Introducing The 2013 Series 7 Chronos with AMD HD8870M!

Contacted samsung support in Canada, finally got a bit of information.

The support rep says that both the s02CA and s01CA have the 8870m, 8gb of ram and a 1tb HDD. However I doubt that both SKUs are the same, so I'm hoping that the s02ca has 16gb.
Here's the full list of specs that she gave me:

I know that it says NP780z5e-S02CA, but I asked for the specs for the NP780z5e-S01CA, and she said that they are the same.

After asking when it will come out, I got the famous:

 

The page for the Ativ Book 6 says 8 hours battery, compared to a claimed 10.5 hours on the Chronos page. By those numbers, I'd guess that the difference is between 6 and 8 cells, not 4 and 8.

Going through the features list (the specs on the Ativ give a 404) and comparing all the things the Chronos mentions and the Ativ doesn't, it probably doesn't have a full HD screen, and also has a smaller monitor and fewer ports. The slightly lower price doesn't seem worth it.

 

Curious about the DVD drive. Hopefully it's a mistake.

 

Didn't notice that
It is a mistake. Guess those specs are somewhat wrong!

 

Would you rather not have one?

 

A DVD drive would mean that Canada's not getting the new series 7 chronos, as the new chronos doesn't have a DVD drive.
But, given that the 780z5e is the new chassis it's clear that the specs are wrong.

 

Does anyone know how long the battery lasts for the NP780z5e under the heaviest loads? I've been thinking of getting one and hooking it up to an external DVD drive for the long plane flights I have for my work, so I'd really be pushing the battery pretty hard.

 

I have exactly this. Bestbuy 8770 with an LG external disc drive. Haven't gotten the chance to test out the battery, but from what I've heard, it's a good 8 hours or so.

 

The 17" model has a DVD Drive.

 

Yes but we've been talking about the 15" model

 

I think I am finally going to return my 15" Samsung 8770 model in the next few days and join the holdout for the 8870 model. I may even wait for the Haswell... it's not that I even have a single complaint with this laptop, it really is my favorite laptop I have ever touched. I just figure that I have waited this long, why not wait a little longer for the next architecture (plus I owe quite a bit more in taxes than I was expecting.... truth comes out.)

Jason

 

Just wondering: what are you guys all going use the 8870M graphics card for?

 

gaming, editing.

 

1080p gaming :thumbsup:

 

Gaming on high settings in 1080p, editing, I'm also playing around with 3D drawing and simulating in Blender but that doesn't support AMD gpu's properly yet . Anyone know some alternatives to Blender?

 

To play solitaire, minesweeper and paint pretty pictures in MS Paint of course!

 

I just ordered the 8870 16 gig ram version on Taobao. He's smugglin it into the mainland and shipping it to me this week.

Samsung/

I did the same thing, asked all the vendors around SH about it for the last couple months. No one had a clue. (Though some guy offered me a Terran branded computer with a Touchscreen plus dedicated graphics for like 93k RMB)

 

So I bit the bullet and bought the i5 8850m version at pc world yesterday. So far so good!

I put in a 256gb 840 (not pro) ssd, and bumped the ram up to 12gb. Between that and downloading all the updates (and uninstalling bloat), I didn't get a chance to play around with it too much, but I did run a benchmark on Just Cause 2. Running at 1080p with basically everything on high, I got an average of 39fps, pretty darn good.

I installed SimCity overnight and spent literally 30 seconds in the tutorial, but even at 1080p and some settings reasonably high, it was running very smoothly.

 

report back when you receive it, wonder if he ships to the US

 

Looks like we will be waiting till May, i think its safe to start looking at other options if we don't hear anything from samsung by the end of this week.

I checked with Best buy today was a long drive from where i am but whatever. I asked the store manager, he said he had alot of inquires about this model but they haven't heard anything at all from Samsung, except what they already have the 8770M. As far as he knows the 8770 is the "new" chronos 7, they also had the 17" model. I asked him when he expects the 8870 (02us) and he says usually they would have prior knowledge if it was atleast a week or TWO away so he thinks it's probably gonna be sometime in May-June (if ever), but what he confirmed is there is no info from Samsung whatsoever ever about this model. I mean it's not even on samsung's webste :| their teasers on their facebook page maybe relating to the 8770M model, which is not best buy specific anymore.

 

looks like there is more confusion!

Samsung leaks the ATIV Book 6: a regular Windows 8 notebook possibly headed to the US for $1,200

 

I've been impatiently waiting for this laptop with everyone else, but my almost 4 year old E6510 isn't working so properly anymore and I need something new in the next two weeks which brings me to my questions.

