Introducing The 2013 Series 7 Chronos with AMD HD8870M!

My mistake, you're correct. Can anyone find the power draw difference between the two? I think that will be the deciding factor. I don't want the 8870 if it means throttling my processor and less battery life.

 

Well if it's true that the power supply of 90w can be a power bottleneck then it will be easy to solve, since a 120w universal one (there are a lot of compact ones) is easy to find and not expensive to buy.

 

I'm at the point where all I do now is glance through the new posts once or twice a day to see if anyone is freaking out about it finally being available in the US. I just want to buy the damn thing, this is getting really old.

I also check Amazon, Best Buy, and Samsung daily for new laptops.

 

Re the ghosting issue:

I have the NP780Z5E S01UK model with 8870 GPU and touchscreen. I don't have this issue and can't reproduce it either - but I don't use my display above about 60% brightness. Do those experiencing ghosting have their brightness turned right up, I wonder? Still not excusable if there is an issue with brightness turned up, but it is more explainable if it's down to the level of brightness.

This is a fairly new type of display technology, it wouldn't surprise me if there weren't the odd issue with it, or even some of the panels (all technologies have their issues, it's about finding the right compromise TN screens can't handle angles, IPS and PLS have slower response times and GHOSTING!)

 

Yes but the processor should still be throttled. The laptop simply can't handle 4 cores at full speed and an 8870 at the same time. It would overheat.

So the question is, what's better? An 8770, or an 8870 that periodically throttles 3 of your cores to 1.2ghz when it's in use? Even my Galaxy S3 runs faster than 1.2ghz, to put it in perspective.

 

That review is for 17", now there is Notebookcheck review for 15" and it says that 770Z5E has no problem with stress test (prime95+furmark)
http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Samsung-Serie-7-Chronos-770Z5E-S01DE-Notebook.90725.0.html

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Well crap... Guess I'm waiting like everyone else then Thanks for the source, I haven't seen that on the english site yet!

 

Do have the touchscreen version (780Z5E)?

 

The Best Buy version is the 780Z5E, which has a touchscreen. It's the only one available in the U.S. so far.

 

To people who have the ghosting issue: can you let us know how to reproduce it?
I havent noticed it yet but I'd like to know if I have it!

I'm amazed by how much of a difference 16gb of ram makes. Intellimemory works really well. The combination of intellimemory plus the 24gb ssd section make the hard drive bearable!

Also, an update on battery life. I started the day at 80%(have battery extender on), and have used it a fair bit. Took notes on word for an hour and around 40%, surfed using my phone for internet for half an hour at around 40%, and have now spent around an hour and a half surfing the web, playing music, watching youtube, etc. at full brightness My battery is at 43%! It really is a great battery.

 

What is the 24GB SSD section?

 

According to the trusted reviews review it has a 1tb hd+24gb ssd hybrid drive, which means that there's a 24gb ssd working as a cache.

 

It does not have any caching drive inside. No SSD and no hybrid drive.

 

I haven't any trust in trusted review.
It's the only source that speaks about this 24GB SSD, also I don't know any hybrid drive with a cache so big.
Have you intention to open it for SSD swap?
If the answer is yes then you might take some pictures, if there is a 24GB SSD it will have the shape of a single soldered chip.

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To answer your question about brightness - mine is at its brightest setting, and the Samsung video settings "Display Color" is set to Sharp.
About your last comment regarding compromises - I hope you are wrong - in that IPS and PLS have "ghosting" issues inherent in their technology.
I hope it is more a matter of a bad batch or simply an anomaly of some sort - as I'd hate to think that we are doomed to be forced to have a display with image persistence/ghosting/burn-in.

Actually, I love this machine, except for the ghosting problem - but if you think about it, a lot of the user experience with a pc is what you see on the screen.
If there are visual anomalies that are present, that can severely affect your experience.
I was both shocked and disappointed when I did a shutdown after doing some file transfers - and saw (on a dark blue background) - clear and visible shadows/outlines of the windows that were open, icons, and the bottom taskbar.
It was a severe letdown - after waiting so long for this model to finally come out.
Sigh.

