Introducing The 2013 Series 7 Chronos with AMD HD8870M!

How was it price wise vs jl?

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Was lucky enough to be one of the first to get one - I paid £1099 for the top end model (the same as the non-touch from JL) - that price has now gone up to £1299 (though currently/still out of stock).

See here for details

 

I installed the driver from AMD and although it installed fine - lost any brightness control on the Series 7

 

Unstable? What issues are you having? My system is as stable as it was with the stock drivers. Did you delete all video drivers before installing? There's an easy fix to regain brightness control if you lost it.

 

Hiya - what is the fix?

 

I think he meant "that": try uninstalling video driver completely and to reinstall them

Edit: lol just saw this
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=9186319

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Yes I explained the fix there . Most people don't really seem to read the owner's thread.

 

I think something is wrong with my switchable graphics. I installed the new HD4000 drivers, then uninstalled and reinstalled the 8870 drivers - but my frame rate in Skyrim is still rubbish. How do I check whether or not the 8870 is actually kicking in, or better yet, how do I fix this?
Update: Installed the beta drivers, things running fine now (except for the black screen on wake from the brightness fix). Performance in Skyrim is somehow actually worse, though. Even though the FPS is good (40-60 on High, according to FRAPS) movement is extremely jittery and attacks often don't work. My only other installed game, Civ V, now refuses to run, crashing to desktop when loading a map. Curiously, removing the brightness fix actually makes things run a lot better in Skyrim...

 

I just picked the chronos from futureshop, I'll give it a try for 2 weeks. 1 question, do I need to update the wireless driver? Because I've heard people having different experiences with the new driver.

 

I have the NP780z5e-so1ub (Best Buy version) and would not update the wireless drivers. On my computer the update caused constant disconnection and problems reconnecting upon awake from sleep mode.

If you do update them though, you can always uninstall them and download the originals from intel.

 

My experience with the updates has so far been that they only break things. I would recommend not updating anything unless something is already not working correctly.

 

both valid concerns. it seems like this will be available very soon, so we will be getting some reviews shortly that shoudl give us answers. Regarding the video card, the 8870 is the superior card.... but with the driver issues, and samsung forcing AMD to go through them.... it might not be worth it anyways. i know for certain that if the US price is in the $1700 range (if it even comes out at all), i wouldnt go that route anyways. the difference in these video cards is not worth the @$500 difference in price tag.

the fact that you can also opt for the nvidia cards is a nice option as well, and im sure both will be fine with stock drivers, its completely giving the customer the choice in configuration, This is the big turnoff for samsung on how they are handling the series 7 chronos in the US, they are basically deciding for us what features we get in each region... and being very vague about it.

the more this lingers, the more likely I am to seek alternatives, which is a shame considering my excitement when it was demoed at CES. samsung is just handling the release of this product so poorly. who rebrands at the time it was supposed to be released?.... seriously poor judgement IMO

 

So with the 8870 drivers in their current state, and let's just assume it takes Samsung a whole year to come out with an update, is it worth waiting for the 8870, or should I just get the Best Buy version? Also, what are the 8770 drivers like? Is it running at max potential?

 

It won't take a whole year I think. Everything works perfectly from the non-official drivers, except for brightness and I am getting huge performance increase over the stock ones. And that we can just download the drivers from amd and install them is a very, very good sign. This means that, when the brightness issue gets fixed (the current brightness fix messes up the recovery from the sleep state), we will always be able to get the latest AMD drivers as soon as it gets released.

 

Can someone please help clarify for me what is the best option if you want to prolong the battery lifespan...

1. Use the battery life extender (BLE) to charge to 80% and once completed charging, remove from power source and use laptop till the battery needs recharging.
2. Do not use BLE, but follow same proceedure as option 1
3. Use BLE and don't remove from charging unless necessary.

Thanks

 

It's the SAME specs as the Chronos Series 7 which also has an 8770M.

 

3 is the best. I think that occasionally it might help to drain the battery almost all the way and then charge to full, but overall you want to minimize the number of cycles on the battery. Every time you drain it, you use up some of its lifespan.

