Introducing The 2013 Series 7 Chronos with AMD HD8870M!

Do not assume that the same version number has the same specs in different countries. Each country marketing office chooses their own configuration from the available factory options.

The S01DE specs here say "I7-3635QM 8GB(17,3") FHD/AMD Radeon HD 8870M 2GB/ 1TB".

John

 

Maybe they gonna sell a version without touchscreen and matte display.

As I don't need any touch-feature, there will be the option to put on a anti-reflective foil - however this shouldn't be neccessary at this price.

Replacement of the Hdd with a Ssd is also a must.

 

Dont say it will be plastic on the bottom ... is it confirmed yet? Why cant we have a laptop in full metal that is not from Apple?
Asus U500 has good build quality, but it has so many other faults....

Samsung, why do you love plastic so much?

 

Probably because they prefer keeping the weight down.

 

Because it's so much cheaper than aluminum, not only for the material, but also for manufacturing. If they made it in metal you would pay 1700€ like for the u500 ==> much less hype.


Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

Yes, but I'm ready to pay if it is good quality that will hold for at least 3-4 years.

 

Full aluminium body was mentioned in one of the sources

 

That "Mike" said in the video that it is plastic on the bottom...
I dont know if its me or him....but everytime I see his review on some product i like, he has always someting negative to say .

 

Buy the u500 then: full aluminum, awesome audio system (we don't know anything about Samsung), matte display (non touch), good battery life (proven), excellent cooling (proven), fixed noise (with latest version of Notebook Fan Control), excellent build quality, up to 12GB RAM (more than enough for most of users, unless you run 4-5 virtual machines at the same time every day). The version with HM76 chipset is also user upgradable, since it has a standard 2,5" HDD. Graphic card is a gt650, less powerful than this Radeon, but still very powerful for any "ultra"book. Besides, it won't be easy to keep that monster (AMD 8870) cool, especially with a non-conductive plastic chassis

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

Build quality is good; specs are good, but...
The screen brightness is very low, and it has also some backlight-bleeding, the trackpad is also not premium and that the fans are always on should be not even mentioned....
Other than that, the Asus U500 is one of the best out there, but the high price, the fan-problem and the not-so-premium display keep me away from it.

 

For what reasons? I'd love to be convinced about the gloss finish, please sell it to us

 

Nice story but .....you have mixed 17" with 15"!
NP770Z7E-S01DE is 17".

 

Why NT780? What does T stands for?

Another variant if you are still not aware...

 

Well spotted. There are more of the NP770 models around than I thought.

The Korean models have an NT prefix whereas the rest of the world gets NP.

John

 

_________________Asus U500VZ________________________Samsung Series 7 Chronos
CPU_____________3612QM/3632QM_______________________3635QM_____________
GPU______________GT650m______________________________8870m______________
RAM______________12GBmax, 4GB soldered________________16GBmax____________
Display_______FHD IPS by LG (known for orangegate)________FHD PLS by Samsung___
Angle views_____________160°______________________________178°_______________
Speaker_______codeveloped with Bang and Olfsen+extSub________JBL_______________
Battery Life declared____ 7hrs_____________________________11.5hrs(long life battery)_
Dimensions_______380 x 254.5 x 19.7 mm___________________376 x 249.9 x 20.9mm__


Keep in mind the all notebooks that have throttling issue use Nvidia GPU.
AMD GPU regarding heat generation are much better than Nvidia GPU also the 8800 Series seems much powerful than GT650m:

View attachment 89862

Chronos seems slightly less bulky than Asus U500VZ and for sure it has a thinner frame display.
Regarding cooling system, aluminum chassis doesn't mean good cooling system, if you think to rMBP or Dell XPS15 L521x you can easily understand it.
Besides there is very few chance to see Asus in your country market with a standard HDD.
The major bis issue IMHO in the Asus is proprietary connectors for not standard SSD, this combinations for sure in not future proof.
Asus has outrageous price!!!

 

Bah, I really want to see the 8800's performance tested and if the 17.3" update is real since sites are listing them.

