Samsung 15" Series 9 NP900X4C with Ivy Bridge CPU

WEI rating of 7.9 is DEFINITELY not the SanDisk!


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Ivy Bridge supports booting from USB 3.0 - I've done it myself. It's Sandy Bridge which struggled, as it was a bolt-on.


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Interesting. I returned my S9 and went back to my Dell Latitude E6400, much prefer it to the S9 in all areas except touchpad and looks. Should be noted my usage is purely business though. I guess movie watchers & light gamers would be happy.




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You might need to make a couple more posts. newbies have limited privileges as an anti-spammer measure.

Then why is there a separate USB 3.0 driver which is not part of the chipset driver? What does Device Manager have to say about the maker of the USB 3.0 hub?

Not forgetting that the quality of the E6400 display was better than some of the more recent ones.

John

 

I bought mine in Sweden and it is an A01SE with an i7,
8GB RAM and a Samsung 128GB SSD.

Just to add to the confusion.

Per

 

I've booted fedora off sandisk thumb drive on usb3 on mine. works fine.

 

Hey Guys!!! Just bought the Cdn version NP900X4C-CA01A and am wondering if I can throw 2 x 8GB modules in ???

AS well, mine came with the Samsung and I just replaced with the MyDigitalSSD SMART 256GB SSD (ADATA XPG SX300) and it runs FULL SPEED AHEAD!

 

Wouldn't bother me one bit tbh

 

Looks like the WEI ratings have extended. 7.9 was the maximum but not any more:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/...t-windows-experience-index-score-in-windows-7



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Can someone clarify for certain- is this a PLS screen?

The thread search seems to be broken and I read the first 30 pages but couldn't seem to find a definitive answer.

The website states '170 degree viewing angle' the same way it describes the 13"... but I really don't think they are the same panel type.

Also, does anyone know if another model has been confirmed to have the PLS screen? (like the np900x4d-A05 or something)

 

It is not. It is good, but not as good as PLS.

 

From all I've read I'm 100% sure that the X4 does not have a PLS display. Horizontal viewings angles of TN displays are usually fairly good. The PLS panel wins on excellent vertical viewing angles (and slightly better colour gamut).

It's possible that Samsung will introduce a 15" PLS panel sometime, but there's no publicised timescale.

John

 

Oh it certainly isn't a PLS screen on the 15". More like a POS screen. My $300 cheapo netbook has equivalent or better viewing angles though the S9 has better color and brightness.
(Yes, I am still angry about this )

-Gatsby

 

Hey everyone, I am just installing some programs on the NP900x4c AO1CA as we speak.

From the laymperson's perspective:

-the keyboard seems fine for me. I write a lot of papers for school and I do not see it being an issue.
-it feels well built, but I do wonder if the hinge will hold over time. That may just be because I had a lenovo previously.
-I have the Sandisk SSD. I do not know how to run the WEI scores program that people were talking about, but I would be happy to do it if someone would let me know how.
-One thing I am noticing is that programs are taking a lot longer to install than they did last time I formatted my desktop PC, which has a 64 gig Kingston V100 something something SSD for the windows drive. I was wondering if this was related to bloatware, and requiring a clean windows install?
-the screen seems fine to me, but I do no photo editing etc
-the trackpad I really like, so that was a nice surprise since I was expecting the worst. 2 finger scrolling is very smooth and 2 finger tap works well for right clicks.
-the backlighting is imperceptible if there is any light source, but I haven't tried to turn it up yet.

I think that is it for now, I am not sure I have the expertise to answer any questions but I will give it a shot if you have any.

 

click Start > Right click Computer > Properties > click Windows Experience Indes (WEI) > then choose Re-run the assessment (lower right corner)

Post your score!

 

Thanks for the help, here it is.

 

Good day Forum

I own the 900X4C-A01DE for about 10 days. Overall it is nice, lightweight laptop with a couple of flaws, which would not have been necessary and spoiling the overall performance.

Screen:
The most annoying thing is, that Samsung did not installed the famous PLS display. I also own a five-year-old T61, which has also a matte screen and it feels that the T61 screen is nearly same in quality as the Samsung X4C. Of course, the brightness of my Samsung is much, much better and performs very well outside sitting in the garden with sun shining. The T61 was too dark, but when it comes to color and contrast, both screens are heads up.

The German site Notebook Test, Laptop Test und News - Notebookcheck.com reviewed the X4B-device and claimed the very high black level of 3.31 cd/m2 and a contrast of 111:1. Notebookcheck.com is in contact with Samsung QA Labs and they are hoping that they get another sample to re-measure it. (Read the review here: Test Samsung Serie 9 900X4B-A01DE Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests, German only). They also plan a review for the X4C model.

