New Samsung R560 notebook (15.4")

it seems as though this post is getting slower but let me refresh it a little.

i am thinking of buying the r560, the uk version.

i am however confused as to whether this one comes with bluetooth or not.

those of you who have a uk version, 03uk i believe, could you please clarify.

would be a shame if it didnt as that would be the only thing missing from such a well rounded laptop.

 

Who is selling the NP-R560-AS03UK? Google can't find it in stock anywhere.

There is the NP-R560-AS02UK which includes Bluetooth.

John

 

my mistake, i didnt mean 03, meant 02.

the 03 is the p8400 chip version or somethingi think?

tis a shame that they were not released in the uk considering our european counterparts have it but ah well, means we dont have to pay as much.

i did call laptops direct to confirm if it had bluetooth but thanks for the swift response.

i will be getting it for the family business so will probably purchase from dabs4work unless another website could be recommended?

 

I've had good service from Dabs and DigiUK (link in my previous post).

John

 

well ive bit the bullet. baught it from dab.

my budget was £500 so ive gone over about £50 but i seriously could not find other laptops specced as well and look as good as the r560.

and as i plan to either buy a lcd monitor or a sony tv to complement the hdmi out, im not too bothered about how good/bad the screen is which seems to be the r560's weakest point.

second laptop so far with the previous being a sony which served me well for many years, however screens dieing, cd drive stopped working, HDD been replaced twice and most recent, power supply connector failure means i really have to move on. i did love how the sony had dedicated volume controls below the mouse mat though, ah well.

 

Congrats on your purchase. Can you let us know how you like the laptop as I'm looking into purchasing it as well. Thanks.

 

Indeed, the R560 has a dissapointing screen. The viewing angles are extremely limited - you will only have to look down and the light shifts are immediately obvious. I wouldn't even bother trying to view it from the sides

The lack of dedicated volume controls don't bother me much as the R560 has a second FN key next to the arrow keys which also serve as Screen brightness and Volume controls. It's very intuitive in my opinion, and I wish more laptops had this.

 

waiting for my laptop to come from another address.

just a quick question.

because you can connect to a tv/ monitor/ reciever via hdmi out, what would the output specs be? full HD 1080p and below?

thanks

 

What is the resolution of the tv/ monitor? The computer should detect the resolution and output the appropriate signal if you make the external display the primary or only display.

John

 

well i finally have it! its bloody lovely. considering my first laptop cost £1300, this laptop definately shows where times are now. im sure the more premium laptops out there would further amaze me.

funny thing with many products i buy, i do a hell of a lot of research and then when i make the choice, and finally get it, open it up and smell the new fresh smell....im streight away using it without a thought that its new.

anywayback to this post.

i have not actually got a monitor yet.

what im trying to ask is, hypothetically say i do buy a tv or monitor that does full HD 1080p, 1080i, 720p, would the nvidia gpu be able to output those native resolutions such as 1080p at 1920×1080?

maby more clearly, would the laptop be able to send this resolution via hdmi out to the screen if the screens native resolution was that.

i may put further impressions up when i get familiar with vista as i have never used it before.

 

I'm glad you are happy.

I'm 99.9% sure that the GPU can output 1920 x 1080. After all, the Intel X4500 integrated GPU can serve two 1920 x 1200 monitors.

John

 

thats fine then, if the x4500 can do it i really cant see why the 9600gs cant.

i dont understand one thing though, maby i havent kept up with the posts.

as far as i understand, vista 32bit cannot recognise all 4gb of ddr3 ram.

in control panel > system, it says 4gb ram, however in taskmanager, i have 3065mb total memory.

so i am assuming it knows it has 4gb but vista can only utilise 3065mb.

still have to do a alot of messing around with it as i am struggling to get to grips with vista.

 

You are quite correct that while Vista knows that it has 4GB RAM (the BIOS will see the modules and report the hardware), the 32-bit Windows OS (both Vista and XP) cannot use all the RAM. However, all is not lost since system hardware can use some of the RAM which Windows isn't using.

However, having 2 x 2GB RAM modules gives a slight performance boost compared with 2GB + 1GB because of the way the memory is accessed.

John

 

I did it. I ordered mine. It gets delivered tomorrow

 

Extending the RAM issue, an email to Samsung UK's customer service confirmed that they do not have official 64-bit drivers for any of the R560 series of laptops, a visit to the hong kong website also confirms this. So yes, Windows will be missing out on 512MB~ of RAM (I believe GPU RAM takes up the same memory space within Windows, and I recall the 9600GS to have 512MB dedicated)

The screen resolution support should be down to the graphic drivers. Nowadays, most, if not all, modern GPUs can support 1920x1200 desktop no problem (though when playing games it will probably reduce framerates drastically), provided they have up to date drivers. If you do not have the nvidia drivers (very unlikely), then Windows will throw up its own graphical display driver as a temporary solution, which has some strange high (1600x1200??) resolutions.

