Samsung 9 Series laptop (ZX310 / 900X3A) unveiled

Hi, has anyone figured out what lock cable works with this laptop? There are two holes on the side and it doesn't look like the standard lock cable will fit.

Thank you

 

I love the laptop but hate the wifi issue. Never had this issue with other laptops before.

I'm using it mostly on my office two walls from the adapter. About 7m away. The signal is 4 bars and working on web is like isdn speed when the laptop is standing in normal position. If I turn the laptop on sideways, the speed boosts up.

 

I have posted on this i.e. nothing available yet. This is probably the most recent

 

Finally broke down and purchased a B01. Would have loved the Sony Z but it's out of my price range, and a Macbook Air just won't fly with my company's IT. So far:
- No major problems with the Wifi for me - my B01 indeed does have the Intel Centrino 6230, abd I'm pleased with it so far. Having gone from an older Sony S Series to this one I'm only noticing a very small decrease in reception and speed (slightly less range with N band versus G, as expected). Haven't traveled much with it however, just using the wireless at work and home.
- The laptop looks stunning - in all black with the combo of matte/gloss/metal black finish, people do look and ask about it!
- HOWEVER, my headphone/headset jack was defective on arrival - the speakers were working fine initially, however when I plugged in my headphones (with inline mic and button), then took them out, the laptop now permanently thinks the headphones are stuck in there and won't play any sound from the speakers. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling the sound drivers (Realtek) with no effect. Has anyone else had this issue? Thinking of returning the laptop, I love it otherwise but would hate for this to be a repeat issue. How long of a turnaround time does warranty service usually take?

 

Hello everyone:

I just bought the 900X3A laptop from Best Buy (Canada) and I have nothing but great things to say. I have no wifi issues at all. I checked the speed at Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test and consistently got high download speeds from 8 to 10mbs/sec from different locations in my condo and topping out a couple of times at 15mbs (interestingly, the fastest speed was in a room farthest from my router). One thing I did notice, the speeds were different from different servers from speedtest and some of the faster speeds were from servers farther away from my condo, weird. I am going to do one last check. I'm going to the Starbucks around the corner tonight to see how the speeds are. I'll update this review after my test.

What's the speeds that people are getting with their laptop?

 

One other thing, I was just on the Samsung website for Canada and found that there are 2 new driver updates, 1 for the wireless LAN,BROADCOM from Aug. 17 and the other is Bluetooth,INTEL from Aug. 5.

My laptop is NP-900X3A-A01CA.

Support for NP-900X3A-A01CA SAMSUNG

 

Do you have another laptop? If so, do side by side comparisons and post them. Curious...where are you located in Canada?

The odd thing is that we still are stuck with the original release in Canada. As well, sales have gone for a dive where you will find many stores not carrying them any longer because of the returns, others who dont accept returns and even best buy who are clearing out by dropping $400 on each system.

Truly hope you dont have problems but most come like yourself only to change their opinion shortly thereafter once they have tested elsewhere.

You may find that it shows 5 bars but downloads are very choppy. I was receiving 16Mbts (?) on that website but couldnt download crap because it was so choppy.

 

I HAVE A MAJOR ISSUE

I streamed avatar in 1080p 17GB file from my laptop via hdmi to a brand new samsung led tv. I ran it in full scale picture with power management set to high level and everything maxed.

It lagged after 20-30min several times during the movie. I had to restart the comp to get it flowing good again


Anyone had this issue? Is the graphic card to weak to handle bluray materal ? I havent done any updates..

 

I used vlc btw

 

So is the general consensus that the B01s are ok on the wifi front? I understand it is still far from ideal, but I can live with decent, but not great reception. Trying to figure out whether to pull the trigger on costco's $1,200 deal. Thanks in advance!

 

crap, so no solution yet!!!! I was planning to take this guy with me to client sites

 

Just realized, the one on the floor at best buy was locked. I wonder what cable they were using, can just buy same.

 

I'm in Toronto. Did the side by side comparison at a library with a brand new HP ProBook and the Sammy was consistently better. At least 2 mb/sec on average, sometimes more sometimes less, but always faster.

At Starbucks, both laptops sucked. 0.5mb/sec on average and could barely surf on any websites, but my Galaxy S Vibrant and my wife's iPod had no problems, weird.

