Samsung 15" Series 9 NP900X4B thread

Cool. Then we have two linux users that went over 1920x1080.

 

Thank you very much for giving me a clear info on the battery~ i am currently trying to do a clean install to get back more free space...but it won't boot from my external DVD rom even when i changed the boot priority. Guess i will have to fiddle around and find out.

Cheers,

J

 

Make sure you are using the latest version of Easy Settings then turn off Fast Boot using Easy Settings. On the next boot hit F2 to get into the BIOS and move the DVD to first in the list of boot devices.

 

Windows 8 CP installed.
Hyper-V feature installed.
Created a Windows 7 Ultimate x64 VM and allocated just over 8GB of RAM to it.
As soon as I fired up the VM, the memory was allocated and setup kicked off.

===========

Therefore the NP900X4B CPU and chipset passes the SLAT requirement for Hyper-V on Windows 8 client. Currently 9.4GB of the total 16GB of RAM is being used.

Go forth and virtualize.

FYI, I have not bothered to install all of the drivers for Windows 8. I just wanted to double check the Hyper-V requirements.

 

Thank you very much! THors.Hammer! i managed to be able to boot from the installation disc but i encountered an error once the window tries to start loading the installation "Install Error: Required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing" .

i have found a topic on this on our forum but seems like there are no knowledge of fixing it at the moment.
url: http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/580429-clean-windows-7-install-how-series-9-a.html

 

What installation disk are you using? Did you download an .ISO and burn your own disk or what?

 

Samsung's Easy Settings offers a battery life extender option that only charges to 80%. Given the big battery, you might find this enough.

Make sure you aren't plugged into the USB 3.0 port (with a blue tab).

John

 

Awesome! I'm definitely buying this! Thank you so much! I'll have another hunt for VMWare coupons.

 

oh! i never knew they have such option...but i think just using it regularly should be fine...and lets hope that replacement battery will be easy to find later on.

Once again! you saved me! hahahah i don't know what to say......except a

BIG THANK YOU John!

 

I would suggest that you use the life extender option unless you need the extra battery run time. Squeezing the last few percent charge into the battery is one of the sources of wear.

The Windows 7 installer doesn't know about USB 3. A bit like XP and SATA a few years ago.

John

 

I should have remembered to tell him that. Especially since I was wondered why my mouse wasn't working a install time and I finally figured it out (as I was manually installing drivers).

Slaps self.

 

Any idea when this is coming out in the uk?

 

UK is skipping the NP900X4B and going straight to the NP900X4C (Ivy Bridge) (see Google). It may, or may not, arrive before the Samsung VAT cashback offer expires. It is eligible for the cashback but I somewhat doubt it will arrive in time.

John

 

Hi John thanks for the reply. Is that rumour or fact? If true that would be great if it went straight to ivy bridge.

Been waiting ages for this to come out. Only have two niggles. First the screen isn't as good as the 13inch and really wanted a great screen. Second never owned a low voltage processor, would it handle dreamweaver for example? (intend on building a website after years away from using it!!)

However will definitely be getting this it's a great design can't wait!

 

Waiting on Thor's tests with U2711. Not being able to drive 2560x1440+ is a dealbreaker for me...

 

I would plan on 1920x1080 max. 2560x1440 is a long shot. I should have the DisplayPort cables I ordered by mid week next week. If they don't work, I will not be doing any further testing.

 

So it can't do 1920x1200 ??

 

Not on my Dell 2711 it won't.

 

Here are some pics you all might find interesting. They are of my NP900X4B sitting next to my NP900X3B. The purpose of the shots are to show you the difference in the two LCD panels, and the size of the machine(s).

 

Whaa? How can the pictures look THAT different from each other? Something MUST be wrong with one of screens -- right???

 

You are correct. One is awesome. One is not. I tried to explain that earlier this week but I knew a picture would be worth a 1000 words.

