2015 ATIV Book 9 NP930X2K 12.2-Inch Laptop (Imperial Black)

I have had it since March 11th. I've taken it on one trip otherwise just using it at home. Size was good on Regional Jet in coach. On a United flight with streaming video, the Panasonic Digital Rights Management (DRM) addon that United makes you install would not work using Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome. It works fine on my other Samsung laptop and luckily I had my iPad with me. I'll try it again next week if my flight happens to have streaming video.

I'm mostly used to having to hold function key and up or down key for page up/page down, and keyboard is fine. I have made it look like Win 7 as much as possible using Classic Shell. Aside from issues with one specific external monitor (LG246W)
it works fine when using an external monitor expect for one thing. I have everything sized appropriately for the built in screen. When using an external monitor in extend the desktop mode, everything is huge on a 1920x1080 screen. It's kind of annoying and I might have to buy a 4K external monitor but I bought this mainly for travel and not necessarily as my main PC when home. My personal preference is that I tend to have one big window at a time and alt tab between windows or use an external display. The 12.2 inch screen might be a little small if I was trying to put a bunch of xterms on the screen at once.

I get over 10 hrs on battery at 1/2 brightness.

I am satisfied with my purchase.

 

That is good information, especially about the external monitor. I have never used Windows 8 but have heard about scaling issues. I currently have a 23 inch 1920 by 1080 monitor and was thinking of buying a 27 inch 2560 by 1440 monitor but am still researching that as well. I am also used to browsing the web using Chrome with anywhere between 10 to 15 tabs and streaming videos on YouTube so multi-tasking is a concern with the Core M processor.

 

You may want to consider the 13.3" NP900X3K model instead, as its performance will be closer to your Sony Z.

It's non-touch, has an i5/i7 Broadwell, and only weighs 2.36 lbs.. so it's not much larger than the 12.2" model. It comes with a 3 yr warranty and Win 7 Pro, which would be nice to fall back on in case you don't like Win 8 or Win 10 down the road.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/2015-ativ-book-9-13-3-broadwell-np900x3k.768448/

 

I'm not sure I would run W7 @1800p though.

 

Then run it at 1600x900 or 1920x1080 and it will still look great.

 

I suppose you could, unfortunately sometimes that's the best "solution" to these scaling problems. I don't think there's any reason to stick with W7 though, scaling is no better there. The issue with multi-monitor setups is you cannot specify scaling settings for each screen independently in windows (maybe in W10?). But I'm not a great multi-tasker, so only use one screen at a time. Still, I've had to do a lot of workarounds to deal with scaling on my SP3. I also use several apps that will never scale properly. YMMV.

The OP might be just as well served with an X3G w/ 1080p as an X3K w/ 1800p if scaling is a concern. I really think you're best served with both displays at ~1080p or both at high-dpi so you can use the same scaling. Of course, mhdmi doesn't support 4K@60Hz, so the XPS13 with mdp might be an even better choice than either Samsung.

 

Windows 8.1 selects scaling options independent on each display by default. You have to check the "Let me choose one scaling level for all my displays" box to make it consistent.

 

AFAIK, you cannot choose say 200% on one and 125% on another at the same time. You have to rely on its defaults that are based on resolution only, not on res+screen size/DPI. So using a 13" 1800p extended to a 24" 1080p doesn't work too well.

 

CNET review http://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-ativ-book-9-2015/

 

I noted that the review mentioned a UK price (£1,399) so I checked - had Samsung done a U-turn on stopping selling notebooks in Europe?: However, a quick search revealed that someone is selling the US version of this notebook on Amazon.

 

Price keeps going UP instead of down. I think this has good potential under $1000US, but $1300 seems a bit overpriced. That being said, it really is a competitor to the Macbook, and I think better in many respects.

 

At this point it is probably best to wait for skylake/W10 refresh (assuming Samsung commits to one). Better battery life, faster/cooler Core M, and hopefully 1x USB3.0 and 1x USB3.1 (not USB3.0 type C apple). That would be a good shootout between the two. This time next year, a sub-$1000 fire sale unit would be very attractive.

 

Anyone know of a keyboard skin for the ATIV Book 9 NP930X2K ?