For those of you who are lucky like me to have been able to purchase one lately - and want to test yours to see if it has this issue - the best way to do it (even if you don't normally operate your pc this way) is as follows:
- Screen (disable dynamic brightness via the power settings in windows)
- Screen (crank it up to its brightest level)
- Charms, Settings, Change PC Settings, Start Screen (change it to have NO pattern on the background, with dark blue as the color)
- Wallpaper/Background (it does not matter)
- In desktop mode, open some windows, maybe even a web browser (perhaps this forum) where there is white with some black text and color, etc
- Either leave those windows static, or use them - but either way, keep moving your mouse around so the screen does not auto-dim - you need to simulate constant "use"
- Do this for about 10-15 minutes
- Please note that it is best to do the steps below in a darkened room - as the screen is super-glossy, and room reflections will hinder your ability to see the screen properly

NOW, you can do one of 2 things:
- do a shutdown (this is the easiest/fastest and is how I first noticed the issue) - as in doing so, it will present the blank, dark blue screen as it shuts down - and your images, if retained, will be visible. This method will show you your entire desktop - icons, taskbar, windows - as it shuts down
- OR, on your desktop, select personalize, then desktop background, then solid color, then select the second darkest grey - not the darkest one. Now minimize all the windows and see if any of their images are retained.

You can experiment with the above to see what works for you - but I found that even just having the start screen tiles on for a while, upon shutting down - I could see them - as shadows.

Before I bite the bullet and return mine to futureshop, I would be curious to know if this behavior will diminish (get better) over time, or if the panel will continue to have image retention issues for its lifetime. I don't want to take this back to the store, but it is very annoying to see these after-shadows when you close windows to view something else, or shut down your pc.

I have owned lots of laptops and had desktop lcd displays with cheaper display technologies, and even expensive ones - and none of them ever had an issue of image retention.
For the premium price we are paying for this beautiful laptop, I'd expect to have one without this particular issue.

 

Holy cow, full voltage CPU + mid-to-high end GPU and it has 10 hour and 42 minute battery (WLAN test)!

Source: Test Samsung Serie 7 Chronos 770Z5E-S01DE Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

 

Already published in this forum several times, even a page back...

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Hey if you have any questions about the device, ask away. I'm more than happy to answer your questions. I picked mine up for 1200, and I'm happy with how powerful the product is for the amount I'm paying. The ONLY thing that's a bit bothersome is the slow HDD, but that plagues both this and the 8870 model. I was thinking about buying an SSD, but to be honest, SSD's are just expensive unnecessary toys. It's still extremely fast, don't get me wrong; takes 22.5 seconds to boot up. I'll be keeping the HDD.

 

Let's put this rumour to rest, there is no 24gb ssd cache. The drive is a basic Samsung 5400rpm drive, model number st1000LM024.

Newegg.ca - SAMSUNG Spinpoint M8 ST1000LM024 1TB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Here's a pic of the drive I pulled out after swapping it for an ssd:

 

"You should be executed in front of your family for that" - Jeremy Clarkson

SSD's are the best thing that happens to the computers.

 

+1.

SSD's provide the single largest performance boost available to laptop computers in almost all cases.

 

I was curious how the 8770 performs with the new Simcity and with Minecraft, preferably running a shaders mod, but that's just a bother unless you play either of those!

I am definitely planning on putting in an SSD though, trust me, you'll love it if you have the budget for one! Not only do you get faster transfer rates, but there's no disk noise, better battery life, and your system will run cooler! Not to mention cold boot times around 10 seconds

 

Don't get me wrong! SSD's are freaking fantastic and fast. But I personally can't justify paying hundreds of dollars for some extra speed. The hard drive is fast enough (for me at least), and the 1TB space is a plus. Sure I would LOVE to have an SSD, but even if I did have the extra money, I'd rather save it for something else (like a vacation). Just my opinion though

I'm not too sure about Sim City, as I've never played that game, but I've played Minecraft (the demo on the web browser) and it runs smoothly with everything maxed out. I would imagine it would run better for you if you downloaded it onto your desktop!

 

True ssd are overpriced but are great
wish i could get a 1 tb for a cheap price
hopefully the prices will fall

 

There could very easily be 24gb cache soldered to the mobo somewhere.

