Introducing The 2013 Series 7 Chronos with AMD HD8870M!

Get an xbox360 controller

 

10 hours is true ! did some network configuration for 4 hours now and windows still reports 7.24 hours to go 73% left. brightness is always 40-50%, I hate super bright colors and this one is REALLY bright on 50%+
70% on this machine is like 100% on others ^^

my wlan is perma on and i use a bluetooth logitech m555b mouse

 

Yes of course, blame everything on the computer. Everybody knows today's laptops can last several hours on Skype with maximum brightness and 80% battery life limit!

You honestly think the reported battery life of 11 hours means you can use it for that long? That's the maximum battery life, meaning that's how long it lasts if you let it sit there and do nothing without going to sleep mode.

You want all-day battery life? Get an iPad or a tablet with the Skype app, cause apparently the Chronos isn't good enough for you.

 

Relatively new to this board ...don't know you ... guess I have no idea where you're coming from. Is this supposed to be funny? Is it serious? You think 3 hours of Skype with the screen brightness turned up is excellent?

 

I hate getting post stuck at botton of page!
Can anybody help me answer some of these questions about this new series 7 ??
I'd asked Best Buy sales same stuff and got a stupid look...

 

There's something wrong with your power settings or the battery on your computer. Run HWMonitor or the equivalent and confirm your battery is at its full designed capacity. If its not return it if it is make sure you're running in balanced, Samsung optimized, or power saver mode, with only Skype open,and you should be get a good 5 hours at the very least.

Oh and as for my experiences, they've been solid. I've never drained the battery below 50% yet, and the longest I've been without power is 4 hours. Looking in the Easy Settings program shows power usage as low as 8W in Samsung optimized. 90Wh/8W=11.25hrs. I see jumps to 12W and 17W, 90Wh/17W=~5.2hrs. So in normal usage it should at least draw 5 hours, averaging about 7-8 hours. This is at lowest brightness. Brightness is the biggest detriment to this config since all the other components are very power efficient.

 

1) definitely coming out, probably in a few weeks, at the latest end of April
2)no one is really sure. It'll probably end with S02ub
So 880z5e-s02ub is the black touch
770z5e-s02ub is aluminum touch
3) I see no reason why not, I suggest looking around at the 2012 chronos thread as the laptops have similar upgradeability
4) there are no expansion bays. There are just 4 USBs, 2 3.0 and 2 2.0. Both of the 3.0s support sleep and charge
5) yes it is. On the user guide it both explains the installation of a new hard drive, and says "if you require helps opening your laptop please contact us"(not word for word)
6) the 8870m version will most likely have 8gb soldered plus 8gb, so 16 max, and 24 once the 16gb cards come out
7) we think it's a MVA panel, so great viewing angels, great blacks, etc. but there is a slight burn in issue, however it isn't permanent, and we don't know if it's widespread

 

Spy im curious, is the burn in you speak of related to the posts between alchy and myself or have you seen this posted elsewhere as well? Im simply trying to come to terms with whether its something i can live with as everything else about this laptop is top notch (once a SSD is in)

 

I had the burn in too, but only once.
I had tomb raided open but on the pause menu for 2 hours on max brightness.
When I unpaused I noticed the logo was still there,in the top-left area of the screen, kind of like stuck pixels. It was really opaque, but still there.
It disappeared after like 5 minutes, and hasn't happened since
I don't think it's that large of a problem, it's not very often that you keep your screen on to the exact same picture for that long. I have a wallpaper that changes every 5 minutes so that could be why I haven't noticed it on the desktop

 

Has anybody attempted a Linux Live boot or installation on these laptops. With or without UEFI? I hope Samsung has fixed their UEFI implementation by now b/c this thing will really shine under Linux

 

True enough, mine seems to happen with my desktop icons and any time i have a window open for an extended period of time. i have since changed my background cover to avoid seeing it and i too have a rotation of backgrounds

 

Thanks Metroid. That really helps. In the past I've thought about programs taking up CPU and memory, but not battery power. Given your suggestions, I found that Chrome increases the power consumption especially if the site is using Flash and/or Shockwave. After reading your post, when I closed Chrome, my power consumption went from 15 to 8. I tend to leave the browser running in the background, sometimes with many open windows. Internet Explorer increases power consumption a little less. I found someone on the web that compared the power consumption of Internet Explorer and Chrome. May have to rethink which browser I'm using.

