Samsung 9 Series laptop (ZX310 / 900X3A) unveiled

I completely disagree with this statement. I bought a Macbook Air for my wife. Three days later, my Samsung 9 arrived. My Observations:

Packaging: not the same. MBA still smaller and nicer.

Color: Not the same

Keyboard: not the same, in fact nothing alike. Samsung feel is different, and has backlighting. Yes, both are chicklet style, but that was invented by Sony, not Apple

Shape: not the same. MBA is much more wedge shaped.

Connections and adapter: not the same. Overall much better on the Samsung. I LIKE the folding/hidden connection ports and the Samsung. I prefer the MBA power adapter.

Screen: not the same. MBA seems to have more contrast, but is glossy. Samsung far easier to read in sunlight. MBA has slightly higher resolution.

Items that are the same: weight, integrated battery, SSD (although Samsung's is faster...and Apple's is made by Samsung, right?)

So out of a wide variety of factors, I find maybe two or three that are very similar to my wife's MBA. And both laptops were just purchased, compared side by side, so I am being objective. Some things I prefer about the MBA, others I prefer about the MBA, I see no evidence whatsoever that the Samsung 9 is a "knockoff". You might have a good argument that Samsung copied the look of the original iPhone for its Galaxy line, but I find no support for that statement regarding the Series 9 laptop.

Oh, one more thing that is almost exactly the same: wifi connection speed

 

You have not owned a 1st-gen 2008 Macbook Air.

Once again, you have not owned the Macbook Air that has been knocked off. In fact, I believe you're attempting to compare the 11-inch Air which is an even less valid assumption in itself.

And it's not even a good knockoff: The 9's flaps have an indent in a specific area in the centre of the flaps which must be 'nailed' exactly to pull them down. The Air's flaps have a ledge running the entire length of the flap which means that you can hook anywhere along its length with your nail.

I'm not talking about stupid things like colours. I'm talking about the genesis of the product design - as I said, it's not even 'inspired by'.

 

I don't understand. 900X3A is so different from MBA, or any other computer. What makes think it's a knockoff of MBA? Because it's thin? I don't mean to be rude, but besides the arrow keys on the keyboard, they are just so different. I can see why people think galaxy S2 is following iphone's look, but this one, no way.

With 178 degree horizontal viewing angle, I don't complain about it. Matt is more important to me than the slightly higher resolution. The brightest setting is not for indoor use. Outdoor you need it to be very bright to see. Its vertical viewing angle is actually much better than MBA, check the pictures below yourself.
All quoted from Review Samsung 900X3A Subnotebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews and
Review Apple MacBook Air 13 Inch 2010 Subnotebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Samsung Information
Gossen Mavo-Monitor
Maximum: 482 cd/m²
Average: 413.6 cd/m²
Brightness Distribution: 74 %
Center on Battery: 338 cd/m²
Black: 0.64 cd/m²
Contrast: 630:1
ICC File (X-Rite i1Display 2)
http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/0e6ea9692a.jpg

MBA 13 Information
Gossen Mavo-Monitor
Maximum: 341 cd/m²
Average: 306.8 cd/m²
Brightness Distribution: 77 %
Center on Battery: 333 cd/m²
Black: 0.52 cd/m²
Contrast: 640:1
ICC File (X-Rite i1Display 2)
http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/0be8096a0c.jpg

 

5.3 seems wrong. but I reckon someone changed power to high performance than then the score went back to 5.9. It might be that some setting prevented the scoring system from changing the power profile to high performance.

My 6230 will arrive on Tue and I will report the result.

 

Yesterday I went to my warehouse and pulled both the '10 13-inch and the '08 13-inch out of storage so that I could e.g. shoot pictures like those shown below. And I stand by my comments.

But that aside, I also lined up all the machines to check out the screen because the moment I looked at the 9, I realised something wasn't quite right. I'm probably more sensitive to this as well these days since my primary 'daily' is an X201T with an AFFS screen.

On a notebook, vertical viewing angle issues are fairly easy to resolve in use. Horizontal issues however aren't. Whatever the claims are, I can tell you that the 9 falls behind both the Air's - which are probably not class-leading in themselves - in this respect to a level that is a potential problem for me.

But that would be a problem I'd list without any particular irateness one way or another since it's just a regular deficiency - my primary beef is how this is essentially a white-flag 'if you can't beat 'em, copy'em' exercise in execution. As an industrial design engineer (among other things), I have all kinds of objections to that approach to design from a company as large and established as Samsung. If this was e.g. I dunno, Golden Dragon Shenzen Computing Corp ( ), then I'd understand it, simply laugh at it and remark it's not a bad ripoff at all with some nice touches.

