Samsung 9 Series laptop (ZX310 / 900X3A) unveiled

I agree. Why would samsung list more retailers and mention in stock when actually no one has it yet and are just accepting pre-order. dynamism was pre-ordering way before anyone else. I'm just pissed that they cant get the date right. Been waiting for a good while.

 

What are you talking about? There are 3 models of the 9, thats too many for you?

 

Be patient, it's just a few days. I think these dates are more accurate because it corresponds with the blogs. Dates are on Dynamism's webpage. I think the emails we received from Jeff were reversed, but the site has it right.

Samsung 9 Series [NP900X1A-A01US]
Estimated Ship Time: Shipment expected April 1st

Samsung 9 Series [NP900X3A-A03US]
Estimated Ship Time: Shipment expected March 22nd

Samsung 9 Series [NP900X3A-A02US]
Estimated Ship Time: Shipment expected March 29th

 

So, when asking Samsung directly about the release date, we get a “no comment”. When asking retailers about the shipment date, we get a number that changes every few days. Even the e-mail queries become out of sync with the web site listings on the very next day. Is this some kind of marketing scheme that will boost sales? Because from what I ‘m seeing, this is becoming a total headache and turn off in buying this laptop. Fortunately for them, I still want this laptop.

So far, from what I researched for the past week, Dynamism’s current date listing is the soonest for the arrival of Samsung NP900X3A 13” Non-Wimax version. What is everyone’s gut feeling about the chances of these dates changing again?

I’m kind of bummed out about the Wimax version not being released soon. Is it possible to enable/upgrade the non-wimax one to use wimax in the future if I see a need for it?

 

Wimax is getting outdone... I would probably wait and get something for LTE, it is faster and has more coverage... or just tether with a phone like I currently do on Sprint's Evo 4G Wimax (super fast here in San Francisco, 6 Mbps most of the time). Anyhow, if you want to swap, you can usually find a wireless card that has the Wimax, so you can swap for one. The difficulty which is unknown now is how difficult it is to open the laptop.

 

So you think LTE will become more popular than Wimax in a few years? The reason why I wanted WiMax is because I was roaming around Portland, OR and Clear 4G network worked beautifully for me. Surprising, I was getting a good 6+ Mbps indoors as well. I'm currently in an area with no 4G, but I will be in two years, so I was wondering if I should get WiMax now for use later. If you think LTE will be pretty dominant and faster, than I would definitely hold off on the Wimax since I'm not even going to use it for another 2 years.

On a side note, I'm calling up every retailer listed on Samsung's official retailer page about the 900X3A. Current replies are so wishy washy. ~sigh~ I'll chart out my findings for everyone once the rest of the replies are in.

PS. I'm really not fond with the idea of opening up the slim Samsung, so I guess I'll just have to suck it up and deal with external USB adapters.

 

Well one of the issues that WiMax has is the fact when indoors reception becomes lowered because the spectrum wimax uses makes it harder to penetrate through buildings, and walls. Current 3G standards and LTE use a lower spectrum so that really isn't and issue there. Could be a big plus for LTE, plus the nations two largest carries Verizon and AT&T have LTE out with more cities to come or have plans to roll it out.

 

Anybody know anything about where we can purchase accessories for the Samsung 9 Series? I want a sleeve that fits snug.

 

Hege, ha I was looking at that last night. Was thinking of grabbing one of the Second Skin for the Macbook Air... only problem is that it says mba on it.

 

Wow, did Dynamism change their shipment times again? Or did they swap the shipment date of the 11" for the 13" one?

Anyways, most of the store's phone operating hours close too early, but this is what I found out.

MacMall
Representative said March 22, but only one shipment came in and someone has already been allocated to it. So the next shipment will be 2-3 weeks.

PCMall
Representative said Samsung is already shipping laptops to retailers. PCmall, for this particular series, will only order on demand, so it's 5 days from Samsung to warehouse and whatever shipment method you chose from warehouse to your home.

Abt estimated 3/31/2010 but it's not set in stone

Datavision estimated 2 weeks, but they seemed kind of nervous when answering. Now that I think about it, a lot of the representatives did NOT like answering the shipment question.

Everyone else did not reply.

Has anyone already preorder this laptop? What site did you guys end up choosing?

 

Dynamism did change their ship times again. Totally odd or totally predictable (if you have waited for notebook computers to become available in the past 15 years).

As for PCMall and the others, it has been my experience that all of them basically get their stock from other mysterious middlemen (warehouses or the like). Therefore, generally, if they are 'in stock' at one general online retailer, they are available at others. And, conversely, if the notebook is 'out of stock' at most of the big retailers, it is almost always nearly impossible to find anywhere else.

Also, I guess it is possible that one of the online retailers was allocated 1 single unit and shipped it out, but that makes little sense to me either - unless others were allocated one or two as well and that does not seem to be the case.