For power consumption, I see what you reported, about 7.5-8 watts when nothing is running other than typical background stuff.. And over 12W when I'm doing anything. HWMonitor shows designed capacity at 91718 and full capacity at 90960. I think I'll start trying to keep my eye on the power consumption. Know of any smaller programs that report power consumption?

And regarding HWMonitor ... it doesn't show the 8770 GPU and its temperature. I wonder why not?

 

For some reason Chrome just isn't that efficient running flash. If your running a flash game in chrome the task manager performance monitor usually sits around 30-35%. The same task in IE sits at 10% cpu. I've found chrome isn't as good at touch interaction as IE is either... its caused me to switch browsers, between the extra performance drain, associated power draw and hitting links multiple times before they work its had me rethinking chrome which I love on the desktop.

BatteryMon will display power usage and has a mini mode thats a bit less obtrusive.

 

I discovered in the days of my Samsung Q35 that Flash is a power guzzler. Ever since, I've been using Firefox with Flashblock and AdBlock Plus in order to minimise the power being used by (usually) unwanted content running on open web pages.

Bluetooth used to be another power hog although I think it has improved over the years.

John

 

I am waiting for the release of Samsung Chronos NP780Z5E in Singapore and have been following these threads for months. Just to update that Samsung Series 7 Ultra NP730U3E has just released in Singapore selling at S$1,599.

 

Sorry, *edit*

 

Went to Fortress HK again today and was told they have some in stock! Hoooraaaahh!!

It's the 8870m model, with exact same specs as previously discussed by everyone on this thread... but it comes with 16GB of RAM - double hoooooraaaahhh!

RRP is $12980, but if I pay in cash I get $390 off, plus the clerk will throw in; wireless mouse, a headset, some form of case/bag, 32GB usb 2.0 stick and i think either 16/32GB usb 3.0 stick too - pending what they have lying around...

all for £20ish less than what the UK model retails for.



edit: the reason why I havent bought it yet is because I didn't have $13k with me at the time... haha

 

$12980 omg

 

Assuming that Fortress HK is in Hong Kong it's not quite that pricy.

John

 

ha, yeah, it is HKD.

$12980 - $390 pay in cash discount = $12590

$12590 HKD = £1064.75 = $1621.62 USD

 

I made a review/test thread here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...g-series-7-8870m-review-test.html#post9134518 please ad suggestions you want me to test there.

 

ok, i'm getting used to win 8 now and this laptop just zooms once the ssd was installed. seeing few issues though (i believe they were answered but there does seem to be a good way to search within a thread)

when i close the lid, the laptop always restarts. power settings have it set to sleep. but when i manually put the chronos to sleep, i can wake it without it restarting. any ideas?

also, the screen is not very bright. i have it set to max in windows power settings, and also samsung settings (there is no option for automatic brightness adjustment??)

how do i turn off the auto keyboard brightness settings?

 

Well I've just seen 770Z5E-S01IT (matte screen) live, finally. I have to say that I immediately noticed the graininess of the screen. Maybe with time I could get used to it but it's so grainy that it almost cancels the higher ppi (compared to previous model) of the screen.
Why is it so grainy, it's a pity! It could be the most beautiful fullhd screen but they had to ruin it.
The graininess also gives a cheaper look to the display.
Yes it's not the biggest deal outta there but it's evident and I don't see the reason of this choice.