Sorry I have bad words about your new toys (well, and mine too) and that doesn't agree with you. But they come because of my experience.

 

finally wifi and widi is working beautifully. I downloaded all drivers from Samsung
and clicking on drivers section
By the way phil1980, I used the intel card bought from cost central. I had 2 cards returning one and also returning 3rd card bought from macmall. I just need to update the widi to 2.1 which i already donwloaded from intel

steps: these are the steps I followed, before removing the broadcom card

1. remove all the intel vga driver,intel wifi driver(if you installed before) and intel widi software(if you installed before)
2. install the downloaded intel vga driver
3. install the downloaded intel wifi driver
4. install downloaded widi software
5. shut down the system
6. remove the broadcom card
7. install the intel card
8. power on the system
   all the drivers will be automatically configured

,

thanks kwanying for your links,but I downloaded the drivers yesterday prior to your comments. I 'll install the widi 2.1 and will give you an update

 

Although I agree with almost everything you pointed out except the screen (since glossy = bad for me. Pioneer Kuro plasma panels were considered one of the best while I would never buy any of those because of the reflections), what are the options for an individual looking for an ultra-light, stylish yet powerful laptop running Windows? Any product has it's pros and cons. We just trying to choose the lesser of two (?) evils...

 

Congratulations!!! Now give us your wi-fi transfer speed!

FYI Samsung drivers page (as nearly any other laptop manufacturer) updates slower than OEM's one. I uninstalled video drivers from Samsung and installed those from Intel web site (ver. 15.10.2266 vs ver. 15.10.2361). Although I don't see any difference, I prefer the latest revisions of all drivers. In addition, you would not be able to use Intel Update utility with Samsung versions (it says that you have a special version of the drivers which should be updated through laptop manufacturer's web site).

As for the list of steps, it might be useful for someone experiencing similar problems, but I never did anything you mentioned in order to make things work. I simply shut down the laptop, removed Broadcom and installed Intel, turned on the laptop and installed Intel drivers (previously downloaded). Later I found Broadcom Wi-Fi in Control panel's Programs and Features and uninstalled it. WiDi drivers were installed yesterday after kwanying's links (thank you!) - the system worked flawlessly without it.

P.S. I ordered new Cisco e4200 which is advertised as fastest dual-band 450Mbps router especially fast with 6300 on 5Ghz band. I'll post my results on Tuesday when it should be delivered.

 

I disabled all auto-adjust screen features (Adaptive Brightness in Control Center; Adaptive Contrast Enhancement in Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel => Media => Image Enhancements ), but I still see a minor auto adjustments to the contents of the screen. Any ideas how to disable it completely?

 

If I stop the adaptive brightness service from service.msc, my screen immediately becomes the brightest setting and I don't see it adjusts.

 

It's already disabled in serviceS.msc 'cos I disabled it in Samsung Control center. Funny thing, I can't reproduce it now. No changes except Intel video drivers update. I'll post if I will notice it again.

It happened before (mainly during nighttime) when I switched from a dark wallpaper to a bright window and back - looked like the system adapts the picture in response to a new bright spot. Again, it was barely noticeable and nothing close to the aggressive adaptation of Samsung or Intel features.

 

Well, it'll be interesting to see which is indeed the lesser of the two evils. The '10 Air delivers a fairly poor ~4.5 hours ekeing 'actually productive' runtime in Boot Camp out of the 50wh cell - which is 3wh more than the Samsung.

I'd be very, very surprised given that figure if I get anything less than 5.5h on the 9 given Apple's poor power optimisation in Windows and the previous-generation architecture, but we'll see. If it approaches 6 hours, then certainly in terms of runtimes that would make the machine suitable for my use.

Edit:
- Battery is right on the money. ~6 hours in ekeing actually productive use - good, same - or better - as '10 Air gets in OS X.
- Stability / temps are also way better than the '10 Air. I've never thought of the Airs as actually professionally usable tools even in comparison to other similar then-current ultraportables, and the Samsung is definitely *not* the Air in this respect. Also good.

So from a core system perspective, I guess the Samsung *is* actually the lesser evil.

However in considering the design (which, given my other notebooks, is the primary reason for getting this notebook), my reservations remain huge, as does some detail issues with build quality and also with some core engineering decisions - like the 'domestic-small-device-grade' power connector: I see this causing problems in the future for many people. Still don't like the screen - the way the 'shadows' appear when shifting horizontal view by a relatively tiny amount is definitely egregious. And the touchpad is really starting to get on my nerves.

