Introducing The 2013 Series 7 Chronos with AMD HD8870M!

OK, I have finally bitten the bullet and ordered a np780z5e-S02CA via a friend in Canada. It should arrive in the middle of next week. I've also ordered a 840 Pro SSD which is due on Monday. I was really hoping to order one of the Currys/PCWorld models from the UK, which would have been cheaper. However, they ran out of stock again while I was entering delivery details. The combination of sales tax and FedEx fees are a bit ouchy, but hopefully I can get the tax refunded.

Ordering at a distance is a little scary with all of this talk of returning ones with problems, but with my old laptop finally dying it had to be this or buy an alternative. The alternative I posted earlier might have been the better plan, but it is done now and it feels good to have it sorted.

Time to go reread the advice on switching drives. Did anyone settle on a good case?

 

I checked Samsung IPS screen on the other models (laptops and pad) in the store today and could see that everyone (beside one 23 inch screen) is some grainy.

The question is:

Is both no touch mat and touch glare screen same grainy or is one of this better ones? Is there a difference between panels realized in various countries or are they all the same panels?

How can it be that one cheap china pad (about 150 € that I bought before has perfect touch IPS screen while the high end Samsung laptop for 1500€ has grainy screen with burn-in problem?

 

I checked Samsung IPS screen on the other models (laptops and pad) in the store today and could see that everyone (beside one 23 inch screen) is some grainy.

The question is:

Is both no touch mat and touch glare screen same grainy or is one of this better ones? Is there a difference between panels realized in various countries or are they all the same panels?

How can it be that one cheap china pad (about 150 € that I bought before has perfect touch IPS screen while the high end Samsung laptop for 1500€ has grainy screen with burn-in problem?

 

No grain, buying prototypes isnt buying the 2013 ces version
if this laptop can with 1 tb (or more) ssd it would be a dream come through

 

Read, he give a perfect description of screen and comparing them with various other high end screens
Series 7 Chronos

 

Is there a step-by-step easy tutorial anywhere on swapping the HDD for an SDD including transferring windows? For the less technically experienced like myself?

 

Still no 16GB RAM love for the UK?

According to the official Samsung page ( Samsung NP780Z5E Series 7 15.6-inch Full HD 1080p 1TB SATA HDD LED Notebook - OVERVIEW) there are no online retailers?

 

I dont get their product policy... in some countries the same model has 16 instead of 8 GB RAM. And the touch screen model will not be available in Germany.

 

I have the NP780Z5E (15-inch, touchscreen, 8770M - Best Buy model) and the screen (AUO 9003) is excellent.

Notes about the screen:

• Very good color gamut. 98% sRGB according to my Spyder 4, which is close to ideal. Don't believe what you hear about "wide gamut" or "Adobe RGB" - unless you use color-managed software and specifically work in a wider gamut, sRGB is what you want. Your games are most likely designed to be viewed in sRGB, web content is designed to be viewed in sRGB (if the designer considered calibration at all), HDTV content is sRGB (actually Rec 709, which is very close).
• Really excellent contrast. My Spyder 4 reported ~500:1 (which is quite good) but I believe that number is actually low. Notebookcheck reported 1435:1 which is better than what they reported for the MacBook Pro Retina (913:1). Subjectively blacks are much darker than they are on my HP ZR2740W IPS. This is consistent with the theory that the display is an AU Optronics A-MVA panel.
• Good viewing angles. Not as good as IPS but *way* better than TN - there is a slight color shift off-vertical. This is also consistent with A-MVA technology.
• Minor image retention (ghosting). This is similar to the LG display MacBook Pro retina (and many other IPS displays), although not as bad. In practice I feel that this is a non-issue given that it is really only noticeable after long periods of time and on solid color backgrounds (mostly medium greys).
• Minor graininess. This is noticeable but not nearly as much as on matte displays.
• Crappy calibration out of the box. Very green, gamma is way off.

Other than resolution, I would say that this display is superior to the MacBook Pro Retina display (and, yes, I did own a MacBook Pro Retina for about a month). For $1200 you really can't complain.

I have also attached my ICC profile for everyone who has this laptop. Some notes:

• Follow installation instructions: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/492790-m11xr2-calibrated-lcd-icc-profile.html
• Panels do vary, so this will *not* give you a color-calibrated display. It should be closer than the standard profile, though.
• The sRGB white point (D65) is quite red. Most displays are quite blue or green, so this may seem weird if you have never seen a calibrated display. However, D65 is the standard white point and once you get used to it you should notice that content (photos, movies, games) look more natural.

As a side note, everyone should seriously consider buying a colorimiter. Calibrated displays look way better and it's hard to beat the bang for the buck when you consider that you can use one colorimiter for many displays. You can even split the cost with friends and share the colorimiter (you don't need to calibrate very frequently).

 

EXACTLY !!
I have owned many laptops with various different LCD technologies.
I still own many of them, and NONE of them has any hint of image retention or image persistence.
This is why I returned mine (grudgingly, mind you) - as I am not willing to accept an obvious defect in the display for what is supposed to be the best of the best technology.
I think that consumers are doing themselves a dis-service if they simply accept blatant defects - as the manufacturer will have no incentive to raise the bar on their quality assurance to eliminate these defects.

