New Samsung R560 notebook (15.4")

Oh excellent, this is making my decision even easier, thanks!

I have a Thinkpad T61 for work and while it's the best laptop keyboard I've used (out of several) I hate the Fn button being on the end. I think people praise Lenovo keyboards for their feel, rather than key placement.

 

Edited...due to my technophobic nature!

 

Oh, and sorry for the late reply, the bloody thing took nigh on 3 hours updating...

I am going to lock myself in a cupboard and shout a bit! I'll post back tomorrow after I have spoken to Saveonsamsung!

 

Actually, I think I may be having a moment!


Could someone explain to a simpleton (me) if I have what I am expecting (using Saveonsamsungs spec sheet)

I have the following spec (i think)

Local Disk (C: ) 93.3 GB free of 110 GB
Local Disk (D: ) 110GB free of 110 GB
Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo CPU [email protected] 2.00gHz
Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
32-bit Operating System
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GS

I'm sure the XPS M1530 got 7 or 8 in the windows experience...this R560 is a better machine (apparently) and scores much lower!

 

110+110 = 220GB of space. That's kinda small in my opinion (but then I'm used to seeing terabytes of HDD space on desktops so...) but it's more or less correct (since most OSes divide the number of bytes available by 1,073,741,824, where as marketing just use 1,000,000,000 - see wikipedia). Using Wiki's numbers, you seem to be missing 13GB...

I don't have Vista (but will do soon if I get this lappy!) but WEI marks should be taken with a grain of salt. For processor score, I reckon it measures by the GHz stated, and that's it (so if the XPS has 2.5GHz or something, it's clearly greater than the R560 by that number only). But I don't have an XPS to confirm Though how did you get 7-8 when WEI only goes up tp 5.9??

I don't know how to confirm whether Centrino 2 is being used or not, but I don't think Santa Rosa platforms accept P type processors?

 

5.9 is the maximum score with the Vista experience software.
I got a high end desktop and I score 5.9 in each (Raptor, 8800GTX etc...)
It's normal you get only 5 for your processing speed, 2Gigs is pretty slow with the new standards. O/cing up to 2.6 and you'll get your 5.5 or higher.
Give us the other score, especially for the RAM speed, I am really interested to know how DDR3 is ranked by the Vista experience...
And it seemes you have two hard drive disks of 110Gigs which is not too shabby (RAID possibility...).
I also see that you are using a 32 bits OS which is a bummer with a 4Gigs system. Upgrade to Vista 64 in order your system recognize your 4Gigs.

 

The true capacity of a 250GB HDD is around 233GB. That's because the HDD manufacturers all use decimal and the computers think in binary. The difference is 1000/1024 cubed (= 0.9313). Then there's most likely a hidden recovery partition of around 10GB.

You CPU scored a 5.0 in WEI! I jealous. My T7300 only gets a 4.9! As far as I know, the WEI scores only go up to 5.9. Anything higher has been manually fudged. You've actually got what I would expect.

BTW, you have two Fn keys - one on the left and one on the right. Lucky!

John

 

Well, I guess I am being a bit of a tit then...I was sure the XPS gave me scores in the 7 or 8 region!

Anyways...the scores on the doors are...


Processor - 5.0
Memory (RAM) - 5.9
Graphics - 5.9
Gaming Graphics - 5.4
Primary Hard Disk - 5.2

How do I go about getting Vista 64? Why are they selling me a 4 gig system, if the OS does not recognise it?

Thanks for the advice!

Oh, this laptop is so quiet, you would not believe that the thing is even on!

 

You are right, I do have two FN keys!

Now, what the hell are FN keys (really must read the manual)

 

Fn + the blue symbol on a key will do something. eg Fn + down arrow = dim the backlight. See User Guide page 45?

John

 

Spot the technophobe!

Even with my limited knowledge, please feel free to ask any questions about the R560, I'm sure I'll get you the answers....eventually!

If someone could help me find out how I can tell if I do actually have Intel Centrino 2, I would be very grateful.

 

Gotta love Wikipedia sometimes

Try this: Get CPU-Z the look at the stats. If the CPU's FSB Multiplier ("Rated FSB") is 1066 or so, then it's Centrino 2.