Coming to the viewing angle, the Samsung is better then my T61, but not too much. I really expected, that the PLS screen from the X3C had been installed, especially at a retail price of approx. EUR 1499.00 EUR = USD 1900.00. Not sure what Samsung had in mind, when placing the 4XC in the premium class, but not delivering premium here.

Brightness and resolution is good, I do not miss 1920x1080 resolution, the screen is comfortable at 100% Windows scaling, while my T61 runs at 1680x1050 and I need 110% Windows scaling to avoid of getting tired.

Performance:
This piece is fast. Really fast, even if it is only the Sandisk-SSD. Booting from „off“ to „desktop“ is 19 seconds (with „busy, but you can click something anyway“ mouse pointer) and 25 seconds to „idle“ mouse pointer. Shutdown to „off“ (blue power led off) is 17 seconds. If you go to „standby“, 4XC shuts down in 5 sec (blue power led off). Restart from „standby“ to „idle“ mouse pointer is 4 seconds.

Time stopped with my stopwatch, Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, all drivers installed, Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 and a the usual bunch of Autostart-programs with come with the Samsung.

Maybe the performance could be boosted even more, if there would be another mSATA-SSD would be available. For now, there is no capacity with more then 128 GB available in Europe. But this will be only matter of time, until we see a mSATA drive of 256 GB or more. If you need more capacity, consider buying a SD-card with 64 GB. I got myself the SanDisk SDSDXPA-064G-X46, which works nice in the SD card slot. It can stay there during transport, even if it does not hide completely in the slot. It will not fall out, as the SD-card sits tight in the slot and there is no ejection mechanism.

The internal card reader supports UHS-1, unfortunately it looks like, that Samsung only connected the reader by USB 2 and not USB 3. This limits the performance of the card reader to 20 MB/s iso 70-80 MB/s with my USB 3 external cardreader.

Samsung build 2 fans into the X4C, you will not hear these until the CPU is on medium to high load. And even then, it is not too loud. The X4C can be configurated to run in a "silent mode", as I did not activated it by now (was not necessary yet), it can only assume, that the CPU may be throttled. Temperatures have not been an issue too, it is getting warm, but not hot. While writing these lines, only the lower mid of the chassis is getting warm to the touch.

Finish:
The X4C looks nice and elegant. Construction was well done, the finish is perfect. The backlit keyboard is also nice. There are only a few LED status indicators, blue color in the power key, sound control, wifi control, fn lock control and caps lock. A yellow led is on the left side and indicates the connection to power. The touchpad works fine and supports gestures (but keep in mind, this is not an iPhone!).

And there is a "light sensor", which allows the X4C to dim/raise the display brightness automatically. I deactivated this function (in Easy Settings) as the sensor tends to be a bit nervous, resulting in brightness up and down when being in enviroments, where light changes quickly (e.g. television). Maybe one day I get used to it.

The missing link:
If you miss the HDD LED, download a free of charge software LED from here: DiskLED | sepago

If you miss a Power Manager software, like the Levono Energy Manager, download a Windows Widget from here: OrbLog - I do use the "Battery Status"-Widget.

If you like to have a monitor for your network connections, you could try the NetSpeedMonitor from here: FlorianGilles.de - NetSpeedMonitor

Ugly Audio jack:
If you connect the power switch to the X4C and have also a headphone in the audio-jack, you can enjoy static crackling in the audio playback. Not nice, not fully separated… I use Bluetooth Audio for playback, which does not have this problem.

Re-Install of Windows 7 x64:
If you consider to make a clean install with Windows 7 x64, the following tips may make your life a bit more comfortable. Do not do this, if you are not familiar with Windows Setup or configuration on a bare machine ! You will be on your own.

