Introducing The 2013 Series 7 Chronos with AMD HD8870M!

This could simple mean more RAM and SSD.
I don't think there will be Hardware difference between Chronos and ATIV book.

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I can't put SSD in, not until they get a bit cheaper. 256 is too small for me, even 512 would be pushing it, I'm waiting on the $600 1tb one to go down in price lol
I have a momentous XT, which still is light years ahead of a 5400rpm drive

 

I'm sure this was answered somewhere but there are so many pages on here that I can't really find it through them.

I am looking at going to Best Buy and picking up this up but am disappointed it has the 8770 video card. But what is the real world difference in performance between the 8770 and 8870? I just can't find any benchmarks or anyone comparing the two.

 

The 8870 is around 50% better than the 8770, but no one can know for sure

 

It isn't free, you pay more in taxes than what it would cost if you paid out of pocket and also have to wait in lines for anything that is non-emergency care.

 

Hm...50% is a pretty huge difference which seems to be much more than I would be expecting. Does anyone else also agree with this difference?

Is there any idea to what pricing will be in the US (or Canada)? I was seeing Currys in the UK has it for £1,099.99 which is which is about $1,650 but also includes the VAT but that doesn't always mean it will be lower in the US without the VAT. But still probably more than I am willing to spend.

 

I have the 840 pro lie next to me, but I can not open the 770z5e. I tried it as it black83 explained. no chance for me... Any further Tipps oder Ideas? Someone you can make a Video? Thx a lot!

*edit:
puh, i got it! Good Luck every one!

 

I'm still getting a (-10) error when I try to update the wlan driver.
I removed it twice, to no avail.

 

On monday I'll try make a video about change hdd to ssd

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Anyone have an idea as to when it will be back in stock in PCWorlds/Curry?

 

SO.

My company has me on business travel for the next two or three weeks, which means my laptop is sitting around. I'm going to return it to Best Buy and wait out for the 8870. Who knows, maybe it'll be available in the USA when I come home!

Anybody have tips or things I should do to wipe the drive before re-boxing and returning it? I dunno about Win8, and since I'm returning I guess I can't just completely wipe out the HDD.

 

I would use SW Update tool to download the Recovery application. You can then made a recovery disk (on USB or external HD) which is around 20Gb. Then restart using the USB or HD drive by Turning off quick boot and select Boot priority to your device first, both options in BIOS. Once the recovery is complete it will be like you just picked it up for the first time.

 

Just hit F4 on Samsung Logo and restore Windows. Should be same what you got at first boot

 

OK thanks. I've been pretty careful with the laptop not to install too many things / personalize it, so hopefully it should be clean pretty quick

back into the waiting line i go...

 

Okay so I have been waiting for this notebook to come out in my country since January, and only now I asked around to find out, that it won't be available ever in Hungary. Anyone know a website where they ship it outside the of their country? It seems like nobody is selling it on eBay, and I am getting really impatient.

 

My quick impressions with the laptop at Best Buy:

-Build quality is as good as I hoped. Very solid.
-Very thin but heavy. This certainly must be the thinnest Windows desktop-replacement laptop ever.
-Screen is very good. It shamed every other Windows laptop I compared it to.
-Keyboard is pretty terrible. Annoyingly short key travel. Backlight is exceptionally weak. Can't remember a keyboard (on a laptop or anywhere else) with such terrible back-lighting.
-Trackpad is great. Big, accurate, responsive.
-Speakers do a great job for a laptop.

The model I played with had 6.5 out of 8 GB memory consumed on a fresh boot and was constantly chewing disk activity at 80%+ the entire time I used it (~25 minutes). I had a tough time trying to figure out what was going on (I think it was Symantec) but it made the laptop remarkably slow and unresponsive compared to all the other (much less powerful/cheaper) laptops also sold at Best Buy. Samsung marketing would have a sh*t-fit if they knew this, I'm sure. If this thing were equipped with a SSD and had all the bloatware stripped off of it it would be several times faster (and this is how it should be configured).

