Introducing The 2013 Series 7 Chronos with AMD HD8870M!

I was expecting it to be under $1500, $1700 is kind of too much
I guess I'll wait till the release of Haswell and see what happens.

 

Since when does the 15" version cost $1699?

 

15" 16gb 8870m out in Canada for $1699
They'll probably release it in the us for $1599

 

Ouch, I thought the price point was going to be $1299 for the 15" here in the US?! No way am I spending $1600!

 

This laptop is way better than any macbook
but hopefully it reaches USA in may as that when my mom will be there

 

It's $1300 for 8gb and 8770m, was never going to be that much for the higher version

 

I am confused. Is the Canadian one 16GB? Their site says 8GB.

 

Yea it's 16gb, typo on the site
I'll let you know if its windows 8 pro or not soon, haven't had a chance to open the box yet

 

yes and retina macbook pro june revision will v likely be hanswell. I will be interested but i hope they 1. Upgrade GPU to 760M and 2. drop the price by atleast 30% (dreaming)

 

i am sure there will be other added benefits such as new processor line and better efficiency like less heat, etc.

 

Haswell is new processor line

 

DUDE! You just made a bunch of us in the US very envious. Congrats! Please let us know how that thing performs!

By any chance, is your keyboard in French? Not sure how they release laptops in Ottawa.

 

Keyboard will be English.
While Ottawa is a very bilingual city the official language is English, with the second language being French.
They may be sold with a French keyboard in Québec , as the official language there is French.

 

Well then. If the US doesn't get this machine by end of April, I may have to work on a "business trip" to Ottawa in May.

IceManKent - did yours come with the 1TB HDD or an SSD?

 

Hi guys, dunno if im being extra stupid:

but i simply cannot get my hands on a windows 8 64 bit version.
What do i have to do to make a clean install of windows 8 64 bit on this comp?
Really getting frustrated.
Help is appreciated thanks.

 

Ok, typing from my new NP780z5e-S02CA
I had the S01UB for a while, the 16gb of ram works well with intellimemory. Like, really well. This computer is like 2 times faster than the S01UB.
How do I check which company the screen is made by?

 

2x faster is nice!

Another thread posted these instructions for finding out the screen manufacturer:
Go to Device Manager then Monitor then right click and click Properties, then go to Details Tab then click the drop down arrow and go to hardware id and should list it there.

Enjoy!

 

Great, ill check once it finishes restarting/installing updates

 

Ok it's the AUO one
Is that the better one? I tried to find the post from before which summarized which one had less issues, but couldn't

 

Alright so I caved, walked into a futureshop today and picked one up! Originally I had planned to wait for the retina MBP refresh as I was expecting this laptop to take ages to get to the stores.

For those who are interested I swapped the Hard Drive out today for an SSD, quite simple really even though they say it is not user changeable. Just remove the 11 screws on the bottom and then work around the edges with a non marring pry tool of some sorts. I used a guitar pick Here's some pics of the "guts":



To clone the hard drive I created a bootable usb version of acronis true image. I soon realized that by default boot device priority settings in the bios are not available. To get it to work I had to disable fast bios, secure boot and the internal sata port as a boot device. I then hooked up the original hard drive via a usb enclosure and cloned directly from the old drive to my ssd. The nice thing about acronis is that it can automatically resize the partitions to make them fit, which in my case was necessary as the original drive is 1TB and my ssd was 512GB.

 

Whoa, a 91Whr battery? I thought it was an 80Whr one. That's massive...

 

AUO is supposed to be the good one from what I've read. Sounds like you're good to go.

Ok Samsung, you've hooked up Canada, how about throwing a bone to their neighbors to the south?...

 

Lol I don't even think Samsung knows that we have it
I've been messaging Samsung Canada, they told me yesterday that they had no idea
I messaged them today and was like "by the way I have it"
They were like "oh, thanks for letting us know" and had no idea that it was out

 

This has gotta be one of the most bizzaro hardware releases ever. I mean, I've never witnessed such anticipation for a product that pops it's head up randomly across the world with no fair warning, no elaborate launch party, nothing. It's in such high demand that consumers are sniffing it out and purchasing it before the distributors are even aware that it exists in their neck of the woods. Then, as quickly as it arrives, it disappears. It almost seems as if they are trying to test out the markets before full release. Or, maybe Samsung has decided to skimp on internal QA and decided to use geek asses like us to determine if their products pass the litmus test or not. What kind of marketing/release strategy is this?!? It's all very interesting I have to say. Unless of course it's just a complete accident and Samsung is flying by the seat of their pants and have no idea what their doing. I mean, how many markets are they trying to dominate at the same time - TV's, phones, tablets, laptops, cameras, etc. There aren't too many tech companies who can claim such success right now. Not even Apple.