Can it be mitigated with a bios update? Who knows , I dont think so...
Can it be improoved with newer revision of the display? Sure but, unless ppl will massively complain of this issue, Samsung will try to save its money.

I think I'm gonna wait for 16gb version, first of all because ram is not completely expandable so better to wait for the max than stay with 12gb forever (this laptop is expensive for me and, since I wont change it in 1 year, I want it futureproof) , second because I hope that with future revisions of the display the graininess will be mitigated.

 

Should my laptop be showing my battery at 97% (plugged in, not charging) ...it's been like this for a couple of days now. Tomorrow is my day 30, so if I should, or need to return it, this would be a reason if this is abnormal (which I've never seen in my other computers).

 

It's either:

1. Unplug from mains and plug in again. If the computer is left plugged in and the battery reaches 100% then it stops charging and doesn't start charging again until it either drops several % or is disconnected from the mains.
2. Check in Settings that you have not enabled Battery Life Extender (which I recommend using) which limits the charge to 80%. (If you enabled BLE with the charge above 80% it won't start charging until it drops below 80%).

John

 

Thank you! That was quick!

 

Do I presume the problem is solved?

John

 

What do You others think about the display?

Handschriftlich von meinem Note 2 gesendet

 

In my review you can read what I think about the display.


I tried installing newer amd drivers but it won't let me. Those who did it, could you tell me how?

 

Yes! At the time I answered you, I had just unplugged the computer and let the battery run down a bit and it is recharging just fine. I do not have the BLE set to on, but I 'can do that on your advice. My one question though, by setting it to 80%, doesn't that mean I'm losing 20% of my battery life doing this? Or, is how I run the run the performance of the computer in this mode the answer to how productive the battery length will be? [not sure I'm wording that in the best way]

 

Let me explain the difference between "battery life" and what I call the "run time": BLE aims to extend the battery life by avoiding fully charging it. Squeezing in the final charge is said to be where much of the damage to the Lithium battery chemistry occurs (the next worse event is sucking out the last part of the charge). Battery run time depends on the total amount of charge in the battery so only charging to 80% means you lose run time. Run time also depends on how you are using the computer.

If your computer spends much of the time plugged into the mains socket then enable BLE. If you know you are going to need to use the battery then you might temporarily switch off BLE and top up the battery so you get the extra run time. But when you get back to base re-enable BLE. That's the way I'm operating my NP900X4C and the battery seems to be happy.

John

 

Pranktank, can you tell me what the volume is like when you plug in your headphones? Ive tried this on a chronos in london and the volume is gets JUST too loud at 100. By comparison my hp envy gets to around the same volume at 50%. Im contemplating waiting for the proper chronos to come out in the US if it can output significantly more volume.

Edit: sorry, meant to put this in the review thread. But if anyone else can chime in, please

 

Thank you sir! I completely get what you are explaining there. Makes total sense! I appreciate it!

 

Something useful that I found; if you want to see how many watts the computer is using you can use the fn-f1 settings menu and go to power management. It tells you how many watts your using, and how much c02 your admitting(lol)
When my computer's at full brightness, wifi on, playing music it's at 22w. That's with firefox open, settings open, music playing(on ie as rdio doesn't work that well on firefox), plex server on, and the chat app open.
When I set brightness to 20% it goes down to 14w.
With everything closed, power saver on, wifi off, all non-essential background processes closed, eco mode on and word open the computer goesdown to 9.5 watts
Silent mode brings it down to 9 watts.
Closing even more background apps bings it down to 8.9 watts.
With word closed it went down to 7 watts.
So, 90 watt battery, you could squeeze 9 hours out of just doing word, and 6 and a half out of using the internet normally.
You could idle for 13 hours, woa.

 

Ok guys, so I went to the Samsung store in Westfield London and make some videos with the display model there. It has a 8850m graphics card and I have 1 video of it running Far Cry 3, 1 video showing how to disable adaptive brightness and 1 video showing the keyboard letters contrast.