 

Thankyou very much!

 

Centrino 2 = next generation Intel CPU + Intel PM45 or GM45 chipset + next generation Intel wireless. See here. If Samsung use another brand of wireless chip then they won't get paid by Intel to put on a Centrino sticker.

Since you found WEI then you will also see the CPU type. Device Manager will give more details of the hardware.

John

 

Oh, I do have a question, from a few pages back - what other contents are in the package? CDs, PSU etc etc?

 

From memory you get 3 cd's with it...drivers etc, media centre stuff and recovery centre.

You also get a rather super cloth (as the lappy is a fingerprint magnet)

Standard mains adaptor and battery

No instruction manual, you have to use their online help!

I'll double check the cd's when I get home tonight and update if i have anything wrong!

 

gjkendall, your first post on page 6 might scare some people (including me), until they read on and sort things out. If there are any remaining issues please let us know.

Concerning the hard drive, as John wrote it is typical that manufacturers write the size in bytes and abbreviate this using standard prefixes, e.g., G=Giga=10^9, M=Mega=10^6 etc. When it comes to the memory in a binary computer, however, it is more common to use prefixes with base 2 (instead of 10). In that case k=2^10=1024, M=k^2=2^20=1024^2=1048576, G=k^3=2^30=1024^3=1073741824, etc. This means that 1 _real_ gigabyte, 10^9 byte, is written as 10^9/1024^3 ~ 0.93 GB. This means that if you have a 250 gigabyte disk the computer will tell you that it is 250*0.93~233 GB. In your case this space was divided on two partitions, and as John says there is 10GB partition reserved for system restore by the manufacturer (it is possible to free this space, I saw a guide somewhere).

Did you sort out the processor-model issue?

When it comes to the performance issue you lost me... This is a P7350 model with a GeForce 9600M _GS_ and for that spec it performs rather well, doesent it? When I read the tests of the Madril version of R560, which has a P8400 and 9600M GT, I got the impression that it performs extremely well for its size and price. In addition, they report in a German forum ( http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forumdeluxx.de%2Fforum%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D515800&sl=de&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8) that it is very quiet, even more silent that the XPS which somehow is considered to be a quiet performance laptop (I have no personal experience in these matters). And on top of that the battery lifetime is reported to be ok considering the performance, 4 hours in office use, see test from German notebook magazine available as a PDF file ( here), 4h+ of battery life has been reported by users (see first link above), 2.5h is reported in the test during multimedia playback. So, as far as I have read: extremely good performance for the price, low noise and decent battery life.

The drawbacks I have read about concerns the screen, which they say could be better, the paint which is shiny and collects fingerprints, and that there is no firewire port.

Comments?

 

That's very good battery time for a 15.4" notebook with a fairly powerful GPU.

Can you put the link the review in this thread? Most people can understand the numbers and the pictures.

John

 

No problem, done.

While updating, I saw that the user reports in the German forum have been updated. Apparently, 4h+ of battery life is possible with reduced brightness while surfing the internet.

 

Well I took the plunge and ordered one from SaveonSamsung. Hope mine comes as quickly as gjkendalls.

 

As an update the cd's included are...

System recover media disc
Cyberlink DVD suite
System software media

Not really had a chance to play with the lappy tonight as Arsenal are on the TV....

I am currently putting the Orange Box on at the moment!

 

Hey, I am currently using X10, do u think the R560 can be as success as X10? Anyone can make a summary of review note of R560?
thx so much!!
planning to buy it..

 

According to this info, the X10 weighs only 1.9kg. The R560 weighs about 2.7kg so it will be a lot bigger and heavier. Do you want the extra weight in return for more powerful hardware?

The nearest current equivalent to the X10 is probably the Q310 (13.3" widescreen).

John

 

Hurrah it's finally arrived!

I nearly missed the delivery today, I refreshed the tracking page, they put a "Couldn't deliver" notice and I immediately rushed out of the house and to the nearest van I could see. Turns out it WAS the van, and after showing him I was the actual recipient I got my hands on this little beauty.

