that I almost always keep the brightness turned down to about half brightness.

A question on another issue - updating drivers seems to be a bit of a search. The Samsung support site doesn't seem to have the latest versions, and the "Easy Software" doesn't seem to always link to the same versions as Samsung's support site (which is often not available). Latest versions for chipset and display drivers are often available directly from Intel - however those are "generic" versions and might lack something specific to the Samsung design. Also, the thread on reducing latency has implied that some drivers include extra overhead for features not necessary, that might slow things down on the series 9.

I would like to keep my system updated, and as clean as possible as far as bloatware and unnecessary drivers, so wondering what the best approach to follow might be...

Maybe I should be more hands off, and follow the "if it isn't broken, don't fix it," but what do you guys think?

Or should I just wait for win 8, and then try to do a clean install to a freshly formatted SSD at that point?

 

update on my HD streaming problem. definitely was just an issue when on battery power so just had to change the power settings for video quality and now is fine.

 

Easy Software Manager, when it works, is probably the better route. It's easier for Samsung to just maintain the ESM database than have to keep updating download pages. There was an update to ESM earlier this week which seems to improved the download performance (perhaps a server update as well).

John

 

Thank you! Windows scaling definitely is an issue. I've been working with Windows 8 in Parallels lately and on the Retina MBP it's almost unusable. While some apps scale ok, others clearly don't. MS Office, for example, scales text well, but the icons remain tiny and / or fuzzy. Google Chrome doesn't scale at all, everything looks unsharp and crappy. I was hoping that with Windows 8, the scaling issues would be a thing of the past - but that's clearly not the case.

 

maybe try another OS? I have not tested the hdmi output extensively but on my fullHD TV i saw no problems with Linux.

 

talking Linux, not sure if i posted this already, sorry if I did: I blogged about linux on the NP900X3C

 

This has nothing to do with Windows 8. I am running Windows 8 at 2560x1440 and it is perfectly clear on my Dell U2711 Ultrasharp LCD panel.

So please don't blame Windows for the problems Apple has with the Retina screen, OS X, and Parallels support. It's way off topic for this thread.

In fact, you should probably try VMWare Fusion. It ran both Windows 7 and Windows 8 very nicely when I tested them on my Retina MacBook Pro. Fusion ran at the native resolution of 2880x1800. Looked awesome with 200% DPI set.

 

At 1920x1080, correct?

Speaking of which, when can we expect another full release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop?

 

Could someone verify something for me. With the ultrabook closed is there a slight depression when you apply pressure on the sides and front of the screen chassis? As in if you press on the top of the screen itll go down a little and pop back up as soon as you release.

I ask because the gf accidentally left 4 books on top of the lappy at an weird angle and I never bothered to verify the solidity of the screen chassis beforehand. I'm probably just paranoid about my new toy but it would be reassuring to hear from another owner!

 

Do you guys actually switch between power profiles (such as power saver, high performance, Samsung Eco, Samsung Optimized)? Are there any actual benefits to doing so? Or do you just keep it on Samsung Optimized while on AC power, and also unplugged?

 

When closed, the display back can be pushed down slightly away from the edges. It should not move at the edges where it sits firmly against the palmrest (there is a thin rubber strip around the edge of the display bezel to stop the parts rubbing against each other).

I use the Samsung Optimized profile, tweaked to suit my preferences, all the time.

John