Introducing The 2013 Series 7 Chronos with AMD HD8870M!

Yes I saw that so? Isn't it obvious that configurations will vary from laptop to laptop? Some people care for touch others don't. Personally I want Touch, on a Haswell based ATIV Book 8 and I want it soon, not in 6 months again.

The point is that the Intel 4rth Generation processors will hit the market in two weeks, coming in a "tsunami" of new products, and Samsung for the last 6+ months has labeled the Chronos 7 with 3rd Generation processors as "coming soon".

 

Features - Series 7 Notebooks NP780Z5E | Samsung Laptops Is this the only place where you can get the 8870 graphics in the us?

 

Will using a more powerful power adapter "fix" the throttling found on the 770z7e?

That features the 8770M, not the 8870M.

 

The point is that if you want a discrete GPU you will not be able to get a touchscreen from HP the way I read it. The touchscreen only appears to be available with the Intel GPU. That rules out many of us including you for an HP.

Rob

 

In the UK, the NP770Z5E can be had for 970 pounds after 30 cashback or 900 after a used notebook trade in.

Buy Samsung NP770Z5E-S01 Laptop, Intel Core i7, 2.4GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB, 15.6", Metal online at John Lewis

I am very tempted to buy this now, although the release of the Haswell processors are holding me back.. what to do, what to do...

 

I've really started to wonder what's going on: A local Samsung rep informed me that the Ativ Book 8 would be shipping out to retailers on May 12th. Still, it is nowhere to be found in local shops and oddly enough, the online retailers have pulled any mention of the model from their websites or have upped the expected date of arrival to anywhere between 3-4 weeks to 'coming soon'.

I agree with the view that Samsung played their cards all wrong, what's up with their marketing dept? Curious to see if and when the Ativ Book 8 will actually be shipped with a Haswell i7 and a sizable SSD (750+gb) built in. In light of the fact that it will cost around 1600-1700 euro on this side of the pond, a decent SSD would be fitting.

 

I am not interested for the HP, infact I am switching from HP. I am interesting for a notebook similar to Chronos 7/ATIV Book 8, this is why I am here, this is why I am posting this info here. I want TouchScreen and I expect lots of new models to get announced within the next couple of weeks with Haswell and Touch from all major manufacturers, HP's announcement with imminent availability confirms that Haswell based notebooks will be available in June just like Intel hinted multiple times. At this point Haswell is supercritical for me and boy, be sure, if I had to choose between an Ivy Bridge based Ativ Book 8 with Touch and Haswell based HP Envy 15-17 with non touch and similar specs, be sure I will go with the Envy. Assuming the specs are good, we need to wait for the full specifications, I read on the verge that Envy 15 may offer touch screen and NVIDIA 750M.

Everyone has different needs, personally, I need a high-end notebook, meaning I will be spending $1500-$1700 for 16GB RAM and SSD, I am not personally paying that money to get the ATIV Book 8 with 3rd Generation Intel, when at the same time notebooks with 4rth Generation processors has just came out.

The Chronos 7 is already 6 months old and its not even out, the best thing for both Samsung and consumers, even for you is to just call this off and introduce a refreshed model with 4rth Generation Processors with imminent availability. The availability issues are hinting to this strategy. I really cannot imagine them releasing the model with those specs next month, its going to be a pure suicide.

 

I understand your frustration/disappointment. I think the haswell version is going to take quite some time since the ivy bridge version isn't properly released yet. It's a horrible release from samsung's side. But I don't see them refreshing a product that isn't out yet. All sources told that the ATIV book 8 would come with ivy bridge.

Luckily, for me not having haswell wass not important. The 3635qm is already very fast and battery life is great as well. For me the next-gen high end 8870m was of greater importance. The 3d gen core iX processors are not outdated yet (although it may not take long anymore), but the AMD 8xxxm graphics cards are very up to date. This is the first 8xxxm laptop as far as I know. If Samsung released the laptop like it should in the US (like they did in europe) 2 months ago, ivy bridge definitely was appropiate and not outdated at all.

 

Exactly! Even though, I totally agree with you, I hope we are wrong on the ATIV Book refresh part. Hopefully they will announce something at Computex at June 3rd or around that time, if they don't then most likely the ATIV Book model will not get refreshed until probably fall, as you said.

