Samsung 9 Series laptop (ZX310 / 900X3A) unveiled

No, way the new Z will base that much. When the current Z came out, it was priced around $1800 new for a base model, which is pretty fair when you add the fact SSD is standard in the part of the world.

 

That may be the plan, but don't hold your breath. This site mentions April, but that is for the UK. Keep checking the Samsung download site for the ZX310. Past practice is that the drivers etc. get posted there when a model goes into production.

The agreement with Dell terminated over two years ago since when Samsung have been selling some of their notebooks in North America.

I would assume not until we know to the contrary. The lithium-polymer battery may be quite thin and not designed for life outside the notebook shell. However, I may be wrong (which would be good in this context). It does appear that Samsung may be using a slower CPU which should leak less power on idle. Lightweight notebooks don't have to have poor battery life. See my Sony G11 review.

John

 

I got to play around with it at CES. They wouldn't allow people to take pictures which I did anyways. I fell in love with it. I should have taken a picture of the windows index. From what I remember member it was well above 6. The rep didn't want to release any details so I went ahead and check the device manager and other settings. The one on display had the 128gig ssd.

Attach is a picture of the specs.

 

Where should we expect this to pop up for sale?

 

I would imagine seeing it on Amazon. Amazon sells Samsung laptop and best of all, no tax and free shipping.

 

Any official dates? Does samsung take a while? Is there anyway to buy it directly or do you have to go with retailers.

 

I haven't heard anything official, but I do know the processor itself is only being released on February 20th. So the laptop would have to be released sometime between February 20th and the 28th

 

I am trying to hold out for this as it is perfect for my demands. Currently I am surviving on my old Thinkpad and desktop which is quite miserable.

 

I'm interested in hearing more about the 256MB SSD version. This capacity makes it perfect for me. The res at 1366x768 is more than comfortable for my needs.

This is the first laptop that I've been excited about in a long time. It's nearly perfect!

I hope, I hope that the battery life is adequate.

 

I'm eventually going to be updating my Toshiba R600. This one looks like a decent possibility, especially as Toshiba seems to have abandoned the R600 form factor.

But.... I haven't heard any mention that the 9 will have a dock. That's pretty much a deal-breaker for me.

 

A dock? For what?

 

A laptop docking station I'm guessing. I really don't see the need for ever having one and I don't think many other people do either.

 

Yes, a docking station. Or as Toshiba calls them, a " port replicator".

Maybe I am indeed all alone in this, but I find them incredibly useful. I have three offices. I used to have three PCs, which led to annoying problems with document syncing and constantly applying software updates at all three locations. So now I simply take my laptop with me wherever I go, and snap it into the local dock, which is attached to local mouse, keyboard, display, network, etc. Easy portability and no messing around with cables all the time.

So yes, for me docks are a must-have feature.

 

I can appreciate the need for a dock, but I seriously doubt that there is a dock for this laptop based on the port location -- this is not based on fact, just supposition.

I can appreciate the ease of just dropping the laptop in a dock, though, for connectivity. This is why I carry around a spare power cable, for just this type of convenience. It's the little things that greatly enhance usability, eh?

With this laptop you'd be forced to attach at most 3 connectors: One for a USB dock (to which a keyboard, mouse, printer could be attached), one for an external monitor, and one for power. If you use wired internet, you'd need one more for internet, unless this could be pushed through USB as well.

It's not as convenient as a dock, but it's not terrible, if you only have to do it once or twice a day.

 

Why am I just learning that this laptop has built in WiMax?!

This is a nice feature, though I wish it had an unlocked GSM/HSDPA radio. It seems that WiMax is loosly supported outside of Korea.

It would be lovely if this thing had WAN connectivity out of the box, but I can settle for tethering to my smartphone.

 

Capt'n could you educate me or direct me to some literature that would describe "wimax"?

 

wiki is your friend. here you go...
WiMAX - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Does anyone know if we can pre-order?

 

Best Buy will never stock this Samsung 9 Series ZX310 in their store.

Best Buy stocks Sony, HP and Dell laptops, but you'll never find a Sony Z in a Best Buy store, nor will you find a Dell Adamo or any HP Envy model.

Anything in this price range can only be found in store for one brand.

APPLE.

Best Buy and Apple have a cartel like arrangement eliminating Apple's competition.
--

 

I suspect it will still be available via other popular channels, though.