I wonder if these machines will really become generally available soon at all or if very very few will show up. Perhaps it will really just take a couple of weeks. Seems impossible to really know.

 

Still no listing at Amazon.com

 

Dynamism keeps changing the dates which is really pissing me off. I fell in love with this laptop during CES and I have been waiting for it but i'm not liking how samsung releases products. Is it that hard to stick with one date? I feel like canceling my pre-order but my other option would be the macbook air which i'm avoiding due to the osx and old specs.

 

Latinracer, it is not their fault. Samsung is the one responsible to ship it and no one in the USA has it yet.

 

my rant was more directed towards samsung.

 

I, for one, need to purchase it through Amazon. As I have an Amazon credit card, I earn dollars over time which I have been saving to purchase this computer. It's hard to say why it is not up for 'preorder' on Amazon. Maybe they are waiting to get stock themselves; however, it seems that much of the time they sell these types of things through a 3rd party vendor as well. I certainly hope it shows up there at some point - I remain hopeful as Samsung lists Amazon as one of the online retailers.

 

I have to wonder whether Samsung have actually shipped any of these yet and perhaps retailer's availability estimates are based on Samsung's latest plans for shipping from the factory. Airfreight should only take a few days so there's still time for the product to be dispatched from the factory within the coming week and be in customers' hands before the end of the month.

John

 

Want to see what Sandy Bridge graphics are capable of?
YouTube - Confetti Special Effects Demo at GDC 2011

Most impressive.

 

Consider that all of that Sony, Dell, Lenovo, HP Sandy bridge laptops just begun shipping at roughly the same time.
The dual-core Sandy Bridge laptops have arrived! Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Sony start shipping systems -- Engadget

Perhaps the delay was a general restriction in and around Intel's new chipset?

Side note: Engadget is planning on doing a review this week.

 

Kmart is listing them well below MSRP (out of stock). Gives me hope for a more reasonable price whenever it is finally listed on Amazon.

 

Kmart may look cheaper, but is not. In fact, it is more expensive.

Kmart will charge tax (~100) and maybe shipping. Other online retailers selling at 1599 now offer no tax and free shipping.

 

The Samsung 9 series was on display at the local Best Buy. Hopefully that means the reviews will start pouring in soon...

 

Wow, does that mean I could have just picked one up now instead of going through weeks of research only to find the majority of the online stores ship this product 1 - 2 weeks later? I looked online at BestBuy and it said they can ship it to their warehouse within a couple of days.

I just pre-ordered one yesterday at PCMall too, so I'm kind of... peeved.

 

I would like to know also. I rather deal with best buy instead of retailers that I have never dealt with. At lease I can return the product if it comes to that route.

 

Bestbuy.com has them in stock but are delivered straight to your house and not the store...I'm going with this route. Forget dynamism.com even though it's mostly samsung fault but they just can't seem to keep the dates right.

I'll be paying $132.57 (Tax & Shipping) but it's worth it since I need a laptop now and I hate playing the waiting game.

here is the chat...

Update: Just ordered by the phone with a delivery eta 2/23

 

I just got back from driving to BestBuy, because if I'm there in person, they can see my glare if they give me crap. Just kidding, it's only a mile a way, but just wanted to let you guys know BestBuy is a good store to buy this laptop from. Although they didn't have the laptop on display like where quickrabbit5's best buy was. :\

The representative said it was in their warehouse in California (only the NP900X3A-A03US model was there) and for an additional cost of $34.99 (like what latinracer chose), the laptop should arrive at my house no later than this Wednesday unless a huge storm hits or something. So, after the hassle of rejecting offers for buying anti-virus software and Geek Squad Protections, I ordered it there at the store. If people wanted to save $34.99 and wait 8 more days to pick it up at their store, that's an option as well.

~sigh~ Now I have to go through the tedious process of canceling my order with PCMall, what a pain. I'm hoping this laptop will be worth all the hassle.

 

I saw the Samsung 9 at my local Bestbuy today as well. The thing really is quite a fingerprint magnet, as the display model was already smothered with fingerprints, even though it must have been out for maybe 1 day? Wish I had taken some pictures of it, but it's seriously bad when compared to other metal-clad laptops like Macbooks and HP Pavilions/Envys, or even Samsung's other aluminum laptops.

I played around with it for a couple minutes. My impressions so far are that it really just feels like a PC version of the Macbook Air.

The performance feels really snappy. I didn't experience any slowdown when web browsing or trying out Best Buy's demos. The display is SUPER RIDICULOUSLY bright. Even under the bright store lights, I felt like the display was way too bright at max. I'm sure this is indeed close to the advertised 400 nits of brightness. Contrast was also really good, and blacks were still deep even with the backlight turned all the way up. The anti-glare coating is also really nice. Color saturation looked pretty average though.

