Samsung 15" Series 9 NP900X4B thread

Well they have managed to slap this page up. Manual is somewhat interesting to browse, but still no official support page...

Support - Series 9 Notebooks NP900X4B | Samsung Laptops

 

My PCMall rep said its delayed until mid to late april. I only had him check the SKU for the 15" model so I'm not sure if that delay also applies to the 13" one.

 

KJSTech - that's close to the information I received from my account mgr at CDW. But, The 13-inch is coming soon (Amazon is high on the list) (see that thread - a couple people from the US that ordered through Amazon had their credit processed, so it looks like sooner rather than later for them.) While CDW said late March/early April for this 13.3 inch, I am thinking the late March seems to be more on target.

But I too, really would like the SS9-15 (8 GB RAM, and the home/end/up down keys are in their own column) are both important.

I am placing an order for both - so whichever arrives first will be likely what I will purchase. I am hoping though that when the X3B is available, we might have a better ETA for the beautiful X4B.

 

Hey, thanks for the info guys. I was just wondering, when you say placing, is there a place to pre-order the x4b, or do you mean, once said order becomes place-a-ble? Thanks.

 

Samsung NP900X4B-A02US Series 9 15" Notebook PC - Titan Silver in PC Notebook Computers | JR.com

 

Thanks!
Does anyone know if A02 means there is a different A01, and possibly A0x's afoot?

 

Usually the numbering is sequential so there should be an A01 in Samsung's pipeline. However, it is possible that component availability means that A02 reaches the stores first.

John

 

HURRY UP SAMSUNG !!!
I'm starting to loose interest...
Fujitsu teases new premium Lifebook Ultrabook at CeBIT, promises more details tomorrow -- Engadget

 

Someone was asking about the second gen Series 9 colors in the 13" thread so I posted a couple of pictures I collected. One came from CES and the other came from Samsung.

Here they are:

 

Thanks John for the explanation.

Also, if it is unavailable until April, I am a little hesitant as well. With Ivy Bridge theoretically around the corner is it worth it to pay 1500 dollars for this? Last time they refreshed the 13" six months later right? So would a refresh of this be six months from Feb 27th? That said, the only other thing that appeals to me right now is the Lenovo E430 S, and that isn't until Q3 I believe.

 

Although I am not totally certain, the 13-inch (NP900X3B-A01US) is the A01 and the 15-inch (NP900X4B-A02US) is, well, otherwise.

 

Insight UK appear to have the NP900X4C-A01UK... for £1,252.79!

 

To pick up another user's comment in the s9 2012 13.3" thread: It's true that the 15" screen has only 300 nit. See here: http://www.notebookcheck.com/typo3temp/pics/fe1d3a216e.jpg

 

Insight have told me the lead time on the NP900X4C is 5 working days... far ahead of the 'April' timeframe some have mentioned.

 

That's surprisingly soon since nowhere else is listing the model at this moment. Perhaps there is a small batch heading towards UK and Insight is the first to list it. Maybe more will be revealed at CeBIT.

Personally I would have no objections to a 300 nit screen providing the quality is good.

John

 

Guy on the video mentioned the brightness of 15 inch version screen is 300nit!
According to him 13.3 inch version has a brighter screen. (400nit!)

I was waiting for 15 inch S9 to become available but now I have to order both and compare the brightness of the screens.

 

Just so everyone knows, there was a huge hullabaloo over 300 nit screens on the series 7, and when I finally bought one to try it out, the screen was great, and had I not known about the pages and pages of discussion on the matter, I would have known no different. I am not too worried about this. I think the only way this is an issue is if you are using a 25" IPS display at your desk, then you might notice, however for me this laptop will be far more expensive than my desktop setup.

 

I am coming from an old samsung r560 200 nit screen so the screen brightness will be just fine for me.

I'd only like to know if the 15" S9 UK version will have the slower Sandisk SSD like the 13.3 UK model or the faster Samsung SSD of the 13.3 US model as I will have to import the S9 from the UK or US (within the next 10 to 14 days).

 

Is there a difference bw the NP900X4B and the NP900X4C, the latter being advertised on uk.insight.com?

 

The NP900X4C has the i5 3317 CPU. Or perhaps I should say will have, because the 3317 is an IvyBridge part and they aren't due to arrive for a little while. Oops! It looks like someone pulled the wrong spec out of the pile. Anyway, it confirms Samsung's game plan: Release the updated Series 9 now with Sandy Bridge parts and then follow with an IvyBridge version once the new chips are available. That's a lot less development hassle and trying to bring out new models.

John

 

I am not concerned about the 100 nit difference in the 13 and 15". All of the laptops I've ever had that 300+ nits screens were rarely used at full brightness. I am seldom outdoors using a computer.