 

According to a Samsung Rep talking with Trusted Reviews: The laptop will do ~9 hours, which I'm assuming is with simple tasks.
Samsung ZX310 9 Series Hands On - TrustedReviews - TrustedReviews

If it can do 9 hours with simple tasks/web surfing, sign me up. Wow.

 

That price point and battery life are stupendous news! I m wondering if the previous 1600 and battery life was rated for an I7 model or just for those options. I want this thing to come to market so bad I m aching for a laptop.

 

I need a actual release date.. ahhhh. I want to buy!

 

This laptop is so close to perfect. I can deal with 1366x768 resolution, but I'm hoping, nay, praying for decent battery life when away from the socket. There's little point to an ultra portable if you're constantly searching for a socket.

This is the reason why the Dell Adamo with the new price of $799 still doesn't appeal to me. It's ultra-thin and cheap, but at 4 hours of battery life, it's hardly worthwhile. Good battery life increases user experience in a HUGE way.

Also, you may want to check out the Asus U36JC which is spec'd similarly (thin, ultralight), only is likely to have cheaper parts all around and not the same stunning facade. The price will be ~$1000. It also claims to have the same life. But the proof of the pudding is in the tasting.

I really hope that it lives up to claims!

 

u36jc uses full voltage cpu. i doubt that this thing will. i bet the i7 will be a UM model
that being said. want one too. if only it had expresscard for vidock

 

I actually had a local store with a Vaio Z in stock about 6 months back. Supposedly it was sent there by mistake. There is a Sony Outlet store in the area that stocks the Z and will order any configuration you want. Micro Center also carries the Z. Perhaps they will stock the Toshiba. I'll have to wait and see.

 

I also wonder how good the touchpad will be. It would be great if it was as good as the Macbooks. IMHO, they have the best touchpad in the business.

 

That's not the only difference. But they are similar.

 

I wish that they would at least take pre-ordering or at least the date it's in production. uhhh the waiting sucks. I should have snag the one @ CES and see how far I could get. lol...

 

Yes, I wish there was some new news at least. Perhaps an info page or a mailing list.

 

Although web surfing is a simple task for the CPU it requires the radio to be on. When companies claim "up to xxx hours" that's established using a test called MobileMark. This test requires turning off the radio. Keeping the radio on makes a big (over an hour) difference in battery life.

 

To be honest if I can get 5-6 hours on this little beast then it's worth it. It has a good amount of performance compared to a MBA and it's just a few $$ more.

 

I'm ultimately interested in how many hours I can get on an airplane, where the radio is off in any case. But hitting the theoretical max is almost impossible - usually involves turning the screen way down, and avoiding demanding applications like playing videos. Anything above 7 hours is good though, since that's about the length of a trans-Atlantic flight.

 

Any new articles or information popping up ladies?

 

How many Whr is the standard battery ? 6-cell ?

Is there a bigger battery available or will it come available ?

 

A good video I found:

YouTube - Samsung notePC 9 Series

 

My best guess is that it would be a 6 cell with around 60 Whr capacity in order to give the reported run time.

As I understand it, the battery is internal so there will be no option for a bigger one (and no possibility to carry a spare).

John

 

That video was pretty funny, but what I found interesting is it said it featured Intel i5/i7 processors, so hopefully this means different tiered pricing instead of just the rumored $1,700, which in my opinion seems way too overpriced.

 

I trhink they will be BGA (soldered) ULV versions, about which the current info is sparse. The Fujitsu P771 will have a Intel® Core™ i7-2617UM processor (1.5 GHz), but last time I looked, there was no info about this CPU on the Intel website. The ZX310 is likely to have something similar. Intel always charges a premium for the ULV parts because they have lower than normal power consumption.

John

 

If the 1600-1700 price is for the i7 processor then I would say it is more than reasonable for the design offered, SSD, processor, and quality that is offered on that piece. A loaded MBA is $1700 and it competes only in screen and HD size.

Personally, I am just interested in a $1400 or less option with an i5 and 128gig SSD.

Either way if something does not release soon I will be forced to purchase an Asus U36.

 

Yeah I hear ya, it is reasonable, but no way am I spending 1.7k on a laptop

 

any thoughts on asus u36 vs samsung 9 series?

 

I have been weighing the options.