 

UGH! why did they go back to AMD graphics...killing me Samsung...KILLING ME

 

oops, double post

 

I'll answer in the quote, in capitals, sorry but I'm with phone and it's much easier. Not yelling

Sorry again for caps lock, no anger here :hi2:


Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

It better come with Windows 7 or it is a fail!

 

One of the videos mentioned that battery and hdd are sealed in. Hope that isn't true for hdd.

Sent from my SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

 

Samsung has one memory slot so if you buy 8GB version it will have 4 soldered and 4 in slot, max upgrade will be 12GB. To have 16GB you have to buy a 16GB version with 8GB soldered and 8GB in slot.

 

CPU: Why I have to pay more to have less? Asus continues to sell the old 3612QM in our country, Why I have to pay a premium price for old components?
GPU: Who says that 8870m generates more heat than GT650m, it has a core clock of 725MHz while GT650 has a core clock of 735MHz and 835MHz with Turbo, but this basically means nothing because they have different architecture.
It seems that you don't know that there are architectures more efficient than others, so you can have more performance with less heat.
Speaker: clearly we need of some review to say something, but you have forgotten that JBL had created one of the best audio system for notebook, I'm speaking of XPS15 L502x.
Display: Asus U500VZ has a gamut of 70%, but what color space? It has 70% of sRGB that is much different of aRGB, maybe I can clear up with some example XPS15 L502X had a 95% of aRGB, rMBP is around 70% of aRGB that means almost 100% of sRGB, so we can say that ASUS is around 60% of aRGB, IMHO it's a little too low for its outrageous price.

Have you seen the dimensions? Thickness isn't all, the rest of dimensions are smaller for Chronos, so Asus has a bigger bezel (screen dimensions are obviously the same) and this makes its look older than Samsung IMHO.

I hope for you that you friend doesn't confused some other Asus version like UX52 with UX51 with 128GB+500HDD.
I suggest to you to read some thread about the little brothers of U500VZ, like UX31, UX32 etc, It seems that soldered SSDs used in Zenbook have a short life...

have you deduced it from this PDF or there is another source?

 

That document says, under the NP770Z5E "(On Board 4 or 8GB)".

John

 

Within the US, does Samsung typically offer custom laptop options when you buy direct from samsung.com? (For example, faster CPU, different SSD options, etc.?)

 

Source on your PM.

 

For gaming or running demanding apps, you will definitely want to use a good laptop cooler - the Zalman NC-3000 works great to keep my hp envy temps down.

 

It's true, but the same document say "up to 16GB" for Series 7 ultra without specify "On Board" and it's an ultrabook
However It's highly probable that one slot is soldered but if it were so then I hope they sell only versions with 8GB soldered.
Thank you for link Jako

 

I interpreted "on board" as meaning soldered since the SODIMM sockets are also mounted on the board. Sockets add to the size and thickness, which is at a premium as the computers get thinner.

John

 

In this video at 1:24min you can see pretty well the bottom of Chronos 7 and in specific the access hatch to the RAM.
Do you think is enough big for 2 slot or is good just for one?
It seems just for one

 

Only one stick can fit in that size of hatch. But anyway why would you want more than 12 gigs of ram for except the sake of saying herpderp I have 16 gigs of ram ? Seriously ?

 

Today RAM is so cheap, so why not to use 16GB, maybe I can use for a RAM disk or some virtual machine
12GB is good only if 8GB are soldered

 

They could be stacked vertically. I have 4 DIMM slots in my laptop set up that way (When you pop out the 2 front DIMMs, there are 2 more behind it).

As for larger amounts of RAM, I've found it to be helpful when working with extremely large image and artwork files in Creative Suite apps. Doesn't help gaming or most other applications.

 

Hey...been reading alot on NBR forum but first time i actually decided to post

And that's because i don't know why most people aren't stating the 2 most obvious disadvantages of the new series 7:
1. Build quality looks far worst than asus ux51 (just look at the side view ..especially in the back where the keyboard deck ends and where the faux SD card is inside the card reader not to mention the plastic underbelly)..... perhaps it's just a pre production model and they will sort it out but for the moment it's not even in the same ballpark as the UX51
2. Impossibility to have both a SSD and HDD ...in my country the asus comes with 128gb ssd+500 gb HDD wich is perfect IMO

Main disadvantages for Asus
1. Weaker GPU
2. No touch screen
3. Weaker battery life.