- Is the design on the 01UB the same as the 02xx, the same aluminum body? (I read something on Engadget about how one would have a full aluminum body and one would be a mix of aluminum body and plastic LCD housing. Can't find it anymore)
- Is the battery capacity of the two the same? (8 cell) (source of doubt)

I may have to jump on the bestbuy model if my current laptop doesn't make it a few more weeks. I also hate that bestbuy changed their return policy to 15 days instead of 30.

 

^ Ditto. I was talking to a rep in my own local store earlier this week (when I spotted my returned Chronos discounted at $1049). She also said something similar along that line. Off topic, but she also mentioned BB stopped carrying the Lenovo Yoga on display as they got crapload of returns due to the wifi/touchpad issue so they were promoting the XPS12 now for the tablet/ultrabook.

At this point, I'm taking no news is bad news for the US release. Also consider that Samsung already has enough drama with US (and Apple) so I wouldn't be surprised if the 8770 model is the official Chronos model for US. Like I've stated before, I've seen this happen too many times with laptops, watches, movies, etc where the model configuration are slightly different (even though the model is the same) among different markets.

Hey..if the 8870 Chronos does come out in US, I'll be more than glad to be proven wrong!

But with haswell, NVidia 750 around the corner and more summer releases mean more goodies coming up in a few months. My friend just bought the new HP Envy and it looks like they are using IPS screens for the 1080p display (even though they don't market it as such). With coupons, he got it for under $800 with a NVidia 650m. My point being in a few months, there'll be better options (and cheaper perhaps?) available. Such is the world of technology (and cars).

For me, budget also plays a big role. I like gaming but did (and still) own a gaming laptop (paid $1600 back then) but I find for real immersive gaming, a 15" laptop doesn't cut it. You either need a full fledged powerhouse desktop PC or console gaming on big screen. I played a lot of PC games on my Asus when I bought it years ago but once I bought the Xbox/projector, I drifted away to the bigscreen gaming from my leather couch.

And the reason why I still haven't bought any laptop to this day (returned the BB version last night, and then ordered and cancelled the LenovoY500). Still can't make up my mind whether I need a gaming laptop or if I should get a nice touchscreen 15" laptop for under $800 and pocket the rest of the money. Plus the new Xbox is rumored to come out this x-mas (I'll take my chances of that release more so than the Sammy!!).

But till then, I'm hanging around here .

 

samsung has started advertising the chronos as ativ book....seems like there are a lot of different models with different weights and thickness but the specs remain the same more or less....i also read a review on trustedreviews site where they mentioned it has 24gb ssd cache and there will be other models with 256gb ssd too.....seems like things will get really complicated from now on...too much confusion lol

 

^ When you click on "specs" at the bottom, the GFX is listed as 8770 :-(.

 

I saw this posted on Engadget comments: Samsung Notebook Web Contents

 

The "leaked" ATIV Book 6: http://pci34.fishingtree.com/nike2/strategy/680Z5E/

 

AMD were drastically cut chip orders for 2013, so probably they cannot ship enough 8870M and any chips to Samsung. The 8750M in 530U4E is also much wanted, but only Europe gets the laptops.

 

ATIV Book 6 = series 5 Chronos Black
ATIV Book 8 = series 7 Chronos Black

 

What about the new series 9?

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There's a separate thread

 

Yes, I mean that I'm still trying to understand the differences

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It's a completely different laptop. Not that familiar with it but it's a ultra thin ultra light laptop, opposed to a desktop replacement
Series 9 has a slower CPU, less ram, less battery, no touchscreen and I think no dedicated GPU, but in return weighs less and takes up less space
Think MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro

 

Yeah, I read that review too: Samsung Series 7 Chronos 780Z5E review - Laptop - Trusted Reviews
Wish we could get one of those configs in the US...

 

Ok, thanks

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Unless I'm wrong, BestBuy is not a Samsung exclusive vendor and all Samsung devices are not available at BB. Because they're not planning on selling a device doesn't mean it won't be released in the US. Plus they already have one good "series 7 chronos" device available. Having a second one would probably be more confusing for the customer and not really desirable. So in my opinion it wouldn't be surprising if BB actually never had the 8870 model even if/when it's released. So judging of the potential availability of a device solely based on BB stock/upcoming products is probably not the right way to go. Just my thoughts.