 

you are going to wait on samsung regardless if its the 8870 or 8770. bottom line, they want video drivers going through them

also, you may be able to use the AMD drivers (for now) with minor issues like brightness, but nothing says that future releases wont cause major issues. trust me, this is the same approach the original HP Envy took with AMD... and eventually the drivers off AMDs site were completely unusable, and HP hardly ever updates their vid drivers. Who really thinks samsung will be timely with these? i sure dont

 

Amazon says the ATIV Book 6 is in stock at TigerDirect

 

I'm not so sure, I think that if it's always on charging the battery would constantly be recharged to mantain 80% (BLE), there would be small drops from 80% immediately recharged...

The best way would be to remove the battery once charged at 80%, and to use only the power supply. But it's impossible with 770z5e.

 

A laptop running on AC isn't using the battery, so you don't have to remove it to prevent it from being charged. If you're talking about the natural leakage, I think the laptop is smart enough to wait until it declines a certain amount to charge it back up to 80%.

 

Assuming that you're talking about the ATIV 6, it has a smaller battery than the Chronos 7.

 

Strange. I also have the S01-UB model and have installed all drivers as they've come out. I had one issue with a video driver update that messed up the switchable graphics, but simply disabling and re-enabling each of the GPUs in turn (via device manager) got everything working again with the new drivers. I've not had any issues otherwise, including with wireless drivers. The only thing that I'm not installing from SWUpdate are software packages that I won't use (Intellimemory, AllShare Play, Customer Service Chat, and a couple other goofy things).

I really wish there was a way to mark certain updates as declined, so that they don't keep pinging you about them when you've decided that you don't want them.

 

And if you did remove the battery then you might find the computer tips over backwards very easily - it provides a useful counterweight.

Correct. If you leave the computer plugged in to the mains then you will find that the battery charge has to drop several per cent before a top-up charge is initiated. If you pull out the power plug and put it back in then a top-up charge will happen.

However, multiple top-up charges to 80% don't damage the battery nearly as much as top-ups to 100% which is why enabling BLE is recommended unless you need to use the full capacity. My NP900X4C is now over 9 months old and the battery is at 0% wear.

John

 

It's a lot that I don't read this forum, and I'm not up-to-date with this, however I may have something helpful:
After updating the beta drivers, I managed to restore the brightness keys using a tool embedded with the modified drivers available from leshcatlabs.net click here
I just run the setup and at this screen clicked on "Brightness Resolver" then selected "Custom" and entered "F908" for both cards (which was the value of the original drivers)
I don't know if you tried this, but if not maybe it's worth a try.

Bye!

 

So the computer has to stay plugged in all the time... but when turned on only? Or also while turned off, continously?

 

Yes. Just enable Battery Life Extender and leave it connected -- whether it is running or not. Unplug it whenever you need to run on battery. And disable BLE for those times when you need a full 100% charge. As John and winkosmosis described, the laptop and battery are designed to avoid unnecessary charge cycles.

Don't run it fully down each time (as we used to do in the old days with NiCad and NiMH batteries). But once in awhile is OK.

Maybe after 10 months you can run a Battery Calibration cycle to reset the battery gauges:

1) Disable Battery Life Extender

2) Charge the battery fully to 100%

3) Run Smart Battery Calibration in BIOS until it dies (you can use the PC first to run it down partially).

4) Go back to normal operation.

But don't do this calibration too often, as you will wear down the battery if you do.

If battery wear (as displayed in HwINFO) is above 20% after 10 months, you should contact Samsung about a replacement battery under warranty. (Thank John Ratsey for this tip).

There is more battery discussion here and more calibration discussion here.

Also, Googling site:notebookreview.com/samsung battery life charging should reveal several more discussions about battery use in Samsung notebooks.

 

I'm so sad. You are all talking about the laptop but I don't see how I can get my hands on one :\ I thought it wasn't released...

 

Re-enabling the GPUs fixes the lack of switching? Which devices are the ones that need to be switched off, and do you need reboots in between?

