2013 Ativ Book 9 Plus owner's lounge (NP940X3G)

huh? link?

 

It sold out in like 10 minutes. They had 12 in stock apparently, and it wasn't amazon directly but a company called computer brain. I actually ordered one, but it hasn't shipped or anything yet. I'm skeptical that I will actually get the right model, but if I do, great. If not, Ill just return it. It actually did force the amazon algorithm to drop the price on the laptop to 1675.

 

So I'm not sure if this was in this thread somewhere else, but I just noticed that when I put my phone (galaxy s4 SCH-I545) on the left side of my track-pad on my laptop it goes to a lock screen. Any ideas why that is? I'm more just curious about the interaction that's going on than anything. Because I turned off NFC and Bluetooth, so any ideas about this interaction would be interesting to hear.

 

that's crazy. this is for a NP940X3G-K04US? if it says that exact model in your open orders, there's a chance amazon direct could step in and fill the order if this other company tries to pull a switcheroo.

the Microsoft Store is selling the NP940X3G-K05US for $1,599 which is the later version of the K04US.

 

Thanks for the link.
It would seem that the Intel HD Graphics Control Panel was to blame for my screen brightness adjusting - and it wasn't even a setting in the Display section, it was the Power section.

Flippin' ridiculous.

 

Yup, NP940X3G-K04US, I reaaaaally hope Amazon would be awesome and do that. I initially just purchased it right away because its Amazon, I've never had any problems with the marketplace, I knew it was gonna sell out in minutes, and the seller had 92% positive reviews. However, the item still says preparing to ship, so again I'm still skeptical. If they never ship and Amazon steps in to fill the order, even better, although I'm not sure if they have a policy to do that sort of thing. It think they just cover refunds and whatnot if there are issues, and I know they have a very low tolerance for sellers pulling these types of stunts. If Amazon accidentally dropped the price, I'm pretty sure they would honor it too.

Sidenote, I thought that the K05US was just the 'signature' model that Microsoft sold with no bloatware and just vanilla windows 8.1. I thought it didnt necessarily mean the latest. The other good thing about it is no sidesync symbol engravings on the laptop, which would definitely be a plus.

 

Off topic - but Amazon's own prices change automatically based on the prices of Marketplace sellers? Didn't realise that.

 

Since my desired Thinkpad T440s has so many issues I am looking at buying another another decent Ultra/Subnotebook mostly for work. The AB9+ has some nice features and recently dropped in price here in Europe. I read much of the thread but would be glad if some users with a longer experience could answer my questions.

1. under Windows 8 you could set the display to 100% Full HD without any issues. Is that possible with the now pre-installed 8.1 too or does the picture and icons get blurred because of interpolation? If some special programs dont work well with QHD and Scaling, that would be my solution of choice.

2. As mentioned above, work on texts, PDF and with undemanding scientific programs would represent like 80/90% of the usage scenario.
Is the fan silent in such a scenario, even over a long time?

3. As working would be the main concern: does someone write very much and long texts on the device? If yes, did you get used to the shallow depth of the keys while typing?
I have an old Macbook Pro whose keys I am used to and which are not as shallow as those in the new MBP Retina or even in the Samsung.

4. I don't want to buy the next device two years later, so exchaning components that normally wear off would be nice. I already saw that you can access the battery in theory. Is it easy to exchange it and are batterys avaible that fit the device?

Thanks!

 

I will leave others to answer your specific questions but if you would prefer a matte non-touch display then the NP900X3G (Haswell update of previous 13.3" Series / Book 9) is being quietly released as discussed in this thread.

John

 

So an update on this. The company sent me a message today saying that the K04US was on back order and that they would have new stock in 7-10 business days, and that they will automatically cancel my order if they aren't restocked in 30 days (cause it's my fault if they don't restock in time). There were 12 in stock when I submitted my order and 11 after, so I think they are clearly just trying to pull a fast one. If they had just said that they priced the laptop incorrectly I would have been OK with that, but that was not their response. I messaged them back asking for free overnight shipping once the order does arrive. Maybe they legitimately were out of stock, but if not, I'll send a message to Amazon after 7-10 business days and see if they can do anything for me.

 

I've ordered one but not heard back from them. It just says that preparing for shipment. Did you contact them in 1st place or they just sent you an email?

 

I've ordered one but not heard back from them. It just says that preparing for shipment. Did you contact them in 1st place or they just sent you an email?

 

I think when I sent them a message I got an auto-reply or something because I didn't notice the message there before I sent it. Go to your orders and click on File/View claim and see if there is a message from them on the right hand portion of the screen. If not, send them a quick message about the package and you'll probably get the same message I got if you haven't already.

 

Thanks for your reply. I contacted them to hear what they have to say. It's funny what they have said to you because when I ordered it they already had about 10 in stock.