It seems like it's working fine and the download testing looks good, but I haven't downloaded anything yet, so that's the next test tonight.

You're right, I bought this machine at BB on the $400 off sale and I hate the fact we have 1 model of this laptop here in Canada.

 

I know.... I am going to bet we bought systems at the same Best Buy as I am in Niagara and had to fly up there to buy ALL 4 of mine that were returned.

The airport was the killer for me. The $400 off is enticing though if you can live with limited wifi. Lets face it, it should be strong as heck in Starbucks...

Heck, if you want to take a trip down to Niagara, we can test a brand new Runcore T50 mSATA SF-2281 at 500MB/s in it! I have a few other mSATAs as well.

 

True, Starbucks should be kicking, but it was slow for both. My wife is looking hard at the new Mac Air and I must admit, it's quite nice.

 

No, it appears that at least some B01 owners still have wifi issues. This includes me, as I bought one 2 weeks ago and returned it within 2 days because it could not hold an N signal - at all. It was fine in G (once I turned N mode off).

 

Any idea when the new Runcore T50 6Gb/s mSATA SSD drives will become available for purchase? Thinking about getting one; 120 GB not bad for $300 more or less. Also, might wait for the 256 GB, any predictions on a time table for this? Thanks.

 

Runcore T50 6Gb/s 120GB EXCLUSIVE mSATA SSD Review - The Worlds First 6Gbps mSATA SSD Hits The Streets - The SSD Review

RunCore 120GB Pro V SATA 6G 50MM mSATA SSD | My Digital Discount

 

SO i just bought a A03 off ebay at a pretty good price brand new. I know of the wifi and issues - My question (as you may all yell) is should I:

1. use a nano wifi adaptor (i purchased this laptop assuming i would and at the price and size - it was worth it)

2. change the wifi card (though i like bluetooth i hear the bluetooth combo doesn't work so id like thoughts on that too)

3. send it into samsung for them to change the card to intel (i heard reports of them coming back with that in there - rather than me putting a intel in)

4. sell the laptop for a profit and save for a sony z lol -- For this to happen you better have a convincing argument as in it will cost as much to do repairs.

I bought this knowing i might have to use the nano adaptor, but you never know. I have 3 years of warranty for samsung to fix (cross fingers), and i have a feeling something may get done. If not another model will come out and they might be able to apply that fix to this one. Anyway - love to hear your thoughts - I read through most of the post saying alot but was wondering what the final verdict was. I didn't pay 1600 more like 1k ish. If this wifi thing is solved i'll probably put some hyperx in there since this is all integrated video (i dont think hyperx is good for dedicated laptops like my dell 15xps?) sweet thanks all!

 

I've been using mine with a nano USB wireless dongle, the one kalahari recommend a ton of pages back, and works great

past week, after downloading the latest updates from samsung's support page, i've noticed my download speeds have equalized.

where before, the sammy's intel 6230 wife was showing 4-7 Mbps and the usb wireless dongle was showing 15 -19 Mbps, now both seem to be in the 21-24 Mbps range

that is at a distance of maybe 18 feet, direct line of sight (no walls) to the wireless router on N

haven't tested at any distance or thru any walls - will try to later, but just got back online - Irene knocked out all power, phone lines, internet, cable & cell phone svc on saturday- got everything but cell svc back up this morning

PS - just tested it again - within 20 ft of the router, the usb wireless dongle thing gave me 24.68 Mbps, the intel 6320 gave me 25.51 Mbps

walked down the hall, about 45 feet from the router, the usb wireless gave me 21 Mbps the intel 6320 dropped to 3.8 Mbps

 

Have tested 4 different systems extensively world wide as most that have been here for awhile know.

1. That is a solution.

2/3. Many here have tested the wifi cards extensively and the conclusion seems to be that the wifi card works as it should, until it is used in the system. In Canada, the only card used is the Intel 6230 and I went through four of them in coffee shops, the office, airports and conventions. They were all useless.

3. I am in touch with Samsung and they have stated that I will be one of the fist to know when a solution is reached. Although I have been in contact, there has been no word on an effective tested solution just yet.

4. Sell it for a profit? Good luck unless you got it free. The price in Canada has dropped $400 a system and many places are not restocking. Its not a good scenario.

I had the HyperX in and loved it as well.