It was released in a few places in various configurations and small quantities.

Do you also experience the sleep bug (black screen upon waking computer from sleep, requiring restart)?

 

The Ativ Book 8 is releasing in Australia soon. Most retailers are taking pre-order now and ETA is 20th of this month.

 

I would clarify that the 20% was because when Samsung launched the NP900X3B they claimed that the battery would still have 80% of capacity after 3 three years. When what they have claimed for these newer models.

John

 

Hi, I'm new here, and I want to know if you could all help with something? And sorry for the long message and any gramatical errors
I bought the Samsung with the Radeon 8770 card about a month ago, but I had a concern at the time of buying it, I was short on time, so I couldn't wait for the one with the newer graphics card to appear.
My problem was that about 4 years ago, I bought a VAIO F-series with a 1GB NVidia 330M graphic card, and it had by that time it worked pretty well, up until now actually. The thing is, i know it's obviously different and better,
but I want to know if this new computer is any better than the VAIO one? and if so, why?

Thank you for the time, I'm interesed in playing the most demanding games at max settings, I just want to know if it was worth it.

 

Sorry I meant I'm NOT interested in playing the most demanding games, thanks

 

The 8770 would be enough for any casual gamer. What stands out on this laptop, aside from the card, is the amazing battery life. You can get the specs this laptop offers nearly anywhere else--but it will almost always be a clunky, heavy, 2-4-hours-of-battery-life laptop. The newest gaming and performance laptops outstrip this one, but you're not looking at playing the newest games on max settings, and anything that would be optimized for that would probably be horrible for mobility (size, battery life, aesthetics).

The Samsung is a lot like your old VAIO in that it looks and feels like a business notebook. It's an excellent build, with the aluminum top, and has a premium high-resolution screen. Again, perhaps not as quality of a screen as on a few other notebooks, but no other Windows notebook will offer the combination of specs that this Samsung does, though I believe the ASUS ux51vz comes close. What you're looking at are some really good quality specs packed into something slim and stylish *with* amazing battery life. This isn't really the laptop for a desktop replacement, as other laptops can fill that role better, but it is one of the top notebooks that you can take with you anywhere and still have it do nearly anything.

That is, assuming the driver support kicks into gear. About that--would anyone have an opinion as to whether ATIV 8 drivers would be 100% transferable to the (old) New Series 7 Chronos model? Is it basically just a black New Series 7 Chronos, or will drivers for one not work (or work faultily) on the other?

 

I can't see why not. Samsung do some things which puzzle us, but I doubt if they will make extra work for themselves by having to maintain a multiple set of drivers. Sensibly there will be one driver for all Samsung notebooks with 8xxxM GPU.

John

 

Thank you very much for your quick reply!
I think you're absolutely right about the looks of this notebook, either this one or the higher spec one.
You really gave me a big relief, and you are right about the price too, there were better spec ones, much cheaper, but none with the aesthetics of this one.
I hope that when the driver updates are decent it will perform better.

Thank you again

 

Thank you for the clarification, John. And sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the hook for those battery warranty claims

I too have seen Samsung claim that BLE would allow the battery to maintain 80% capacity after a certain number of years (I thought I remembered two) and certain number of charge cycles (I seem to recall 1500). And I just think it was great advice you gave to check before the end of warranty that the battery still has >80% of its original capacity.

 

It was the Intel HD4000 and the AMD 8000-series GPUs. If you look at them in Device Manager, they'll be listed under Display Adapters. After a driver update the switchable graphics were messed up, but when I looked in device manager I think that one of them was disabled. I don't recall what sequence I followed, or if I rebooted (probably did), but by enabling and disabling them I eventually had them both enabled at the same time and the switchable graphics worked again.

 

Not at all, in fact I always put the notebook to sleep or hibernation

 

I hope the ATIV Book 6 hits stores soon. If the screen doesn't have the sparkle, I'll return my Chronos Series 7 and get one of those.

