Introducing The 2013 Series 7 Chronos with AMD HD8870M!

Shipping is the best option. My closet store was 2 hours away that had one and ship to store was like 2 weeks.

 

I'm also waiting for the non touch version. I want a matte screen.

Sent from my GT-I9305N using Tapatalk 2

 

kmann1994

I cannot read this f#@5ng c@$p anymore. Now you double posting, writing nonsense after nonsense. Yesterday you said that you will take a week or two off.

 

I am. I am dying to buy it. I am tempted to try and buy the np770Z5E-S01DE but the QWERTZ-layout is kind of holding me back. I posted and asked for your toughts a few posts back (#1712). No-one answered .

 

I'm waiting for NON touch version


I have a question:
if I change the AC Adapter from 90W to 120W the notebook will go in throttling because is set to reduce GPU load at 90W or it recognizes that can go to 120W?

 

I want to get this new beast, I am young architect and I am mostly using these, Rhinoceros, Vray, Grasshopper, Autocad and Adobe suite. Is it worth to buy higher 8870m version ? What do you think guys ? I don't play any new hardcore games...( I definitely want to get SSD and upgrade RAM to max).

 

My understanding is that 1gb of dedicated graphics and if you throw in an SSD should be fine. Also cheaper than the 8870 model.

I don't think you'd need 2gb dedicated just for those programs. Most use Macbooks for that and those have weak specs compared to this.

 

Strong opinions and speculation are what forums are for. Not everyone has enough money to go out and buy a gaming laptop without being fairly certain about it (or at least somewhat) Most of the numbers that are being comented on come from NoteBook Check and in my experience their testing is usually spot on. AMD Radeon HD 8870M - NotebookCheck.net Tech If you look at the bottom at the games listing you can see the benchmarks in question. Additionally everyone: I still think this is a driver issue. If you look at Assasyn Creed 3 on the game list. The 8870m gets beaten by allmost everything. The Gt 630m a rebranded Gt 540m beats the 8870m by 38%.....Something seriously wrong there. In fact most of what I saw in the game benchmarks looked low for a card of this stature. I'm sure that AMD will fix the drivers but with that company it can take some time.

 

AC3 definitely is a drivers problem. When you look at the benches you can see that the 7970m is outperformed by a 640m, which is rediculous. I hope the rest of the games are driver issues too. With the positive response to the 13.1 and 13.2 AMD drivers it seems that AMD is going the right direction.

What I find weird is that the 8870m underperforms on BF3, I'd think BF3 AMD driver issues would be resolved by now.

I was wondering about this too. I wouldn't mind a slightly bigger psu.
I hope I'm wrong but I don't think the throttlelimit would be relative to the power supply. I think the limit is a set number. Maybe more experienced members can change that limit in the bios or something like that.

I really hope notebookcheck puts up their review soon.

 

Haha you're slightly alone. I want dat TOUCH!

 

This is exactly true. I posted about this too. It was equal or above the 670m on some games, but at the 650m level on others. Hmm...

 

Dude what the hell?? Calm down. I'll do what I want. I did not double post. Someone asked about the GPU benchmarks about the 8870m and I said what I said about them again so he would be informed. If you don't like it, ignore my posts.

 

Maybe you could use the multiquote option so you wouldn't have to make 4 seperate posts. It would help make the thread a little bit less enormous than it already is.

 

I'm sorry, I didn't know of this feature. I've never been involved in a forum like this. I usually just browse forums, get the info I need, and leave. I never post continually like this so it's new to me

 

Fyi: I left my chronos running another test this afternoon... basically an idle battery test just to confirm mine and others aproximations of max battery life. I'm using the samsung optimized profile with all power off options disabled. The only app running is batterymon which is logging to the hard drive every 10 seconds. Screen set at 40% with auto-brightness enabled in a moderately lit room.

It was over 2 hours into the test when I left and it was estimating a 10:30 battery life. We will see how it does in reality. Its pulling 8890mw in this configuration, version the 15000 it was pulling while playing video in my previous test.

 

Please can owners give some more detail on non-gaming aspects of the laptop? I understand that gaming is important to a lot of the people posting but loads of people reading this are interested in the general feel/performance of the laptop and don't give a crap about how many frames per second you can get on crysis or whatever. We've heard that the speakers are really good, and that the bottom is plastic - what about the keyboard, touchpad, screen, boot times from start up and sleep (with the HDD) and so on. Kind of important for people who spend hours working on their laptops. As a non-gamer whos interested in a powerful and beautifully designed machine for browsing, working, watching videos, photoshop (i.e. general desktop replacement) I want to know whether this is the best that's out there? Is the touchscreen worth the non matte finish etc.....

thanks (and no offence to gamers!)