Now the tests are over, it just comes down to me using it - I'm hopping around a lot soon so it's a good time to give it a shakedown.

 

Thanks for the update, that's good news. My wifi performance has been acceptable, so I had intended to swap the card only to enable Widi. I'm sure I'm not alone with this, so it would be great if you could provide an update with more detail about your experience with Widi, including what equipment (receiver / adapter) you are using. TIA.

 

Well, I'm pretty much ready to go ahead with the order, especially since Costco has such a long return period. I actually don't care much about the ultrathin design, but the rest of the package has a lot of features that are important to me.

Could someone post the dimensions of the box it comes in? I'll be getting it shipped to me as I go through Hong Kong, but I'll need to keep the box as I continue my travels.

For wifi, I'm thinking of sacrificing Bluetooth for the 3rd antenna. But would just finding a place to shove another antenna wire in really be as effective as a factory install?

 

I can't provide exact box dimensions since I am currently travelling (London), but I can provide my experience having also ordered from Costco and subsequently having the package forwarded to Singapore.

First, it came packed in two boxes, with the outer being so large that the USPS said it could not be sent internationally. The inner (Samsung) box was also larger and heavier than expected, and was not secure enough to be shipped on its own, so I had it repacked in another box and forwarded on to Singapore. Shipping weight was approximately 9 pounds.

As an aside, I insured the package for the full retail price and this obviously attracted the attention of Singapore customs, so the package was detained and I was forced to physically claim it at the customs office to expedite the process. Of course they wanted taxes, but I managed to sweet talk my way out of that by explaining that my previous (Vaio) had just been stolen in Singapore.

I don't know how long you will be in Hong Kong, so I mention my Singapore experience just to make you aware that delivery may take longer and be less straightforward than you may expect -- Singapore is very efficient in these matters, but I can't comment on HK. If not for the fact that the concept of a "return" is essentially non-existent in Singapore and most of Asia, I would probably have purchased it locally, albeit at a premium price, to avoid the hassles. So, you may also wish to evaluate the trade-offs of a purchase in HK vs the US.

 

Last time when I check at Costco, the laptop is sold out in the whole Washington State. And according to their record, they don't order new batch (that's the way costco sells things). So if you plan to buy from costco, be quick and make sure they have it before you go.

 

Well, it happens again. Tonight I was sitting outside on the porch with my Sammy, screen brightness at about 25%, keyboard backlight at about 75%, and when I switched from a dark image to a bright window and back the screen made some minor, but obvious adaptations. Since I wasn't able to reproduce it during the daytime, I believe it somehow connected to ambient light sensor and/or keyboard backlight setting. All settings that I was aware of were turned off, so I don't know what it is and how to disable it. Any ideas?

 

I would highly recommend to find a different retailer with a good return policy since Costco offers A03US version which comes with Windows 7 Home Premium. You can get A02US version with Win 7 Pro cheaper than the Costco's (with Costco you will probably have to pay tax unless you'll order it in a tax free state). Even without a tax why wouldn't you get more advanced Windows for the same price?

Plus you will have a good reason to return it if you would not be satisfied because A02US is advertised as Wi-Max ready laptop while it doesn't have this feature. Or may be you will be lucky and get a laptop with Intel Wi-fi module (are there any?)...

 

Hey, thanks for all the feedback re Costco and shipping (seemed to attract more attention than my actual questions!).

HK is duty-free, which is a big part of my motivation for getting it there. Otherwise I would have to get it when I arrive in UK /Europe (I don't think I'm going to US for quite a while), and that would definitely be much more expensive.

I'll have to check on repacking the box, and of course on Costco's stock - it was in last time I checked the website.

@phil, can you point me to another retailer? I haven't seen it for less than CostCo's price of 1549 + 50 for membership. I don't think you actually need a reason to return it to Costco other than 'dissatisfaction', which is good insurance to have. (I really don't know how they can do 90 days on computers, though I suppose they suspend anyone who seems to be abusing the policy.)

 

Hmm, Compsource.com raised the price since I ordered it ($1574 vs $1609), but they are out of stock.
Pricewise - Samsung 900X3A-A02 13.3" LED Notebook - Core i5 i5-2537M 1.40 GHz and they offer international shipping. No info about stock.