In the end, I would LOVE more than anyone for this issue to be fixed. I have two 1866 HyperX ram and a brand new Runcore T50 SF-2281 120GB SATA 3 SSD sitting right beside me itching to get into a system. Yes, that's parallel 500MB/s speeds from a system weighing under 3lbs.

I believe Samsung will fix it but the 'sooner than later' thought has passed. In fact all manufacturers have really screwed up this year. School is starting and all the ultras are being released in October? Did we all miss the boat here?

I am sitting thinking Series 9...Asus UX21...Asus UX31...or Acer 3951. One of these will be my system with the add ons soon enough. I truly hope its the Samsung!

 

I already tried posting from my iPhone (as it's 2.5 days since I lost power due to Hurricane Irene) but I'll try again.

Just wanted to say that my S9 A05 can connect to my distant router (in the basement) while we have no power and no PCs on. My two phone systems (both 5.8GHz) are still on and powered by a generator. I still think the problem is the Duralumin case but maybe it's more sensitive than it should be to electricity? I'm not an electrical engineer but maybe someone else can give an opinion or maybe this will help Samsung to come up with a solution?

 

i went back into my earlier post reporting the speedtest results at 45 ft distance from the router. what i didn't say, first test showed 1.8 Mbps, then i remembered we had a floor fan on, between the laptop and the router - i turned it off and speed jumped to 3.8 Mbps - i'm sure the fan's motor was generating an electical fleld, as was the TV that was between the laptop and the router.

But those fields didn't affect the usb wireless dongle thingee

and know what's like to have generator power but no cable, internet or even phone svc - just got the power back on last nite and cable/internet this morning. Still haven't got cell svc back though

 

I know this probably won't help the conversation much, but just to relay our experience, we bought a Samsung S9 B02 just a week ago (Datavision Computer Video, via Amazon.com) despite everything we read on this forum and we were literally dreading how bad the wifi was going to be. To our surprise, we are getting a full 5 bars of signal in our home showing on the computer an entire floor below and 3 walls across from our wireless router (D-Link DIR-825 router). So far no problems using it at the Starbucks in our neighbourhood (4-5bars) and on our University of California San Diego campus (4 bars). Have yet to try an airport, but so far we feel like we may have either lucked out, or have been in the presence of really strong signals? I should note that the first thing we did with our laptop was we updated every single driver on the laptop that had an update (ie. Samsung, Windows Update, etc). Not sure if that helped..?

 

Try running a speedtest and let us know the results. When I owned my S9 A03 model, I was getting full bars, but the speedtest was well below what it should have been.

 

If I may,

Quite frankly I would and do love to hear their are owners of the S9 who do not experience any probs whatsoever, even having tested outside the comfort of their office. What I would like to examine with each (and we try hear), is what is so different between that and all that have come here.

That is the answer we are all waiting for.

 

Ok, downloaded a 205mb file last night and it took 4 minutes. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I was unable to test another laptop last night, but I will be able to tonight. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Actually, folks might consider running the test at Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test several times, since some S9 owners report getting solid speeds during the first test but poor speeds during later tests (e.g., speeds over 5 runs are consistent w/ other laptops, but w/ S9's they fluctuate wildly, solid one time and poor another).

 

Thats my experience as well.

 

My download speed?

 

No, my experience is that you may get one good test but if you retest you may find that it become choppy and a terrible dl results.

 

@timriley

You said you had a new B02. Can you tell me the build month? It's engraved in the back of the case. Thanks

 

is there a lot of difference between A and B models??

 

Iirc, A models have longer warranties (3 years instead of 1), while B models have updated processors and had lower initial list prices (my guess is that the actual selling prices of A models have come down a bit by now, though).

And I assume B models are also more likely to come w/ Intel WiFi adapters, which are slightly better.

Again, that was off the top of my head, so anyone feel free to correct me.

 

I like how this doesn't have the "Ultrabook" moniker.

 

@jedc

Just FYI, since June, all USA builds have had the Intel Centrino 6230 for WiFi. Canada has always had them. Don't know about Europe.

 

I've got an A03 in France and it has a Broadcom WiFi card.

My speeds are acceptable as I 'only' loose about 15% of WiFi intensity compared to Dell and Acer computers. In download this means ~13 MB down compared to almost 16 MB on the others. My connection speed is very stable at ~20 MB.