 

It's not just that one is not awesome. The color reproduction on the 15 is just awful. Again I'm on an iPhone at the moment, so maybe I'm seeing it wrong -- but I'm seeing the color blue where there apparently is no blue!

Shame on Samsung. Their top tier most expensive laptop should have a MUCH better screen than this 15" seems to have.

 

Wow those pics makes the 15" one look terrible. Maybe it's best you post these pics in the 13" notebook thread. Better make the 13" one look good than to make the 15" one look bad.

But seriously, that's a huge difference. Bezel is even smaller on on the 13" one, which is a good thing.

 

I'm sure a pro would do much better, but my Canon G11 does pretty ok for quick shots like these. I did use a tripod to cut down on blurriness. The image used as the desktop background is at http://www.bungie.net/images/News/Inline10/091710/Wallpapers/Spartan_vs_Elite/1920x1200.jpg

Here are some notes on the previous three pics:

1. sbs1 - (left) - the camera is level with the notebooks. The lids on the machines are angled back some which would be a normal angle but the camera is not looking straight at the panel as a result. You can see some of the camera angle problem on the 15". You will see that unless you are looking directly at the panel.
2. sbs2 - (middle pic) - I raised the camera on the tripod neck pretty high so it is shooting down. As you can see, the 13.3" just smiles while the 15" looks all washed out. Typical viewing angle issues for mediocre panels.
3. sbs3 - (right) - I stacked the 13.3" on top of the 15". The goal wasn't to show the panel color differences, it was just to show the size difference.

sbs4 is attached below. The goal for this shot was to have the lcd panel at a 90 degree angle with the keyboard, and to have the camera level with the machines and take a direct picture. Although the flash gets in the way some, you can see the color, contrast and blacks are improved on the 15" when looking directly at it. The Canon camera I used is exaggerating some of the blue in the 15", and did add some yellow on the 13.3", but you can still get an idea on the vast differences, especially in the viewing angles.

Because of the screen, I can't in good conscience recommend the 15" NP900X4B. It may be good enough for plenty of people, but not me. I've been dealing with mediocre screens on Lenovo ThinkPads for the past few years and I am not going to start with Samsung.

I returned the NP900X4B. Hopefully this will change with the Ivy Bridge model but I wouldn't count on it.

I'm keeping the SB based NP300X3B unless Samsung launches a new better version in the next 40 days. It's a really solid machine and the PLS panel is fabulous.

Looking forward to seeing Apple top that.

 

The recent low power CPUs have the same performance as a normal CPU that's not allowed to run at full speed. The low end of the low power CPUs has similar performance to the top end of CPUs from two generations ago. See the notebookcheck list for more info. However, the integrated graphics performance has improved massively. Overall, no problem with dreamweaver.

Thanks for the screen photos. Personally, I would have disabled the flash. Colour balance is tweakable. Viewing angles are not. I guess I will have to find out for myself in time how the 15" display compares with the Lenovo T420s panel.

John

 

Really disappointing. What is wrong with manufacturers??

Ridiculous idea to have a lower quality panel in the 15.

One of the main reasons I sent a Vaio SA back is due to the screen. Far worse than my W520.

Would be happy with the Lenovo level quality as that's what I'm used to, as long as it's not worse..

Really hope I can put up with the screen it's the only weakness... There is always one!!!! :-(

 

Thanks for the photos Thor.

No PLS screen on the 15" makes me a sad panda.

I hope this is changed for the Ivy Bridge model.

 

1 of the 4 pics I posted were without a flash. When you have the 15" I look forward to seeing your pics. I am a sad panda, too. I wanted the 15" to work for me.

 

My gut feeling is that the 13" is too small to be working at for many hours per day so I will have to sacrifice quality for size. Had I been able to get hold of a VGA dongle then the 13" would be about to depart on a 1 week trip.

John

 

Hi Thor,

Pictures are really worth a 1000 words... Wow... The only question I have is, if you look at the screen of the 15 inch head on does it look like the 13 inch? I mean is it just about viewing angle here?

 

Very well done comparison shots. Thank you Thors.