Anyway, it's amazing how yesterday nobody in Canada had a clue when this release was going to arrive, and all of a sudden at least two vendors/stores were supplying them today. What is going on?!?

 

Yea this has been a really annoying launch. Samsung needs to step up their game. This laptop really is great(except for a few things, all of which software related, the main one being the keyboard backlight

Here's a review I found: trustedreviews.com/samsung-series-7-chronos_Laptop_review

It claims that it's a hybrid drive with 24gb of expresscache. Anyone know how I could test this?

 

Two vendors? I know FutureShop has some (which comes out to just shy of $2000 after taxes, FYI) but what other store?

 

Test by notebookcheck.com, which show very good gaming scores and it will be just better with optimized drivers. Akku time almost 16 hour, wow... This is a serious machine. Anyone can tell me how big is that 90W power adapter?

 

I've been hearing a lot about a BestBuy exclusivity in the states for the 8770M version, but I just found it online on Frys for the same price ($1199.99).

FRYS.com | Samsung

 

Finding ways to ship it from Canada to Australia

 

I have gone through 3 of these laptops from best buy, all 3 with the same issue you described, which I mentioned earlier in the thread. I will be returning the laptop for good tomorrow (assuming best buy will allow it past the 15 day initial buy date, still within the 15 day exchange date). There is also spotty wireless coverage, which has been mentioned by other users. They are both problems I experienced with all 3 laptops I used over my 3 weeks with them. They seem to be manufacture problems with the whole line. I have bought a chrome book for the time being for classes to hold me over at cost till they either fix the problems, or a haswell rendition arrives.

 

I made a size comarizon pic here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=9157060

Or do you want the real dimensions?
Edit :125 x 50 x 30 mm

 

What I recognized with the notebookcheck-test: their Bioshock-scores are much lower than ours, but SimCity works better with their model

Handschriftlich von meinem Note 2 gesendet

 

Hey, can you just confirm that the screws are all Philips head and would be able to be opened by a small screw driver? There are no special screws where I'll need to go out and buy a separate one?

 

I have some doubt about 2 different supplier for display, because only one user has reported a display made by Chi Mei and when I have asked to him about his Hardware ID screen he has not answered at my question.


According to review by Notebookcheck the display (AUO panel) seems very good in fact it has the same gamut of retina Macbook so it's near to total RGB coverage that means slightly under 75% of AdobeRGB, but it has a contrast of 1435:1 I have never seen a notebook with a contract ratio over 1000:1 for example rMBP is just around 900:1.
Also black level seems very good.

This notebook performs stress test without any problem!

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

I can't speak to the ghosting as I haven't experienced it, but the wifi issue is definitely annoying. It will likely (and may already) be fixed with a driver update. When I got my laptop I didn't notice wifi issues until after I updated the driver. I rolled back to the previous driver and my wifi has been pretty solid - just a very rare occurrence of disconnecting for no reason. I'd say twice in a week of heavy use. I've read elsewhere on this forum that there is a newer driver available directly from Intel that fixed wifi for some people. I haven't tried it yet but was planning to give it a go after my next backup.

 

i am not getting this issue. i am using the 8870 version though, and perhaps i have a different panel. how do i check the panel type?

when i check monitor propertis in device manager, it just says generic pnp monitor. no vendor specific info

 

Not the same. Lower screen res, lower speaker power, lower battery specs...

I've just got answers from both the facebook team and the customer support saying the usual "we can't speculate....". I think it won't come out in the US, and the Canada release seems very weird to me. You don't release 2 units per store. It seems more of a way to deal with demo units when a release is canceled than anything else to me... They might be skipping the Chronos series in the US and go directly to the ATIV brand in a few months. I checked the Amazon page in France: this laptop (NP770Z5E) was announced and posted on Jan. 16 2013, that's 3 months ago ! It's a century in computer-related business, and yet nothing has been announced in the US. I hope I'm wrong ... but I doubt it. If we're patient for an extra 2-3 months, other companies will probably announce a similar product and in 6-8 months we'll get an alternative. Either that, or Samsung will have come to their senses and release a "refreshed"-ish version...

 

That's series 5, so even the chassis is different, only the cover is made in aluminum, also battery has smaller capacity than series 7.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

Yeah, it just little bigger than a Dell 65W adapter, so I guess still ok to carry. However with a fancy laptop like this, I could imagine a nicely made aluminum adapter for full premium feeling.

