Introducing The 2013 Series 7 Chronos with AMD HD8870M!

http://www.aboutrc.com/2013/02/15/samsung-7-chronos-laptop-is-here/

 

Great! If we're lucky we'll see some serious reviews next week!!

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

TN Vs. IPS Vs. VA | TN Panel.com

We need proper reviews, NOW

 

We need to know if this laptop is even available yet!
Like it appears to be, but not on any major sites!

 

A bit disappointing that Chronos doesn't come with PLS panel.

 

I bought Samsung NP780z5E-s01ub at Best Buy for $1199.00 this afternoon. The review follows pretty soon.

 

Please do games tests!
Also, if a geek, open it and check if rams and hdd can be change!
Really happy to see available!
Now, notebookreview do your magic review!

Inviato dal mio GT-I9300 con Tapatalk 2

 

It's not so important the technology used for display, instead the real specs of display are very meaningful.
There are TN panel with better specs than some IPS panel.
For example the panel of Asus UX500 and SONY S15 has very poor space color and low contrast.
To say something about display is better to wait some reviews from Anandtech or Notebookcheck.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

Also let us know of the exact specs on the laptop please. Bestbuy site unfortunately is not providing the specs

 

The exact specs are write in first picture.
The only difference from the model known is the 8770m with 1GB of VRAM instead of 8870m with 2GB of VRAM.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

I really wanted to know about the quality and performance of the display. Is the display MVA or PLS?
Does it suffer from Orange-gate issue like Sony S15 and HP Envy 15?

 

They didn't have the 8870M model? Kinda disappointing since I've been waiting on it. The vid posted earlier with the Canadian guy interviewing the Samsung PR guy said April, hope that isn't the case.

 

I didnt notice the first picture with the specs, thanks for posting that. Along with the difference in the graphic card, the higher end model also has 16gb of memory instead of 8 in this version. But it seems both possess full HD, i know they were discussions on this thread that this lower end model might not come with a full HD display. Glad to know that is not the case. This option seems more tempting than the higher end one.

 

I eagerly await your review, though if you have any performance numbers on the 3635QM and the 8770M, I'd be thrilled.

I expected the 8770M to be roughly equal to the 650M. If those numbers bear out, we can make some (more) educated guesses about the 8870M.

 

It should be within that ballpark but still weak for a new next generation design. I don't think this notebook is worth buying unless the 8870M option is there. Otherwise you could opt for a less costly notebook with the better nVidia 650M card (better drivers/support than AMD). Lenovo Y580 would be a better choice than the 8770M model.

 

While I personally agree, many people will be perfectly happy with the better battery life, touch screen, and form factor as justifying the extra few benjamins.

I personally shall be waiting for the 8870M model.

 

Form factor should be exactly the same between the two Samsungs (unless you mean Lenovo vs Samsung then that's true).

As for the two Samsung models, difference in battery life will be negligible so all they will end up with is a notebook that is at most $100-$200 less in price but a GPU that has nearly half the shaders of the 8870M. Not worth it at all if they want to game on it but if not, then go for it.

 

1) so youre suggesting that the lenovo y580 is better in gaming than the 8770M?

2) would the 8870M version be better than the lenovo y580 in gaming?

3) when will the 8870M model come out?

 

The 660M should be faster with better drivers than the 8770M. However, the Lenovo still has an optical drive so its thicker than the Samsung, that's the trade off.

Yes it will be noticeably faster (unless Samsung didn't build in adequate cooling and it throttles), take the 7870M and add about 10% to it.

Well one of the videos above where the Samsung public relations guy in Canada was being interviewed said April. Don't know if that time frame will hold true for the US as well but it might, though I hope its a lot sooner since I want to purchase the 8870M model.

 

hi joker thanks for replying. u said, "take the 7870M and add about 10% to it.".. u mean, the 8770M.. i think that was a typo.

1) do u know what the price of the 8870M will be?

2) can u provide specs for the 8870M?

3) will the 8870M model have 2 versions for matte and glossy displays?

 

It wasn't a typo. I do believe joker meant 7870M + 10% = 8870M

 

Update from Notebookcheck:

AMD Radeon HD 8870M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

"The new 8870M succeeds the 7870M and should perform similar to the GeForce GTX 670M."