 

About the 64x issue... i manage to install and have ALMOST everything working... the only thing that i REALLY annoying is that the FN to din out the LCD backlight doesnt work at all... for a metter of fact the volume and all the others i was trying it worked fine but the backlight control. Which was a reason strong enough to drive me back to 32bits since using all the time full light would burn my eyes.
Ive trying to install the easy Display manager and the easy battery and both gave me a error.

So i really hope Samsung to release a new BIOS update which includes the FN shortcuts for anytime usage not just depending on their programs installed or just to release a 64x version !!!

Beto

 

I'm looking at the R560, as it looks pretty good for the price and it's got positive reviews across a few of the laptop magazines...

Before I take the plunge, can anyone recommend any other laptops in the same class/price range?

Thanks!

 

I suggest you post a thread in the What Notebook should I Buy? forum. Fill in the FAQ to set out your requirements.

John

 

Thanks, John - I'll give it a whirl!

 

Hi folks,

I have a samsung R560 and *assumed* that it would be ok to format the HDD and get rid of the recovery partition (10GB) and use all the space for the main partition as it came with recovery and software CD's and having previous experience with restore media like this i thought that if i ever wanted it back to factory condition the media that came with it would re-create the recovery partition but alas i was wrong so my questions are as follows.

1) is it possible to re-create the recovery partition (10GB) so that SRS III will re install?

2) what format was this hidden partition in?

3) can anyone tell me what the label for this partition was, i think it was "Recovery" or something similar.

I was wondering if i re-create this partition in the right format with proper name label maybe samsung recovery III will re-install hopefully.

Although this is not critical to me as i have my own backup solution on DVD's it would be nice to know if i can "really" restore the R560 back to factory condition in case i ever pass it on.

thanks in advance to anyone that responds.

 

been some time now, still havent put my r560 to many demanding tasks but then i knew i wouldnt which is why i didnt buy a monster specced laptop.

is it me or is there a new verion of the r560 out NP-R560-AS03UK?

http://www.dabs4work.com/productvie...&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0

new processor and more harddrive space seem to be the only upgrades for around £50 more than the first uk unit.

 

Yes i think you are right i remember coming across it on the net just after i received my NP-R560-AS02UK. I dont know if i would have spent the extra cash for the upgrade tho because like you i have not pushed my R560 either perhaps more HDD space would have been nice come to think about it

 

yea, i 320gb hd space would have been ideal for me in a laptop. harddrive can always be upgraded though so not too much of a concern.

i guess if they added the high res screen, it would have been the deal breaker and people would definately buy the 03.

seems as though 02 has stopped selling now or someting and has been replaced by the 03 in some stores.

 

Well the speed that hardware progresses these days its no surprise its stopped selling but i hate the fact that as soon as a new model comes out the manufacturers treat the last models as ancient history and abandon them, its a pity really because i wouldn't say that the specs of the 02 are outdated quite yet but thats progress for ya.

 

well support isnt really a problem if you think about it.

samsungs website has one download section for the R560, hardware hardly changes throughout the r560 model range so when theres updates (drivers, firmware) the 02's will still be supported.

one thing that i just thought about is whats the max capacity of ram that we can put in the laptop. i know all model versions have 4gb which makes me suspect its the max the motherboard can handle

 

Changes to CPU, RAM and HDD configurations are normal during the production life of most notebooks and are using the result of pricing / availability of these components. Normally, these changes have a negligible impact on the performance but mean that the specifications remain competitive.

For example, the P7450 is a CPU which was not around when the R560 was introduced and the price of 320GB HDDs has dropped since 500GB has moved in at the top of the HDD market.

John

 

John you got any idea about the max capacity the r560 can take ram wise?

 

The R560 will definitely handle 2 x 2GB.

It might handle 4GB modules if (as I believe) these are supported by the chipset and Samsung has not put any block in the BIOS to prevent them being used.

However, you will need to use a 64-bit OS in order to utilise the extra RAM and Samsung's 64-bit support is somewhat limited so the Samsung-specific drivers and utilities might not work (see other threads).

John

 

Well, I bought the R560 about 7 months or so ago and since it was for my wife I didn't do anything to this laptop.. Now I want to format it, and since I have a vista Ultimate version from my office, I wanted to install the ultimate in this laptop, but I don't know why I keep getting stuck.. well, not me.. lol, the laptop... I start installing it fine, and then it stucks... Tried it 2 times now and I just don't want to install from the recovery CD.. Any ideas what might be causing the problems here?? As I said, it actually starts intalling, it copies windows files, install the updates and features, but it stucks when it is completing installation.. any ideas here would be very much appreciated...

I thought it was the fact that the wireless was always on.. so I disabled it, and I'm still installing.. but Im not so sure this is going to work..

 

It could be tripping up on a driver. How new is the Vista disc? Original or SP1?

I would use vLite to create a new Vista disc which includes SP1 and the latest Samsung R560 drivers (which you can download).

John

 

Yeah.. I think its tripping up on a driver too.. still don't know which one..

and the vista is the original... it doesn't have sp1, that is probably what is causing it... I will use vLite and try to re-install it again... I will let you know

Thanks in the meantime..