Samsung 15" Series 9 NP900X4C with Ivy Bridge CPU

Im in the UK and looking at £927 here incl. cashback.

Is the ssd (u100?) really that bad? i´m not too keen about having to spend another £150 on upgrading the ssd.

Also, is there anywhere in the UK you can buy the x4D? or someone mentioned a few pages back buying the x4c-A01CH which came with an i7 and 256gb ssd,does anyone know if this is this possible in the UK?

Thanks,
Elliot

 

I wouldn't call the U100 that bad. My X3B with the U100 ran smoothly except when it was trying to concurrently dump RAM to the swap file and load data into RAM. With the 8GB of RAM in the X4C the frequency of that happening is reduced (but I swapped the SSD because I really needed the 256GB).

Google for NP900X4D-A01UK. It costs about £200 more but comes with Windows 7 Pro and is eligible for a free warranty upgrade. However, the hardware spec is basically the same. At present there's no hint of i7 + 256GB coming to UK in the near future but the current heavy discounting may reflect clearance ready for something better.. You could order one from Germany for about £1,400 but it will have a German keyboard (they used to offer keyboard swaps for a reasonable cost but keyboards are no longer easy to swap). Otherwise you get one now at at the attractive price and do the DIY SSD upgrade.

John

 

Any specific reason why i'm only getting a 5 hours battery life? I just bought this ultrabook today so forgive my ignorance please. Thought it was a little far from the advertised "10 hour" claim. If anyone can help me shed some light on this problem I'd appreciate it!

 

Thanks for the info! Samsung should have offered it for free than making it this expensive but it is good that we have way out.

 

To get the 10 hours you need to have the average power consumption below 6W (I use the Sensors tab of HWiNFO to see the power consumption along with other data). The minimum power consumption I have observed is about 5W. Among the factors that increase the power consumption above the minimum are:

(i) Display brightness - there is about a 4.5W power difference between the display being on minimum brightness and maximum brightness.
(ii) WiFi and Bluetooth being enabled - both increase system activity and use power for their wireless connections. Even if you are not using wireless connections those devices, if on, periodically search for connections.
(iii) Anything plugged into USB will use some power
(iv) Programs running in the background that waste power. One offender is animated Flash content on web pages. I use Firefox with the Flashblock add-on to keep unwanted Flash content from running.

So, start experimenting and find out for yourself what affects the power consumption / battery time. I can't claim to have run for 10 hours on battery but my X4C has promised that prospect on several occasions. I would note that Windows power management also tries to keep at least 5% of the battery in reserve by shutting down before the battery is empty. 5% can be worth half an hour.

I agree. They would cost around $2 for large-scale production of those dongles but they can probably claim that it is better for the environment to not include something that 95% of purchasers would never use.

John

 

I am kind of confused with Samsung S9 ports. I though there is mini VGA port and Micro HDMI ports and mini enthernet port. Now from what I see in the images, it is a bit confusing. In addition, Samsung's port that you shared above (VGA converter) is from micro to VGA. It seems like there is no mimi VGA port. See the attachment. From the images, it shows mini Display port.

My other question is, will the port spacing good enough for micro to hdmi converter like this one or should I consider this one, if all ports are being used?

Is it really true that upgrading the SSD will void the warranty?

The other means of extra storage is SD card. When SD card is inserted, does the card stick out, will it fully hide inside the slot?

 

Where did you find those images? (We'd love to know whether this is what Samsung plan for a refresh). The actual ports on the current production models are as shown in my NP900X4C review. There's also a photo with an SD card in the slot - it sticks out slightly from the side of the computer (so there's something to catch hold of to pull it out - not spring loaded). You can look forward to getting one of these but be forewarned that the Samsung SD card slot is slow.

John

 

I posted this in the Series 9 Windows 8 thread, however I thought others might be interested, see below...

Following the announcements at IFA Samsung has released a page dedicated to upgrading various machines to Windows 8, it includes access to an upgrade guide and a software download which apparently accesses the Windows 8 drivers. The page is here for the UK: SAMSUNG and here for the US: SAMSUNG PC Windows 8 Upgrade.

Samsung specifically referred to the Series 9 during their Windows 8 presentation which bodes well for good support and updated drivers to utilise the multi-touch trackpad etc to it's fullest, hopefully it means we'll get an optimised Windows 8 experience on our machines.

Cheers,

Stefan

 

I got that image from Amazon US Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A01US page
However, I checked Samsung website same model gallery found here and it is just like your image. It seems the amazon page is erroneous because it says 1 USB 3.0 ports which is a mistake too. The images on Amazon might be from the old NP900X4B.