 

Hi all,

If anyone recalls, I earlier reported my problems with the LAN dongle or its connection on the laptop port. I received a replacement dongle to see if the dongle was an issue, but both dongles needed jiggling to have a steady connection on the LAN port. In any case, the connection is dead now, as no jiggling fixes the connection and OS does not even try to connect on the wired LAN port. Maybe there was something loose and got disconnected totally after a while at the port area. Recalling others' headphone problems on the other side of this laptop, I think the quality is not as high as it should be for an expensive and fancy looking laptop, especially at the tiny ports areas. I would hate to send the laptop to service for something like this especially if all they are going to do is tighten a screw or something. Before I do call for service, what do experts say: should I attempt to fix it? Especially to those who opened up the bottom, how did the port area look and how easy was it to open up and put it back together?

Thanks in advance.

 

First, thanks to everyone for their continued reports testing WiFi.

Second, fwiw: Samsung Series 9 Special Edition | Ubergizmo

 

Interesting. Surely Samsung is not selling those with the "fake diamonds" attached! Even Paris Hilton wouldn't go for it (as I doubt they are real diamonds).

There were a couple of design differences like the lock area and the power button...

 

I assume those are Swarovski crystals, and it looks very cheesy. They will fall out after a week of usage.

I've noticed some more important design differences:
1. New power connector;
2. New keyboard layout.

At the same time, it might be only a 3D model - not a real laptop, since some frames show simple deepening where the speaker grill is located on a real one.

 

@phil1980

Yes, noticed those differences too when I looked later. They don't look like real laptops though as one would think that they would want to highlight the super-bright display and the backlit keyboard...

 

hello Kalahary,

I would like to replace my hold Vaio VPCZ with the new samsung Series 9 and I read in some previous page about WIFI problem...........is it ok now?

once I'll get one I would like to replace the WIFI with the GTM671 or the GTM679 ....only one mini pci-e socket is required in order to get the wifi and 3G connection .....


http://www.option.com/en/products/products/embedded-solutions/gtm671-679/specifications/

http://www.embeddedworks.net/ewdatas...W-Gobi3000.pdf

http://www.novamedia.de/order/gtm-671-en.html

 

LOOKS LIKE samsung support posted new drivers for the bluetooth and wifi chipsets on their support page - here's the link for the B01 page, but at the very top right, you can change the selection for the other models
http://www.samsung.com/us/support/downloads/NP900X3A-B01US]

 

@ thepinkpanter

Unfortunately,
1. someone who has contacts at Samsung has no news on a WiFi fix being implemented yet
2. no one has reported doing testing of a new model without finding WiFi problems.

So, as far as I can tell, Samsung have not fixed any existing laptops and are not shipping new ones with fixes. Samsung have not released new models for a few months now so not sure if they are working on some redesign -- I hope so as both WiFi and the power connector are two things that really need fixing.

I haven't seen mention of anyone replacing the Broadcom or Intel 6230 with those GTM671 or GTM679. I assume you've checked that the specs are compatible with the Series 9. I did notice that they do not support 5 GHz band and don't support Bluetooth. I assume that a 3G SIM card does not get installed but how does that get activated?

 

There are sites on Amazon for the B01 & B02 showing 3 year warranties yet Samsung site shows B01 as one year warranty. very confusing jimjoh

 

Apparently I am receiving a new Series 9 next week to try the T50 in...Can always hope for lucky #5

 

Should I wait for the series 9 fix (if it comes) or get a vaio z?
Thr series 9 is ULV right? How does it effect the performance ? Is it considerably slower ?
Thanks

 

It didnt affect the performance of the Samsung PM800 or Intel 310 but a SATA 3 hasnt been in yet.

 

I don't understand why people are going through half a dozen of these machines. Great new ultrabooks (presumably with no wireless woes) have been announced by several companies.

Lenovo announces U300s Ultrabook, U300 and U400 IdeaPads, we go hands-on (video) -- Engadget

Acer Aspire Ultrabook S3 hands-on (update: video!) -- Engadget

Toshiba's Portege Z830 is an ultraslim, ultrasexy Ultrabook -- Engadget

Samsung has made it clear that they're not going to correct this error. Stop giving them your money.