Initial build impressions:
It's definitely shiny as heck, and a fingerprint magnet too. Weight wise it's about the same weight as my 14.1 Thinkpad T61, which is pretty neat. The lack of ports aside from 3xUSB, VGA and HDMI is pretty dissapointing compared to efforts from other manufacturers, I could've done with an extra USB port but oh well. The touch of red isn't bad. It looked classier in promotional shots but it still does the job of making the laptop look good.

I'm not sure about the flexing business most laptop reviews do, since this is my first laptop, but pressing on the palm rests seem to do nothing, I guess that's a good thing. And the speakers are pretty loud, but I reckon the bass is limited as with most laptop speakers.

I'll give performance thoughts once I'm done with the setup. I can see why gjkendall's setup took 3 hours!

 

Thanks for the update.

Palm rests that don't flex is one test. Can you push the back of the screen and cause ripples on the display?

How is the screen quality? Good brightness / contrast and viewing angles?

3DMark05 and 3DMark 06 results will be of interest to some people.

John

 

Well I got the chance to run some tests after installing all my programs.

To start off, pushing the back produces no ripples on the screen. That lid is tough (though to be fair, I was being rather gentle ). Viewing angles are okay from the sides, it inverts when you get to 120 degrees or so (assuming 180 degree arc). It is eye searingly bright at max brightness

Vertically it's much less impressive, with the top producing washed out parts and the bottom totally inverting at slight angles.

There is significant light bleeding at the bottom edge, and a very faint hint of bleed on the top corners of the screen. Personally I don't mind but others might be more picky.

I haven't got many games installed yet to test out, but I've just installed Team Fortress 2 and it runs fairly well with some settings high with no AA (although it looks really jaggedy now that I use 2xAA with my desktop 8800GT). More niggling is the connection speed, which I mistakened for performance drops, but it's just my wireless connection not being particularly good. Does Wireless-N improve speeds much?

3DMark05 Basic Edition results:


3DMark06 Basic Edition results:


The scores are now online, I thought it was a bit weird since I see others posting their Marks in an application window but eh. The Snipping Tool is the best thing ever
I'm guessing the numbers are pretty good. '06 really hammered the system, with the CPU tests doing 0-1 FPS!

And the fan truly is silent. I couldn't hear a thing, although the room was slightly noisy with games and TV running but even with an ear to the base I couldn't detect a murmur. Perhaps it's noticable in a silent environment but for everyday use I'm pretty impressed.

I didn't get to test temps with a app but on feeling with my hand, the heat on the left exhaust is seriously hot. I was afraid that the left plastic side would melt! But then I like to think that's efficient cooling, as not 3 minutes later the area went to really cool, and then as the fans span down it went back to normal heat temps. Palm rests also got warm under load, but not irritatingly hot. Hopefully with constant maintenance it'll keep that kind of temperature for a long while

My final comment for now is that Samsung placed the in-built mic below the Left CTRL and FN keys. For me that made no sense as I wanted to try out the mic while playing a game, but my hand probably blocks a lot of the sound out now.

Now I'm wondering how to make use of my 4GB of RAM. Is it possible to upgrade Vista to 64bit using what resources I have (System Recovery Disc)?

 

Thanks for those results. Comparing them with the values at notebookcheck suggests your 9600M GS actually performs like a 9600M GT. It would be useful if you could add the screen showing the resolution settings, etc. No overclocking, I presume?

Poor vertical viewing angles is a standard feature of LCD displays although some are worse than others. You know it is bad if every few minutes you adjust the display angle to search for the sweet spot.

For the wireless problem I would look for the latest drivers from the card manufacturer's website. You might also be suffering interference from someone else's router trying to use the same channel. I've had that problem before. Try setting your router to a different channel.

That's good news on the cooling system. It is evidently capable of getting rid of the heat very quietly. You can use HWmonitor to check the temperatures.

I agree that a microphone in the palm rest is a silly location. There's a fractional saving in cost compared to putting it at the top of the display where it's at mouth height and away from the noise generating components in the chassis.