 

Sari's right, I meant 7870M + maybe 10% at best since the GCN core is identical with just some optimizations. Don't know the release date for the 8870M, wish I did. My girlfriend is going to purchase the 8770M version today (despite my objections) so hopefully I'll toss up an unboxing video of it later tonight + review in the next few days on T|I. As for the specs, here they are from NBC:

Manufacturer AMD
Radeon HD 8800M Series
Radeon HD 8870M 640@725MHz
Radeon HD 8850M 640@575 - 725MHz
Radeon HD 8830M 640@575MHz
Architecture GCN
Pipelines 640 - unified
Core Speed * 725 MHz
Shader Speed * 725 MHz
Memory Speed * 1125 MHz
Memory Bus Width 128 Bit
Memory Type GDDR5, DDR3
Max. Amount of Memory 2048 MB
Shared Memory no
DirectX DirectX 11.1, Shader 5.1
Transistors 1500 Million
technology 28 nm
Features OpenCL 1.2
Notebook Size large
Date of Announcement 18.12.2012
* The specified clock rates are only guidelines for the manufacturer and can be altered by them.

Don't think they will have a matte panel, most likely glossy for all models. Someone else might know more about that than me. The Canadian Samsung guy said $1699 CAD for the 8870M model and since the USD and CAD are 1:1 right now, I'd guess it will be close to that, maybe $1599-$1699 + tax.

 

Just bought it. Unboxing coming soon.

Sent from my GT-N7000

 

looking forward to all the unboxing videos along with the personal reviews. Still not for sale in any of the canadian sites/retailers.

 

Just picked one up at best buy earlier today.

Overall i think it is a pretty good laptop.

First Impressions:

- Really solid Feeling
- Bit heavier than I imagined
- Glossy Screen Full HD , not quite Macbook Pro Retina but for a laptop over $1000 cheaper very good. Good viewing angles
- Screen is really bright at max, but glossy so reflections.
- Shallow key travel
-Keys are silver with a white back light. Think I would have preferred black keys but that is a small quibble.
- Touchscreen works well but doubt I would ever use it. Already installed start8 to get rid of metro interface
- Gaming: Installed path of exile full hd all settings max ran over 60fps on battery. Not the most stressful game but that is what I am playing at the moment. Will try to get some more installed and post some vids

 

Oh one other thing, really nice trackpad. I have owned Sonys, Dells, alienwares, and some others and this is the nicest trackpad I have used. Not quite at mbp level but seems really good. Much better than Sony S series

 

Thank you guys! Keep us posted!

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

Have you bought the 8770m version or 8870m version?

Can you run a stress test to see if there is any kind throttling?

 

bought the 8770 version. Let me see what I can get installed to push it a bit

 

Could you comment on the viewing angles in terms of colour reproduction please? Meaning, do the colours shift/change when viewing from different angles, if yes in both lateral and axial or only one direction? How would you rate the image quality - purely subjective - compared to other good laptops screens that you know?

 

To run a stress test the best way is to use Prime95 + Furmark and taking a log with HWinfo64, like in Notebookcheck review.

 

Are these out as yet? And are there any reviews?

 

Very good viewing angles. I have an ASUS monitor that has a samsung pls panel for my desktop and this compares very favorably. Not like a TN panel at all where there is a very smalll sweet spot. I dont think this is an IPS/PLS panel but if someone told me it was would believe it.

Colors are excellent. Not sure how much of the SRBG gamut it covers, but colors are very nice.

I owned the Sony S15 that had an IPS panel and this screen to me looks better , with the exception of it being glossy. This one also displays proper reds unlike the Sony which is why I returned it. Screen is in a total different league than the old chronos 7.

Just ran SC2 on high quick singe player game , again ran at or over 60fps most of the time. I will say I like the hardware switch on Sonys much better than the software solution on this one in reference to changing graphic cards.

 

I will see if I can get that done today or tomorrow

 

I owned Sony S15 before and really love the IPS panel but it suffered from orange-gate issue. Do you think the NP780Z5E is more suitable for photo editing?
Which Bestbuy store did you pick it up?

 

Quick impressions of the notebook (I may order a colorimeter if I do a review to calibrate the display and get accurate measurements):

1. Keys are indeed shallow like the other poster said but that's to be expected since it's <1" thick. Key travel is also a bit shorter than I'd have liked (I have large hands).
2. Build quality is pretty decent, they say the laptop is metal but the bottom is clearly plastic. The palm rest feels plasticy but could be a thin layer of aluminum I suppose. The lid is definitely metal.
3. Display is great but BE SURE to turn off display dimming in the power properties, its very annoying. Once it's off, its very bright, crisp and the color reproduction is excellent. Definitely not an IPS but I'd guess its at least 70% SRGB. Off angle viewing is good and the contrast ratio looks good too (better than your typical IPS panel CR).
4. 3DMark 11 test with the 8770M coming, check for post edit.
5. Weight: Feels heavier than I thought but it is very thin for a notebook this size. I heard the fan ramp up once but that's about it.
6. Audio: Pretty good, MUCH better than the tinny sound in the Sony VAIO S 15. Not as good as my Alienware M18x but that's to be expected but quite good nonetheless. Lots of audio options in the realtek manager.
7. Trackpad: It's an ELAN which has received a lot of flack from Lenovo Y500 owners for being absolute crap. However, that isn't the case with this notebook, it works quite well, not quite at the same level as Synaptics but close enough.