I do want quality. Good color, contrast, blacks, screen angles, etc.

 

Interesting is it that it boots up at only 9.8 secs. (minute 1:03)
And what intrigues me the most is the aspect ratio of the 15.0" screen, since it's stated as 16:10 in the video, so why go for a 1600x900 screen? (minute 1:21)

Anybody else noticed it?

Sorry about my English.

 

Hey thanks for the link. Is there any other interesting information you can translate for us?

 

That's gotta be a mistake. Clearly 1600x900 = 16x9 = 16:9

Frankly I wish it DID have a 16:10 screen. I much prefer that. I think 1440x900 would have been perfect.

 

Can this laptop be connected directly to a 2560x1440 external display? What's the maximum resolution it can output to an external? Thanks!

 

This Intel page indicates a maximum resolution for the HD 3000 graphics of 2560 x 1600. You would need to use the HDMI port.

John

 

Yep I think so. But why would Samsung announce it as 16:10? I mean it's clearly stated background. Even if it's a mistake, it may not be one, and the screen may also change (1440x900 probably) Would that be a sort of dealbreaker for some of you?

 

My impression, from looking at the Samsung demo on Youtube, is that both models have the same 16:9 aspect ratio screen. However, the only time I appreciate the extra width of 16:9 is when when watching a movie. For everything else 16:10 is more usable. 15" @ 16:9 means a display size of 13.07" x 7.35" while 15" @ 16:10 gives 12.72" x 7.95". While the number of vertical pixels is the same, they are spread over an extra 0.6" and are a little bigger and easier to read.

John

 

Just had a to-and-fro with Insight and they confirmed the specs for me with their supplier, so presumably their supplier is wrong... or maybe the "5 day" lead time is just incredibly optimistic. Elera.ie are listing the same model as due in April.

Additionally, I found this video which shows the NP900X4C as having the i5-2467M (about 38 seconds in they show the model number, and at 58s the CPU provided by Windows).

 

From what I've now gathered, the NP900X4 B is (was?) the Sandy Bridge version, and the NP900X4 C is the Ivy Bridge version. The specifications Insight have came directly from Samsung, and Samsung have given '4 working days' as the timeframe for NP900X4 C stock to arrive in the UK to Insight. No idea why other retailers (like Kikatek) have 2nd April as their stock date.

That said, I've been told to call on Thursday or Friday for an update on the stock situation.

 

I figure by the time Samsung stops jerking our chain with the 15" and actually delivers something to USA shores, the Apple 15" MacBook Air will be announced and shipping.

The last thing I need is a 13" ultrabook with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD that really only has 50-60GB of storage space for MY STUFF.

Therefore, they'd better deliver a superior product. I am confident they can't deliver a superior channel or support experience so they are going to need to make up for it on the hardware and price. I am starting to lose confidence in that because they don't understand the value of web publishing and providing concrete specifications.

 

I really want to believe this. Still, I'm finding it difficult to believe that they'll start selling the ivy bridge version without ever releasing the sandy bridge version. I doubt that they'll release them concurrently. I guess it's possible that production on the sandy bridge machines got so delayed that they actually had ivy bridge by the time they started making any of the 15" versions so just stuck stuck in the ivy bridges instead. If they still cost $1500 for an ivy bridge with 128g storage /8gig memory (and we can actually get them in the united states), I'll be very happy. They'll also have cornered the market on ultrabooks with Ivy bridge (at least for several weeks) and make bank for it.

What confuses me the most is that the low-voltage Ivy bridge processors were supposedly the units that were causing the delay of Ivy...and now we're supposed to believe that we'll see low-voltage Ivy Bridges on the market in ~4 days? I'll believe it when I see it...

 

It's looking interesting. Could there be a limited release of Ivybridge within a few weeks? It's not impossible. It will allow Intel and the lucky hardware manufacturers to charge a premium to the early adoptors with prices gradually sliding as IB production ramps up.

John

 

I don't know if this makes sense, but wouldn't the best indication be what is going on in Korea? Are they shipping etc? I know someone from Korea who buys Samsung through her parents and they send it to Canada, and she said she always gets things right as they come out. Anyone if anyone has any details that might be something to consider.

 

Korean models have an "NT" prefix. At present Google can find plenty of NT900X4B but no NT900X4C.

Note: I have started a separate thread for the NP900X4C.

John

 

Well. I finally made a decision. Since battery life, weight, and high res all matters, it only makes good sense to just wait a little while longer (fall?) for the 15-inch X4B/C Ivy Bridge with 256 GB.