Overall, it is a pretty impressive laptop but I think the keyboard is a deal-breaker for me. I was going to wait until the 8870 version came out (with SSD) but now I am afraid I'm going to have to go ahead and just pay up for the 15" MacBook Pro Retina. I hate spending an extra $1000 for slightly better build quality, a slightly better screen, and a much better keyboard but I know that I would be irritated every time I had to type anything (especially in the dark). Such a bummer.

 

Don't get the Retina. I have it, it's my first Mac, and OS X is absolutely dreadful.

 

Is a German keyboard OK? If so, contact notebook.de.

It's 99% likely that the memory guzzler is IntelliMemory (which we think is some form of caching program). Most users, once they discover what's using the RAM, uninstall it.

You would need to get the keyboard into a dark room to determine if the backlight is really unusable. The Series 9 uses electroluminescent backlighting because it requires less thickness than LED backlighting and it's likely the new Series 7 has gone the same route. It is dim, but is its also adequate (much more usable than the ThinkLight on my previous Dell T420s). And while the keyboard travel is limited - a consequence of the quest for thinner computers - I find it something that one can adjust to quite quickly.

John

 

Don't know what you expect out of a <1" thick laptop. You want the keys to travel all the way back into the motherboard?

And who judges the keyboard lighting in a store? Did you ask them to turn off the lights to see how bright it is in the dark?

Paying $1000 more for a "better" keyboard is rediculous

 

I've asked this question before, but no one seemed to know the answer. I thought I'd ask it again now that more people have the computer

>> Anyone figured out how to completely disable the automatic backlight on the keyboard? The auto screen brightness is turned off, but I can't seem to get the keyboard backlight to stop coming on when I don't want it to (low to medium light). It's much easier for me to see the keys w/ the backlight off, but nothing I do in the settings panels seems to stick. Seeing the light shine out from underneath the keys is also annoying.

 

So I picked up the Best Buy model today and have a 512 Vertex 4 drive to put in it. I am reading that some people are having issues putting in an SSD. Can I just swap the drives and install Windows and be good to go? Or is there something I am missing?

 

I don't really buy the argument that a thin laptop can't have a good keyboard. Look at the MacBook Airs - it's a joy to type on in comparison to the Chronos 7.

No need to dim the lights to tell about the backlighting. All the other laptops had noticeable backlights - in the same store. Furthermore, I cupped my hands over my eye to inspect the keys up close - it's very dim. The only way I can tell for sure is if I actually buy one, bring it home, and test it. But based on what I saw and what I see other owners saying in this thread, the backlighting just isn't very good.

But, all this said, I am tempted to take a second look at the 8870/SSD version once it is available.

 

The MBAir keyboard travel to me is almost identical to the Chronos.

The backlighting isn't in your face bright (thank goodness too), but it's fully functional. I'm not quite understanding what you want out of the backlight. It's there to show where the keys are, not to dazzle, and it does its job / purpose / function admirably.

 

Also, how the heck do you pull the bottom off? I have all the screws off but it seems to have some type of adhesive or something holding it. I just don't want to pull too hard and break it.

 

The keyboard is fantastic once you get used to it. It's better than a Mbp keyboard.

The backlighting is quite adequate in the dark, with the key's being very visible. The problem with the backlight is that it's automatically controlled, and at times is turned on when it's bright outside, making the key's illegible. Either way not really a problem for me as I don't really look at the keyboard when I type.

 

There are a few explanations of how to do it, just look through the thread

 

The BBuy in Phoenix just got stock yesterday and I ran down and saw it, then decided I didn't need to wait for the 8870 which is probably going to release somewhere in a $$ range I didn't want to spend. Several stores sold there stock out yesterday and it probably won't make the weekend. Got this beast brought it home and added features to Win8 Pro, Office 2013, and about 600 mb of updates both Samsung and Microsoft. Now that I have it configured I've been running most of the morning. I'm glad I mostly ignored most of the negative posts because coming from an awesome Lenovo W530 the last three years to this, what's not to love? Awesome laptop for my needs as an IT/Internet Marketing consultant and I was really wanting to move to a much lighter more mobile solution yet not lose the power that I've enjoyed with the Lenovo. The one issue that I would agree with if one needs to do it, is the SSD upgrade. It is puzzling in this current environment that Samsung didn't build this out with an SSD. I don't personally need that speed gain at the moment and prefer the 1tb drive for the moment, but it is nice to know that I can scale this laptop up if I want to with that upgrade.