The fact that the laptop takes 60 seconds to boot the first time and then 20 after a few times, combined with programs opening with ssd like speeds after you open them a few times would point to a ssd cache.

Trustedreviews could be wrong, I'm happy to send the reviewer an email asking to clarify whether if has a cache or not, but the 1000tb 5400rpm does not act like a normal 1000tb 5400rpm drive would act.

--EDIT--

http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-series-7-chronos_Laptop_review
I'm on my phone right now and can't find a contact button or even a comment system. If someone else wants to take a look that'd be great, if not I'll do so tomorrow from my chronos.

 

Ya in this case I'm pretty sure he's wrong about that although it would be nice. I've been digging through the bios code and noticed that intel rst (ssd caching) is disabled. Also there is no ssd device that shows up in device manager.

 

I've had the Bestbuy version (8770) over the weekend now and used it extensively (and my kids as well).

For the $1k price I paid for the open box, the laptop is worth every penny (and more). Battery life still amazes me with average load (full brightness).

Example, I drove down to the bay area on Sat to do my taxes (grrrrr). During this 2 hour drive, my kids had the laptop in the backseat and watches movies off the HDD. Then I took the laptop with me and waited at the tax place as they were packed as people rushed in the last min (idiots like me). Waited another 2 hours but enjoyed the laptop every bit, watching movies, surfing the net at the office and some Netflix documentaries. Camped at a relative's place overnight (my kids used the laptop again to watch more movies at night).

Then drove back next morning back home while my kid used it again during the commute back. When we reached home, the laptop still had about 10% life remaining!! I'd say I got around roughly 8 hrs easily.

Like I've stated before, I do my mainstream gaming on the Xbox/projector but installed Stalker (Call of Pripyet) and it plays extremely smooth at full HD at high settings...granted this is an older game. Though I was expecting the game would act up with the too newer (and officially unofficial) GFX card but so far, it's been buttery smooth and no crashes.

So far, for my needs, this laptop has performed above expectations. Things I really appreciate on this laptop and would consider these in my future purchase.
- Excellent panel (good viewing angles make the laptop very 'sharable' between kids when watching movies, etc)
- Good speakers (no more 'hollow can' sounding speakers on typical laptops!)
- BATTERY LIFE!
- Slim form factor with acceptable weight (my youngest son at 6 yrs has no issues carrying the laptop around the house)
- Decent gaming card (for me, gaming on a 15" screen vs 120" is really out of the question but it's good to enjoy a PC game or two while watching TV on the couch)
- Touchscreen ....I'm using this more and more as day goes by. My kids love the "S-Paint" metro apps and use the touchscreen a lot. Using the metro apps+touchscreen become more convenient when lazing off on the sofa.

Improvements:
- Samsung....please DONT use a silver keyboard on a silver chassis with low contrast letters/numbers!! My aging eyesight hates you!
- Backlight keyboard....(it works great if you cover up the ambient sensor but other than that, half the time, it doesn't work right). This should be user controlled via software (similar to Sony Vaio laptops).
- BETTER marketing in US !! Most people I know will easily consider HP/Dell/Asus for under $1500 without knowing the chronos 7 is a hidden gem and a powerhouse!
- Long term reliability? (I've owned 2 Asus gaming laptops and both has served me over 3 yrs+ without a hiccup). I'll see how the chronos fares down the road but so far, it's a solid performer.

 

Can someone create and post a YouTube video of this ghosting/image retention issue?

TIA


** Sent from my Galaxy Note II **

 

Can anyone explain to me what Intellimemory is? The first thing I did when I got my laptop was uninstall it, since I heard a lot of complaints about it. However, I've been hearing some pros about the software recently.

 

It uses RAM as a cache.
It works poorly with 8gb of ram, but well with 16. It uses too much ram when you have 8gb which in turn doesn't let you have enough, pretty much.
Google "ramdisk" for a more detailed explanation.

 

I have the 770Z5E-S01DE which is the non-touchscreen. I'll post some pictures later.

This ghosting or image retention is really annoying. 10 mins are enough to see the edging or parts of the background image etc. on a darker background. Every time I open the Windows 8 start menu I see some pattern.