 

what in particular? a few of us have already noted the non-gaming aspects of the laptop as well. i have a post buried in here from before about a few things already too.

1) keyboard travel is short (i've said this multiple times), but not enough to be uncomfortable. i'm already quite cozy typing on this keyboard. good feedback to me, for what it's worth. a few LOCK buttons really could use a little LED to say it's on (NUM LOCK for one, Alchemist noticed another i guess for fan in silent mode), but overall it's pretty good, and the numpad on the right side certainly is nice.

2) trackpad is very responsive. as a new user of the new model trackpads (what? no discrete buttons? WHAAAAT???) i'm still getting used to it a little, but so far i'm quite happy with it. i read a bit about previous issues with these types of trackpads but nothing of the sorts here.

3) i honestly am starting to wonder what is it about 'full metal' that gets everybody going. yes, the bottom is plastic. honestly, i don't care. it's a very hard composite surface that does well by me. if anything, it's easier to keep clean, since the brushed metal where i rest my palms gets dirty somewhat quickly, or i'm just that OCD about keeping my stuff clean.

4) boot times are improving from start-up; i've seen sub-20 seconds on my 5400rpm spinner now. sleep comes back in less than 2 seconds of lid open, if you have that configured.

5) battery life is very, very good. i didn't run batterymon yesterday, and i really should have, but i went to sleep with this laptop nearby after nearly a day of surfing, and i still had about 17% battery left. i wasn't on the computer ALL the time, but all things considered, this fits the "all day computing power" box pretty well for me. i had firefox streaming episode 1 of amazing race for a while, then watched a few other tv series i had on it in addition to just wandering these forums and a few others in my bookmarks. also, it looks like the tests alchemist is running is backing up my personal experiences in using this laptop.

6) glossy screen, so YMMV based on your personal preference. touch screen works pretty well, although i'm not using it very much. color shift is minimal at extremely wide angles, as i mentioned earlier.

Alch, I'm not sure about you but I'm leaning very close to just keeping this laptop now. More than 50/50 now

 

This. is. amazing.

 

No problem, i've been releasing little things as I notice them but im sure its hard to find in 177 pages. I may do a full review at some point though, depends how things go. In any case here is a short review on my experiences with the 8770 model sold via best buy currently.

Keyboard
The keyboard has a good feel and I can type accurately on it at full speed (90-100wpm) for quite some time. It doesn't have noticable give to it and feels solid. The keys themselves don't have too much travel though so that takes a little adjustment if your used to a desktop keyboard. The backlight feature works well, its subdued and the blue lighted characters work well in low light situations.

Touchpad
Accurate, doesn't jump around, gestures work like swiping in on the charms bar. haven't tried scrollilng or zooming gestures yet.

Screen
Gorgeous. Bright, deep blacks, wide viewing angles. I would think it was IPS or PLS but I believe its another lesser tech but im impressed with it and Im picking about my screens. There is some minor backlight bleed along the bottom edge seen at boot but never in operation.

Boot Times
The initial boot was about 40 seconds. Luckily that gets better and after 2-3 boots it runs 19-21 seconds to do a boot. I think this can be shortened as there are things in the startup that I don't think are necessary.

Sleep
It recovers from sleep in about 2 seconds. In most cases by the time you get the screen up and ready to use you will have a desktop.

Touchscreen
The glass cover is firm, the underlying screen doesn't ripple when pressed, even at the edges. The touch screen feels good and works well. Having the touch screen is handy, especially if you have other touch devices since you just become used to swiping, pinching and zooming so its nice that it works here too. While on a notebook in the past I would almost exclusively use a separate mouse, im not a trackpad only person since I do alot of text editing (dtp, programming) and I find trackpads awkward... with the touch screen though I'm more than happy to use a combination of the touchscreen and trackpad. It works well, and one less thing to carry.

Is it the best out there?
Well the best is subjective based on what you need. If you need quad core processing power, dedicated graphics and a touch screen then it is the best out there. If you need raw programming power and great battery life then its the best out there. If price or weight are your primary concerns there are other 'bests', but you will lose alot of capability on those solutions.