In my country the asus comes with 3632QM so not much of a difference there.
I'm betting the sound system on the asus will sound better due to the external subwoofer....but then again if the samsung sounds better than the asus without the sub( most people will not be lugging it arround everywhere) it becomes a toss up.
Screen.... no one knows what screen the samsung will get...may be even the same one(LG) so any guesstimations are just that from my point of view
RAM....95% of people would be perfectly happy with the standard 8 GB and if not 12GB certainly is more than sufficient for 99%.

Frankly until an in depth review will be made it's impossible to say one is better than the other

 

The Asus UX51 is does not seem to be intended for the same market segment. From what I can tell the UX51 is an ultrabook with integrated graphics only (HD4000).

The Series 7 Chronos, on the other hand, is shipping with the 8870m which is a relatively powerful gaming graphics card. I look forward to seeing some benchmarks, but this appears to be the fastest graphics card included in any thin and light laptop. Not really useful unless you plan to use the laptop for gaming at 1080p resolution, in which case you can rule out the UX51.

The fastest graphics cards I've seen in thin and light laptops (under 1.5" / 38mm thick), over the past year or so have been the Nvidia 650m, 660m and AMD 7730m. I believe the 8870m is faster than these cards, and the laptop is only 0.82" thick (20.8mm). I do look forward to some more in-depth reviews, but as far as I can tell, this is exactly the laptop I've been waiting to appear on the market for the past couple years since I bought my envy 15.

 

I don't know where you are getting your info from but it's definetly wrong.... UX51(aka U500) is not an ultrabook ... it's an ultrathin laptop with intel i7 3632QM/3612QM(depending on country) processor and GT650 dedicated GPU with GDDR5....comes in 4 variants of storage 128GB ssd+ 500 gb HDD, 500gb hdd+ 24 gb cache, 2x128gb ssd in raid 0, and 2 x256gb ssd in raid 0 depending on country...so they are very much competing for the same segment
This is not to say that the 8870 is not more powerful....but it will depend strongly on how it is implemented(cooling) and if they solved the ENDURO switching tech and the drivers .

 

In that case, I stand corrected. If the UX51 ships with 650m and i7-3632QM, that is not a bad option at all, certainly more than powerful enough to handle most games at 1080p.

I was previously considering either the 2012 Razer Blade which has somewhat similar specs, i7-3632QM, Nvidia 660m, 0.88" (22.35mm) thick, 6.6lbs (2.99kg) or a bulkier MSI MS16GA with i7-3840QM, Nvidia 660m, 1.46" (37mm) thick, 5.85 lbs (2.65kg). The dv6-7200 Quad has similar specs with 650m and i7-3820QM, but unfortunately there is no option for 1080p Glossy display.

 

About build quality of Asus U500VZ, I think is better for you to read the U500VZ owners thread, because there are several people that complain about Asus build quality someone has already changed 3 laptop before to find one acceptable.

About screen, one site has reported that Chronos uses PLS panel made by Samsung.

Main disadvantages for Asus:
Weaker CPU
Weaker GPU
Weaker battery life + shorter battery endurance
Display with poor color space
Stupid choices about storage
Outrageous price

Also there is something that needs investigation like RAM accelerator...

I want clarify "Stupid choices about storage", the units with RAID 0 have proprietary connectors and non standard SSD format this means no future upgrade and big cost to repair out of warranty.
The units with SSD + HDD, have SSD soldered on motherboard, this means if it breaks you must change the motherboard with all the others component soldered on it.
If it happens out of warranty you may cry, and if you read others Asus Zenbook Thread (UX21, UX31, UX32) this happens quite often.
Also the best performance for a SSD usually starts with 256GB size, but to put this kind of SSD you must remove HDD (128SSD is soldered so you can't change it).

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

Wasn't samsung rated as the best manufacturer quality wise? Like leaps and bounds ahead of asus, apple, etc?