But you have a great point, there is NOTHING wrong with the current Ivy Bridge model, especially if you already have it, it offers great specs and GPU in a gorgeous package. This has nothing to do with the fact that some people like me want to buy a $1500-1700 high-end notebook today and expect it to deliver the latest specs available in the market, for many different reasons. I am not sure why people are confusing these two different situations, get offended etc.

It looks like the new Envy 15 will be fully customizable offering, 1080p TouchScreen, nvidia 750M or Radeon 8750M, options for up to 16GB RAM and SSD right out of the box, four speakers and triple bass subwoofer at only 4.82 pounds in comparison to the 5.60 pounds of Chronos.

Here are the full specs on the updated ENVY 15-jxxx model laptop:

-Processors: Intel 4th Generation (Haswell) or latest AMD
-Display: 15.6” 1920 x 1080 with touchscreen
-Graphics: up to Nvidia 750M on Intel models, Radeon 8750M on AMD models
-Memory: 6GB – 16GB
-Storage: 750GB HD and higher capacity or SSD options
-Thickness: 1.0”
-Ports: 1 HDMI, 1 headphone-out/microphone-in combo, 4 USB 3.0 (1 Boost), 1 RJ45 (10/100/1000) Ethernet
-HP TrueVision HD Webcam with integrated dual array digital microphone
-Beats Audio with 4 speakers and two HP Triple Bass Reflex Subwoofer
-HP Clickpad supporting multi-touch gestures
-Full-size, island-style, backlit with numeric keypad
-Weight: 4.82lbs

The above puts the new Envy 15 in the exact same league with ATIV Book 8, with both being better or worse in some aspects.

Source: http://www.laptopreviews.com/hp-announces-new-envy-touchsmart-15-notebook-to-replace-dv6-2013-05

 

I think that Samsung should do very quickly:
This is new ASUS N550JV (replace N56) with Haswell Core i7-4700HQ with GT3 and GT750m, it seems to has even the touch screen:

ASUS N550 e N750: Intel Haswell e GeForce GT 750M - Notebook Italia
(it's Italian site, but you can see the pictures)

If you search with Google ASUS N550JV you can already see even the price for US and UK, because many sellers already show it in their sites.
Dell has already presented Latitude with Haswell, so I think after Computex we will have a lot of Haswell notebooks.

 

Another silver keyboard? :O Stop them before it's too late.

 

Agreed.
One would hope that industry learned this lesson by now !
Unless the keyboard backlight is as bright as the sun, a silver keyboard is a baaaad idea.
When I had my chronos, the reflection of light from the screen completely washed out the etching on the keys.
Even at its brightest, the keyboard backlight could not compensate, hence making each key pretty much illegible.
Silver keys look cool in the daylight, but they are absolutely useless in darkness.
Stick with black keys.

 

Samsung is probably saving the best for last I guess...

Quite suspicious.

 

Full dimensions are available in the HP Envy forums. Card Reader is clearly visible from the press pictures. Battery life is still unknown, but huge battery improvements is one of the main aspects Intel is claiming as achievement with Haswell, so I expect battery life for the Envy 15 to be arroung 7-10 hours. We wait for the full specs to be available early next month, as the new Envy 15/16 are going on sale on June 5th.

So far the Envy 15 looks a lot better that ATIV Book 8.
The only area ATIV Book 8 has the advantage in specs is the AMD 8870 GPU, the NVIDIA 750M is not that far behind, but I would take any day the NVIDIA Experience software and driver support that AMD's Catalyst, which is a disaster on notebooks with a switchable graphics. That alone balance the differences.

Anyway, I really hope that Samsung wakes up and present a refreshed ATIV Book 8 with Intel 4rth Generation Processors in Computex next month, with imminent availability, then we can compare and decide, which one is best for our needs and taste. But if nothing change then no matter how much I like the ATIV Book 8, is clearly out of the game for me personally, because of its last generation processor.

 

Two subwoofers in 1 inch thickness? I find it a bit hard. Anyway, if it weights less than the chronos/ATIV and given HP usual quality I won't be surprised if it will be made of cheap plastic to save money and weight.