As for the return policy, of course, Costco is the best. I never heard Costco to suspend somebody abusing the policy. Several years ago they had an unlimited time return policy, but the people abused it by returning their expensive TVs after 1-2 years of use and buying new sets from Costco for another year or two, so they have to change the policy in regards to some expensive stuff like electronics to 90 days which is still the best. Another retailer with a great policy - KMart.

Will Costco ship international? Do they have Sammy in stock? Will they charge you tax? If it's a yes-yes-no, it's not a bad deal. At the same time, after 90+ pages of detailed discussions here you should probably know for sure all the pros and cons of the model

 

Try this and let me know if it worked:

Click on Windows Icon to bring up the "Search programs and files" window and enter: Intel, which should find the Intel Control Center. Open the program and double click "Intel HD Graphics", select "Advanced Mode", then "Power", change "Power Source" to "On battery" and uncheck "Display Power Saving Technology", save and exit.

 

Yep, that's it. Thank you. I've seen this option, but never played with it. Do you know exactly what is the difference between Maximum Battery Life, Balance and Maximum performance as well as slider position of Display Power Saving Technology in terms of performance, picture quality and battery life? How much can I gain by going low?

BTW, the Intel Control Panel is also available by right-clicking on a desktop.

 

connected the adapter(ptv2000) to denon avr4308ci which is hooked to my pioneer kuro(151) plasma. I played 1080p videos from youtube(of course from my sammy) and It worked very good.But If I open any document to edit I can see lag-definitely more than 1 ms(not a BIG ISSUE) as against intel claims.I will try to play 1080p hdcp content (my widi version is 2.0 not 2.1) and give you an update.
one more thing when you play 1080p make sure you battery settings in high performance otherwise videos will stutter. This is in general whether you play it in your sammy or play it to the tv thorugh your adapter

 

thanks

Yes I know that but I have no choice as I had issues in directly swapping broadcom card with intel one

I believe you did for intel 6300(based on your experience I tried for 6230 but it did not work straight forward)

may be as you said it might work by uninstalling OEM broadcom drivers completely and doing installation for all the intel drivers.

probably I will settle for now and try to explore other things as I already spent enough time on getting the intel card to work.

 

Thank you for testing this. I'm disappointed that samsung didn't include the widi like they mention at CES. I would like to to this mod. How much and where did you buy the card from?

 

bought from costcentral for 20.25 with free shipping but they have increased the price.

 

I bought mine at around $41 there including 2 day shipping.

 

latinracer, I have been following your instructions about deleting the recovery 20gb. I was ok until the final step of merging and my question is do I have to create a bootable disk in order to merge after I deleted the recovery ? Thanking you so much for your knowledge & helping others. jimjoh

 

No. You can merge both partition using the freeware utility in windows. Once you merge you will need to restart windows for it to complete. Let me know if you get stuck.

 

Is it this one?

Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 (62230AN.HMWWB) - Network Adapters

I don't want to buy a knock off part.

 

That's what I bought last Friday. It will arrive on Tuesday.

 

Thank you latinracer. Oh happy me!! It worked! I was hung up on move/merge and was high lighting the recovery instead of C. jimjoh

 

Glad it work. 20gig of space is a lot to have it wasted and not being used.

 

Sorry, I have not played with these settings yet ....

 

Could anyone please report back if Wifi range/speed is improved with the Intel card?

 

Hey Guys...

New here and having same problem with the wifi. I have removed back cover and determined that it is not the casing itself. I have also returned a system and this is my second, both of which contain Intel 6230 cards.

Consequently, I just completed a driver overhaul as suggested in the past few threads.

Its an odd duck as the first laptop had very distinct spikes and could not hold wifi at all. The second is extremely weak and strong in front of the router but weak upstairs and less than 20 feet away.

My wifi is through cable and I have 2 other laptops that get upwards to 15Mbps whereas this has ever reached only 5Mbps and, most of the time cannot even reach 1Mbps.

The laptop is amazing except for this and any thoughts are truly appreciated!

EDIT! I have uploaded a screen from the first showing the bumpy downlaod pattern and then the second with the two laptops side by side.

Oh as well, I removed the wifi card from the Acer and put it in the Sammy which got better reception still but nowhere nearly as good as the Acer.

 

Did you buy the two from the same place？ If there's a problem, probably that applies to the whole batch. Constantly below 1Mbps is definitely not normal. Mine is at least 5Mbps, rarely 1-3. Most of the time 8-12 Mbps. Yet I still want to swap the wifi card.

