2013 Series 7 chronos / Ativ Book 8 15" owner's lounge (NP770Z5E / NP780Z5E / NP870Z5E / NP880Z5E)

I've been reading a lot about new laptops coming within a month or two, which are all about 2 cm thick and have a haswell CPU and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M. Like for instance the Razer Blade, Razer Blade Pro, Gigabyte P35K, Gigabyte PG34, Acer Aspire V3-772G-9402, MSI GS70 and many more. From the tests I've seen our Radeon 8870M perform almost as well in 3Dmark 2013, but gets hammered in just about everything else. I still have the possibility of returning my NP770Z5E and was wondering what you guys think about these new laptops in comparison to ours? Also with the inclusion of (proper?) support since beta driver 13.5.3 from AMD, can we expect the driver side of things to catch up from now on? Would you change yours if you could? I don't care if it's 15" or 17", I just care about performance, thickness and design. Thanks a lot for any input you can provide.

 

The 765m is faster. No doubt about that. Except for a few games and anything that's CAD, professional graphics,...

 

You mean that 8870 is more powerful than 765 in cad and professional graphics?

 

You're making a good decision because this notebook is one of the highest rated of its class on notebookcheck.net
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Samsung-Series-7-Chronos-770Z7E-Notebook.89376.0.html

- it's materials include a 'duraluminum' top cover and a plastic bottom
- it does come with a windows recovery partition
- does come with samsung-related software like Sony's Vaio Care
- "Chronos" is the name of the main Series 7 notebooks. The Series 7 also includes a gaming notebook called the Series 7 Gamer and an ultrabook called the Series 7 Ultra.

Chronos laptop models include 700z5- (old version), 700z7- (old version), 770z5e (new version), and 770z7e (new version)

- there's no customization option but it comes with the best possible specs a 1" thick notebook can handle: Quad-Core i7, Nvidia GT 650m/AMD Radeon HD 8870m, 8 GB Memory, 1 TB Hard Drive, 1080p matte screen, JBL 4W speakers, etc.)

The memory and HDD can also be changed/upgraded easily once you can remove the back cover off.

 

Yes. Nvidia 6xxm and i think most 7xxm are a few times slower than their AMD counterparts in those applications.

So, if you purely game, the 765m will definitely give you more performance.

If I would only game, I would definitely rethink my choice.

 

thanks very much for your timely an informative reply man! i really appreciate it! U answered all my questions (with the answers ii hoped for) which means im gonna get the series 7 17.3 inch display model. on the us store this is the model shown NP770Z7E-S01UB. i hope samsung usa ships to skybox!

 

ok i got the @ working, problem was the keyboard was set to UK "which i dont live in" now its ok. Tho i got other problems:

*installed BF3 but it wont run, just giving me error "This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Please install a program or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Programs control panel" with that i can't really do anything (pranktank or anyone else who got BF3 to work - how?) under the default programs, there isn't BF3 listed. Already uninstalled BF3, reinstalled, redownloaded and installed, nothing works i also have 13.5 beta3 drivers for gfx, never lost the brightness control nor the sleep thing

*switched to older 15.5 wifi drivers, since it was very laggy with newer ones, but instead bad wifi i have even worse ethernet link (with cable - never pushes over 30 in speedtest tho i have 150mb net link)

have anyone of you installed win7 - is it working well? I saw that SW updater gives all updates for win7 also, so i guess it will work.. OR?

Got a situation, where i can return the cpu, but it can be done today only, so i either get everything working and i will keep the beast or i can take it back, since ive not payd for that yet.

*Also can i perform the factory reset (as it was before i unpacked it and hit the power button first time"? Otherwise samsung team will charge me 27€ for that reset

 

1. Are you sure you are clicking the battlefield .exe? You can also try launching it through battlelog or origin. Are you trying to play offline or online?

2. Windows 7 appears to not have all the appropiate drivers. I don't think anyone got it 100% working.

3. Yes under (metro)settings > general. You can choose refresh or reset. Refresh keeps your files and only takes a minute or 2 to reinstall windows and all the bloat. Reset wipes the entire HDD and can take a few hours and gives you the laptop exactly like you got it.

 

Logged into battlelog manually, updated browser app, now i can run the game from web, but it wont launch from origin still. Pretty sure im online all the time, the another problem i have is with 3dsmax, cannot activate it since the activation window is white blank..dno whats that all about, tried to enable all activex and js cwomponents under CP > Internet Options > Security but that didnt help also.
about the drive reset, do i also need win8 installation files on a usb stick or will it use its own partitions to get the necessary files?

 

Don't know anything about 3DSmax. Maybe try opening it in comatibility mode. Right click on the .exe > properties> compatibility

Windows should do everything for you.

 

Seems everything was fixed with a WLAN update that was just released through SWUpdate! Restarted my Chronos and now the brightness is even responsive right away Thanks for the help!!