I am already following John's new Ivy Bridge 15-inch thread! http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/650581-samsung-15-series-9-np900x4c-ivy-bridge-cpu.html


However - since I sold my PC slate (Asus EP121) I really am at a disadvantage waiting these past few weeks, and more so if I am determined to wait for the Ivy Bridge release.

So to see me through, today I purchased the First Gen Sam S9, X3A-B01UB. (Although I cannot really find what the difference is between the B01UB and the B06.) I figured that since I already KNOW that I would sell whatever I bought right now, but that the Samsung was ideal in many ways, getting this already $$$ reduced notebook would serve me (and my bank account) best.

It is lovely, fast, and "close" to what I want/need. Now, that I can finally get back to work, I know that I can easily wait the whole Ivy Bridge, 256GB, new release 15-inch X4B/C thing out.

I am pleased - except this business with the two drives. "C" which has only about 24 GB left (and I haven't even installed the full Office, Adobe Pro, or Stata onto it!), and then.... the "D" drive which shows I have 48GB on it.
How do you guys work around this? (Beside micro SD cards, which I have and USB SD card adapters for the full size 8-32GB which I also have.)

 

The specs from the Korean model at NT900X3B-A74 say the 15" LCD screen is "15" SuperBright 400nit"

Ton of really good pictures on that blog post. Lots of information.

 

YouTube user "cdmanii" seems to have an NP900X4B and has uploaded a bunch of Korean-language videos to YouTube (scroll down)

 

I'll say! This is the greatest number of photo's and great comparison to the 13.3-inch that I have seen yet! 256 GB (but only 4GB RAM) Thanks for sharing!

 

The first US version is showing on Samsung's site now:
Specs - Series 9 Notebooks NP900X4B | Samsung Laptops

 

Finally. Now if we can just get the second SKU with a 256GB SSD.

 

So it's officially 340 nit.

And the official dimensions are 14.0" x 9.3" x 0.58".

And it IS a 15" screen (as we suspected) not 15.6".

 

I can live with the specs. They sound awesome to me. Here's a comparison (on paper) to my ThinkPad T420. Please note, my T420 rocks 16GB of RAM and a 256GB Samsung Series 830 SSD.

The Sammy is just over a half inch wider. It's .2" less deep. The T420 is 1.2" thick compared to .58" on the Sammy. The T420 with the 6 cell flush battery is 4.84 pounds compared to 3.51 on the SS9.

The T420 has a 14" mediocre screen running at 1600x900 and is 250nits. The only time I use the screen on full brightness is in the middle of the day with lots of light. The SS9 has a 15" screen which is getting strong reviews running at 1600x900 and is 340nits. The only time I can imagine needing that kind of brightness is poolside.

The T420 has the ThinkLight for illumination of the keyboard. It isn't a bad idea and works pretty well. Plus you get the legendary keyboard. The SS9 is of course backlit and sexy.

The T420 kicks the SS9 to the curb on nearly every other spec. But it isn't the chick magnet the SS9 is. Some of you may actually get, uh, nevermind.

I also compared the SS9 13" to the 13" MacBook Air. It's smaller than the Mac. That's impressive. But seriously, the MBA is $100 cheaper than the SS9. I'd buy the Mac and AppleCare.

It's going to get interesting if Apple really introduces a 15" MBA with a retina screen at $1599 for a 256GB model.

 

I wish I could deal with a Mac. No joke, I really, really do. I'm just a true Windows guy and for that I need a true Windows machine.

 

I had the same problems. Microsoft certified everything, but I love unix and the MacBook Pro hardware is insanely high quality. I bought a MBP almost a year ago and, even after loading Win7, I couldn't get used to it. Having the FN key in the bottom left and not the CTRL key - couldn't remap it and couldn't remap my brain. So it's on ebay now... Used for a few hours, perfect condition, love the hardware, but the keyboard and OSX suck.

 

Now is a good time to sell. I had no problems getting used to Windows 7 on the MBA after I learned the keyboard shortcuts.

But like you folks, I really want a machine that doesn't have an illuminated apple and runs Windows 7 perfectly. The 15" Sammy is right at the top of the list.

What is everyone planning to do about warranty? Squaretrade? Samsung really needs to offer a three year for this kind of price.

 

Guys,
do you have any estimation when this item is going to be shipped?

I've ordered from JR (pre-order) about 1 month ago,

someone has a clue when this should be shipped?

Thanks,

 

I've said it before (and I'll say it again)... if Apple sold the MBA with a Windows keyboard, I'd buy one. Maybe two.

 

I agree tell this to Apple

 

Why is this notebook so expensive? It doesn't even offer the new Kernel graphics at this price point, only the underwhelming integrated graphics.
It is similar to the Spectre in this sense. Form over function instead of the convenience of both.