I really like Nifty! Thank you! I will buy it!

I have seen the port congestion on your review and it is a close call. Will there be space for this micro to full hdmi converter like ?

New question: What is the temprature of S9 like when it is on idle (1-10 % CPU usage), on 50% CPU usage and close to 100 % CPU usage. Speed fan is a reliable tool for me to show temparature of HDD, processor cores, GPU, and power (temp1).

It is a good thing to get a possibility of upgrade. The main problem is, S9 is not a touch enabled laptop and Windows 8's default user Interface is touch based and I don't want to waste my time going back and forth from desktop to metro UI or start screen. Is there any chance that Microsoft can detach the desktop version from the touch version or add a disable/enable feature?

 

Strange. Maybe there was an X4A that never appeared but the X4B has the same port arrangement as the X4C.

It would be much better to get a short full female to micro male cable (eg this, but there may be shorter ones). This also provides flexibility against the big cable trying to rotate the converter which could over-stress the little port.

In ambient temperature about 22C: 50 to 55C on idle, 65-70C running 1 thread in wPrime; 65-72C running 2 threads (enough to trigger the noisier fan speed); 73-77C running 4 threads. IIRC, I've seen an maximum of around 80C when running 3DMark. I consider the temperature settings for the fan to be too conservative with the highest fan speed coming on at just over 70C.

John

 

Retina Display for Series 9.. you guys see this? Hopefully available for the 15!!

Samsung smuggles new Series 9 prototype into IFA: 2,560 x 1,440 on a matte display (hands-on) -- Engadget

 

I have no idea from where they brought the image.

You are right I better get short full female to micro male cable.

The temperature is high in my view. It is worrying really. What I heard a while back when Ultrabooks were first announced is that Sandy bridge chip's heat control is poor and it will improve on Ivy bridge but it seems there is no improvement. My 3 years old HP Pavilion DV4 has the following temperature on 11% CPU usage. (see attachment)

 

Samsung could make the idle temperatures lower by keeping the fan on running faster even when the CPU is on idle. Personally, I'm happy with the idle temperature. I used TPfanControl to stop the fan on my Lenovo T420s at 55C - the default setting kept the fan running, with noticeable extra noise, until the CPU was down to about 45C, which was a rare event because the cooling efficiency reduces as the difference in temperature shrinks. If you combine a 17W CPU with a cooling system designed to cool a 35W CPU then the cooling efficiency would be better, but your ultrabook would be thicker.

John

 

I see. Is there no way to control the fan in Bios setting? Do you think this temperature could negatively affect the durability of the laptop?

 

The Samsung Series 9 Ultrabooks really are gorgeous. Too bad they are so expensive…

 

Sorry, I just don't see it. The only updates I have are the Easy Support Centre & the Sound Driver. I check "All Software" and there is no mention of a BIOS Update or Updater.

Is there a specific place in the Easy Software Manager where the BIOS Update can be found?

Thanks

David

 

It's easiest to get the BIOS updater from the Samsung download site (firmware tab here).

John

 

Thanks John, to the rescue once again.

All the best

David

 

Hey guys,

I just bought myself a 900x4c-A04DE. Despite many critics I tried it and I am not disappointed. Yes, the screen is no PLS, but it's not that bad, lots of people say it is. Anyway.

I just reinstalled the OS - Windows 8. Do you know, when Win8 will be supported by Samsung? Till now I didn't find any (real) compatible drivers.
Besides that problem, I am trying to figure out which DRIVERS and SOFTWARE I need to get all HOTKEYS working. Do you know which one to install? Right now I have the "Easy Display Manager" for the brightness keys and the "Easy SpeedUp Manager" for the Slient Mode button installed. Unfortunately the second one does not work. Any ideas what I have to install for the keyboard backlight to work and the backlight brightness settings buttons?

Any help appreciated

Regards

 

Some of the answers to your questions are in the Samsung Windows 8 thread.

John

 

On my previous laptop (HP Envy) the Synaptics Touchpad had a CHIRAL SCROLLING feature which was amazing. Link Second feature from bottom.

Basically it allows you to continue scrolling without having to remove your finger from the pad, by using a circular movement. I find it a fundamentaly more useful feature than say the current Samsung/Elan three finger swipe, open Computer, rotate etc.

Any ideas on how to implement "Chiral" scrolling on my Samsung. I doubt if installing the Synaptics drivers will work....

 

There are numerous settings in the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Elantech\SmartPad."CircularScroll_Enable" might be what you are looking for.