1. Make a backup of your machine with the Samsung tool. Samsungs tool „Samsung Recovery Solution“ has also the option to copy all drivers to a device of your choice. Really do this. Keep it on a separate device for backup. If you loose them, you can download all drivers here: Support for NP900X4C
2. Once you copied all the drivers, locate the USB3 controller driver, if you want to re-install from one of the USB3 ports (for Windows x64, check the x64-Directory in BASW-13672A) - PS. your USB mouse will not work from USB3 ports, if the driver is not installed. You can boot from USB3 ports in legacy mode, but Windows Setup will not be able to access the stick anymore, once Setup has been entered due to missing drivers.
Locate the Samsung Easy Software Manager (search of „SWM_Setup.exe“ , you will need it for download and re-installing all drivers
Locate the WLAN (Directory BASW-13659A)
Locate the Chipset Drivers (Directory BASW-13669A)
3. Get the Windows ISO to USB tool ( Microsoft Store Online)
4. Get the Windows ISO for the edition, you hold a license ( Download Windows 7 ISO (Official 32-bit and 64-bit Direct Download Links) « My Digital Life)
5. Use the USB Tool to get the Windows 7 ISO on the USB stick of your choice
6. Copy the x64 USB3 driver to the Stick - you may need to plug this stick in the USB2 port during setup, as USB3 ports are not accessible. You may consider to copy it to a SD-Card, as the card reader is working in Windows Setup (this is what I did). Copy the Chipset Drivers and the Samsung Easy Software Manager to the stick or SD-Card.
7. Enter BIOS and „disable“ under „Advanced“ the „Fast BIOS Mode“. Go to „Boot“ and change the boot „Priority Order“, so that USB CD / USB HDD are in front of SATA HDD. Save your changes and exit.
8. If you did everything right, the X4C should now boot from USB stick into Windows Setup. Be sure to load the USB3 drivers during setup (rusb3hub.inf, rusb3xhc.inf)
9. Feel free to re-partitioning your SSD. I deleted all partitions and gave Windows system 60,1 GB (0.1 GB for the hidden boot partition, 60 GB for Windows), rest for user data.
10. Let Windows install. Once done, enter fresh installed Windows and install the WLAN plus the Easy Software Manager (ESM). If any problems, install the Chipset software. It worked for me with WLAN and ESM only.
11. Now connect to WLAN, and run ESM. It will show you all drivers available, download what you need and watch ESM installing. Do not forget to download all Windows updates. You can speed up the Windows updates by using WSUS Offline Update ( WSUS Offline Update - Update Microsoft Windows and Office without an Internet connection). As alternative, you can use your backup of all System Software done in step 1.
12. Hopefully all Samsung software is now installed. Good thing, that Samsung allows us to deselect third party software like Norton and keeps it up to you to decide, if you like to have it or not.

If you install Intel Rapid Start Technology and run it (in Easy Settings, select “Boot” and enable the settings here), the Intel RST software will re-arrange your Windows partition and reduced my 60 GB to 52 GB. This is done without loss of data. 8 GB will be the size of a new hidden partition, where the hibernation data will be saved to. Keep this in mind, when planning your capacity for Windows system and your personal user data.

I am running a new installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64, the ride was a bit bumpy, but finally all worked out. Took me a few hours to determine all requirements.

Benchmarks:

WEI


CPU Info


GPU Info


SSD Data Info


SSD Crystal Disc Benchmark


And for those who like lots of information, here is a listing from PC Wizard ( CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting) for all components in this device:
View attachment Samsung Details.pdf

Overall the X4C is a nice piece of hardware, but a bit overpriced. The display panel is the most annoying issue. However, I will keep the laptop, as it fits my requirements, even if the screen is not what I like to have, but as mobile office device, it will do the job, looks nice and is only 1.6 kgs.

Take care, have a good time & best regards
Tim (writing you from Germany)

 

More Benchmarks for you concerning USB3 performance:

3.5" HDD SATA USB3 connected USB3


3.5" HDD SATA USB2 connected USB3


Internal Reader vs. External Reader USB3 connected to USB3 (upper picture: internal performance, lower picture: Transcend USB3 TS-RDF8K)


All benchmarks done with connection to the first USB3 port.

Best regards
Tim

 

Thanks for the guide, very thorough and it will help me a lot.

 

For those of you who have it already, is the battery user replaceable? I am not going to remove it everyday when I plug it in, but it will be a bonus if in a year time frame I could replace it without sending the laptop back to factory. I don't mind if there are tons of screws, what I'd like to know is if it is possible, which means no glue, no strange connectors, no tricky stuff that may break other components, etc.

Thanks a lot

 

In the Samsung Easy Settings (and in BIOS) you can choose that the battery will be held at 80% while working with the PSU. Samsung (and wikipedia) say that batteries if being held at this level are not getting worn.
Don't know if its true though.

 

Dear all,

after I did a clean Win7 install, it seems I have
a unkown device in Device Manager.

I wonder if any kind soul could identify the following device
with the following hardware id:

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1E3A&SUBSYS_C0D3144D&REV_04

Is it the webcam?

thanks in advance

Per

 

Hi Per

Did you installed the Chipset Drivers ? And do not forget the "Intel ME Interface Driver" from the Easy Software Manager.



Brgds
Tim

 

Looked replaceable to me.

 

Thanks Tim,

I am pretty sure I installed the chipset drivers,
but thanks anyway, now I know what device it is.