John

 

For the basic (free) versions of 3D Mark, the settings are at it's lowest, so 3DMark '05 has 1024x768, '06 has 1280x800 both have no AA, texture filtering is optimal and so on. The settings cannot be changed. I'm not sure how Notebookcheck gets their scores (their 9600M GS scores for '06 are strangely very low compared to mine) but I would wager the GT version would perform admirably well in the face of higher settings than the GS would. And definitely no overclocking.

I'll pop in HWMonitor and give some temp readings some time later.

 

For comparison a Acer 5930 with 9600GT 512MB GDDR3 RAM scores 5677.
http://www.notebookjournal.de/tests/inspection/613

So 5132 seems extremely good.

 

Finally got round to doing a quick temp test.

Using High Performance battery mode, it's currently idling on averages of CPU 40c, the GPU is 50c and HDD 37c. One round of 3DMArk 06 (5046 marks this time!) raises the temps up to... 44c, 56c and 37c for CPU, GPU and HDD respectively. That fan is working overtime. While being quiet too! The palm rests are starting to get a little too warm for my tastes though. Not going to bother with a thorough temp test but I'm fairly satisfied with the result. Might get a Zalman NC1000 cooler in the future.

Also, battery times - I caught 4 hours max on 97% charge Power Saver (though the estimation fluctuates a fair bit), while it gets 2.5 hours full charge on 'Samsung Optimized'. Medium brightness, Wifi on.

 

Could you perhaps post some pictures? And does that 4 hour battery life include light office usage?

 

Unfortunately I don't personally own a (digital) camera. You can find some user photos in the german thread linked earlier: http://translate.google.com/transla...hread.php?t=515800&sl=de&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

The 4 hours is the peak reading I caught from the battery meter, as I said, it does fluctuate wildly from 2.9 to 4hrs and so on. I was browsing constantly for about an hour downloading programs to install and whatnot during Power Saver mode and did fine. I've not done any extensive 'away from outlet' tests yet since I've been using it at home only, I'll be off in a trip soon so maybe I can provide some more comments then

 

Can anyone in the UK with a Samsung R560 check the type of system and graphic memory. Samsung UK website shows DDR3 system and graphic memory. However, online retailers,eg Laptopsdirect, showing DDR2

 

Alright! I always like user pics so thanks for the link
A german review I've read stated the battery life to be 217 minutes which is awesome.


Also the thread you've linked to states that 4hours is obtainable in reduced power mode and light websurfing.

 

I don't have the lappy turned on, but off the top of my head it uses DDR3 RAM (there's a sticker proudly declaring so) and ( I think) GDDR2 for the GPU. Could be GDDR3 but I don't have GPU-Z to check yet.

 

All 9600M GT's I've seen so far were DDR3 so I'm not even sure if a DDR2 version exists.

The version released on the German market comes with GDDR3:

So that, and since I haven't seen a DDR2 version of the 9600M GT I believe the UK one is DDR3 as well.

Oh and here's a full link to the translated review

 

Right now though Samsung UK (it's resellers to be more specific) only list the 9600M GS GPU laptop. I believe the 9600M GT version should be coming out in a couple of months, so prospective buyers looking for a beefier laptop should wait a bit. I bought mine from SaveonSamsung and they don't have a definitive date for that version though, you might want to ask Samsung UK directly.

 

Hello, I want to buy one of the R560 models, but I can't decide whether the "Mebugo" (with a P7300 processor) or "Madril" (with a P8400 processor) is the better choice for applications such as Adobe Photoshop. I know that the difference in gaming is marginal, but Photoshop relies on the CPU, I guess, therefore I am not quite sure if the difference is noticeable.

I am currently using a Desktop PC with a AMD Athlon 64 3000+ and 1 GB of RAM, using Photoshop with large files and images is a pain in the... you know what. It just takes ages to load big files and the application itself is unusably slow while multitasking (e.g. Firefox and Winamp or even InDesign running at the same time alongisde Photoshop). I hope the Samsung R560 (either the Madril or Mebugo) is capable of doing that flawlessly, can someone confirm that for me? Thanks in advance

 

I think Photoshop benefits from more RAM. The R560 has this. The faster CPU will also help.