 

Hey guys, additional question, hopefully that Black fellow sees this:

I'll be content with my new laptop for a few months with the 5400rpm drive, but around September-December [maybe later, I may wait for the warranty to be up] sometime I'm going to acquire a Samsung 840 Pro SSD. Can I just copypasta the instructions in an email to a local tech shop that I trust, carefully explaining to them what I want done? I no longer have the tools here and I'm a little hesitant to do this upgrade solo.

 

Interested in 1 or 2 of these for a new laptop for myself and my sons college laptop.

Couple of questions.

Anyone know when it will be available in the US?
Anyone know if updated version with Haswell coming before end of August?

What is the difference between the Ativ Book 6 and Ativ Book 8?

 

Excellent! Thank you for the update.

 

I have had this laptop for a few weeks now and just upgraded to a Samsung 840 Pro. After doing a fresh install of Windows 8 (Retail not Samsung) and fighting with the display drivers I finally got everything working perfectly. When doing the windows experience index it keeps rating the desktop graphics as 3.4 instead of 6.9 like before. Any ideas? I know it doesn't really mean anything but I figured I'd ask.

PS: I'm using the latest Intel drive from SW Update and the Amd 13.5 beta from the OP.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

1) it already is, but only 2 models are out yet
2)not for sure but more probably yes. we will get our answer after 20th june
3)ativ book 6 is watered down version(read: weaker battery, speakers and gpu) of ativ book 8, but for some strange reason is priced the same as best buy chronos model....

 

Where is it available in the US? Samsung.Com only shows the ATIV Book 5, 6, and 7. Best Buy has the old pre-2013 1 GB 8770 GPU Series 7 Chronos.

How does this compare to the Lenovo y510P. Lenovo has a special deal that ends today for the updated Haswell versions.

 

Hi guys!

I have 1TB configuration of 770Z5E and I'm going upgrade it to SSD. As far as I know Seagate HDD that already installed has 9.5mm thickness and the newest 840 Pro SSD has 7mm thickness. Any issues with installation?

Thank you.

 

It's just another category. This is a premium laptop with great gaming capabilities. It also is ultraportable (very thin and incredible battery life) and has a very good screen. It's just an awesome all-rounder with a premium look.

The y510p is a gaming laptop. The 750m SLI is faster. By maybe 15-20% or so, or a bit more or a bit less. But that's it, a gaming laptop. It has terrible battery life (they claim it's better now with haswell but I don't see that happening because the iGPU still isn't activated). It has a cheap TN screen and it's a lot thicker. Luckily they fixed the touchpad and finally equipped an anti-glare screen.

So it really depends what you want to do with it.

 

Found out the Lenovo wasnt a touch screen so it really isnt a choice any longer. So it looks like need to wait for June 20th to find out Samsung Haswell plans. In the interim I ask again is this available in the US and if so where? Also will it drive 2 external monitors along with the 1 internal. Hoping with the 2GB GPU it will.

 

All of the models with AMD 8xxx GPUs are 2013 models. The previous 2012 generation of Series 7 Chronos (NP700Z5C and NP700Z3C) were also Ivy Bridge (like the current generation), used Nvidia GPUs, had ODDs, ExpressCache, and a different design with black keyboard.

 

Only the best buy 15" with touchscreen and 8770m and the 17" 8870m non touch are available in the US right now.

I don't know if you can output hdmi and vga at the same time but the 8870m should handle it perfectly unless you're trying to game on such a resolution . I can try it tomorrow or the day after, after my exam if you want.

 

I will be very interested in that test, pranktank. So far, most Samsung laptops (including my own NP700Z3A) would ONLY support two simultaneous monitors: Either two external (HDMI/VGA, but no internal) or one external and one internal. The exception is the NP700G7C Gamer which has DisplayPort and specifically supports three simultaneous monitors.

 

I'll see what I can do and when. I'll have to do quite a bit of remodelling to get the two screens together in the house and I'll have to study for my exam on friday first.

 

Every time I see your (excellent!) posting here, I've been wondering about that exam

I don't know about you, but I am procrastinator myself. It never worked well for me... Just do what's important. This forum isn't going anywhere. I mean, it'll be here when you come back.

 

I'm a huge procrastinator . But I'm on schedule for most of them, except for the one on friday, so I'm off to study some more . When I take a break I take my phone with me a lot and have a quick look on the forum, so it's not that I'm on te internet all day, just a few minutes every now and then .

 

Someone else already tried that with the HD8770 version (and quite thoroughly in my opinion), see here and here. Basically, he got a monitor working through HDMI at 2560x1440@ 40Hz, another through VGA, and the laptop's own display. He said the reason it didn't work at 60Hz may be a problem with the monitor, but I don't know if he ever solved that issue.

 

Thank you for posting those links, OsoAlgo. Those posts had escaped my attention.

 

Wait, the Ativ 8 seriously hasn't launched in the US yet?

