Need to order today! Should I go with the Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A06US?

I urgently need a new lightweight 15" laptop for school and have been spending tons of time trying to figure out what I should buy. My budget is $2,000 max, but I would prefer to keep it around $1k if possible. I'll be using it mostly for school, which includes web browsing, office products, some engineering software (like MATLAB), and programming (Visual Studio).

It seems like every laptop I consider has lots of bad reviews and known issues, with the exception of macbook pro's. I've been considering buying a macbook pro, but it seems kind of silly since I need windows and not macintosh.

Of all of the laptops I've looked at, it seems like the Samsung Series 9 and ASUS Zenbook fit my needs the best, but from the reviews I've read ASUS products are plagued with quality control issues and they supposedly have horrid customer support, so I'm leaning towards getting a Samsung Series 9 laptop. With that said, there are a LOT Series 9 reviews that say it has serious WIFI issues, so that's a concern.

Anyways, I'm thinking of getting the Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A06US from Amazon:

Amazon.com: Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A06US 15-Inch Premium Ultrabook (Ash Black): Computers & Accessories

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

 

The X4C's WiFi connectivity problems have largely fixed by driver updates issued by Intel during the past 9 months (these problems were common to all notebooks using the 6235 WiFi adapter). That said, the WiFi signal strength isn't in the top range because the antennae are along the back of the chassis rather than being at the more common location along the top edge of the display (not feasible on this model due to the very thin, metal backed, display).

The remaining weakest link is that the display is the more common TN LCD rather than the IPS / PLS panels which give better viewing angles. However, it's still well above average for a TN panel. The 128GB SSD in the model you have identified is another potential deficiency due to (i) there not being much space for user software and files and (ii) it might be the Sandisk U100 which has very poor write performance.

But, if you want a 15" machine the X4C is an excellent compromise between display size and portability, then there's not much choice. The right version of the new 13.3" NP940X3G offers 8GB RAM (but is in short supply), but you can push the X4C to 12GB or 16GB if you want. There are other versions of the X4C with faster CPU and/or larger capacity SSD. You need to run benchmarks to see the difference in CPU performance and, for the SSD, there is the option of doing a user upgrade. There is also the X4D with an unpainted magnesium alloy finish. Some people prefer it but I like the black paint (it's actually very, very, dark blue) which contrasts nicely with the lettering on the keyboard.

For more background follow the X4C review and the Crucial m4 mSATA review links in my signature.

John

 

Thanks for your reply. I've been doing a lot of reading on the NP900X4C-A06US and it seems that the SSD in it is pretty bad, as you mentioned. I was hoping to get a laptop for about $1k, but I think I might need to pay more to get something better.. Now I'm thinking of perhaps getting one of these:

Samsung ATIV Book 9 NP900X4C-K01U

ASUS UX51Vz-DH71

Do you have any opinions on either of those?

Appreciate your help

 

The -K01US is the latest model. The basic hardware is the same as the -A06US except for the CPU and SSD. The i7-3537U CPU is faster than the i5-3317U but might (based on my own experience) run a bit hotter when under load but there is no significant difference in the battery run time. The SSD with either be Samsung or Liteon (both good).

Some observations on the key differences between the X4C and the Asus UX51Vz-DH71 are:

• The Asus is a size bigger. It's a 15.6" model whereas the X4C is a 15.0" display squeezed into a 14" chassis (I use a bag designed for a 14" notebook).
• The Asus has a i7-3612QM quad core CPU which can potentially run faster but is a 35W part (compared to the 17W rating of the i7-3537U). Read the reviews to decide how well it can handle the heat dissipation. One side-effect of the higher rated components is that it probably has a 90W PSU compared with the small 40W PSU used by the X4C.
• The higher specification hardware in the Asus results in the battery run time (< 5 hours) being substantially less than the X4C (which can achieve up to 10 hours of light usage).
• The Asus has a FHD 1920 x 1080 IPS display which can show more information and have better viewing angles than the X4C's 1600 x 900 display. However, the X4C's display is brighter and has a non-glare finish.
• The Asus has a built-in numeric keypad so the main keyboard and touchpad are offset to the left within the chassis. The X4C has a more symmetric layout with, IMO, a very convenient set of navigation keys up the right hand side.
• The Asus has a twin SSD RAID configuration which is faster but might not be upgradeable. The X4C uses a standard mSATA SSD so you can upgrade to 512GB. (One of you options is to get the -A06US then upgrade to the 512GB SSD - this will be less cost than the faster CPU + 256GB).

In summary, they are somewhat different machines. The Asus is nearer to the Series 7 Chronos / Ativ Book 8.

John

PS: I have just installed Intel's WiFi driver released on 14th November and am pleased to report that this gives vastly improved weak signal performance on my X4C.