 

i don't know the differences between the K04 and K05 models, you could be right that it's merely software and without the engravings. have you seen the model in person to know that?

 

Did anyone ever reach a conclusive answer about swapping the SSD?

The 128GB of storage is my one bugbear with the laptop but I've started seeing the Crucial M500 480GB m.2 SSD available in a few places here and I'm sorely tempted.
But I'm concerned about buying it without being sure it's compatible.

 

There was a user a few pages back who did some testing but it proved to be an incompatible drive so not sure if a 256GB m4 is yet available. It's a risky area and you are sure to test your patience and wallet trying to find a compatible m4 card SSD.

Good luck and do share your findings

 

You mean m.2?

As I say, the 480GB m.2 Crucial M500 has started popping up online over here:

(CT480M500SSD4) Crucial CT480M500SSD4 Crucial 480GB M500 SATA M.2 2280 SSD - £211.88
Crucial M500 480GB M.2 2280-D2-B-M SSD SATA III - CT480M500SSD4 - Scan.co.uk - £211.87​

They're both legit websites and are a good £20-30 cheaper than some other places I've seen online.
But, as bad as this sounds, I don't really want to be a guinea pig on this.


Not to mention, I'm concerned that if I did opt for this, a new wave of better-specced m.2 SSDs would start to reach the market.
The Samsung XP941 that's used in the likes of the MacBook Air and Sony Vaio Pro seems to be the better drive but doesn't seem to be on sale anywhere.

 

Bought a screen protector on eBay for $15, knowing that it would be rubbish, but wanting to see. Needless to say, it didn't disappoint and is sticking to the inside of the bin better than it stuck to the screen. So avoid (didn't really have to add that).

Sent from my Xoom Wifi using Tapatalk

 

LOL

You post made me chuckle. Thank you for sharing that!

 

Regarding Crucial M500 480GB M.2, it should be compatible with the AB+. Both mSATA and M.2 (SATA) share the same SATA-bus from the chipset as a normal SATA port does in desktop PC. The only thing that differs on SATA drives is the form factor and connector.

Perfomance vice, the 480GB M500 score 15% better overall in AS-SSD benchmark (930 Points) than the standard 128GB AB+ SSD.

The 480GB M500 M.2 is widely available and in stock in Norway where I live, it's dirt cheap to....

But my 5cent would be to wait for retail M.2 Samsung drives or other fast brands later this year, it's coming!

I recently bougth a SATA to M.2 SATA adapter on ebay for 12$, combined with Acronis I have everything ready when I choose to upgrade my SSD. Cloning the drives should be easy...

 

Remains to be seen whether the vendor gives me a refund.

 

My experience of the mSATA version of the M500 (on my Windows 7 NP900X4C) is that while the speed is as advertised, the idle power consumption is around 1W and well above the advertised value. It's possible, however, that the Haswell platform and windows 8.1 know how to get the M500 to be more frugal on power. The power issue may also be why the pricing of the M500 is very competitive.

John

 

Does anyone know how to fix the scaling on games like Civ V? I tried changing the in game resolution and the laptop resolution, but I can't get it to scale properly. The font is waaay too small on the QHD+ setting. And if I lower the resolution, it just makes the area of the game on the screen smaller.

 

I am trying to install the Nuance App for Dragon Assist on the AB 9+.

For some reason I cannot get the built -in microphone on the laptop to connect to the software program. I have tried several times to uninstall and re-install the App but when I get to the place in set-up where it " tests" the microphone it says to speak and a bar will turn green if Dragon is picking up my voice. I see no bar and the set-up will not let me go any further.

We do have a built in microphone don't we?

Any suggestions?

 

Yes, I've been using "OK Google" on Chrome

 

Out of interest, how cheap is 'dirt cheap'?

Yeah, I want to but there's just a wall of silence.
Samsung are supplying the XP941 to Apple and Sony, yet apart from one site in Australia there's no sign of availability at all.

That's annoying.
I had a bit of a look around and the few reviews that cover off power consumption all seem to to reach the same conclusion.

 

On some computers (depending on audio hardware, OS, and drivers) the system seems to have multiple "logical" microphones, even though there is only one physical mic. In Dragon Assist, is there an Audio Settings menu where you can to select which mic to use?

Just a thought...

 

I cannot seem to get beyond the set-up screen to test the mike.... hence...no dashboard for any options ( like select a mic). I now know we have a mic and it works...but I can't seem Dragon assist to recognize it. And since it is the " lite" version.... no tech support.

 

How about installing Skype, just temporarily, and see if it works with the mic. It has a good audio test feature and settings dialog. Once you've established that your mic works, you can uninstall it again.