Perhaps a reinstall of chipset drivers will suffice.

Anyone know what "Intel ME Interface Driver" is?

Per

 

ME stands for management engine.

 

Unscrew the back to get to the battery. However, if you are not normally needing to use the full battery capacity then enable the Battery Life Extender in Easy Settings. This limits the battery charge to 80% and is intended to reduce the wait.

John

 

Thanks John and Thors.Hammer By the way, do you happen to know if the 80% thing is directly available at the BIOS level for those of us who prefer using Linux? Can I just turn the option on and off there instead of setting it in Samsung's Windows software?

As usual, thanks in advance for your valuable feedback!

 

Yes, it is in the BIOS.

 

@John Ratsey et al:

Don't these batteries already have micro controllers that manage charge and prevent them from ever being charged to 100% of actual capacity (or discharged to 0%) specifically for purpose of extending the life of the battery?

Perhaps the "normal" battery charge is very aggressive with respect to the actual capacity of the cells. Anyone know what the extension of life using the 80% cap via "Battery Life Extender" is speculated to be?

Conditioning batteries, unplugging chargers, etc have long been a topic of contentious conversation, but I think I read/learned once upon a time that these days heat is the biggest life-shortener for Li-Ion and Li-Po batteries.

EDIT: Found this "article" from Samsung. It claims to up the life of the battery from 300 to 1000 cycles. Still not sure if I buy it or if it is gimmicky marketing. (I apologize for my skepticism. If anyone has personal experience with the effectiveness, it might sway me)

 

An NP900X4D-A01UK is now showing up. The hardware specs appear to be the same as the X4C-A01UK (i5 + 128GB). Until there's info to the contrary I would assume that the only difference is that it is silver.

John

 

Guys, another question for you, sorry if I keep on spamming

I saw that there are two ports for connecting the laptop to an external display, a microHDMI one (left side) and a "VGA with adapter one" (right side). I was looking on the web trying to find the adapter for the VGA one, and on Samsung's website they advertise a microHDMI to VGA dongle. Does this dongle fit into the "microHDMI" port or into the "VGA with adapter port"? If the case is the former, what does fit into the "VGA with adapter" port? Finally, does the laptop come with any of these in its box?

Last curiosity, if someone tested it, can you use the two ports simultaneously and pilot two external displays at the same time (not three, I mean using only the two external ones and turning off the internal one; this was possible with an HD3000 on my T420s by connecting the VGA and DisplayPort ports).

Cheers,
Alessandro

 

If you are looking at the one I think you are looking at ( this one that specifically says HDMI), you are looking at the wrong dongle.

Here is the one you need (not officially listed as compatible with the X4C, but it looks like they simply do not have their site up to date): Dongle

The dongle is not included with the laptop (does come with the ethernet dongle though). I think some of our Brit friends mentioned the cable is not available anywhere, but it seems to be available in the U.S. from a handful of websites or even eBay.



I believe that "Monitor Port" is proprietary. I couldn't find much info on it in the Series 9 User Manual or elsewhere on the site though. I personally was trying to find a printed statement that confirmed the ability to run dual external displays (HDMI and Monitor Port simultaneously) or triple including the S9 display, but the search was not fruitful. Given the hardware, it shouldn't be a problem, but you never know. I've seen some funky stuff with individual models of this and that.

 

See this thread for the VGA dongle that works for me.

John

 

Many thanks to all of you. I saw that the right dongle is sold somewhere on ebay, though it is expensive!

What the hell Samsung, I am paying 1.4k Euros and you don't provide either monitor adapters or a nice sleeve. I am tempted to look at the Zenbook Prime and go the 13" route, but I am concerned by the fan noise of the ASUS that somebody reported, while your feedback on the silent operation of the Sammy gives me hope. Decisions, that's life ...

 

Wow am I the only one with a bad WEI score?
I have the UK X3B which probably has a SanDisk SSD.
My Primary Hard Disk rating is 5.9...
Though my base score is 5.4 due to the graphics rating.
Highest subscore is Processor with 6.3.

 

See this post earlier in this thread and try the same fix.

John

 

A question to Canadians:

Does anyone know, if I were to import an SS9 from the US to avoid the bilingual keyboard, can I send it back for warranty type issues to Samsung Canada? The idea of paying the shipping to return it to the US seems like a problem.

Thanks

UPDATE: I realized I should have just called myself. Samsung just told me that they have international warranties so you can send a US model for repair in Canada.

A shocking thing the rep told me is that since amazon is not a certified Samsung retailer like Best buy etc, it voids the 1 year warranty. I asked him to check with whomever these things are checked with and he returned and said this was the case This sounds implausible to me, but he said it was because there is no guarantee the item was not refurbished. Even then, when you buy refurbished products they usually have a year warranty. New confusion abounds.