John

 

I'm going to be ordering one of these tonight or tomorrow. Looking forward to finally getting a new laptop - I'll write a review or something once it arrives.
Thanks to John for suggesting it to me in the 'which notebook should i buy' forums.

Edit: Sorry for being so slow. Received the laptop the day after with no problems - just submitted my review into the review section on the forums. Sorry about it being so short - never really written a laptop review before..

 

That review is here. Help it grow.

John

 

Notebookcheck has a review of the R560 (German version with P8400 + 9600M GT GPU).

John

 

It was primarily because of the reviews and comments in this post that convinced me to splash out on the Samsung R560, which arrived this week. The reviews and comments in this forum have been invaluable, and as much as the machine is impressive, I am disappointed.

I read davasse's thread at the time, and thought nothing of it, however, can report the following back, and wonder if anyone has successfully overcome this issue.

I ordered my laptop from Dabs, and before ordering asked them if upgrading the 32 bit Home Premium OS to 64 bit OEM Vista Business would present any problems. They couldn't help and passed me onto Samsung, who said I should have no problems.

The machine and 64 bit Vista arrived, I loaded it up, and unsurprisingly found most of the drivers weren't compatible. What I wasn't counting on was the fact that I have not been able to find ANY compatible drivers for the ones that do not work/load/install et al. Even Samsung's supplied utilities are not available for 64 bit.

I called Samsung again today to question this, and was told that Samsung have not produced any drivers for 64 bit OSes, and they don't know when they will be available. I then said that I bought a machine with 64 bit architecture, with the intention of installing 64 bit software, and instead, I have a 32 bit machine... I now own two 32 bit machines.

So, it is a bummer that I have 4 gigs I can't fully utilise, and ask why provide 64 bit architecture, with all the bells and whistles, and not provide 64 bit compatible drivers and utilities. I paid more to get the extra RAM and 64 bit architecture.

If anyone has successfuly overcome this, then I would like to hear how and where!

As for this laptop, I have reverted back to Home Premium, cannot load my 64 bit applications, have a meeting on Tuesday that I specifically bought the machine for, and have to make the decision on whether to send it back, or stick with it and 'hope' Samsung and other manufacturer's provide 64 bit drivers and software.

Apart from that, it is an outstanding platform, and in its native state performs extremely well.

 

Did you check what RAM you actually had available when running Vista 64? The difference in the available RAM for 32 and 64 bit may not be so much when you have 4GB on board. With 2 x 2GB modules you get full dual channel memory bandwidth which is slightly faster than with 3GB.

John

 

I didn't actually, but as I use AutoCAD and Photoshop, my biggest issue is the fact that I can't move over to 64 Bit Vista to run the 64 bit versions.

 

Trusted Reviews have looked at the Samsung R560.

John

 

I have a Samsung R560 Notebook on its way to me.. The cpu it comes with is a Mobile C2D P7350 (2.0GHz) 1066MHz FSB with 3MB Cache. I currently have a Notebook from which I wish to swap the cpu to the R560, its a Mobile C2D T9300 (2.5Ghz) 800Mhz FSB with 6mb Cache.

I know both cpus are pin compatible, 1 generation apart, both are Penryn based, 25/35w TDP, the T9300 comes from a Santa Rosa chipset and the R560 I belive is (Centrino 2) Montivina. The Centrino 2 chipset (PM45) will support the T9300, but am not sure about the Santa Rosa supporting the P7350 ? any ideas, I cant seem to find any info on the net ?

If the cpu swap goes ok, will the end clock speeds be affected ? I know this happens for desktop cpus but not sure for mobile... the T9300 moving from 800fsb -> 1066fsb and the P7850 1066fsb -> 800fsb.

Just looking for some answers to see if its worth me ripping both machines apart (experienced with this kind of thing) and invalidating warranty esp for the new R560

 

I suggest you ask the question about CPU swapping in the hardware forum.

Personally, it's not something I would do with a brand new computer unless the CPU is very accessible.

John

 

Hey guys, I'm thinking about buying one of these after christmas, but been reading that the screen isnt all that good.
How bad are the viewing angles really?

Cheers,
Theo

 

is the R560 MXM?