In A nutshell
The battery life on this unit rivals or bests most ultrabooks, there is not another machine like it with this combination of power and battery life outside of the retna enabled macbook pro which is a bit more costly. If you need all it has to offer, the only machine in competition with it is the yet to be released version of the Chronos with the 8870m video card and 16gb max memory instead of the 12gb limit on the 8770 model.

Negatives / Gotchas
The only REAL negatives ive found so far are the limit of 12gb on the 8770m equipped model and no access door for easy replacement of the HD/battery. I do with the silent mode had an indicator light somewhere so you could tell if it was on or not and I think they should leave adaptive brightness control off by default as it makes the screen look much less capable than it is.

Is it a keeper for me?
Well i program for multiple platforms and do 3d modeling and animation so I will stress just about any computer I get. I REALLY wish I could take this to 16gb, that is my main point of contention with it right now. That said, there is nothing else like it, let alone in its price range with its combination of touch, power and battery life. So my choice is to keep this or wait for the 8870 model. I haven't made that decision yet. lol.

 

If anyone is wanting to get away from the negativity and moaning that's started getting rife in this thread, I've started a new one here.

Please feel free to move over there if you can post useful information, facts, links etc. If it gets out of hand or there's any negativity/bickering, I will ask the moderators to close the thread. I just want useful information that can keep me going until I'm able to buy the laptop, and then somewhere to discuss it once we're all playing with our shiny new Samsung Chronos 7's!!

 

This thread would get a million times better with kmann1994 ignored. Who said 18 year olds were adults? Thanks for the consistent updates on your experience so far phelan and alchemist, and here's to seeing the 8870 15" version sooner rather than later

 

Its funny, samsung setup with the adaptive screen set me up to hate this thing from the moment I booted it but the more I dig into it the more amazing it is. I'm definitely more than 50/50 on keeping it now as well. I'm pretty much down to the only major sticking point is limiting the memory expansion to 12gb, and the manuals strange wording that you need to replace the simm with one of the same capacity (why would you ever replace a 4gb with another 4gb lol).

 

you can fix backlight bleed by loosing some screws a bit. that's how i remove it from monitors.

 

you can fix backlight bleed by loosening some screws a bit. that's how i remove it from monitors.
battery should be even better without touch and an added ssd.

 

What's your problem? I'm here for the same reason as all of you. I came here for information and have stayed here for information. I've just gotten a little impatient and anxious along the way

 

I thought we discussed in here, or someone did, that we can put an 8GB RAM stick in there without issue?

I just noticed that manual note as well, maybe it's a CYA statement from Samsung lol

Did you turn adaptive screen brightness back on? I still have mine off, I'm going full manual for it; I'll decide if I can see the screen, not some computerized algorithm!

 

Ill make sure to turn that off when i get mine. You said to set it at %100 also, not %125?

 

notebookcheck is know to be inaccurate and nvidia biased

 

You should be able to add an 8gb stick, and it may even support dual channel since the chipset supports intel flex memory access. Its just that wierd note in the manual the leaves things unsettled with me.

I've played with adaptive brightness a bit... I like that it auto adjusts to ambient light... it worked well trying to find info on my performance issue late last night with the lights out. And im using adaptive brightness on the battery test im using right now, i think its a bit more exact in control of the screen brightness than you can get with the slider. That said, in general use id almost always control the brightness myself... leaving it at 40-50 when on battery and 70-80 when on power unless im in a brightly lit space then I might crank it up a bit.

 

Yea. they set the desktop screen to 125% by default. It probably makes it more touch friendly but I just hate that scaling, it breaks things and doesn't look as crisp as setting it to 100%. I find that the touch interface still works without much problems at 100%. things are a little smaller to tap on but still work just the same.

 

^ this entire time i've been at 125% and yet i was still impressed by the screen. oh dear.

 

Asus Zenbook
Macbook Pro
Current Samsung Series 7 with Nvidia Geforce GT 650m

 

macbook is a little over priced.

 

I have the Macbook Pro with Retina Display.

Guess who's selling it for this Chronos....

 

The Asus zenbook is greatly underpowered by comparison. Processer is a dual core ulv i7 that gets about 3400 on passmark (vs 8400 on chronos) it has an integrated Hd 4000 video and is limited to 4gb of memory. There is only one model with a touch screen currently and it sells for $1099 so it is a bit cheaper.

The Asus transformer book isn't out yet but it has similar specs. ULV i7-3517 cpu, hd 4000 video. It does double as a tablet with a removable screen though which is nice, and there is additional battery and a 500gb sata drive in the keyboard dock. $1399-$1499 and not available yet.

