Questions to all Samsung XSeries owners (especially X60/65)

Hi everybody,

I've been following the threads in this forum and am now more or less convinced to get a Samsung X65.

However, I still have a few doubts and would like to ask the Samsung owners here a few questions:

- How bright is the display on the X65/X60? I have read in one review (notebookcheck) that the display is not very bright despite the "SuperBright" statement. Is it usable outside (not in direct sunlight ofc).
- Battery life: I've read a couple of posts where the battery's lifetime has decreased in a very short amount of time. Did everybody experience the same thing? How did Samsung deal with it? E.g. was it difficult to get a replacement?
- Drivers updates: I have an Asus notebook right now and although I like it, many users complained that Asus did not update drivers for its notebook, in particular the BIOS. How does it look like in the Samsung camp?
- Keyboard protection: I understand that it's a business notebook, but does it protect against water spillage? I have destroyed two notebooks before because of my carelessness and don't want it to happen again...

That's it for now. Thank you all!

 

Very few notebook displays are bright enough for use serious outside, even out of the sunlight. I would describe the X60 plus's display as adequate. My Sony G11 is the best of my bunch, but it's a small display with an LED backlight. There's some comparative photos in my G11 review.

A few people have had batteries dying within a year or soon after. Other threads in this forum indicate that Samsung will replace batteries with a major loss of capacity within the first year.

Samsung tend to update drivers when there are big problems to fix. It's difficult to say whether they are better or worse than average in this respect. BIOSes tend to get updated during the production life of the notebook.

Read the documentation to see if they claim the keyboard is spill-proof.

John

 

Hi John,

Thanks for your reply.
I have researched the Samsung website as well as the user manual, but there's no mentioning of a spillage proof keyboard

I was wondering if you could tell me how happy you are with your Samsung? And what you don't like about it?
I'm just trying to make sure that this is what I want, thank you very much!

 

I was pleased with the X60, which is why I got the X60 plus. The latter has had two significant issues: (i) The GPU power management has never worked (which may be more to do with ATI getting swallowed by AMD); and (ii) silver paint is wearing off the keyboard (which wasn't an issue with the X60).

The X65 should have neither of these issues since it has an Nvidia GPU and a black plastic keyboard (the Q35 made this transition during its production life - I suspect that Samsung realised that paint isn't the best solution).

The build quality is excellent - plenty of metal but still one of the thinnest and lightest in its class. Note that the card slot is PCMCIA/Cardbus and not Express Card so it was designed for legacy and not the future.

My eyes found the 1680 x 1050 too small and, after much fiddling, I found that switching to a non-native 1440x 900 is the best solution for legibility. Changing screen font sizes can upset formatting and doesn't thicken up lines.

John

 

Hi John,

Thanks a lot for your input. I think I have made up my mind now and will get it after I've finished my exams.

I only hope that Samsung doesn't come out with a X70 soon, given that the X65 is already over half a year old...

Btw, could you recommend me a site(cheap & reliable) where I can order it from in the UK?
Cheers.

 

It's actually a year since the X65 thread started (the forum uses US date format). However, it took its time to arrive. One reason for delay that I heard was that Samsung Korea had got it ready with Vista, but the sales people wanted XP since it was a business machine.

The next generation of Intel hardware is due out soon and notebook manufacturers should be currently busy on their next ranges. We may find out what will replace the X65 at Computex, which is next month. However, there is then the uncertainty about when the new model will arrive and you will need to decide whether you want the benefit of a current model that you can use now or sit idle for a few months until the next model shows up.

I would recommend DigiUK who have given me good service. Laptops Direct may be slightly cheaper but their customer service can be hard work to contact. SaveOnSamsung are a relatively new bunch whom I have not used. Some of their prices are very competitive. Sometimes differetn suppliers have different versions with different specs but, at the moment, they all have the same X65.

John

 

Hi John,

Again, thanks for the valuable information. Actually, I was disappointed that it didn't came with Visa Business. I have been using XP for years now and wanted to try sth. different...