Overall I'm 5 stars out of the box for my purposes.

 

I'm getting really anxious for the 8870m version lately. I started playing the new SimCity and I absolutely love it (despite the hate it's getting, yes, I know) and my MBPr simply can't handle it at max settings. I can't wait to have that beast 8870m that'll handle the game like a boss, because I currently have to bear through 1280x720 with a lot of settings turned down from max to get it above 20fps.

My city full of skyscrapers and 100k+ people doesn't help my framerate either.

I'm also getting more and more sick of OS X by the day and can't wait to be back home with Windows.

For the love of god, I hope some breaking news comes through this week. PLEASE let the 8870m hit American shelves. PLEASE SAMSUNG!!

 

What are you running now?

 

He said Retina MacBook Pro, OS X.

 

When going to an SSD, can I just install Windows 8 Pro and call it good or do I need to make a recovery from the stock drive? I'm concerned that just putting in an SSD that the buttons for like display lighting won't work, or the switchable graphics not working.

 

I agree that the keyboard travel is OK, coming from a Thinkpad, but the backlighting I have an issue with. For a touch typist, it really doesn't help much for the main keyboard, and the "home" ridges on the F/J keys are sufficient. The one place where keyboards differ, the F key functions, the lights are way too dim.
.
It's hard to make out the brightness, volume, etc functions in dim light. Like previous posts, the contrast (not brightness), is a problem.
But this will become motor learning over time, or one may just bend the screen or increase brightness to compensate temporarily.

More to the point, I don't think there is any spill protection for the keyboard.
Nor accelerometer to turn off the hard drive ( no issue with SSD)
And there is zero grip provided so one has to either pass it around closed, left handed at the hinge, or gingerly two handed like a lunch tray, or unstable.
It is also off center as a result of the keypad on the right. Try this layout in a laptop before buying. It may be like driving around the world to the left. To Samsung's credit, they do point out in the manual that the machine is not to be used on the lap. Really.
Anyway, unless this is useful for gamers, I don't see the point for the keypad, at all, ever.

Lastly,this vast keyboard has no dedicated web page keys, and there are no "activity" lights for HD, wireless activity, etc.
For typical use, none of this matters much, but it would have been nice to have hard keys for often used functions (brightness, Vol, web, etc.).

 

I have a question about pcie or msata. With only one drive bay available an ssd seems critical to true high performance. Am I going to be stuck with only one drive? A 256gb msata with a 1tb drive for storage is Ideal for me. I cant find this spec anywhere. I have a Lenovo y500 (GT650m x 2 SLI) and it has been a fight to the death getting to do what I want it to since I picked it up last week. This new series 7 seems like it has everything the y500 is missing. And for the same price

 

Get an Esata to usb. Connnect the ssd drive. Use Samsung Recover to disk and choose copy disk. It will make an exact copy on the ssd with working recovery partition and F4 recivery.

Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note II

 

And as fir the keyboard....tried it in the dark y3sterday. Its Verrryyy bright. Remember you can adjust the brightness in samsung settings.

Also i was looking at my 7 series yesterday and it kinda looks like a Mac.

For those with the 17" with bluray...be sure to check yours as mine makes a weird sound which is why im rerurning it for a new one.

Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note II

 

Where the RAM is...there is a cover you remove. Before you can do that you remove a screw. And right next to it there is a second screw holding the whole thing down.

Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note II

 

This has been discussed at length, when the Chronos first became available. A little back reading and you would have an answer to all your questions. However, if you do a clean install, you will still just end up with Windows 8, because of secure boot. You need to use your 8 Pro key to just activate the extra features.