Any thoughts?

 

Not sure if this has been posted before, if it has I missed it:

Samsung Series 9 2012 Ivy Bridge - Overview by Ultrabooknews - YouTube

 

Sorry to cross post but I am a little frustrated. I wiped my 128GB SSD, Recovery, OEM Hibernation partition along with the Samsung installed Windows partition and installed a "clean" version of Windows Professional. I now can't get Samsung "Easy Software Manager" running nor can I get the Intel Rapid Start drivers installed. I have pics in another post. Any ideas?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...tel-rapid-start-technology-3.html#post8625475

Like the other member Splitty said, it may be the OEMInformation Reg Key entry.

 

@Negative1

I started by installing the Chipset Drivers first, and then Easy Software Manager. Not sure, if IRST like to install before the Chipset Drivers are applied.

Do you have the correct drivers anyway ? In the beginning I tried to install from a 32bit setup, which certainly not install on x64-Windows. If you are not sure, collect all essential drivers from Samsungs-Hong Kong-Webpage.

 

has anyone had any trouble using the micro lan port (for wired internet)?

i dont see the network adapter in dev mgr or network connections adapter list- and when i go to 'repair driver' in the realtek driver setup (that i got from samsung support site) it throws an error.

weird

also, the adapter doesn't appear to show up in speccy


EDIT: lan was disabled in bios :/

 

With 256GB+ SSD, better (PLS) screen & Mini DisplayPort (for high res. 2nd screen support), Samsung would have produced irresistible/perfect notebook. Damn you Samsung. Despite the high price, the MBP is starting to make more sense (in search for a long term dream machine). Sorry Samsung, I'll probably pass on this one.

 

Did anyone notice Amazon.com has changed all the specs for the A03US model? I find this very bizarre. I am on the phone trying to confirm, but the model now lists it both as a i5 and i7 chip, lists a 128 GB SSD instead of a 256 GB SSD, and it lists the screen both as 340-nit and 400-nit. If they changed all these, why order this version?

Amazon.com: Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A03US 15-Inch Laptop (Titan Silver): Computers & Accessories

Has anyone else run into this?

EDIT: Spoke with two different people on the phone. Neither could even acknowledge that the product description changed. I think I will cancel my order at this point until Amazon can get their act together. Not taking a chance. There is no way this laptop is worth $1,800 without the 256 GB SSD and a slower processor. The *supervisor* I talked to didn't even know a SSD was a type of hard drive... sigh.

 

My X3B's LAN shows up in Device Manager > Network adapters as a "Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller" without the dongle being connected and it works fine through the dongle.

If you are not seeing it in Device Manager then are there any unconfigured devices? I doubt if there is an option in the BIOS to disable the LAN but it will be worth checking.

John

 

The Samsung NP900X4C-A03US is a laptop model that is listed by Samsung, and comes in a box stating specs including a 256GB SSD, 8GB of RAM, a 400-nit screen, and Win7 x64 Professional. If you order a Samsung NP900X4C-A03US then that is what you will get, and that is what everybody ordering one has received so far (including myself). You can simply ignore what various incompetent employees at Amazon may have told you.

 

To be honest, that's another problem for me. Cannot find it anywhere on Samsung's websites, and a search for the model turns up little other than listings at Amazon, JR and a bunch of suspect websites.

Would feel much more comfortable with it if I could find Samsung advertising it anywhere...

 

i just bought the NP900X4C-A01US which is 128GB SSD, 8 GB of Ram, not sure on teh screen but Windows Home. I've been looking into cloning this drive, adding a new 256 drive etc etc etc and came across this post. WHERE DID YOU BUY the A03US laptop. Would love to get my hands on one ASAP and return this one. How silly, a 128 GB SSD but only 52 GB available out of the box. lame....

 

I have the same concerns. 'Laura' that I talked with at Amazon did not even know what specifications meant much less a ssd drive. They have absolutely no idea. I also could not find it listed on the Samsung site although a few other sites did show the original specs. I'm not sure whether I'm going to cancel yet or wait to see if they change it again or if the asus zenbook prime actually shows up somewhere.

 

The people with permissions to change information in amazon.com items are idiots. We have people in this forum with the A03US already so we already have proof of the details for the SKU.

The marketing people at Samsung USA are also idiots. They continue to have jobs but forget to provide important details on the products they manufacture and ship to the retail channel. On top of that, the information they put on the Samsung USA website is in error, a LOT !!!

They are fumbling at a time when they need to be precise.