New Samsung Series 7 NP700Z7C-S01US Laptop i7 3615QM 650m Review!

you know...i really want to open my laptop up and add a ssd and a bluray drive but...i just dont want to break any tabs/damage the appearance...then theres the problem that i already have 300 gigs in games installed on the 1TB drive at this point. :-/ blah.

 

Don't do it, even wholesalers cannot get it at that price. Distributors get it at a 10-15% discount while resellers get it at around 3-4% discount

 

I'm going to politely disagree with some others on the forum about disassembly. I didn't find removing the plastic back all that difficult. just go slow. watch the video and look at the disassembly guide (another thread on this site - check the owners lounge thread). be careful of the VGA port and make sure you have the right screwdrivers and remove ALL the screws. A credit card can be slid around the edge (slowly) but preferably something just slightly thicker. Warranty issues are a non issue as long as you don't break anything while doing it. There shouldn't be any clear sign left that you opened it that would make Samsung accuse you of voiding the warranty. Follow Paul's video but be careful as fingernails can leave nasty marks.

If no one else has already done so, I'll attempt to install the new Nvidia beta drivers and give feedback tomorrow. If anyone can give feedback before, it would be much appreciated.

 

I tried the new nVidia beta drivers and was forced to uninstall them within a few hours...

They fix the vSync stuttering bug in a lot of games, but that's it for the pros. The cons include totally breaking optimus (for me anyway - I even tried setting it to ALWAYS use the onboard but the 650 would NOT disable even on reboot), performance losses in Source games, Diablo 3, Dota 2, and Starcraft 2, and some weird graphical glitches to top it all off.

That being said, they weren't the WORST beta drivers I've ever tried (...I used to use ATI! And nothing actually crashed...), but I wouldn't recommend them. The optimus bug alone ruined it for me, I really enjoy and utilize my 6 hours of battery life.

 

Has anyone else had weak wifi issues with their system? A good wifi is VERY important to me in my next purchase.

 

could anyone pls tell how to replace the optical drive with an ssd?
what kind of hdd/ssd - bay do i need?

i've already red 38 of 121 pages and im going on so far.
really want to buy this laptop in germany but need an ssd/hdd combo.

so plan is to put the 1tb hdd into the space of the optical drive and put a ssd-drive instead into the regular hdd-bay.

glad to hear any answers

 

Any regular 9mm optical bay slot will work.

The kits you get on eBay/Amazon come with all the necessary screws. If you need links I will be happy to paste.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

First 4 days/nights with my shiny new 700Z7C and I love it!
LinuxMint works perfectly out of the box, backlight, audio (with bass control), backlit keyboard, FN keys, everything.

The display is stunning. Contrast is best i've ever seen, and only the new apple retina display beats it.
Stock EDID color is a bit blue, so I downloaded the ICC profile from notebookcheck.net (see signature). That too was just a tad off (to the green), so I calibrated and now all colors are where they should be.

I don't do windoze, but logged in a few times to check things, all seems well (startup takes forever, not Samsung's fault).

 

Wow I'm so jealous Tyrell ^^;

I actually went to the BestBuy @ Union Square in NYC today and came across the 17" and the 15", it was marvelous.

I knew from watching videos and looking at pictures that it was a nice laptop, but I didn't think it would be that nice.

They had the new MBP+R on display a few feet away and I couldn't help but be drawn to the Series 7 more so than the MBP.

 

My unit has the same atrocious Wi-Fi issue that some others here are experiencing.

Have to be in same room as the router to get good speed and latency.

As soon as you are one or more walls away, you get serious latency spikes and speed drops (which are both terrible for gaming). In fact, it disconnected several times during BF3 match, "Lost connection to EA Online". It also made some HTTP downloads corrupt (e.g. Intel Graphics driver from Intel web site).

(This was not an issue on the HP dv7 I returned or the Touchsmart TM2)

Tried updating BIOS and using latest Intel Wi-Fi drivers, but that made no difference.