 

I'm sticking with my Chronos S7. The smaller battery in the ATIV Book 6 is a deal breaker, and for me, is the component that set the Chronos apart from the competition.

 

Then wait for the ATIV Book 8, which has the same battery, speakers, and everything else as the Chronos. It also has the 8870m.

 

I'm caving and getting the 8770 Best Buy version! (For real this time.) I'm not paying 500 extra dollars for just a better graphics card and 4 extra gigs of RAM. I think the silver aluminum looks better than black, and black aluminum has a bad reputation for getting noticeable scratches easily (iphone 5 and htc one.) Also, the backlit keys are more than visible on the silver keys when I tried one out at Best Buy. Upgrading to 12gb RAM should also be enough for me.

And another thing to consider; everyone waiting for the ATIV book 8 better pray it doesn't come with an SSD, because you're going to pay a LOT more for that versus the HDD. The main issue is that Samsung will most likely not use their own brand of SSD. While reviewing the Series 9 ultra books in the past, it was discovered that the SSD's used in some of the models were some of the lowest rated SSD's in the market. Just goes to show that Samsung isn't afraid to skimp out on quality, even on flagship models; as long as it has that "SSD" on the specs they can charge more. You would be better off buying a HDD version and a separate 840 pro and installing it yourself if you really want a top-of-the-line laptop.

 

I have the best buy version and I can tell you that it is really hard to see the keys some times. If you looked at the keyboard while standing up, it is probably easier to see because of the high angle, but if you are actually using it in a desk with a mostly white image on the screen (like most web pages, word documents, etc.) then it gets harder. Having manual control of the backlight that actually works would be enough for me so I hope either Samsung fixes it or someone more capable does . I remember seeing a post about how to mod the BIOS with a couple of programs, but I think no one ever looked into it to see if there was an option there to disable the light sensor.

 

For anyone (like me) who was hesitant about the ATIV 8 because the colour seemed less attractive, here's some ambiguous hope from one of the latest posts on the Samsung Notebook facebook page:

"The ATIV Book 8 (formerly known as the SERIES 7 Chronos) now comes in a sleek new color: Mineral ash black."

The promo picture: https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/901072_520752737984651_359495912_o.jpg

I think there's a decent chance that it'll be released in both colours.

 

I guess it will be indeed released in 2 colours. At the official Belgian website you can already get info and price on the ATIV Book 6 and 7, and there you can choose black or silver

13 inch ATIV Book 7 - OVERZICHT | SAMSUNG

Still nothing yet on ATIV Book 8 or NP770/780z5e in Belgium or the Netherlands

Starting to get impatient as well because they said end of April last month or so.

 

Where do you live? I live in Belgium and ordered mine from fnac france, amazon should ship to belgium now too.

 

I am following the and looking forward to get the Chronos 7 for a while now and personally I got attractive to the ATIV Book 8 better when it first leaked out a couple of months ago. This delayed is fast killing my interest for this notebook for logical reasons, we are now almost 6 months after it got announced back in CES thats almost HALF A YEAR, on top of that and even worst the 4rth Generation Intel i7 processors are just around the corner and new notebooks based on them have already started to leak out.

Personally at this point, I will wait for June 3rd/4rth for Inter to fully unveil their plans and the release date of their new processors. If the release is imminent and ATIV Book 8 ends up coming with Ivy Bridge, I will most likely go with another device. If Haswell based notebooks set to release on fall then the ATIV Book 8 will still consider a good buy, otherwise me personally I am willing to spend some serious amount of money to get a high end laptop and an expensive Ivy Bridge based ATIV Book 8 will not meet my standards if Haswell comes out during June.

At this point best case for anyone, both Samsung and us is to just delay the ATIV Book 8 some more time and finally release it with the new processors.

These are my feelings...

 

Wait is this confirmed somewhere? The ATIV Book 8 will definitely have 2x4W speakers and a 91Whr battery? I know everyone is saying it's just a rebrand so far but I want to know if there was an actual spec sheet listed.

 

I have already posted this before, but go look at Samsung's Facebook page. They clearly state it's a rebrand!

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