On a side note: Samsung announced the new Chronos in January (showing an already manufactured laptop, so all the engineering phase was finished) but they managed to release it only in late April and only in a few countries. Supposing that Samsung really wanted to outdate one of their products (which I doubt, since they haven't fully released it yet!) do you really believe that in a couple of months they will be able to make a refresh with a new (still out of the market) processor, make all the necessary modifications to the project (I've read that Haswell brings many changes on the architecture), test and release in the market?? I'm rather skeptical... I'd say you'll be VERY lucky to see it within Christmas

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

Guys, anyone know if the graphic card on samsung series 7 is fixed like the 4gb memory or it has a slot so i can easyly remove it? Im asking cuz i have a a better ATI HD and i wanna to change it on my chronos, and btw if it is fixed like the 4gb memory, is there a way to remove it and put another card? I failed at finding pictures of place where the actual card is on crhonos, on google, if someone has it please upload :}) Thank you!

 

For the new Envies is 1 Subwoofer with triple bass. I have owned multiple Envies with Beats audio, the machines had many different problems, but the sound was always great in all of them. Especially the latest ones with 4 speakers and subwoofer.
For Samsung and their manufacturing business, I wouldn't worry that much. Samsung is currently way bigger in both size and revenues that HP or most others PC manufactures, if HP did a whole refresh just like that then be sure Samsung can do it.

I really cannot comment on their ATIV Book/Chronos availability strategy and the position they putted themselves in. 6 months old laptop, coming out right when everyone else is releasing refreshed models with the latest generation of processors, is not that smart, neither cool for its consumers. And its even worst considering these are high-end laptops, that you pay premium price to get the latest and greatest.

For HP, I do not want to go too much off topic, but personally I am looking to move away from HP due to really bad experience and huge problems, the ATIV Book 8 looked great and I was looking forward for it, but I am not going to lie, with the new Envy 15, HP has surprised both me and the industry very positively.

 

Yes but HP Envy has been out for a year! I really can't see how Samsung can refresh a product they haven't fully released yet, it seems a silly choice to me (just like that of releasing 6 months late)

 

You are mistaken. The pure HP Envy line was discontinued last fall and replaced mainly with Envy DV6 and Envy DV7 (rebranded Pavilions) for the holiday season, up until today and also the HP Spectre line was introduced as the luxury HP brand replacing the Envy line, but lacked high-end specs. Fast forward to today, 6+ months later HP did a 180 degrees u-turn, and re-introduced back the pure Envy line with both luxury aspects and high-end specs, exactly what the original Envy line used to be known for.

 

I ordered mine for 1000 pounds .. looks like a fair deal, because all the other and newer ones will be at least 400 to 500 euros more expansive, which is not really what I want to spend anymore. It's a good CPU and GPU, not too heavy, good screen and looks good .. so I think it's a good deal.

How do you get the 30 pounds cachback btw?

 

https://johnlewispromotions.co.uk/

 

Thank you .. another 30 pounds cheaper

I am about to order extra RAM (8GB) and an SSD now, but kind of in doubt what to order. I want a 500GB SSD, but I am wondering if the 840 is good enough, or if I should spend the extra money on a 840 Pro. And the crucial M500 also doesn't look too bad.

Any suggestion on which RAM to buy? I already saw a few suggestions pass by, but I guess most are perfectly compatible.

 

Can't comment on the RAM. For the SSD Dabs are offering 10% on the 512pro: Samsung 512GB 840 Pro Series SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive (MZ-7PD512BW) - dabs.com
(voucher code is on that page).

You may also be able to claim 40 pounds cashback on that drive but check the terms and conditions first as I don't know if you can have the 10% discount from Dabs plus the cashback from Samsung.

The cashback deal finishes tomorrow.

Claim Up To £50 Cashback on Selected Samsung SSDs - dabs.com

I am torn between the current Chronos or a future Haswell version. I don't know if it's worth me buying this SSD now or whether my future laptop will come with a SSD .. what to do.. what to do...

 

thoughts?

 

Any of the following or all of them are possible:

-Most likely a full refresh of the whole ATIV Book line (notebooks and All-in-Ones) based on Intel 4rth Generation Processors, Haswell.
-Probably a new ATIV S Windows Phone and new ATIV Tabs based on Windows 8/RT
-New Android based Galaxy Tabs and the new Galaxy Note

*Note, there is a high chance for Samsung to unveil the new Haswell based ATIV computers along with Intel on June 3rd-4rth at Computex and the June 20th event will mainly focus on Tablets, hybrids and phones.