More later in the full review.

Photo of setup: https://www.dropbox.com/s/naie0yhyokiev79/IMG_20130217_181218.JPG

Edit: 3dmark 11: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5945184 BTW this laptop should be overclockable using sapphire trixx, going to restart after disabling ulps and try it.

 

Yes since it can actually display reds. Both were 1080p panels so just a matter of color accuracy

 

How are the temps?

 

I apologize if this question has been asked before but does this mid version have a mSATA slot?

 

Do you know what the battery life is or at least have an estimated based on the "time left" indicator?

 

Can you comment on the possibility of clock throttling?

MSI Afterburner

Install this and run it in the background. See if the GPU clocks fluctuate or decrease significantly during game play. I usually use GTA IV as my test tool as it puts good amount of pressure on the CPU and keeps the GPU well fed. It brings my Dell L521X to it's knees.

It would also be nice if you could remove the bottom of the laptop and give us a nice snapshot of the internals .

Download RightMark CPU Clock Utility 2.35.0 Free - On the fly adjustment of the CPU multiplier, voltage level and more. - Softpedia

You could also use something like this to monitor and log the CPU clock while in game. It'd be very interesting to know what if any throttling this laptop does under stress.

 

Can someone do the SRGB gamut coverage test for NP780Z5E?

 

Ok to answer some questions:

1. GPU core throttles from 825 MHz to as low as 650 MHz in 3dmark 11. So modern games may show similar behavior. I'm going to consult my buddy at T|I to look into creating a custom vbios to get around this. Max GPU temp is only 57C in 3dmark 11 so games should be about that as well.
2. CPU maxes out between 72-76C in 3dmark 11 CPU test and the fan doesn't get very noisy.
3. GPU can be overclocked with MSI Afterburner after the cfg file is modified but again, this is useless due to the inherent throttling. Hopefully this can be circumvented soon.


As for furmark, don't use it, its a useless test for notebooks of this size since all of them throttle. Plus its a program known to kill GPUs. Stick to synthetics like 3dmark 11 and vantage to test your system. I predict that the 8870M will suffer the same fate and if it does, it might be even worse than the 8770M. I was kind of afraid of this happening and expected it for a <1" design. However, Samsung went a little overboard because 57C is hardly anything to worry about, they should have at least put the threshold at 75-80C.

P.S. The 1 TB 5400 RPM drive is atrociously slow. Going to swap it out for an SSD tonight or tomorrow.

 

I was about to say the same thing about the hard drive. Man is it sloooooooooooooooow..........

 

Yup its pretty bad. I'm cloning the drive right now and getting ready to move it over to an SSD and toss the 1TB one in an external enclosure. This thing really kills the speed and usability of this notebook.

 

Curious what ssd are you throwing in? I have a crucial m4 in my desktop but havent keep up on any new models . Will need to order one as well

 

For now an older Intel 320 series until I pick up a cheap 500 GB Samsung 840 Pro for her (this computer isn't for me).

 

hi joker.. so an extra 10% isnt really much for gaming.. am i right? in other words, why should i spent an extra $300 for the next model for just an extra 10%?

also, i'm torn between the NP780Z5E and the lenovo Y580. to the best of ur knowledge, which is better in terms of screen color and brightness?

and, do u know if lenovo has or is working on a laptop like the lenovo Y580 without the optical drive?

if i get this computer, what SSD do u recommend i get for it thats 128GB and cheap in prive but inot cheap in speed?

 

I realize this can be confusing, but try and stay with us -- the current model has an 8770M. The 8870M is supposedly 10% better than the 7870M, which is a considerably better card than the 8770M. Yes, this can be confusing. Yes, they should have had a better naming scheme.

The point being that the first number indicates the "generation" whereas the "hundreds" digit indicates (usually) the strength of the device. Generations usually increment power by about 10%, so that's where he got that number. That does *not* mean, however, that a 8870M is only 10% more powerful than the 8770M in the current Chronos.

It is likely to be considerably more powerful. My guess would be 40% more powerful?