John

 

Canadians:

Samsung Series 9 15" Ultrabook featuring 3rd Gen Intel Core i5 Processor (NP900X4C-A01CA) - Black : Ultrabooks - Best Buy Canada

1299$ / 200$ off
Expires Sept 4th

 

John, how good are you! Simply brilliant. Activated it through the registry settings you point out and viola works like a charm. Thanks for your advice, muchos gracias :thumbsup:

 

Maybe should also mention that in the Series 7 trackpad thread. It's the same hardware.

John

 

WOW, there are so many adjustments, maybe this can solve the palm problem i am having, when typing and my palm hits the trackpad - the cursor jumps around.

Anyone have a data dictionary or such, explain these items?

like: disablewhentype_delay, dynamicpalmtap, smartarea?

why would they not expose these adjustments thru the driver??

 

can you explain how to use the circular scroll, i enabled but don't know how to work it.

 

I don't know why the Elan Configuration doesn't show the circular scroll even though it can clearly be enabled through the registry and it even has a freakin video how to use it in their folder...... Bit of a fail on Samsung's behalf me thinks.

Look for it here

C:\Program Files\Elantech\Edge_Circular.avi

 

hmm I just changed value of CircularScroll_Enable to 1 in registry and restarted. Doesn't seem to be working for me like in the video.

 

Hi guys
Is there any consensus on which hdmi cable works best? I was going to buy a samsung cable but I read its nothing that impressive

 

Try changing CircularScroll_ShowItem to 1 also to see if that helps.
Mine works fine.

 

Thanks, works now with both enabled. Cool feature! Thanks to John too for finding the registry keys.

 

Hello All,

First post here. Great thread. I have been reading this thread since I discovered it sometime in the spring. I ordered the NP900X4C-A03US last week and have had it a couple of days now. I have no issues with the screen, keyboard, or touchpad. In fact I think it is a beautiful machine.

I do seem to have some software issues. My wifi is all over the place. Weak oscillating link signal and subpar throughput at a variety of different routers and hotspots are making relying on wifi a bit of an issue. I have updated the driver from intel. Is there anything anyone has discovered to mitigate this nagging little problem? My easy software manager is not very easy. Even when wired in it says there is no internet connection. My battery life is very good, but I get closer to 8 hours than 10 hours on power saver settings. Which is more power saving: the Samsung Optimized or the Power Saver?

Lastly. When I upgrade to Win 8 what will happen with the contents of the recovery partition? Will it stay Windows 7? Is it possible to do a clean install without a dvd drive?

Also. I tried using John's calibrated screen profile. It turned my screen uncomfortably dark, but maybe I have somehow gotten used to the washed out factory setting.

Thanks for a great thread.

M

 

My fan seems to be active all the time now when a few days ago it was hardly spinning at all. Only fix is to turn on silent mode. My question is - DOES SILENT MODE DEGRADE PERFORMANCE?

I cant be certain but the fan spinning seems to have occured after I upgraded the BIOS using the Samsung Easy Software Manager, or it could have been some software I installed after that. I can't be 100% sure.

EDIT - I found this earlier thread and seems to have answered my question.

EDIT 2 - I did a bit of backtracking and the only change I made to the laptop since the BIOS update was to enable circular scrolling. Once I deactivated it (returned to the default registry parameters back to 0) the fan is back to normal again. Note I checked and Silent Mode is definitely off - it always reverts back to off anyway after a reboot. Very peculiar indeed.

 

Is your fan spinning louder/more since you activated CircularScroll ????

 

Of course silent mode degrades performance... puts CPU on lower clocks...
But is enough for internet surf for ex.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2

 

No, I don't hear the fan at all on my x3c under regular usage. Also, my circular scroll setting remains enabled after reboot.

 

In windows Power Management put the WiFi power to maximum. Also, if you are not using Bluetooth then turn it off in Easy Settings. The WiFi / Bluetooth combo card then only has one task to think about. That said, the WiFi performance of my X4C isn't as good as the slightly older X3B. I have to wonder whether the Intel 6235 is a step backwards from the 6230.

Or maybe it means that it can't find the server. I wonder if the Samsung update server is barely up to the task. I took me several days to be able to download the audio driver update.

Power Saver should use less power. Key factors in the battery run time are (i) the display brightness, (ii) the CPU usage, (iii) having WiFi and Bluetooth running (if nothing else, they are periodically searching for connections), and (iv) anything plugged into the USB ports.

I don't think the factory image in the recovery partition will be affected. I think you will be able to restore the factory image by pressing F4 at the BIOS screen.

If something similar happens again then look on the Processes Tab in Task Manager to see what is using the CPU. Sometimes a program doesn't close properly and leaves a thread stuck in a loop.