I looked at the model in PC World Oxford Street and the machine in the Samsung store appeared to have much darker letters than the PC World Model.

Hit that 1080p button for high res!!


Samsung Series 7 8850m Far Cry 3 Gameplay - YouTube

1080P, Medium settings, very fluid, seems above 30 fps, couldn't display exact fps unfortunately. Quite pleased with it. The video shows a lot of reflections due to the shops lighting but I thought you guys would appreciate this over nothing at all! I was very happy with what I saw here.


Samsung Series 7 8850m How To Turn Off Adaptive Brightness - YouTube

Worked it out in the store with my googling powers!


Samsung Series 7 Chronos Keyboard Letter Contrast - YouTube

Could be my imagination, or the setting I was in but it definitely seemed a better contrasting keyboard over that in PC World.



Peace

 

Canada Computers | Notebooks, Netbooks & Tablets | Samsung Nike II High (NP780Z5E-S02CA) Notebook | Intel Core I7_3635QM 8GB RAM, 1TB_5.4KR/16G EC, DVD-RW | 15.6" FHD PLS Touch AMD HD8870M 2GB; Windows 8
according to canada computers(yea I know it's been on backorder for 3 months) the 16gb version also has a 16gb Express cache?

 

Did the PC World on Oxford Street have the 8870 version? or just that same 8850 one?

 

Both only had the 8850 versions

 

So there's three GPU configurations now? 8770m, 8870m and 8850m?

 

This is getting ridiculous. Samsung is becoming an absolute joke of a company with this launch and marketing procedures. THREE versions now??? What the hell just happened to the simple, ONLY version anyone and everyone cares about, the touchscreen 8870m version? It is nowhere to be found and shows no sign of becoming available in the US anytime soon.

I'm about to give up.

 

It's coming dude, I'm as frustrated as you but it's coming. They did say March / April time frame and we're still in March.

4 weeks from now shops should be full of them and of course hopefully they start trickling in over the next week or 2.

 

When did they say April/March? I just would like to have it before my birthday on April 15th

 

In many videos from CES, look through my posts I posted one or two of them

 

you've hung on for this long dude. what's another few weeks? snapshot something else and you'll end up with buyers remorse.

take it easy a little

 

All of the different various models and GPU configurations are making it interesting. I thought that the only model,l if my memory serves me that was going to have the Hd 8850m was the Ultra book version, but now we see a Chronos with it? Way to keep us all guessing Samsung. I guess we all will not see the version(8870m 15.6) that we all are waiting for until we do. I'm not going to get too exited about not seeing it until the beginning of April. The beginning of the 2nd sales quarter. If we go through all of April and don't see it though, I'll get quite annoyed, Not that it would do any good.

 

i don't care about touchscreens
there is no use in windows for it, hardly any programm has support.

better buy a bluetooth mouse and keep your screen free of dirt and reflections

 

Guys I have something about the black version. 870Z5E and 880Z5E model numbers seem to be included in my system/bios: this is what hwinfo64 showed about my laptop:

 

Windows 8 really shines when you add a touch screen, alot of the clumsy 'why' kinda things about windows 8 just make sense and work when touch is added. Give it a year or two and you won't be able to find a non-touch system. Look at the non-touch notebooks now like the y500 lenovo and HP dv6, both are i7 quad systems with hires screens and 650m or better graphics... they are top end models that usually sell for $1000 or more and yet you can get them for around $700 now. Non touch systems aren't selling.

The only non-touch screens that have a chance to stay around to fill a niche is matte screens since they are easier to use for heavy text entry applications, writing, programming etc.

If you have no interest in touch, there are some great deals out there.

 

Yeah dude Windows 8 is built for touch and its' a joy to use with it. Don't hate.

 

um this is kind of irrelevant, but bestbuy listed the Series 7 Ultra.
SAMSUNG COMPUTER 13.3" TouchScreen Laptop 4GB Memory 128GB Solid State Drive NP740U3E-A - Best Buy