 

I agree with this. Unfortunately, I think Best Buy sometimes buys exclusive rights to a model before other models get released, in a "first dibs" sort of thing. They're doing this with the Asus G46VW, too. I wouldn't mind it except for the fact that these models are severely nerfed most of the time! I wish they would negotiate for the more powerful models, too. I feel like we're going to have to wait until Haswell's release before we get our Ivy Bridge Series 7 Chronos in the US.

 

I've had a reply from Samsung regarding the 16GB RAM'd Chronos, and they claim there is no official release date.

I'm pretty much laptop-less now (current one is unusable for what I need to work with), so I may go towards a Sony S15 or if funds allow, a 15" MBP

 

Well all the stories that I saw about the ATIV book 6 show it to have the HD 8770m, just like the BB model. Samsung ATIV Book 6 Notebook Leaked | Geeky Gadgets The the listing on the Samsung US site was taken down moments after it was up. I would say that the Samsung US site is where we will eventually see the 15.6 chrons hd 8870 first. The question is when will we see it, and will all of us following this thread still get it when that eventuality occurs (if it even does). Samsung lists and sells the 17.3 version on their site and BB lists that same laptop online only, but it has the hd 8870m, so I infer that the problem is not with availability of the hd 8870m. But what the problem is I can't tell you and samsung has a veritable river (sarcastic) of info available about this product. Their marketing stradegy for the US seems to be "wait and see" and the US in general does not appear to be a great priority for them. So the underlying question for all of us in the US is will we "wait and see". I can only speak for myself on this matter. Probably not.

 

This alone would be the reason to choose the Ativ instead of the silver Chronos: Notice the black keyboard with white/silver painted letters fare much better in terms of contrast than the low contrast keyboard/letters on the silver Chronos.

 

Can you let us know how you get on with this as you use it more. SimCity is the game that caused me to fall out with my current laptop over gaming, so it would be very useful to know how the i5 8850M model copes with that sort of game as I may follow you and get that one if the 8870M one takes too much longer.

 

According to NotebookItalia.it website, one of the websites that first leaked information regarding the Ativ Book 8, is now reporting that Samsung goes all in with ATIV Book branding. The new models with the ATIV Book brand will take over the current Series 3, Series 5 and Series 7 lines, including Chronos.

Time will tell if this is true, but the ATIV Book 6 appearance on the Samsung USA website today gives many plus points to this scenario.

 

if its the 8870 you are after then keep a watch on ativ book 8 not 6.... also, I wonder if they will sell both chronos and ativbook in the same market as two different names... it's getting very confusing

 

i wish it was a plus point, but it's not, ATIV book 6 is just the chronos 7 8770 (bb version) painted black -_-

what we need is ATIV book 8 in the US, the announcement of ativ book 6 in the US makes me think again of the theory that USA is stuck with the 8770.

 

Ativ book 6 isn't series 7 chronos
Different battery, screen, speakers and most importantly chassis

 

agreed and if it actually takes till May - June for chronos/ativ 8870 to release (which seems v v likely as of now), with all the new tech on the horizon, it won't even be worth the $1500-$1600 Price tag they plan to slap on it. Silly stupid ignorant Samsung >_<

 

Exactly. Their engineering team did a pretty decent job on this laptop it seems, but their marketing department is really hindering their sales right now due to poor timing and release scheduling. Or at least, that's what's stopping my purchase.

 

you are right about the keyboard being superior on the ATIV, however ever since Apple dominated the market with their silver-metallic laptops, black laptops just look plain weird :| (atleast to me), even the DELL corporate series E5/6xxx are sold in silver now as opposed to black that they were famous for.

if i had no choice i would still pickup the black one, but i'm willing to forgive the inferior keyboard and get a silver chronos over a black one.

 

I mean plus points for the scenario of which Samsung will rebrand their Series 3, 5, 7 lines with the ATIV Book brand.

If ATIV Book "accidentally" showed up on Samsung US website today then ATIV Book 8 is most likely set for launch as well.

I noticed that Samsung loves Mondays lately, especially their computer department. Who knows maybe next Monday we may have a full unveil of the new ATIV Book line, including the new ATIV Book 8.

I went from a premium silver-colored Envy 17 3D 2XXX series, to the new Envy DV7 which is black and even the newer HP Envy's are not Premiun (just high-end) it does look so much better than the previous silver model.

I expect the same for the Ativ Book 8 compared with the Chronos 7 model.

 

It'd be nice
I think we'll hear something here in Canada tomorrow, as bestbuy has almost stopped carrying the old chronos and has it on sale until tmrw