What do you mean by "both of which contain intel 6230"? Did you swap the card too? Did you use the same one on both? Then maybe it's the problem of the PCI card. Also, after you switch to the Acer card, what speed did you get? I believe you'd installed the latest driver for it?

 

Both systems came with the Intel 6230 card. When I replaced with the earlier version Intel card there was a slight but no marked improvement ans still nowhere near that of what the same card got in the Acer.

Bad batch poss as both are A01-CA models..

 

Yes, that is the one.

 

UPDATE AND FRUSTRATED.....

So... I was checking things out such as adding another antenna and checking out positioning and whatnot and placed the laptop sideways, while speedtest was on.

I then came up with this great idea to try it with the bottom plate on and then off. What a shock! Bottom plate off = 15Mgps and on was 1Mbps. I could actually place the plate on while download speed was strong and watch it drop simply because of the bottom blate.

First time ever I wish the bottom was plastic.... Going back I guess unless anyone has ideas. I actually tried twisting a wire afound the white connector and routing an open ent along the exhaust opening...no luck.

Thoughts here folks?

Pisses me off as I just install 8Gb HyperX DDR3 1866 RAM!

 

This is what i got when i did using speedtest.net
when I ran 10 times the average comes to 8 Mbits(download) and 4.10 Mbits(upload). somebody mentioned that this is not an accurate test. Could anyone tell me how to do proper test?

 

8 is not bad; but compare it to what you get with LAN.

I think speedtest is fine as is speakeasy.net. Yes, it doesn't give you actual abilities of your network within your home/apt/office, but it certainly reveals any bottlenecks you have - esp after you test a dozen plus times.

Anyway, the test to do is see what the difference is between a LAN connection and wifi. They should be the same (within a reasonable distance). The series 9 for me is about half with the router in the next room 20 ft away. This is dissapointing, but with download speeds of 20 Mbps (comcast) half for avg of 8-12 is doing ok.
Prior to updating the series 9 and new router firmware (E3000) I was getting .8-3 Mbps (see #816). Doing much better now, but I'm still not pleased.

 

I would have considered the router except for the 3 laptops that all have great reception.

Also, can I ask how far all are from their wifi source when testing? If the laptops are new A02 US models, I would be interested in knowing where the wifi antennas go as they go to either side towards the back on this model. I wonder if this may have already been addressed to some degree.

Here is a pik bottom open. The two orangish squares represent the antenna base

 

Updating router firmware may help ---

series 9 guy, I too couldn't have imagined the router would have much to do with it-it's relatively new (~6mo old). However, once I did a firmware update, the LAN speed went from 15 up to 20 Mbps, and did bump up my series 9 wifi performance.
By that point I had done so many other updates that also helped eek out a consistent 4-8Mbps, once I did the router firmware update I got the series 9 up to 8-12. And now, the other laptops I have (including another sammy RF511) now get 20Mbps across the house and 3 floors up- the series 9 might get 3-5 Mbps that far away.

 

I am going to tackle the issues of Wifi-G and trying a diff router tomorrow but I think that all can agree that the laptop has a weaker signal than most, if not all, other laptops.

Considering I lecture and whatnot, I would hate to have no signal in places like airports, schools, coffee shops and even McDonalds. I want to know I paid quality, not that it is the best in every sense but....

Also put a email into Samsung after their Rep told me that 1Mbps was excellent yesterday....5 feet from the router.

 

I now have 60 days of my 90 day costco return period left. I hope Samsung comes up with an acceptable solution to the Wifi problem - I would hate to return this laptop, as it has so many great features. But Wifi in my own home is key. I have tried to re-position my router, to no avail ....

 

Here is my test from work and home. I haven't had any issues as of yet. Have you guys tried having Samsung exchange the unit?

 

Where did you buy your sammy?

 

I will report on Tuesday when I find out mine with 6230. I hate to return it too. I have only a week to decide. I think I will keep it though. 8-12Mbps is ok for casual use (streaming).

Although I know that phil1980 got very good speed with 6300. I may consider that too if 6230 doesn't work well.

 

Hmm ... I just pulled the trigger (Buy.Com, no tax and 45 days return), but now I'm back to thinking the wifi may be a deal-killer for me. I do a lot of work in short-term residences (to say nothing of coffee-shops) where I have no control over the router.

I hope more people write to Samsung so they know it's not an isolated case or two.

It almost seems like there's a faulty connection somewhere (do the antennae go into the screen lid?). But perhaps they just didn't engineer well enough, taking into consideration the interference from the metal.

Seems an incredible defect to let through in a premium ultraportable.