I also talked to the Samsung support. They told me to try the recovery because of maybe broken display driver. Well, it is the 2nd notebook which has the exact same issue... They also told me that this is definitely not normal. Thats what i figured.

I wonder if this retention problem gets better over time.

 

whoa there! Unless you're getting a 256gb SSD or bigger it shouldn't cost you much more than $100(U.S.) for a 128gb, which is a common manageable size.

SSD's are more than just speed. Since there's no moving parts, they are practically indestructible compared to mechanical drives. There's also no noise, and lower(probably negligible)power consumption. These advantages are significant for laptops, since laptops usually travel or move around a lot.

I never felt the need for an SSD back when my main PC was a desktop, where the only advantage was speed. Ever since I switched to laptops, having to sit there and wait for it to bootup and the fear of causing a head-crash on the mechanical hard drive from movement while it was spinning convinced me to get a Samsung 830.

If you mainly use your laptop at home then a mechanical drive should do fine. But for laptops that travel or move around a lot a SSD is a must.

 

The thing is that the 8770 (or 8870) can only hold one drive, and my data adds up to 250GB. That means I'll have to buy a 512GB, which looks around $300...

By the way, can anyone explain to me what an SSHD is? What are the downsides to an SSHD? Why doesn't everyone get SSHD's instead of SSD's?

 

You don't have to. The 17" Chronos has a DVD drive that can be replaced with a caddy to hold your TB drive while you can put a smaller SSD into the main hard drive bay.

SSHD's are Solid-state HYBRID drives, which are just mechanical drives with SSD caching. They try to combine both the GB/price and the SSD speed into one drive. They're not very popular because they add only some speed improvement compared to whole SSD's, and most laptops either have 2 hard drive bays or the DVD drive is replaced with a hard drive caddy, which makes the SSD+HDD combo a popular choice.

A 128gb Samsung 830/840 + hard drive caddy should only be $150+

 

Well, buying a chronos 7 and skipping SSD is like buying a Ferrari and skipping good tires, how well do you think it'll accelerate/handle?

I say that if I can afford to invest this much in a laptop, I might as well go all-in.

I had a child hood friend who bought a really expensive cell-phone ---> http://www.cellular.co.za/phones/ericsson/2000/ericsson_t20.jpg
The thing was, he didn't text anybody because he said it was to expensive.

Notice that im not trying to dictate anything, im just putting up a perspective.

/same

 

On trusted review they speak clearly of a SSHD with 24GB of cache and from what I know the actual max size of a cache SSD on Hybrid Drive is only 8GB.
So it's pretty sure that they were wrong.

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I bought 8770M version from best Buy and It is very good. I upgraded the RAM to 12 GB with adding Cosair vengeance 8GB stick. Installed a Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD. This machine is now fast!!!

I have a windows 8 Pro OEM DVD. But struggle to clean install it on the machine as product key is stored in the UEFI/BIOS firmware chip and is automatically detected all the time. Any work-around to install Windows 8 Pro using the OEM DVD?

 

The Best Buy Canada site has the the old 15 inch Chronos on sale until April 18; hopefully we will see it replaced with the new Chronos (cheaper than the Futureshop one - maybe an i5?) at that time.

 

Actually googling "DynCache" would provide a better analogy to what Intellimemory does.

 

In My Computer\Properties there should be an "Add features to Windows" listing. Click that and then tell it you have already bought a product key. Then enter the key that came with your Pro DVD.

 

Post 2086 (on page 409) has two pictures that illustrate the issue.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/702308-introducing-2013-series-7-chronos-amd-hd8870m-409.html#post9141267

Sometimes the image persistence is subtle, but sometimes it is more pronounced.
I think it all boils down to how sensitive you are at actually "seeing it", and if you do see it, how much does it bother you.
Also, the chances that you will notice it will depend on whether or not you will ever display dark backgrounds - since it is most noticeable on dark grey solid colors.

On mine, the images that remain do in fact go away after about 5-10 minutes, but the initial shock of seeing the after-images leaves you feeling that your beautiful new laptop is letting you down.
I have researched this a lot in the last few days and we are not alone. Apparently the MacBookPro display has this issue (to an even worse degree), and many owners are hopping mad that Apple is not doing anything about it. Some sites actually try to explain that IPS displays have this issue because of the technology, while others say that it could be due to a defect when making the LCD panel at the factory. Who knows for sure.