Mine (was) the new model from futureshop.ca (AUO9003 display, Super-Reflective, Glossy Touchscreen, NP780Z5E-S02CA).

I await the ATIV line, or the Black, NON-touch version to come out to try my luck again, and see if one of them does not suffer these image retention / image persistence issues ...

 

You said - Minor graininess. This is noticeable but not nearly as much as on matte displays.
Have you seen one even a matt display and compared? Så you Think its better to chose glosy touch?

 

Hello,
in some specifications is mentioned presence of 16gb mSATA cache memory.
Does anybody found it on the MTB?
If so, is is it soldered or does it have normal mSATA slot?

THX Alex.

 

Review Samsung Series 7 Chronos 770Z5E-S01DE Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

so that is not IPS panel, just TN (a good one)?

 

Actually it's a PLS-Panel (that is the answer from Samsung which some guy in a German forum got; source: Test Samsung Serie 7 Chronos 770Z5E-S01DE Notebook).

Wikipedia say's that PLS is a IPS based (improved) panel. IPS panel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Since there are serious problems with image retention and ghosting that panel type isn't really an improvement.

 

That is not what ExpressCache is. ExpressCache is a small SSD (usually 16GB, 24GB, or 32GB) that is used to cache access to traditional hard disk drives. It actually has a significant effect on disk access times for commonly used applications.

What you are describing is Intellimemory, a software application that supposedly will intelligently cache commonly used applications/data in RAM. Expresscache will improve all drive access, including boot times. Intellimemory will only work once the OS has booted.

 

I've noticed that, like the rMBP, the vents at the front put out a lot of hot air in front of the display. Is it safe to assume that this won't damage the display?

 

Folks,
I just wanted to clear up the terminology we are using to describe the issue that the current LCD panel exhibits.
It is not ghosting.
Ghosting is related to the response time of an LCD panel, which manifests itself to look like a "double-image" on moving objects.
This is not what the new Chronos LCD panel is doing.

The correct term to use in describing the issue is image retention or image persistence.
This is where an after-image of screen elements (windows, icons, taskbar, etc) remains on your screen after those images are no longer being displayed.
An example is having your web browser window open for 10 minutes, and then closing it - only to find an after-image of that window and its contents still appearing on your screen.
This is most obvious and visible on dark solid color backgrounds such as dark grey/blue, etc.

 

I've only been using mine for a day and a bit now (NP7805ZE-S02 from Future Shop Canada), but I haven't noticed any form of image retention/persistence. ...Even after having the same screen up for ~10 minutes, which hardly (if ever) happens during my usage anyway.

 

Use any of these pictures, view them full screen in win8, and you should be able to see if you have any image retention.
Please note that you don't want any screen reflections to interfere - so try not to view this is a brightly-lit room.

 

Hey guys. Im a noob with high end laptops and graphics cards. I am planning on swapping the HDD for an ssd but I wanted to make sure my graphics card is fully functional before i open it up. Ive been trying to test everything in case i need to return it. How would I be able to test the graphics card to make sure everything is working well without having an actual game? I plan in gaming on it once I have the ssd in. Don't really have any games right now.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

Hey everyone, I have been following the samsung chronos very closely over the past month. I was wondering if their was any news on the release date for the model with the AMD HD8870 in the United States yet.

 

All I can see is fingerprints on the screen. No retention.

The Chronos comes with a few games (at least the Futureshop version).

 

The panel is made by AUO and uses MVA technology, instead PLS is a exclusive Samsung technology and is used only on series 7 ultra (13" model).

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

I know the reason why PCWorld is out of stock. Today I have visited Samsung store which is almost next door. They have plenty in stock but the price is different. The only difference is that when you buy from Samsung store you get 2 years warranty and from PCWorld is only one.





I have to say that display is too grainy for premium notebook. They also have the 7 Ultra and the display is not grainy, it's clear.

 

...sorry, but isn't that a bit like someone with a stomach ulcer complaining of stomach cramps after taking 600 mg of ibuprofen? ...or someone who always excessively speeds complaining about the number of tickets and accidents?
Do most people use their laptops in dimly-lit rooms, have the same image up for >10 minutes and then immediately go to a uniformly darker screen?

I see the purpose of this test, but it has very little use (to me) in real world use.

 

Where did you take these pictures? didn't even know a samsung store exists, where abouts are you in UK?

I would definitely prefer to purchase anything from anywhere else other than PC world, as i hear that their customer service is terrible, so even if it was a tad more expensive, would buy from samsung instead

 

I offered those images to facilitate ease of illustration /testing, specifically for anyone who is interested in finding out if their laptop in fact does exhibit the image retention/persistence - or not.

Many users might not even notice it - depending on screen brightness, wallpaper color/pattern, personal pc usage, brightness of surroundings, and glare on the super-glossy-reflective screen.
Other users who have a sharp eye for detail will notice it right away (with no need to use the images I provided as a test).
Other users may see the defect and rationalize it in their own way, possibly deciding that it is not a deal-breaker for them, and that they will live with it.