#EDIT:

I've managed to improve the throughput behind several walls a bit, by doing the following adjustments under the Device Driver Advanced properties:
Bluetooth AMP -> Disabled
Mixed Mode Protection -> RTS/CTS Enabled
Preferred Band -> Prefer 2.4GHz band
Roaming aggressiveness -> Medium-low
Wireless mode -> 802.11b/g

Note: this will disable 5 GHz mode.

Speed is still nowhere near the N speeds the HP machines were able to achieve (after these tweaks, speed test went up to ~ 32 Mbps, but the HP machines were able to hit 43+ Mbps), but at least it's better than a measly 3 Mbps.

However the Wireless is still rather sporadic and unstable. The only workaround for this is Disabling 802.11N.

 

Hey guys

I was considering the series 9 but due to my love for gaming you guys have convinced me this is the machine to have!

Thanks for all your input people.

I am currently reading through the 100 plus pages here to know what to expect when to get the machine, but I have 1 little problem...

Where the hell can I buy this in the UK???!!

Anyone? If no sellers now does anyone know a release date because I cannot find I thing.

Thanks in advance

 

Not sure if posting deals is allowed here, but newegg has the Samsung 830 256gb SSD on sale for $190 with coupon code: EMCYTZT1815

sale only on till 11:59 PST 6/28/2012

 

Has anyone had issue with gaming on this laptop, where the hot exhaust air heats up the screen on the right middle right by the vent? I have what looks like backlight bleed right there after gaming for a while and the screen is HOT. I am just worried that it will damage the screen eventually... after I stop gaming it will go back to normal after 10 minutes or so. Possibly it is the glue getting hot and allowing more backlight bleed? Just wanted to see if anyone else noticed this on their laptop or if mine is possibly defective...

Thanks!

 

big thanks for your answer. after finishing reading 121 pages of this thread, i finally made my decision to buy this pretty cool laptop. especially the ability to replace the odd with an ssd makes this notebook awesome for me.

i would appreciate it if u could post some of your links of a hdd/ssd-bay for the samsung.

and again big thanks for all your 1213 posts. took about 4 hours for me to read ;-) but it was worth it

 

I see that too, but since screen is fine when it cools down again I've not been bothered about it.
Blowing the hot air directly onto the lower part of the screen is not ideal, but the other solutions are not ideal either. blowing out at right side will burn your hand when using external mouse, blowing out at left side tends to heat up left side of keyboard which is not ideal for gaming (hot WASD area = bad).

The only way around it is to have a thicker laptop to allow for better/other solutions, but this laptop is designed to be thin.

 

I'm having trouble trying to install windows 8 on a new partition. I changed the boot order to put "USB FDD" first on the boot order list because I am gonna install from a flash drive.
I have prepped the flash drive like microsoft says to do on the website, but it doesn't give me a chance to boot from it to install it.

I have tried plugging the drive into both usb 3.0 and 2.0 ports, still nothing.

any ideas?

 

Yeah I agree there isn't an ideal way to exhaust the heat, just hope it doesn't affect the long term reliability of the screen.

 

The sporadic latency (ping) and packet loss issue has a workaround: Disable 802.11n

However, that means you have an 802.11g adapter, not the Wireless N adapter you paid for.

 

Just picked this up and will try to run osx through hackintosh on this one.

 

This is one that was recommended to me by a different user elsewhere.

http://jacobsparts-inc.store.buy.co...-to-optical-cd-dvd-bay-adapter/221162196.html

However, I got mine through MALIBAL when I purchased my p150hm. I'm sure the above works just fine. Also, if you look on eBay and amazon and newegg there are similar deals. Just google "9.5 optical bay caddy sata"

The sata search word might not be necessary but be sure not to get an ide one.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

Anyone else have the same/similar Wi-Fi (Wireless N) issues as me with this machine?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/660337-new-samsung-series-7-np700z7c-s01us-laptop-i7-3615qm-650m-review-121.html#post8654623

 

Thanks to everyone for the great reviews, advice, etc. I just pulled the trigger and ordered the S03US, before realizing that the graphics card is 1MB compared to the 2MB with the S01. I don't use dual monitors. Do you think the 1MB difference is significant for me? I'll be using it for occasional gaming, some video editing, photo shop...