 

Seemingly there is a bit of a language barrier between us....for me build quality is refering strictly to chasis/body of the laptop wich is far superior for the asus.

I've read both the threads regarding the U500 and what you are talking about is quality control not build quality...indeed there was ONE guy that had probs and had to change it 3 times. But the thing is if you have a problem with quality control and you get a dud you can change it without any problems for free.

Build quality is something you cannot change...build quality means for example flex in the screen under pressure and pieces not joining seamlessly together

To ilustrate what i am talking about i'll attach 2 pics in wich you can see...while the asus looks perfect the samsung looks like it's made out of many bits and pieces....not to mention the fact that the belly for the samsung is plastic and not aluminum like the asus


P.S. the difference between the 3632qm and 3635qm is almost inexistent and you don't know if samsung doesn't have the same lg monitor...there is only one site saying it's a PLS and you can hardly call it reliable.

 

The whole mystery behind the chassis on this Samsung is tricky. Computerweekly reported that it has a full aluminium chassis, except the non-touchscreen version has a plastic bottom. Here's a link CES 2013 HANDS ON: Samsung Series 7 Chronos - Inspect-a-Gadget

 

The chassis looks pretty good to me:

Hi res left side view: http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content...ung_series_7_chronos_ultra_hands-on_sg_10.jpg

Top view: http://img.clubic.com/05645678-photo-samsung-series-7-chronos.jpg

Angle: http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/samsung_series_7_chronos_ultra_hands-on_sg_0.jpg

Right side: http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/samsung_series_7_chronos_ultra_hands-on_sg_1.jpg

 

Comparison between 3635QM and 3632QM

About Display, in the worst case Samsung has the same display used by Asus and made by LG, but it will cost 300€ less, but there is something of different in angle views declared by Samsung 178° and Asus 160°, seems a little strange isn't it?
That site was enough reliable, it was the first to publish the image of Dell XPS15 L521X several month before the out in market.

I ask to my self if I prefer a good project made bad or a standard project made well, my preference is for the last option.
For your example, you can't compare a macro of keyboard of Samsung with a complete different kind of picture of Asus...


What you think about big bezel of U500VZ? And bleeding light? This is not QC, this is build quality because they are in every unit.
You could go in thread of XPS15 L521x to speak of build quality, everyone could agree with that, but in the real life that machine (L521X) is practically garbage.
A good aesthetic is an interesting point (even if it's subjective, for me Chronos has better aesthetic than U500VZ) but IMHO it can't go over the function.
Moreover every report from CES says that build quality of this Chronos is very good.

 

I certainly like the Samsung more. Can't stand that weird blue lid design on the Asus. And I'm certainly not paying the outrageous prices for the Asus. To each his own.

Add ridiculous price to that list.
Meanwhile, a touchscreen version is already up on the Asus website:

http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Superior_Mobility/ASUS_ZENBOOK_Touch_U500VZ#overview

 

bah... no shiny glossy screen PLEASE!!!!!!

 

Do you have a guess as to the likely MSRP for the Chronos?

 

A wild guess would be $1300-1400 without SSD

 

There is a line between liking something and becoming a stupid fanboy of something and defending company that doesn't care about your existence. You have just crossed that line. For many reasons Samsung just made a better laptop than Asus and picking some outrageous lines in chassis and saying that slightly better specs are in real life not better is just stupid. Asus chassis is simply unpleasant to touch, it's sticky and always feels like dirty. The edges are to sharp and it feels like a hand made by small factory which is nice but not for tech stuff where precision is the key.

 

I have to agree here.

Not about you crossing any line, but about the fact that designing something beautiful is good and all, but implementation is just as, if not more, important.

The asus arguably has a nicer design, but if the design is not implemented correctly, it means nothing.

It's one thing to think of a great idea, but another thing to actually do it.

It seems to me, at least, that samsung sets the bar slightly lower, but performs well above it, while asus set's the bar too high and fails.

Then again, I have never had an asus or samsung product(except for a samsung tv), so I am basing this mainly on things I have read online.

 

Design is to a person's personal preference, let's not impose your taste on others.