The fact that some (but not all) current owners of this new chromos have seen this image persistence problem tells me that these are not simple isolated incidents. I am in Canada, and other posters with this issue are in the USA, Italy, etc. Maybe the right circumstances for the rest of the owners simply have not yet presented themselves to produce the anomaly - or maybe their panels are the good ones that were magically blessed by the LCD fairy - who knows.

I love this laptop, and don't want to return it - but I feel that I have to - simply for the fact that if it has this issue, being brand new out of the box..
My fear is that after dropping significant coin on purchasing it, over time this image retention problem will worsen, and I'll be stuck with a screen that I can't stand to look at anymore.

I hope the black version comes out soon. Perhaps that one will not have any issues with the display.

I wonder if Samsung even knows about this - or cares. It probably won't make financial sense for them to even investigate it, let alone fix it, if nobody complains to them or returns the machines because of it. Time will tell.

 

Unfortunately it did not work like that. Perhaps because this is an OEM builder's license?

 

I was actually looking at hybrid drives last week, and I thought for sure that I saw some that were 24GB, but now I can't find them. In fact, even Seagate's newest drives only look to have 8GB.

Some reviews do mistakenly refer to Expresscache configurations (which typically have 24GB of SSD storage) as having hybrid hard drives.

Anyway, I finally bit and got a 250GB Samsung 840 SSD (the third SSD that I own) and installed it this weekend. The laptop was great before, but the hard disk performance was a huge annoyance, to the point that it was almost frustrating to use because of boot/resume times, app loading, etc. Since going to SSD the boot time is around 10-11 seconds, and even less for a resume. Unless you absolutely need the 1TB capacity (or can't afford to buy a large enough SSD to meet your needs), you're really doing yourself a disservice by sticking with the 5400RPM hard disk.

Opening the laptop to install wasn't difficult so much as it was time consuming since I was trying so hard to be careful and not scratch or break anything.

 

To reproduce the ghosting turn off adaptive brightness and turn up the brightness to full. set you metro/tile background color to one of the dark grey choices. Any windows left open for extended periods of time (~10+ minutes) or desktop icons should show through when you switch to the metro/tile interface from the desktop. I also noticed it on restarts after loading software or updates. Like i said, i experienced it will all 3 best buy models that i had. I personally felt it was not bearable for the cost of the machine. And definitely agree with a few other posters that i worried that the issue would get worse as the device aged.

 

Got the ghosting after doing the test above - though don't notice it in general use as I rarely have a window stuck open long enough for it to happen. Again never saw it until I tried what the post above suggested and I've had the laptop four days

 

Personally, full brightness on this laptop kills my eyes. I have it between 40% and 80% depending on location and guess what... No ghosting. Not being funny, but any screen on full brightness will have issues with image persistence - IPS/PLS and their derivatives (this one is MVA) are more prone than old fashioned TF Panels, but any screen will do this if left displaying a static image for long enough - why do you think "Screen Savers" were invented? (anyone remember burnt in CRT displays?)

The simple solution? Reduce the brightness (the easiest win) and turn on a screen saver or make sure you don't leave the screen on the same thing for too long (you can always set it to turn the screen off after a couple of minutes, with the added bonus of saving power!)

As to whether this will continue once the machine gets older... It's unlikely to deteriorate unless you leave the same image on screen for a VERY long time (days or even weeks or longer) - but if you reduce the brightness and follow the steps above, you shouldn't ever have a problem with this in the first place!

 

is the ghosting issue with the touchscreen glossy version or is it with the non touch matt version ?

 

more news: Samsung shelved the 17" chronos 8870 770z7e in the united states :-/

Best buy doesn't sell 770z7e anymore on their website, i called the shop nearest to me to confirm and they told me they don't have it anymore (they had it last week) samsung stopped stopped supply.

samsung doesn't want US to have 8870

 

I don't understand why the Best Buy 780Z5E is ~$500 more north of the 49th...

 

I'm getting a funny feeling Samsung will scrap the Chronos all together and get behind the ATIV series