 

umm,, As i know, there is an latest updated driver (Intel wlan driver 15.8.0.5(win8), 15.7.0.4(win7) on the SW Update. try install it

 

An italian guy on another forum just got his Ativ Book 8 (870Z5E) today:
- he confirms that it has 8GB RAM soldered and a free slot
- he can shut down keyboard backlight!!

 

That's really good news.
I had a quick look for the model in SW Update and it has a newer version of Settings 2.0.0.49 vs 2.0.0.45, so with any luck they'll update the rest of us, or possibly we can use that

 

Hi guys, really sorry not sharing with you sooner, but from May 24th I am (was - more on that later) the proud owner of the Ativ Book 8, NP870Z5E-X01PT with the 8870

more on my feeling and pics can be found here

Ok, long story short and myth-busting:
It does come with 8GB soldered and the free slot;
The mineral ash black is beautifull but be warned - under strong strong light it has a slight shade of blue;
Not quite fingerprint magnet, but they are perceivable;
keyboard backlight, I guess it works better than you guys complaint in the 770, but at least my model had an issue: even setting it to disable after 30 secs of not using, if ambient lights were dimm, it would come on and stay ON - on this, and since I had the latest soft as given by SW, samsung rep told me to RMA it.....errr, I bought it just the other day and the guy is telling that?!
So, I had a tough choice but reason made me do it: I returned it for (hopefully) a full refund...I want to wait it out until more guys have it to see if this issue checks out;
the laptop had another small glitch - even if crysis 3 runned like a champ, pc wizard, hwinfo, cpuz, gpuz etc didn't detect the 8870...only msi afterburner
Oh, and though contrast if naturally better than the silver one, the LED's on this guy won't win any prize for being bright...! Ok, perfectly acceptable under low light conditions, just saying this because the sensor would sporadically lit the keys in under not-so-dark settings..

any questions, pls feel free

 

Hmm, unless it really was a hardware problem with my unit, don't count on too much reliability coming from 2.0.0.49...;(

 

I guess I got a little too excited there lol.

Thanks for the update bintoito!

 

can anybody give me the hw id for NP780Z5E 15.6???

the ms_0009 doesn't really help?

unless if anyone could tell me how to translate that to the real screen part number????

thanks

 

Surely if the keyboard backlight is working, the fix is software side and Samsung should be able to provide that for the Series 7 models too?

AU9003 is the only other way to identify the hardware, I don't have any other hw numbers showing up in Device manager. Sorry.

 

At least with the black keyboard the backlight is never a problem, but being able to shut it down prevents from wasting power

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

Got it today. Absolutely loving it. Beautiful machine.

Some gripes I have: Glossy screen is very glossy for the touch screen aspect. very glassy.

Only one port for headphones AND mic...together....one port total.

Having issues w/ the ATI catalyst system. It doesn't want to run catalyst center or anything at all useful...can't configure switchable graphics.

It runs and then closes for some reason? Not sure I understand what's going on. =/

 

yours is the 880Z5E right? the one with touchscreen?
as for the driver problem, try first just to reboot the laptop....if that doesn't work, you can always uninstall, reboot and reinstall....

one thing that I missed on the laptop was the lack of a led for hdd activity...old habits die hard i guess..

 

870z5e silver, with touch screen. 16gb ram too. i think it's like 02ca or something.

i tried rebooting and reinstalling. no dice. trying to install the driver from sw update insteead of 13.5 beta 3.

 

hmm silver, you mean the 780z5e

when you get a chance can you please see what version of settings you have? Also, does the 8870 appears in like, gpuz and cpuz?

 

what settings do you mean?


i can't even use gpu-z...it just freezes and doesn't run. x.x

 

Ahh! So I'm not the only one where GPUZ freezes on the start image...!! (searched all over the internet and I couldn't find anyone with my exact same issue!

in cpuz, under graphics could you see if only the intel one appears? Also on the "settings" software, under energy management do you have the "battery life extender" or just the other two?
thx

 

I have battery life extender but it's off.

Trying the SW Update driver package again.

 

hmm, ok, thx

 

SW update package works. I believe it may have been Comodo internet security blocking or closing it somehow.

Looks ok now. What internet security suite should I run? :x non-intrusive to gamers but still good?

 

How do you get it to stop from updating every reboot? lol.

 

AMD just release version 13.6 beta 2 of their drivers for the graphics card. It says performance upgrade for PC Mark 7 and 8, so I'm unsure if it improves performance elsewhere.

Did anyone ask Samsung about getting their Settings verions 2.0.0.49 on the NP770Z5E model, so we can get this keyboard backlight issue fixed? I've written them a few times, but they just seem to ignore me. I'm running version 2.0.0.45 and have run their software update software, which claims there are no updates for my system.

 

@Repsac: You can use the Find Model feature in SW Update to locate drivers and utilities for any Samsung model and save them locally using the Export feature.

Of course there is no guarantee that it will work on a different model, but we've used that extensively to try different drivers when Samsung was slow in pushing them to other models. I'll personally be trying that new Settings on my old NP700Z3A.