Time will tell

http://www.samsungmobilepress.com/2013/05/27/SAMSUNG-PREMIERE-2013-GALAXY--ATIV-1

edit:
The official Samsung Notebook pages on both Facebook and Twitter posted the same invite.
It really looks like we are going to get our Haswell ATIV Books get announce very soon, hopefully we will get imminent availability this time and not the total mess we got with the Chronos 7 releasing cycle.

 

I thought I wanted a notebook with a dedicated graphic card, but after giving it more thought, I don't think I'll be doing much hard core gaming or any other graphical extensive stuff on the go. I'll continue to do all that stuff on my desktop computer at home which is running two GTX 580 cards (SLI).

All I care about on the go is having a laptop that is really light (under 4 lbs), great snappy performance (at least 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD with Haswell), a beautiful 15" 1080p IPS/PLS screen, and a 10+ hour battery life.

I'm hoping Samsung will show me this laptop next month.

 

I hear you. My priorities in a notebook, in descending order of importance

Silent/low noise.
Good matte screen, preferably IPS or similar.
Lots of horsepower (CPU, graphics don't matter a whole lot).

The first two relate to user experience; I work with my computer a lot, so it should be a comfortable experience. The latter I need because I run virtual machines and perform heavy multitasking. I don't intend to game, so the graphics aren't necessary, but discrete graphics tend to be bundled with these other features.

The new Chronos/Ativ Book is the closest I've found, and I can't tell you how frustrating it is that it still isn't available. And something tells me we won't see them widely available until back to school at the earliest, or 8 months after they were announced at CES.

 

only a few more weeks, then things become clear. I am having to use a dell 1545B.C.
Come on Samsung, an Ativ book 8 with Haswell Cpu, an SSD, new Nvidia graphics and none of that grainy screen that people are complaining about.
there must be a reason for the rubbish release of the Chronos.

 

Samsung manage to keep themselves alive on my situation too. I was looking forward to get first the Chronos 7 then the ATIV Book 8, as I was following the product very closely since last January and I finally gave up on it last April due to the Haswell situation. I am not in an immediate need to replace my existing machine thought, but I will have to finally do it by the end of next month. I was going to wait for Computex to see if they announce the refreshed ATIV Books with the new CPUs if not I was going to pull the trigger on June 5th, for the new Haswell based HP Envy 15 with touchscreen, nvidia 750, SSD and 16GB of RAM. I am trying to move away from HP but I have to say, they did surprise me very positively with their new products. Especially the new Envy 15.

Now and assuming Samsung announced nothing at Computex in early June I will wait for the June 20th Samsung Premiere event. Anything less from new Haswell based ATIV Book 8 with imminent availability and SSD and 16GB options, will drive me to Envy, (or something else, depending what we will see next month), especially after the Chronos 7 fiasco, just announcing the product is not enough.

On the refresh, if they keep everything the same and just update the processor, it will be more than enough to satisfy most users, the original model was both beautiful, well design and very powerful, however I will not say no to a better screen, nvidia card, do not get me wrong the 8870 is a powerhouse but the lack of AMD support on their drivers and the switchable graphic problems that comes with it, will make me prefer the always up-to-date and hassle free nvidia experience over the AMD, a thunderbolt port and four speakers with a real subwoofer will also be great additions and serious improvements over the original ATIV Book 8.

Also is worth noting that the ATIV Book 6 is now $1099, down $100 on Amazon.com. No bad for a notebook of that class and specs.

 

Don't forget that it also suffered image retention on the auo9003 screen.
If "that" is not fixed, I will not be buying the refresh and will be taking my money elsewhere.

 

Hey guys I recently picked up a NP780Z5E-S02CA from futureshop Samsung Chronos 15.6" Laptop (Intel Core i7-3635QM / 1TB HDD / 16GB RAM / Windows 8) : 15" Laptops - Future Shop and is it me or does your backlight sometimes dims and then turns on brightly? I thought it was a problem with my first one so I exchanged it for my second one, same thing happens.

 

Nice, I see that they're also shipping it to the netherlands!

Is this one with a qwerty keyboard and the 8870 graphics card?

Thanks.

 

Yes to both answers.

 

Do you mean keyboard backlight? Yes the backlight's brightness is adaptive. Until now no-one has found a way to turn it off. If you mean the screen, that can be turned off in the advanced powerplan settings.