Back lit keyboard

SSD (12 second boot up)

400nit screen

About .75lbs lighter (from what Ive read U36 is 3.74lbs)

Samsung's track pad appears to be large like a Mac's and the actual square is pushable which I prefer.

Build quality - This is a huge part of my reservations; The Asus just can't compete. I can look at the Samsung 9 and just tell aesthetically I enjoy it much more.

Battery life - This is a toss up; on paper the Asus has more, but I feel they inflate their numbers which really pisses me off. Samsung has said 6.5 hours, but not stated under what conditions and I ve heard as high as 9 hours. So right now I m grid locked on this.

For me it is boiling down to availability and cost.

 

Valid points... simply don't know if those extra features are worth the additional $600 dollars... if the i5 is around $1400 then I would definitely consider the samsung 9 series otherwise I think I'll simply upgrade the hard drive to an ssd on the asus u36 at xoticpc.com and save around $400.

Plus what is the performance difference between the U36 Intel® Core™ i5-460M, 2.53-2.8GHz and the samsung 9 series Intel® CoreTM i5 Processor 2537M (1.40 GHz, 3MB; turbo up to 2.3 GHz)?

Hate waiting...

 

See the problem is I can't find any benchmarks of the new sandy bridge processor.

 

Well thats because the i5 variants havent been released yet, Feb 20th. You can find i7 benchmarks over at Anandtech or just about any tech website.

 

Anyone getting the sense that the ZX310 will not be out until March or April?

 

These high tech companies seduce us with this cutting edge technology at the beginning of January and then make us wait until April to get it. At that point it's usually priced at a premium cost. The price drops slightly during the summer and back to school period, but doesn't reach bottom barrel prices until the holiday season. By that time there are already rumors about CES of the next year, and then the whole cycle starts all over again

The samsung 9 is one sexy thin laptop, but I'm having such a hard time justifying its $1600 pricetag. You can buy a hardcore gaming beast with the top 485M video card at that price range.

For on the go stuff, my lowly netbook atom processor gets 8-10 hrs of battery life and is also under 3 pounds.

But the samsung 9 is still nice...

 

I have a netbook also, but this is in another league:
- Thinner body
- Larger, more comfortable form factor (13")
- Luxuriously appointed (beautiful enclosure, giant touchpad, backlit keyboard)
- Very high quality display
- Powerful processor
- Descent graphics for light tasks (around performance of Nivideo G310M)
- SSD by default
- Long battery life (speculative)
- WiMax built in (good for some)

It's hard to justify the price, but there's nothing that really compares with this type of a machine other than a MBA. Is it worth the cash? It depends on what you value.

I spend my entire working day at the computer, so I'm seriously considering this machine as I understand the benefit of quality in the value equation.

 

If you're willing to compromise on the screen quality, styling, and the SSD, then you may want to consider the Asus U36JC:
YouTube - ASUS U36 is the World's Thinnest Notebook with a Standard Voltage CPU

Here's a mainstream review:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2376176,00.asp

Here are similar laptop comparisons:
http://www.pcmag.com/compare_produc...698,256533,255519,257462,257631&pt=0&sid=1565

Here it is on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-U36JC-A1...J846/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295978814&sr=8-1

It's fast (standard voltage i5), and thin with a simple, but classy enclosure. It's not as pretentious as the 9 series, but it looks at least as functional. The A1 has a HUGE (and replaceable) 84Wh battery that doesn't protrude from the back, which is nice, and will likely get 10 hours for light tasks. This is a huge plus. I also love the replaceable battery, but hate that it's Li-Ion (faster wear compared to LiPo).

It's a tough call. The u36 costs $600 less, but also makes some compromises in quality, luxury, and weight (3.74lbs). Otherwise, it's a solid contender. I have to wait to read reviews to make up my mind.

 

One could customize the asus u36 with an ssd at ASUS U36JC-A1... but PC Mag reports that the computer can easily reach 115F temperatures Asus U36Jc-A1 Review & Rating | PCMag.com. Now I am not an expert on these things but when I travel I often use my lap when I use my notebook and at those temperatures it seems like I might be cooking things I don't necessarily want to. In a way I sort of wish that they had utilized a ulv processor but it surely has the looks...maybe a second generation u36 is not far away with the release of the sandy bridge?

Cant someone do a review? - video one preferred! lol ;p