 

I have done more testing of SSD idle power consumption on my NP900X4C. With HWiNFO's Sensors window open to observe the power drain, wireless devices turned off and minimum display brightness: Crucial M500 480GB mSATA SSD minimum power drain = 5.80W and Samsung EVO 1TB mSATA = 5.30W. For those without a calculator that's 0.5W difference or approximately 10% of battery time if the system power drain is 5W (and a lower percentage if the overall power drain is higher). As an aside I would note that if I left the X4C so the display turned off then the minimum power drain dropped to 3.1W which illustrates how much of the power gets used by the display.

John

 

I had access to a 730u3e last year, that got damadged by imprints of the keyboard on the screen after a few days. It didn't only leave imprints you could rub off but also little scratches. Other users report the same on some boards. Because I have to transport the notebook intensively, I think that a touchscreen might be more suited and durable in such cases, although the 940x3e doesn't seem to have Gorilla glas.

So my biggest concern is if I can change the resolution to Full-HD (not just scaling 200% or so) under Windows 8.1 without the image getting worse, like it was possible with Windows 8 - before using the QHD-resolution was made possible. You may ask why I'm buying a machine with QHD then, but I just want it to be more furture proof because I'm sure that it will be the standard and software eventually will adapt to it.

 

I'm sure that you can set the display resolution to FHD if you don't want QHD and its additional scaling issues. IIRC the initial (pre 8.1) supplies of this notebook were supplied with this setting.

At the same time, I would note that having the keyboard leaving marks on the display is not a reported problem with the NP900X3B to F although I have seen it to a limited extent on my bigger X4C where the display probably bends more when squeezed into a bag. My mitigating measure is to put a sheet of paper on the keyboard before closing the computer.

John

 

Sorry, guys, I hope this wasn't already answered. I had a quick search but I didn't manage to find anything. Maybe that's already an answer to my question...

I really like the look's of this laptop but I would like the option to play games. I don't need to have them all on the max settings but I'd still like to be able to play modern games, such as The Walking Dead, Starbound, or X-Com. Is it possible?

I have read conflicting things online about the integrated Intel graphics. Some people say oh dear God, don't try to game on that! Other benchmarks say that you can play any modern game, just sometimes with reduced settings.

I understand it's not a dedicated video card and I would get a model of the laptop with extra RAM, since the memory is shared, but I'm hoping to talk to some owners of this laptop who have tried to put games on there.

Thanks!

 

Notebookcheck has some gaming test results for the Intel 4400 GPU. I would note that frame rates will improve as the resolution is lowered. For example 1600 x 900 has 1/4 of the pixels to be processed compared with 3200 x 1800.

John

 

Thanks... I saw a similar comparison but I was hoping to get some opinions from people who are actually trying to play games on this laptop. It does look in these benchmarks, however, that quite a lot of games are pretty unplayable. It's too bad... it is a really nice looking laptop.

 

Need a VGA adapter for you X3G? ie, those projectors for presentations. On sale at $9.99 with free shipping.

micro HDMI to VGA Adapter Dongle

 

This prompted me to look up the Samsung VGA adapter (for use with the proprietary mini-VGA port on Samsung laptops) which are normally way overpriced at $40, and I see that Best Buy sells them at clearance for $15.

A Micro-HDMI to VGA adapter is more versatile; this is only for those who need the VGA port for a second external monitor.

 

While the K05US doesn't have the SideSync software, it still carries the SideSync logo on the palm rest.

 

Could you fix this? I'm having the exact same problem and reinstalling the Elan Touchpad drivers didn't work: the touchpad keeps failing randomly.

 

For everyone looking for a better touch browser, the new Firefox beta has just come out and is working really nicely with both touchscreen and QHD. Recommended.

Details here

 

Has anyone tried running a second monitor to extend display?

I am thinking of getting a dell 27'' monitor with 2560x1440 display for work mainly office apps(word and excel)
Has anyone tried this and can you use hdmi output from samsung into the dell to run at this high resolution?

 

Yes, plugged it into the hdmi on a Dell 27", works as expected although only extends the desktop not the Metro interface.

Sent from my Xoom Wifi using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for the quick reply.
Can I ask what Dell you are using and do you recommend it for office apps?

 

Can the 4GB version of this laptop (NP940X3G-K01US) be upgraded to 8GB?

 

It's a 2709 I think, quite old. Didn't try any apps, but it should be fine.

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The RAM is soldered so what you get is what you live with (WYGIWYLW ). However, the SSD is upgradable if you can find the right part.

John

 

There is a new Samsung Settings update, and was hoping that Samsung was able to bring back Fast Start, but it wasn't there. Seem mostly same except new auto adaptive brightness settings.

 

I got this update and now my screen fades up and down in brightness every time I change windows. It is driving me absolutely crazy. All my auto brightness boxes in the Settings app are unchecked. Is this a bug or is there another place to disable it??

 

Windows also has auto brightness in power panel.