 

Hey I picked up the Best Buy version a few weeks and after a bit of tweeking I'm finding it great, just wondering has anyone managed to track down any screen protectors/ skins cause I find the laptop picks up dirt and finger prints very easily. I'm living in Ireland so it'll have to ship here.

 

I just tried the new drivers, but I'm feel like card switching is working properly, now I'm getting 3.8 in windows gpu score (had 7.1 before) and experiencing lag on games

 

Hopefully the 4th gen intel processs comes out soon and they just don't make us wait like the chronos 7!

 

When you say until now do you mean there is a solution or still no fix on the glitchy keyboard backlight? You would think I could at least turn it off outright.

 

Some good news for those still waiting: an italian guy on another forum asked Samsung how much RAM the Ativ book 8 supports.
Both Samsung's Facebook page and the Customer Service answered him that both 870Z5E and 880Z5E come with 8GB on board and a free user-upgradable slot, for a maximum total of 16 GB :thumbsup:

 

Just a thought, in case it hasn't been tried: On older Series 7 models, a frequent problem with the keyboard backlight (and the only problem I know) is that it sometimes fails to come on when you resume the PC from Sleep or Hibernation or Win8 Fast Startup.

The solution is always to wait a few seconds after login ( Settings has to load first) then turn the backlight all the way down, then up from there. You can do that EITHER by opening Settings (Fn-F1) and drag the backlight slider all the way to the left, then to the right from there; OR by pressing Fn-F9 multiple times to turn the backlight off completely (you won't see the difference because it wasn't on in the first place), then Fn-F10 to turn it up from there.

Now, I realize it is a completely different beast on the 2013 models (exacerbated by the silver contrast issue). But when you are unable to adjust the keyboard backlight, did you try turning it all the way down first, then up from there (even if it doesn't show at first)? OR turning it all the way UP first, then down from there?

I apologize for making such a trivial suggestion. I just want to make sure no stones were left unturned

Edit: Also, I have never experienced this issue after a cold boot or restart. Win8 never cold boots, it always just resumes, unless you disable Fast Startup. When the backlight gets stuck, does restarting make a difference?

 

Hmm considering there have been a couple of times the keyboard backlight has worked correctly, what you mention may work. I may give it a try later and let you know (right now there's too much light I suppose).

EDIT: well I just did a restart which theoretically should produce a cold boot but the light sensor still overrides whatever backlight level I set (in this case, since there's still plenty of lighting it just turns the backlight off).

 

Razer have just announced a new 14" laptop with the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M. SSD, 8gb ram. haswell cpu. but a not so good screen, nonetheless it looks sexy. But as per usual with a joke of a price tag. 1800$. That makes about 1200£ which is how much Curry's are charging for the Chronos.
Check it out here The 14" Razer Blade - The World's Thinnest Gaming Laptop - YouTube specs here: Razer Debuts The World's Thinnest Gaming Laptop

I am hoping we'll hear some good news regarding the Ativ book in June from Samsung. The new Nvidia chips sound amazing. Samsung have to do well here. The stuff from the competition looks amazing so far.

 

14" Razor will use a 37W CPU so most likely is a simply dual core, not very interesting.

 

Hey, it was worth a shot. Thanks for trying

 

No it's a quad core, according to the cnet review.

 

No Im not talking about the backlight keyboard. Talking about the screen's backlight. It suddenly turns super bright than dims. My power options for my laptop are "Never" dim the display. I updated all my drivers through the SW update software.

 

To turn that off click your battery icon on the bottom right, More Power Options -> Change Plan Settings -> Change Advanced Power Settings -> Display, Enable adaptive brightness, off.

Yes, lots of steps, but you only have to do it once . I would suggest you change Plan Settings for both Samsung Optimized and Power Saver, that way if/when you use silent mode, adaptive brightness will remain off.

 

The new Mobile GPU king is out of its cage: NVIDIA GeForce 780M
According with some sources we will see high-end laptops with Haswell and this GPU next month. ( official website)

Imaging a refreshed ATIV Book 8 with 4rth Generation i7 CPU and this GeForce 780M GPU.
What else can anyone ask?

 

A notebook that doesn't melt . It would be beyond awesome but that card in this form factor is just impossible sadly.

 

Indeed, but AMD 8870M isn't that far behind and yet Samsung fitted it on an "Ultrabook" size Chronos