 

Yup all Phillips. Believe there was 2 sizes but both are small standard screws.

 

My experience with the laptop is similar to yours.
My biggest beef is with the keyboard backlight - as it really is ineffective if you're actually (using) your laptop.
(if your screen is bright, its light will reflect on the keyboard, drowning out the very weak backlight, making your keys practically un-readable).
I think if the keys were black, or if the backlight was 2-3 times brighter (it really is not bright at all) - then it would be perfect.

Other than that, I can't complain too much - it is a very nice machine.

I have disabled the screen's adaptive brightness, and that works well.
The settings for the keyboard backlight don't work. Go ahead and set them, it won't matter - it has a mind of its own. Oh well.

I did not really notice the HD speed to be all that bad. Sure an SSD would be much faster, but in all honesty, it is still pretty fast.

I had issues with Windows 8, however - mostly in trying to get Office 2013 installed. What a nightmare, but it is over now.

I'm still learning more as I go about this thing - and slowly going through the bloatware to figure out what to remove.
I have not yet done any gaming on it, but plan to do so in the near future.

Some comments about the screen.
It is GREAT to have a 1920x1080 resolution. My old laptop feels like a child's toy now when I use it.
People have stated that the screen looks grainy.
It does have a sort of grainy look to it - almost like there is some sort of translucent "film" that you are looking through.
But, it is not too bad and you get used to it.
I also find that I don't need a touchscreen (smudges bother me), and that it works just fine using the other methods to navigate.

Lastly, the trackpad is ok, but seems a little unreliable.
Sometimes it does not register your taps/motions, etc - forcing you to tap up to 3 times before your input is recognized.
This is even after the SW update of its firmware.
I just hope that future updates improve on its behavior.

The above are only minor gripes - I'm still very happy to have this machine, as it screams class and quality.

I hope this model (and the black) version come out for the US market also (soon), so we can get a larger, more powerful user base to comment on and improve this work of art.

 

I find that the keyboard light works fine at night, like in the dark, when it's supposed to be on. It really is problematic during the day because the light makes most keys no visible.

The screen does have a weird graininess when it's on whites, but it's because it has some sort of matte layer on top of the touch screen(according to the review). It only matters if you look for it. I also think that it's the kind of the thing may get better over time(as the screen settles, etc) though I could very well be wrong.

 

Awwww, #!%!*
I have been quite busy transferring files to this new machine.
Lots of "static" file explorer windows, etc.
I just shut the computer down (dark blue background, no pattern/picture), and I saw ghosting/image retention !!!!!!
Each window that was open had a visible outline.
I knew this was too good to be true.
I will give this a few more days to see if it continues (and if those particular images remain or fade away).
If it does not resolve itself, my new toy is going back to futureshop (14 day return policy).
#@$%!!!

PS, this has the AUO panel if that matters.

 

hi, please answer me, i am very noob at this (and english is not my native language)

for what programs or application do you recomend to use the 8870m ??? (in switchable graphic app)

Of course in games and programs like photoshop.

But the web browser for example ?? PowerDVD ?? some othe program i am missing maybe ??

or just for games ??

thats all, thank you very much

regards

 

Buy SAMSUNG Series 7 Chronos 15.6" Touchscreen Laptop - Silver | Free Delivery | Currys

does this price include vat charges?? also, if I am a traveller, living outside europe, and I ask for tax refund will I get it or not on laptops? if the tax gets reduced it will be a killer deal whenever it gets available!! please help...

 

I think this should help, if you are noticing something is slow (slow framerate) then you need to run the 8870, if not, then you don't need it. The HD 4000 can handle 1080p video just fine. (Powerdvd), same thing with the Internet. Long story short, if something is running slow try switching it to dedicated graphics, if not then there is no need to switch it.

 

Curry's or pcworld or john lewis , non of them provide Tax / vat refunds, so you cannot get a refund. The only way you get a refund if you buy it as the store itself (physically) from the UK and claim tax refund on ur way out at the airport. technically it is illegal for them to keep the tax, especially since they know you are using a shipping forwarder. but i guess its too much of a hassle for them to keep track of all that, plus they make alot of free money this way.


the only ones who give tax refunds are amazon.co.uk , but that is also case-by-case so it depends on your luck and they don't have this laptop in stock.

If you buy it with tax, it is not a good deal at all especially if you include expensive shipping forwarding costs.

how do i know all this ? I already checked and contacted all of them, yes i want this laptop that bad