Macbook Pro has similar specs to the chronos complete with a 90000mwh battery. It is very pricy in comparison though but the retna display is better than 1080p which is nice.

I agree the current Samsung series 7 series is this models best competion if you don't need touch.

 

I suppose he says the Asus Zenbook U500 with GT 650m and i7 3612QM..

 

I forgot about that one... Asus has been making or should I say announcing some great designs, its just taking them a while to get them to market. Like the transformer book taking 7 months. I haven't seen the u500 for sale anywhere yet so tend to consider it vapor, I also don't think it has touch.

Btw, I love asus designs, think their zenbook prime is a thing of beauty but I ran into so many problems with them (I went through 4 of the ux31a units before calling it quits) that I am hesitant to recommend buying one or buy one myself again (I had a g73sw-3de until recently that had some of the same issues at the ux31a). Suffice it to say that QC is lacking a bit, on their ultrabooks they seem to be in a 'we will fix it in the next version' mindset and they are using parts from different providers with wildly different specs. (like one ssd thats 10x as fast as another with both being sold as the same model, its luck of the draw what you get).

 

in short samsung is king

 

Considering you said they were vaporware, I've found a couple of sites that have em:

ASUS UX51Vz-XH71 Ultrabook - Newegg.com
Amazon.com: ASUS UX51Vz-DH71 15.6-Inch Laptop: Computers & Accessories

But yeah, they don't have the touchscreen you're looking for. The only thing I envy about that laptop is the dual hard drive capacity. I guess I'll just have to spend some extra money on the Chronos for a big SSD.

 

I can attest to this. A friend of mine had the G73 like you said you had and had similar problems. One really odd problem was where everything on the screen was red. Another was constant blue screening. Then it just stopped turning on all together.

 

Yeah...I had the original Asus G1 from what...2006, 2007? Still runs like a tank, but the new builds seem to lack that stability, so I switched over to Samsung. I'm enjoying it so far.

With that said, it was always a toss-up between getting this, the Series 7 Ultra (which is now 'meh' in my books), or the Asus UX52VS...which, in the USA, is pretty much vaporware right now. So...here I am!

Anyway, this is all getting a little off-topic; kind of wish I brought my laptop in to work so I could play with it a little more during lunch!

 

The U500/UX51VZ touchscreen version was announced months ago but some European sites are finally starting to announce that it will be in stock soon. The dual SSD feature of that notebook is cool in principle, but those SSDs use a proprietary connector and are not user upgradeable

 

Cool, it does exist. Your right that the lack of touch screen counts it out for me, as does the 500-1000 higher price than the chronos at best buy. Good to see it out the door though. I have to admit if it didn't have a touch screen I didn't think much about it... other than maybe the lenovo y500 with dual 650m sli for about 1k... but I couldn't even get behind that in the end.

 

Am I the only one here who owns a current Series 7? I can totally wait for the New Series 7 because I'm enjoying the current one I have. I'm actually waiting for Intel's Haswell processors to come out this Summer so Samsung can update their machines to Haswell!

 

My g73 was the high end sw-3de with the 120hz matte 1080p display. It was gorgeous. The main problem I had with it was resuming from sleep the fan would run like a jet fighter trying to take off... and it would keep cycling between slow and fast no matter the heat level. Rebooting fixed it. The zenbooks do it too, or at least 3 outta 4 of them did.

 

Cool story bro.

Sent from my GT-N7000

 

I don't care about your current series 7. If I wanted that, I wouldn't be here. Great story nonetheless...very insightful.

Anyways, I was debating between the Chronos 7 vs the RMBP. I think that's Samsung's main competitor. There are many laptops that are now better looking than Apple's imo, but it's time they bring the quality and specs with it too.

 

The only think the Macbook has is a better screen. other than that, save your $1000

 

Ordered! Thank you. I was unable to find it originally on their site.

 

If you have questions about the RMBP, ask me.

I've had one since launch. It's my first Mac. I hate Mac OS. I can't wait to get back to Windows with this Samsung.

The build quality may be great but Mac OS is unbearable. And talk about boring and incapable. I have Windows 8 installed through boot camp but it is far, FAR from ideal.

It is very fast though. Graphics are average, the 650m isn't as good as you'd think.

Oh, and absolute zero modern games (except a very few) can run at retina resolution with playable framerates.