 

Exactly the same thing here, I've been looking to replace my ageing XPS M1730 with a new 17" laptop that need to be quieter and of a modern spec...the 700Z7C fits the bill perfectly as it really looks the business. But I can only find the models for the USA, France, Germany and Norway online.

I asked Samsung UK and they say no release date has been confirmed yet

Only alternative I can find is the XPS 17, or the Series 7 Gamer. But looks too bulky.

 

Hello

After seeing all the good reviews about this laptop, i decided to buy it. It arrived yesterday and i think i already have a little problem.
What happens is that the hdd makes strange noises, especially when the computer is in idle. It makes a click noise and them a sound like a breeze of air, almost like the hdd is spining faster, them this stops and i hear the click again, all this during one second or two, them afther 9 to 12 seconds it repeats again.

Thas anyone have this problem??

I search the web and the only thing i found was a guy with the same problem in the dell forum in a labtop with the same hdd, but no soluction.

 

I said this earlier in the thread, but here it is again. I had a poor wifi connection when placed my laptop on a slope surface (on a slope laptop cooler), but once I put it on a flat surface, the wifi is perfectly fine. Maybe this will help.

 

It is probably the HDD. The HDD is actually pretty noisy for a HDD, when my computer is idle, you can hear the HDD, it sounds like the fan but when you place your ears on the laptop (I know, it is weird), you can tell it is the HDD.

 

Looks like the "newer model" on Amazon that we were all curious about isn't as strong as this model. It claims 1gb video ram vs our 2 gb DDR5.
That's according to Samsung's website...

 

My friend was scared these computers would sell out so he bought one, lol. That's what you call an inexperienced buyer because he doesn't realize these are new systems that will be sold for the next 4 1/2 months.

He took the back off his system and broke a couple of tabs just to put in an ssd, which is stupid but rookie laptop users think its better and they will argue to differ every time.

Anyway, JULY 4th Holiday sales!!!!!!!!! All great buyers be ready.

 

Sorry for crossposting this, think i asked my question in a dead thred judging by the size of this one

Has anyone gotten 2 external monitors working, if not is it a software or hardware limitation?

Does it support 2560x1600 res on external monitor wia HDMI or other interface?

Is the network error an issue for everyone or is it just bad luck? What is the beast way to test if i have a bady copy? How bad is to bad that is?

I ordered mine today and it is a Swedish model.

Thanks for the help!

 

What's not better about a SSD?

 

Just purchased from bb. I'm in Canada (not available here) and thankfully live near the border. Had it sent for in-store pick-up should arrive next week. If there is this 4th of July sale, bb can just refund me with their price adjustment policy.
Lyncus I do not understand you. I believe you do not have a credible source of a sale and you are just wishfully-thinking. I am too.

If you know of a sale why don't you tell us where and what it will be?

 

Have you set the WiFi power properties to minimum power management? If not, do so.

John

 

Sure hope the wifi isnt bad on this system, it would be a deal killer for me and I am in love with this machine.

 

Hey everyone, I've read through this entire thread and I've seen a few pictures but I'm wondering if anyone has a 15 inch laptop for size/weight comparison. I currently have a 15.6'' dell inspiron and I wanted the 15'' chronos model but I'm starting to seriously consider the 17'' model. Any pics would be appreciated.

Btw, in case no one has noticed, official specs for the S03US are now up in samsung's website.

 

It's already on a perfectly flat surface (wooden computer desk). The symptoms I mentioned before occur if 802.11n Mode is Enabled. But they go away as soon as I set it to Disabled. But that of course, disables Wireless N.

What do you mean WiFi power properties?