Thanks

 

Curious, are there any ways in which you consider the Samsung to be inferior to the Macbook? Samsung has been pricing at the very top of the scale for its recent models and I think the inevitable comparisons (favorable for the Sammy, IMO) led to the price hike. Samsung clearly does not believe in demand elasticity - economist-speak for making higher profits selling a larger volume of product, even if the profit-per-unit goes down. Or maybe they do have a firm grasp on the concept and have concluded either empirically or through focus group tests. IMO there are too many great products with equal or better configurations for $1,000 and under (consider: HP x360, i7, 8GB, 512GB SSD with HP-issued "coupons" bringing the total price to around $1,000. It's almost as if Samsung has a death wish - to fail in the few markets in which it still sells PCs, the U.S. being by far the largest. Go figure!

 

But he lists an ATIV Book 9 Plus NP940X3G-K04US on his sig. Wouldn't that beat the NP900X3K?

Also, if you love your Sony Z and want equal or better performance and a matte screen, you can pick up a Z1, Z2 or Z3 for a much lower price than a new Book 9 Plus. (Ignore my sig, below, for I am not allowed to market a product if it is not also listed in the NBR Marketplace! PM me if you have questions about where you can get some great deals on the Sony Z lines that follow yours, all of which have Std voltage mobile processors that should run circles around a Core M.)

 

^ I did end up getting the NP940X3G-K04US model that was brand new in an unsealed box for $1079.00 a couple months ago. This Samsung is reminiscent of the VAIO Z series from a few years ago and performs well with the Core I7-4500U and asthetically looks so good I don't even miss the VAIO Z820 I used to have. And I am glad I did not purchase the 12.2 Core M model.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

 

has any used the unit for an extended amount of time yet?

How is the battery life on this thing? I am getting mixed comments online.

Battery when its set at lowest brightness.

Sammy reports 10.5 hours of use but people say less than 4??

I am debating between this and the UX 305.

 

I forgot to plug it in and got 8 hrs. Not quite lowest brightness. Cyberloafing intermittently during a meeting

 

Tonight I installed Windows 10. All fine. During the install Samsung Update wanted to install a new audio driver. It was in English but the two on screen buttons presented were in Korean only. I clicked left one by guessing and it installed the new audio driver. After install, I uninstalled Classicshell and am trying the Windows 10 start menu. I had to re-install syperantispyware which I use, but it works fine once I did it.

 

how is the battery life in windows 10?

and how is the touchpad on this product?
is it reliable?

 

Not entirely sure about battery life as I've been home last week ( wouldn't do an OS update while traveling in case it didn't work out) but I'll give it a test this week and report back.

The touchpad is fine. Comparable to my Samsung Series 9 15" NP900X4D-A02US.

No jumping cursor while typing.

 

Will I lose my warranty if I install Windows 10?

Should I install or upgrade?

If I decide to do a clean install, where can I get Windows 10 installation media for 2015 ATIV Book 9 NP930X2K?

 

As long as you have recovery media to restore your notebook to the as-supplied condition then warranty won't be affected.

You should first do an upgrade from the existing Windows. This both lets you be sure that there no inherent problems (eg Fn key controls not working properly) and enables Microsoft to create a unique key for your computer.

You can get the Windows 10 installer from Microsoft. This link can be used both for creating installation media and doing an upgrade.

John

 

OK So using Windows 10 with Samsung Eco Mode settings but with change the background unchecked. I am consistently getting over 8 hrs with Wifi and Bluetooth on, browsing, using Putty and TurboVNC , Word and Excel. Definitely uses less battery with black background but I didn't like how it looked. In a darker room with the screen pretty dim I could go much longer. Anyhow, I am satisfied that Windows 10 is not worse than 8.1 on power for me.

 

Anyone know how I can download drivers for this manually and not use Samsung's driver tool? I can't find them on the site.

Edit: Nevermind, it seems that utility lets me install it on any PC and can download to a folder using it. Nice. I just picked one of these up cheap. Get them at BH Photo Video for $599 while they last!

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...ook_9_bold_5y10c_4_128gb_windows8_1_12_2.html

 

How is performance now with new windows 10 updates? I was able to get this for $300 and wanted to see how it runs.

I might just try to run OSX on it. Would be a nice little machine. C

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