General concensus on here is to create a bootable factory image (F4 at boot, you will need a min 32gb pen drive), swap out the SSD (not giving instructions on that, check out my previous posts, I have written thorough instructions), rebuild with the recovery media, remove any bloatware you don't want then upgrade to Pro.

Upgrading to an SSD probably makes this laptop absolutely the best spec you can buy at the moment, for power & graphics vs cost, and is well worth the effort. Just make sure to uninstall intellimemory once you put an SSD in, it becomes redundant and hogs your resources.

 

No mSATA port. But there are some drives coming out now that you can swap out the main drive for, which have a combination of SSD and HD to deliver what you want. Or just go SSD plus USB3 external - or even get yourself a NAS if its just for storage.

 

...Unless you do graphic design, 3D art, 3D animation, CAD, excel or financial work or any similar activity, all of which really need a numeric keypad!

I thought Windows 8 was supposed to be pushing away from dedicated web keys etc, as its touch focused? If you got the touch version of this, trust me you don't need those keys, a swipe or tap of the screen is much easier.

 

I don't remember saying a keyboard with short travel isn't good.

And what problem did you have with the keyboard?

But somehow the 0.7" Macbook Air has better key strokes than the 1" Chronos??

The review here http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Samsung-Series-7-Chronos-770Z7E-Notebook.89376.0.html
doesn't seem to have a problem with the keyboard.

The ambient light sensor's surroundings isn't going to magically turn dark when you cup your eyes.

Based on an experiment involving magically turning out the lights by cupping your eye, the keyboard lighting failed to get brighter, therefore it sucks!

I still don't understand what more you expect out of this machine. Samsung has managed to jam in a standard-volt Core i7 CPU, GT 650m GPU, dual-fan cooling system, high-quality speakers, motherboard and all of its little circuitry, as well as the 1080p screen, all into a !" form factor, and here you're complaining about the keyboard's short key travel and ambient light sensor-controlled back lighting?

I don't think the keyboard is the problem. I think the problem is the lid doesn't have a fruit on it. If the "better" keyboard is worth $1000 to you, then get the Macbook.

 

yea I just bought a 256gb msata tiny little ssd drive (pcie) it was a few hundred bucks. If I return the y500 I just don't want it to become useless.

 

There are adapters so you can put your msata in a 2.5" slot so it won't become useless

 

Thats true infact I have a sata II 2.5 to msata adapter card. I wonder if speeds will be bottleneck on the adapter as the msata ssd is a adata sx300 256gb sata III card. But it will take up the only drive slot on the lappy. You know most of the new laptop boards have a pcie slot. I am surprised there isn't one here.

 

Sadly it will bottleneck the msata since sata II has a limit of 300mb/s. Something most ssd 's are well capable of exceeding.

I would have loved an msata slot too. But I can't complain with a full voltage i7 and 8870m under 2cm thickness. We can't have everything.


Anyone tried using a bigger psu yet?

 

Hi

Does swapping out the hdd for an ssd void any warranty?

Cheers

 

You can switch to the best travel keyboard laptop around you will always be dissapointed and feel disturbed when trying it at first. Simple because you re acustomed to your current keyboard. Every keyboard has a learning curve. With a few week you could even get used to a zero travel keyboard and afterwards swear its the best thing ever. But hey turning down a chronos on the sole argument I feel the keys have less travel in a 5 minutes test is pretty much an insult to your own brain plasticity.

 

From this thread in NBR:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=705256

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

There are no warranty void seals at all. Use a perfect fitting screw driver to not damage screws and use a soft credit card, the softer the better. When I opened up mine, my CC got damaged, not the notebook plastic

Who can tell after what you did ? No one

 

if i close my laptop, windows crashes... It does a reboot, after reopening. In System Preferences i choose "do nothing" Any Ideas, why i cant close my laptop and reopen?

 

yep. windows update installed HD4000 intel drivers? uninstall and install those from sw update.
dont close to often, it put me into an infinite windows auto repair loop