If you mean Power Options -> Wireless Adapter Settings. I've already set both On Battery and Plugged in to Maximum Performance.

Wi-Fi is the only issue I have with this machine aside from maybe the heat during gaming (better than HP dv7 but still a bit hot).


Here's how I test:

Code:

ping 192.168.1.1 -t

Check for ping spikes >= 10 ms while gaming. If "request timed out" appears, that means you lagged out during the game.

Code:

ping 192.168.1.1 -l 65500 -t

I run this one independent of a game. I notice in Wireless N mode I get ~ 120 - 400ms ping to my router. As soon as I disable Wireless N on the adapter, it drops to ~ 20ms.

 

Is this a problem only when behind a wall as you say or is this an issue all the time?

 

It seems that this is only a problem when behind a wall or more. The Wireless N pings are just about as low as the Wireless G pings if I'm in the same room as the router.

I know it's not my router's problem though since I have other computers wirelessly connected to it in N mode and I get full speeds and great stable latency behind several walls with those computers.

For what it's worth, I've also tried connecting an external USB 2.0 wireless adapter from my desktop PC to this laptop with internal Wireless turned off. Completely stable at same location where the Internal Wireless was getting the poor results in Wireless N mode.

 

Has anyone tried hooking this laptop up with an external monitor, such as a Viewsonic? What is needed? Any issues with resolution if you have tried (i.e. 1920x1080 works with no problems, but more pixels can be troublesome?)

 

Dell XPS 15 reviews are coming out and it looks really really really good lol!

This samsung is still the best bang for the buck, for an additional 100 dollars you get a better video card, a larger screen, better speakers and faster processor.

 

Thanks for the reply Ben.

I think the sound of the hdd spinning may be normal, but what worries me is the click sound it makes when it stops spinning.
Does yours make it too?

 

What are you talking about? It has worse processor, worse graphics and smaller screen then NP700Z7C? Atleast the swedish models... And it is way to expensive!

 

I don't hear any clicking sounds, but doesn't a HDD constantly spins if it is on? I am not sure what the click noise is, unless it is loud, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

No no, i think he means that the samsung is 100 more, and it has a faster processor, better screen, and all that lol

oh yeah, about my previous post, i decided against the whole china business because i emailed them with a different email asking them abot proof of their business, and they stopped responding, so im just gonna stick to best buy

 

Does anyone know if there is a keyboard skin available for this laptop? I looked around, but all I could find are mac books ones.

 

I'm talking about the new ivy bridge XPS from Dell that just got released. It's probably the thinnest windows laptop with an optical drive available and price is pretty reasonable for what you're getting. If I hadn't bought my sammy I would have definitely went for that. 17" is still a little too big for me but I love it nonetheless

 

Can't choose between S01US and S03US. Is S03US really quicker with 7200 hdd? Does it make much more noise and heats more comparing with S01US? Video card is not so important as I rarely play games. I won't upgrade to ssd for now.

 

And one more question. Differences between S01US and its 15 inch brother NP700Z5C-S01UB are: S01US has full vga port and one more usb port, 15-inch book has poor video. Have I missed something? Also, I wonder what does UB postfix stands for? Samsung - 15.6" Series 7 Laptop - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - Silver - NP700Z5C-S01UB Escpecially I'm interested in quality of display and sound.

 

If you don't play more games, then You should go for S03US, though it's not yet released but you can wait.

Also, 1GB is too much for gaming & it can run almost every game. 2GB is only good, if you are going to attach this with very high resolution external monitors, else it's totally useless.

Yes, 750GB 7200RPM is much more better than 5200RPM (S01US has 5200RPM, not 5400RPM). You will feel difference.

I would recommend to go with S03US. It will save you $150 & better HDD. Only thing you will sacrifice just 2GB 650M & will get 1GB 650M

 

Guess I have no choice but to return the Samsung.

 

Do you know if the graphics card on the S03US is a DDR5 because currently not knowing that information is holding me back from buying either of the models.