EDIT: Which picture best represents a normal/optimal viewing angle?

Thanks.

 

The answer is no. As I have previously indicated, the color calibration, contrast, blacks, brightness and everything else on the PLS 13.3" display blow the 15" display out of the water.

 

What is it interesting is when you look at the background image link Thor provided, the 15" screen doesn't look as bad.

 

Out of curiousity, in the Easy Settings on the 15" do you have the auto brightness on? It really gimps the display on the 15". I turned it off and it's much better.

 

The 15 seems overly blue and the 13 seems overly yellow. The camera that was used is a top notch P&S that should have excellent color reproduction, so ???

Personally I'm less concerned with viewing angles than some others are, but I'd like the colors to be correct when viewing head on (as in normal usage).

 

I guess you guys will just have to wait for your 15" and judge for yourself.

 

i am satisfied over all with the 15" ....but to be honest...the amount of $ we are paying for this.....samsung should get their acts together and give us a better screen......~

Does anyone know if this laptop does come with a color balancing software?

Just so i can make the screen workable...heheh

 

Thors.Hammer, are you sure the desktop background pic you used on the laptops was the exact same image as the pic in the URL you referenced?

Here's why I'm asking: the background pic used on your laptops has "BUNGIE" written on the left, but the pic in the reference URL has "BUNGIE" written on the right. Any chance that the color might be slightly different on one of the two?

It won't explain the vast difference between the 13 vs the 15, but it might explain why the URL picture looks different than either laptop. Know what I mean?

Actually, see my attachment below -- it might help explain what I mean. Maybe.

 

Here's an image I just found (thanks Google!) with BUNGIE on the left:



It seems to have better color, doesn't it? Better red, better blue, etc. So there must be different variations of this image floating around out there.

Right?

 

Thanks for the photos Thors.Hammer. Looks Samsung once again killed my desire to purchase their notebooks (First the Series 7 last fall, now the 15" Series 9). This 15" Ultrabook seems to have everything I would want: expandable memory, upgradable mSSD, long battery life. The highly inferior screen to the 13" killed it for me.

 

Nope. The image I have been using has been in my stash since March of 2010.

I am done commenting on the NP900X4B LCD panel. But I do look forward to someone else doing a side-by-side.

Let me know when Samsung implements the PLS panel on the 15".

 

Ahh, okay. That might at least explain why the 13" laptop screen looked slightly different than the reference pic.

Either way, there's no disputing the huge difference in overall quality between the 15" screen and the 13" screen. And they WERE using the exact same image!

 

Thanks for all your posts Thor, they were much appreciated. I hope you didn't take the picture questions as anything other than ponderings out loud. Your input on your experience with the 15" has been very informative.

 

Thors, how would you compare the audio on the two machines? Any other major differences?

 

looks like I might be buying the new xps 15 with ivy instead if the screen really is that bad. At least the dell comes with a 512 SSD option

 

i am wondering if anyone is running into the same problem as me?
i got a clean installed Windows 7 on the 15" series 9 and all the drivers install is going very smoothly....until i had to install the intel rapid start technology...where after it said completed i restart my computer and then it said the driver is not properly installed...and this process just repeats itself without me being able to get it installed properly.

ps: *i merged all partitions into one big C:"

J

 

What aspect of audio are you interested in? Output from the tiny speakers, line out on the analog jack, or digital out via HDMI?

Output from built-in tiny speakers were similar.

 

The Dell screen isn't going to be better.

 

I second that!

 

Anyone else at an impasse given the recent screen revelations? Do I wait for Vizio's 15 inch? I would imagine there will be a couple of other options in the 15" ultrabook field by the end of the year. My issue is I have not had a laptop for almost a year now. First I was waiting for the series 7, as was someone else I remember reading recently, and when that seemed to flame out I had my hopes hung on the S9. Now I am not quite sure. If the S9 were 1000-1200, I would buy it right now, but boy is that a steep price tag, given the screen.