Everyone will have to make their own decision on what they deem to be acceptable quality/performance for the price they are paying.

 

I did see the contrast of my browser bar when I displayed the picture you provided in full screen. This was the only time I actually saw the retention. Unless it gets worse and noticable during normal usage I'm going to keep it.

 

I have never used an IPS display that does not suffer from image retention to at least a minor degree. Some displays are worse than others (like my X220 or Retina MacBook Pro) and some are hard to notice (like my X230 or my HP desktop LCD), but they all have it.

 

you guys must have super eyes...i am straining at those images trying to see the retention issue...its like one of those magic eye puzzles, i just cant see it!

 

ultra clearer?
lool take alook at the real chronos
Samsung Series 7 Chronos review: first look | PC Pro blog
look at the bootom and see which screen is superior

 

I don't know what you are talking about. You comparing Series 7 to Series 5, both 15". I was talking about Series 7 Ultra which is 13". You probably don't know what the real Ultra is. LooooL

 

Would you post your colour settings please?

 

Anyone updated the intel HD 4000 drivers on these laptops yet - noticed much newer ones are out yet when I ran them off of the Intel site I lost all access to switchable graphics - anyone done this?

 

not sure if i got the latest intel ones...but i lost switchable gfx until i reinstalled the samsung driver once more

 

Does this laptop have AC wireless or just N?

 

N only, specifically Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235 Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth card

 

That blows, I just pulled the trigger on a Trendnet AC1750 router.

Does Samsung have any comparable laptops with AC wireless?

 

Same as me then - not used to laptop switchable graphics so I guess this means we have to wait for Samsung to release updated drivers

 

Thinking about driving to Canada next weekend to get the 8870 from future shop. Can I get a confirmation that they only sell the 16GB model even though their website says 8GB?

 

So guys, if I understand this correctly, there is only one slot for RAM in the notebook?
The 8GB model has 4GB built in on the motherboard and another 4GB external stick on the only RAM slot available while
the 16GB model has 8GB build in on the motherboard and another 8GB on external stick?

Both cases there is only one external slot for RAM available, did I understand this correctly?

 

If anyone in the US wants this laptop bad enough, I would be willing to be a "mail forwarder" of sorts. You would pay for the laptop, shipping + insurance, $40 fee to me for facilitating the purchase + the paypal transaction fees. Obviously there is a great deal of trust on both parts but just thought to offer since I've seen many who have wanted this unit. PM me if interested and we can get in touch via phone or email.

 

For the switchable graphics, try to re-install the AMD Catalyst Drivers again, AFTER you update the Intel Graphic drivers. At least this is the case with the nVIDIA switchable graphics that they natively support switchable graphics. Because switchable graphics are managed over Catalyst/NVIDIA settings the Graphics Control Center is loosing connection with the Intel Graphics when you update them. With NVIDIA when you re-install the nVIDIA drivers the new Intel Graphics are detected during the installation and then Switchable Graphics and Optimus are working again. This is why on nVIDIA based laptops I updated the Intel drivers when a new nVIDIA drivers are available as well, first I install the new Intel following from the new nVIDIA.

Again this is the case with the nVIDIA, give it a try with the Catalyst, even thought the AMD driver situation on notebooks is a complete MESS and it gets even worst when switchable graphics are involved, it may do the trick and solve the problem.

Its only up to 802.11N not AC.

 

Nope. When someone has news on it, they'll post it in this thread. Just keep an eye on this thread and you'll know almost as soon as it happens.

And before you complain about having to wade through 500+ pages to find the answer to your question, recognize that every time someone asks a question that's already been answered in this thread they are adding to the giant pile of chaff.

That is correct. It's been noted many times in this thread, as well as in nearly every review and teardown video.

 

Thanks - will wait to hear from someone else how that goes!

 

Just a quick heads up to anyone in the US thinking of getting the NP780Z5E-S02CA model from the Future Shop or any other Canadian source, you should know that it comes with a Canadian bilingual keyboard.

https://www.google.com/search?q=canadian+bilingual+keyboard

The physical layout of the keys is slightly different from the standard US keyboard, it's got different punctuation characters, and keys with words on them (Home, End, etc) are labelled in both English and French, which makes it look cluttered. The most annoying difference is the shape/positioning of the left-shift and enter keys.

As an English speaking Canadian, after seeing the keyboard on this laptop at the Future Shop, I actually decided to go get the Best Buy version this week on a trip I'm taking to Colorado.

You might want to rethink how eager you are to source one of these from Canada after all.

 

Oh well. I am going to wait then. I live in Seattle and was planning on going up but this is a deal breaker. THANK YOU for saving me four hours of driving.

 

Updated first post on US availability and Canadian model subtle differences.

 

Yes, I can confirm that the Futureshop version is 16GB RAM. The boxes in-store are correctly labelled as 16.

 

According to the box, yes. I'll confirm when mine arrives if you like.