Next month... I was thinking to wait, but according to some rumours, Montevina won't bring such a breakthrough increase in performance. On top of that, I believe that they will set the price for the successor at ~ 1200 pounds, which was the price for the X65 when it first came out I think... Seeing it around 900 now is quite a bargain I guess.

Hmm, I might give SaveOnSamsung a go, given its low price and free next day delivery... will post my experience with them later on.

Again,thanks a lot for your help. It seems you're the main Samsung representative in this forum

 

I don't like the word "representative". I have no connection with the company except for having 5 of their notebooks pass through my hands in the past couple of years. I would welcome more company here but most Samsung users seem to be happy folk who don't stay around since they have no problems to discuss.

John

 

Haha, sorry, actually I meant that you were like the main contact person regarding Samsung issues and questions. At least that's my impression by looking at all the other Samsung threads...

But yeah, I take it as a good sign that there aren't that many complaints about Samsung

 

Hi!

I go an X60 as soon as it was released waaaaaay back when, and its still going strong.. love it

I got the 2gb model and think the screen is lovely, definitely not to small

I run vista ultimate on my machine quite happily, and everything works like a champ.. looking forward to a new x-series announcement soon i hope!

however, i'm absolutely no where near needing to replace this one yet... if you grab an x65 now, im sure you wont be disappointed and it will last a good few years

 

Thanks a lot BGM!! Good to hear that, I've placed the order today and it should be with me after my last exam...possibly Wednesday! I'm so excited about it...feel like a child now

I was wondering, which gfx drivers are you using? As I can see, the drivers released by Samsung are more than a year old... has anybody tried the drivers on http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/ ???

Also has anybody experience with running 64bit on these machines? Driver-wise?

 

Update:
I have received my X65 today and am well pleased with it.
A couple of positive surprises:

1. I was a bit disappointed at first, because on the website it stated that there was no Vista on this machine. To my surprise I found 4 CDs when I opened the box. 1xWinXP-Pro and XP-Software AND 1xVistaBusiness and Vista-Software. How nice is that?
2. It seemed that previous versions came with 2x1024MB Ram. When I entered BIOS it said Slot1: 2048MB Slot2: Free! Which means upgrading will be much cheaper!
3. I've read in previous reviews that the lcd was not bright enough. I believe Samsung changed that. It appears a lot brighter than my glossy Asus A6VA and I was able to work on it the whole day with the sun shining through my window on the screen.

Sidenote1: it seems that the middle region of the speaker (beneath the Samsung Logo) is quite weak and gives in if you put some pressure on it. Can somebody confirm this?

Sidenote2: Running Laptopvideo2go drivers 174.74 improved my 3DMark06 score by 300 points.

 

Thanks for the update and feedback. Which operating system was pre-installed?

Is the display glossy or matte? Maybe the brightness issue was fixed by a BIOS update - the brightness range is usually defined somewhere in the BIOS.

It's interesting that the RAM is 1 x 2GB since single channel will reduce the memory performance. Adding a 1GB module will both increase the total RAM and improve the memory performance.

The area between the speakers is very solid on my X60 plus. Maybe Samsung decided they could put something a bit thinner there on the X65 since normally it doesn't come under any load.

John

 

Hi John,

XP was preinstalled, but as I said, I wanted to try out sth. new and Vista is actually not bad at all.

The display is matte, but very bright actually. On the package it says sth like 200, I think it stands for cdm.

You're right, it'll be a bit slower because it's not in dual channel mode...but I wanted to upgrade the RAM anyway, so for me it's perfect

Well, thanks for everything guys... I'm glad I made the decision to grab this beauty Hope it will last me for the next 3,4 years...

 

ill check out the laptopvideo2go site

but i dont play games on my machine so its not really an issue... i use it mostly for sql server, visual studio and virtual machines

glad you like the x65!! lets hope the x70 isnt out for a while now