Introducing The 2013 Series 7 Chronos with AMD HD8870M!

Then this might be relevant.

John

 

Great thanks to all of you. Now I know for sure what I'm going to get but there is one issue though: I can't seem to find the 8870m model in the US.

 

You aren't the first person to encounter that problem. Perhaps the demand for that GPU would exceed the supply.

John

 

LOL, that's been the bain of many of our existences for months now.

 

but are they reliable and timely with driver support?

 

Any consensus on the relative speed of the 8770 to the 8870? 90% 75?

 

OK. So, like everyone else, I've been waiting for this laptop since it was announced many many many months ago. I've been furious at Samsung since, especially for not releasing an ATIV Book 8 w/8870 and not giving us any information regarding US releases w/haswell at their London event. I've spoke to Samsung reps and their answer is always, "availability is imminent." I was, however, at a microsoft store over the weekend and they had the ATIV Book 6 in mineral ash. I was a little confused because the specs were exactly the same as the Series 7 Chronos w/8770 that's available at BestBuy. Anyways, just a note for those people considering the mineral ash black version and my general thoughts. It's really a beautiful machine, but has one really really fatal flaw. The area around the keyboard (which has minimal flex, but is still noticeable), is made of very cheap, glossy black plastic. It's incredibly reflective and annoyed me so much that I don't think I could ever consider buying one in that color. I don't know what moron at Samsung had final say on the design, but it is moronic and really ruins a beautiful machine. Now, I have to buy a new computer in the next month, so if Samsung really doesn't get their act together and provide an immediate haswell refresh or at least what we were promised with a chronos with an 8870, I will be going with the ASUS N550JV. It's got touch, haswell, and an NVIDIA 750M, much more preferable to the Radeon 8770. I haven't been able to see it in store, however. Anyone see this thing in person yet?

 

I dont think anyone in the US has. I also saw the mineral ash black and agree that the keyboard tray in plastic was very cheesy. I also think the battery is about half the capacity of the best buy bare metal Ativ book 8. Although its the same price at the Frys near me. Not sure I dig the mineral ash color either. To me it is much more blue than black.

Need to pick up a new laptop within 2 weeks max and doesnt seem the 8870 is ever going to appear here. Or at least not in any reasonable time frame to keep it relevant.

 

What other laptops are you looking at right now? I'm pretty much in the same bind and a little pissed because the Ativ Book 8 is pretty much the perfect machine and combination of power and portability. Nothing else really comes close to me besides the Asus N550. I don't even care about haswell anymore as long as we get an 8870.

 

considering the Sony vaio s15. It has an IPS display and a 640le that can be overclocked to 650m speeds. Its lighter than the samsung and cheaper although it does not have as good a battery life. The original ones they shipped had issues displaying red on their screens though. As long as that is fixed I would be willing to trade off between the 2.

Also maybe the Acer V7 I think is the model. Specs look nice but its Acer....so quality can be hit and miss. Would maybe spring for the best buy ativ book 8 if i could find one cheap. IMO its not worth the 1200 or even the open box price of 1000.

 

The problems I see with the Asus which has kept it low on my list are:
1) only one hard drive (and it's not SSD) which slows it down
2) reviews say it runs hot - although it doesn't throttle which is good, the heat worries me for long term use
3) poor battery life even with Haswell
4) seems like a weird cooling system where some of the hot air blows directly toward you?

Again I end up waiting on Samsung. And possibly Gigabyte for their U35F, neither of which are available in the US.

 

To be fair, I'd say the Samsung also runs quite hot when doing more intensive stuff (playing games specifically), but I think that's because of the thinness, internal temps are well within limits so I think the cooling system does its job very well. Lots of people can't handle even a little warmness on the keyboard, so if you're like that I'd really look into a thicker laptop or a 'true' ultrabook, but that's just an opinion.

 

These were definitely things that I was considering as well. I was a little disappointed to see that it didn't come with a standard SSD, but on XoticPC, they give options that have an SSD along with a primary HD.