John

 

Thanks for the response. I discovered the wifi power management yesterday, and it has settled the signal a bit, but it still seems weak. I did finally get the software manager to download the bios update. That sound driver is still being coy though.

How many watts of power consumption should a pretty conservative combination of scaled back screen brightness, cpu usage, and the other various tweaks show? I can't seem to get it below 8 to 9 watts and that is with the screen dimmer than how I would prefer to use it. I seem to remember someone in this thread getting it down to 5 watts, but that was on a flight, I believe, with wifi off. Is the current power consumption grid in the easy settings panel a pretty accurate assessment of the systems output?

If the next iteration of this machine has a pls screen, will that screen use more or less power? I am not really as obsessed about battery power as I may come off, but I'm a bit curious how battened down I can get everything.

In power saving mode, with wifi off and screen at half brightness, I managed seven hours and thirty-five minutes of battery. The screen was on the entire time, and I was using word 2013 beta and listening to music on zune. Under those condition, I would have thought it would get closer to ten hours. Any thoughts?

 

That's probably me reporting on getting 5 to 6W power consumption. That would have been reading through a Word or PDF file and nothing else. I use the Sensors option in HWiNFO to check the power consumption but it actually generates additional CPU activity (but Easy Settings may be even worse in that respect). You have to do some trials to see what is using the extra power. Dropping the backlight from 4/8 to 3/8 may save 0.5W. Try something other than Word 2013 (beta software may not be optimized in terms of CPU efficiency) and what does turning Zune off do for the power? You can do a lot of trials in an hour by trying different operating conditions and checking the battery drain.

John

 

Hey does the series 9 15in screen still suck or did Samsung update it.


Pure ICS only

 

Does NP900X4C has carry case or sleeve included?

 

The Series 9 15" screen never did suck. It's as good or better than many 15" screens on the market. It just isn't as good as the 13.3" PLS screen.

No, Samsung has not updated the Series 9 15" machines with a PLS screen yet.

 

Not in my part of the world (UK). I use a delightfully inexpensive thin neoprene sleeve which doesn't add significantly to weight or size.

John

 

Hello everybody!
I decided to register myself after a long while of anonymously-reading ! ha!
I'm an Italian guy who's interested to buy a Samsung Series 9 with Ivy Bridge, Core i7, 8gigs of RAM and 256 of SSD.

During the IFA event, Samsung showed a new version of SS9, with Windows 8 by default and Magnesium case.
So here's my question: After the launching of Windows 8 in October, every new Samsung Series 9 will have Windows 8? Are there any difference with the currents models with Windows 7, or I could upgrade without problems?

(EDIT: That's because online the SS9 costs 500-600€ less than the original 1699€ and I'm quite sure that the new SS9-Win8 version will have full-size-price for some months.. I waited a lot and now that the price is ok, Samsung releases a new version.. )

Another question: The new 15'' inch will still have a non-IPS screen?

Thank you to everybody!

 

Hey,

I just got a new 15" series 9, and I'm pretty happy with it. But I just had a few questions - I apologise if they've already been asked.

Firstly, if I remove the recovery partition is the warranty voided. And, secondly - can you recommend a case for this I'm not sure which ones will fit.

Thanks,

 

Samsung will be providing Windows 8 support for a long list of notebooks. Most notebooks will ship with Windows 8 once it is officially released but, if you buy a notebook now, then you can get a Windows 8 upgrade for a very modest cost. The magnesium cased Series 9 is already available (with Windows 7). It is the NP900X3 D and NP900X4 D. There have been no rumours of any significant impending hardware changes. If anyone has seen a 15" PLS panel then they are keeping quiet about it.

None of us who have deleted the recovery partition encountered a clause about it invalidating the warranty. It's there for user convenience - you can reinstall Windows using F4 in the BIOS and you can keep your own backup of the C partition. However, not everyone wants to spare the space it uses.

There may be some suggested cases in this thread.

John

 

Unfortunately the NP900X3D is not available where I live (in the USA). It might be available in Singapore and other locales, but it is not globally available at this time. I do hope that changes.

I also hope there will be changes this fall. It would be great to see Samsung step up and offer 8GB of RAM on the 13.3" Series 9 NP900X3D. Like everyone else, I would like to see a PLS panel on the NP900X4D.

There is new competition on the market and emerging in October. Samsung would be smart to offer these changes this fall.

 

what would be the benefit of a magnesium body?

 

This is shame for Samsung. How could we find a slim carry case? Sleeve is not good for me as I might drop it. I have to find something like this. But the linked carry case will definitely be big for the slim NP900X4C even though it is listed compatible. I don't want my laptop to dance in the bag while I am moving. Samsung should have made a compatible carry case for it.