The running hot and cooling system was the primary thing that worried me. It seems like the how air blows directly onto the screen as well as towards you. It seems really problematic for the longevity of the machine. I've been reading about the Gigabyte machines, but have no idea where to buy them.

 

I agree, I can't figure out where to buy Gigabyte either. If anyone has suggestions on this for the US, let me know. I would consider one of them but it seems like I can't get their computers or Samsung so I'm stuck in a holding pattern.

 

I have a timeline ultra m5 and for the price I got it for it's a pretty good deal, but the one problem is that even though it's very thin the problem is that after a few months it started heating up real bad while gaming and throttling. So I don't want to go Acer with this again until they learn to control the heat.

 

Can someone comment on the power consumption of the 8870 (versus, for example the Nvidia GT750M which is in many of the competitor laptops from HP, Asus, etc)? It seems that the GT750M is superior to the 8770, but not the 8870--from what I'm reading on GPU boss, the 8870 TDP is 185 W vs. GT750M only being 38W. i.e. is the 8870 going to kill this laptop's battery life versust the 8770 model?

Thanks,
N123

 

Seems like that's an 8870 not 8870m that has the 185W tdp

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

Oops--that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.

 

I have been considering the Sony VAIO S Series 15 as well. Unfortunately Sony is still using 3rd generation Intel processors in these. They along with Samsung appear to be taking their time rolling out Haswell. At least Samsung can claim they are some what new to the laptop market as far as having the resources to refresh their lineup. Sony however has been in the business a long time.

 

I've had a Sony VAIO before and it was a disaster. I wouldn't do Sony or Dell again personally.

 

Dell is a great manufacturer in my opinion, after sale support is very good, build quality is very good and their prices are usually competitive. But, you need to find a product without design flaws, which seems to be difficult in these days, whatever the manufacturer you look at. Maybe their business line, but for the consumer market the only well designed Dell that comes to my mind is the Inspiron 15R SE, but it is less powerful than these Samsungs

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

I would have agreed with you years ago but Dell's support the past few years has gone down the tubes. I have a business model (Latitude) and it's had problems for quite some time.

 

the 3 dell laptops i have had experience with have all had problems. im done with dell for good.

 

Maybe there is a new competitor:

Report: Dell Precision M3800 workstation to launch with 3,200 x 1,800 display option (updated)

Unfortunately, it's not clear what are the performance of Nvidia Quadro K1100m, and what will be the release date on market.

Bad news for who is waiting the Haswell update, in fact it seems the chipset revision that solve USB3 issue on Haswell chipsets will hit the market only in September/October.

 

i come to this thread for news on computers to get OTHER then a Samsung now

 

Where did you read it?


Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

Intel officially confirms USB 3.0 bug in Haswell [Updated with Intel statement] | Hardware.Info United Kingdom

^ Info about the bug.

I'm giving up and going for the 8770 version. I liked the Razer Blade 14, but it's well beyond my price point. Nothing else really appealed to me.

 

Yes but it's an old informations...

 

So basically I have a 2013 Series 7 Chronos, but just because it doesn't have the Ativ name (and its basically the same thing), Samsung didn't push the sidesync to it. Very unfair. I found a way to get it anyway.

View attachment 99498
1.Open SW update and choose "find model"
View attachment 99499
2.Choose a new model, the Ativ 8 or 9.
3.Choose Windows 8
View attachment 99500
4.Choose sidesync, download it and install. Newer updates will be pushed from SW updates.
View attachment 99501
5.Working great with my Note II

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

News from Samsung store at Westfield. System in stock, same colour same spec as Chronos 7 (except memory but still 8GB) and they charge £200 extra because now its called ATIV Book 8.



Same system, same scpec without touchscreen at John Lewis cost £900



which makes touchscreen worth £500, well done Samsung.

 

Great marketing strategy, change name delay production bump up price! Profit...

 

It's already there about 1month... I make same picture...
But that price is crazy. .. over 2000 usd... Not too much left for extra ram and SSD

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 2

 

Does this mean anything about a potential release in the US you think?

 

is that an 8770 or 8870?

 

2Gigs of 8870m. .. its NP880Z5E-x02UK


Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 2

 

has anything so far meant anything for a potential release in the US with 8870?

 

Hard to say. Each region is different.
My opinion is that yes but it can take another few months. K.

Sent from my Note 2 (Tapatalk 2)

 

While we're all waiting for this special Samsung laptop, let's all tell each other stories of this machine as if it were a mythical magical slab of silver with highly advanced technology and magical properties beyond our human imagination that was supposedly discovered by Samsung on a comet from near the edge of the galaxy.

 

Just a tip for all those looking for the 8870M Samsung.

I just ordered the Samsung NP770Z5E-S01 from here

They ship internationally if you email them and even better, you can claim the VAT back if you buy from a non EU country. However the shipping is a little pricey.

 

I am doing a refresh for my company. I really would like the 8870 version (with us keyboard, can't change location of backslash, would kill myself). The plebs are fine with the 8770 and for $1100+200 for ssd is a pretty nice deal considering how powerful this beast it. (bestbuy). Now if they would only make a version cheaper that doesn't have a touchscreen with an 8870, i would be so happy.

 

Are you sure this is true if you order is shipped? I thought it had to be a purchase done in person, a form given to you by the merchant, & then claimed on your way out of the country

 

I have ordered parts/things from the EU before, they always withheld VAT, never had an issue. I would imagine the 8870 would probably come in at the tune of $1499-$1699 when it becomes available in the US, so you'd be paying probably a $400 premium for import to the US.

 

On their website they claim it to be so. Also in the email with John Lewis they reconfirmed it to be so. I just ordered so won't be able to confirm until I receive the bill.

The loophole seems to be that from the website you must pay VAT, but when purchasing from the physical shop (which is how they deal with international customers) you can claim VAT back, even if you weren't there in person.

One thing to watch for is the duty customs will charge as it enters your country though. In Japan its only 5%, but in some countries it's a lot higher.

Anyway, will keep you posted on the end result

 

If you're paying that much to import this thing, might as well buy the Razer Blade!

 

BestBuy just eol'ed the Series 7 chronos, what is the difference between the AITV book 8 and the series 7 chronos.... if any? I can go get a series 7 chronos right now at my best buy for $840 right now.

 

The main difference is the higher price tag for the Book 8. It might also be black, not silver, and the Battery Life Extender facility might not be there.

John

 

I believe we got reports that BLE disappeared, even on Series 7, after the latest BIOS update. But only on 2013 models. So it shouldn't impact a purchase decision.

I wouldn't be that concerned about losing BLE, seeing that, after a year of having used it diligently, and with only about 100 charge cycles, my battery wear was almost 10%. (A full charge-calibration cycle reduced the wear to 7%.)

That's still more than I would have expected, and more than other laptops and devices have suffered after a similar number of charge cycles, where I diligently charged them to 100%.

I realize others have seen better results. I think BLE makes much sense if the the laptop is plugged in almost permanently.

I think Samsung replaced BLE with their new Smart Charging thing precisely because it didn't consistently deliver the payoff from limiting battery capacity that was originally expected.

 

I believe there is also a difference in the RAM configuration with the Ativ 8 being better because it's split.

 

I would consider the Razer Blade (I presume the 14) but does anyone know how they hold up long-term? They're a newer company so it scares me to put that much money into a laptop considering that before we were talking about how really only Samsung, Gigabyte, and possibly Asus can really create light weight laptops that can stand the performance boost.

 

Well they sold the one at my local store, and all the rest seem to be gone around me. Sucks for me, wish i knew when the 8870 was coming, don't want to settle on the 8770, but the wait is most upsetting, especially after having played with it this morning. The ATIV Book 8 is in stock at all of them though. $1200 though, $860 woulda been a lot better.