There's a few caveats though. The display wobbles quite a bit, so I get the feeling that the build quality isn't quite up to snuff, although the rest of the laptop feels decently solid. The aforementioned fingerprint attraction is also pretty lame. The edges of the notebook and the screen are also uncomfortably sharp. The Air kinda has this same problem too, but it's a bit disappointing to see that Samsung didn't try to address this issue (actually, I think they made it even worse).

From my initial impressions, I think it's a worthy contender to the Air, although I'm still not really sure if it's worth the $1599 price tag. I guess we shall see over time as the reviews come in.

Cheers!

 

I cant believe you guys are still messing with trying to order. I picked up the Laptop at Best Buy on Friday. In fact, I am typing this message on it! I suggest that you track down a BestBuy that has them in stock.

I found mine in West Los Angeles....

 

Darren, from the device manager, can you tell me the model number of the ssd hard drive?

 

Darren2525 can you tell us what the model of the LCD is?

From reviews, they say the LCD is awesome and there are LOTS of laptops with 13.3" LCDs that suck and that model could be a nice aftermarket replacement.

 

samsung mzmpa128hmfu

Is that of anything of interest?

 

Not sure how I can determone the LCD Model?

I can tell you that the display is Bright!!! Very crisp. Beter than HP or Toshiba IMO.

 

It should be under device manager
Control panel - System - Device Manager - monitor - plug and play - property - detail

 

Yup, it just lists "Generic"

 

How is the battery life?

 

Right click My Computer > Properties > Hardware Tab > Device Manager > Right click the device you want to view > Properties > Details Tab > Select Hardware Id from the list.

 

sec3346 monitor..not sure if this is corect?

what does that mean?

The Battery life is good..if you follow battery saver settings. I like to turn up the Screen Brightness all the way to High Performnce......as such I have been getting about 3 to 4 hours.

 

There should be different attributes in the drop down menus like this:

Monitor Name Samsung LTN154P1-L03
Monitor ID SEC3346
Manufacturer LTN154P1-L03

See if you can get us those values

 

Thanks. It is mSATA PCle (based on google). I am assuming the 11.6 will have the same type of a connector, and I might be able to swap it out and upgrade from 64GB to 128GB. I wonder if anyone makes a 256GB.

 

Does it have 3G/UMTS capability?

 

Also ordered mine yesterday, but I am kinda expecting an email saying my order has been backordered...

 

Still has not shown up on Amazon and Best Buy (which listed it as in stock for a whole day or two) now shows it as backordered for 2 weeks.

 

My order status still says in progress, I guess I'm too late.

so how will we solve finger print issues on this laptop, just constantly clean it with a lint free towel with rubbing alcohol?

 

How are aircrafts kept clean ?

 

I ordered yesterday afternoon and I was told it was in stock and I ask them to verify or else I wouldn't have bought it. I have yet to see any updates on my order. I'm going to be pissed off if they tell me it's back ordered.

 

I got some hands on yesterday at Bestbuy. A few things I remember:

The buttonless touchpad is nice. I greatly prefer it to what HP uses. It has a nice click to it. You don't have to press to hard, but it is just hard enough that I don't think you'll accidentally click it.

The ports on the side are in a section that pops down to reveal them. It looks nice, but there aren't that many ports. And the ethernet port is not standard (RJ45?) so you'll need an adapter.

I'm not sure I'm a fan of the brushed metal exterior. It looks ok but it is a fingerprint magnet. And it feels... weird.

On the outside edges of the laptop, it has a "lip" on the top and bottom that hangs out. I do not like this part at all. It feels sharp and uncomfortable.

The lighting in the BB sucked, so I don't think I can say anything definitive about the display.

 

What is up with all the back orders? Two weeks to boot! It shouldn't take that long to get these laptops from Samsung. A representative at PCMall told me it should only take 5 days, but then again, PCMall as well as the other Samsung listed retailers are wacked.

latinracer, you ordered before me, and when I asked the representative in person if it was REALLY in stock and he said yes, even guaranteed the shipping time. So the chances are small that it'll be backordered for you. Maybe we were the last to get the remaining in the warehouse? Then again, don't get your hopes up super high because $#!+ does happen. I just called to cancel at PCMall after they tried to charge my credit card and THEN tell me the ETA for this laptop is now 04/13/2011 instead of 3/28/2011 like the other representative had said. Talk about out of sync information.

Lennong, I don't recall that it does have 3G. I only heard about the WiMax capabilities and that's 4G. It's also not on the A03 model also.

 

well i'm officially pissed off. Best buy updated the status to back ordered. I called to at bestbuy since I canceled with dynamism and was assured by best buy that they had it in stock. The reason I went with best buy was because they had it and I didn't mind paying the tax and shipping fees. They told me 4/13. I'm really getting to the point of screwing all this. No one can get a damn date correct.

 

Are you SERIOUS?! Can they do THAT?! I'm getting ticked from just hearing about your experience because most likely, I'm in the same boat. What sucks is that I'm moving at the end of the week and if that laptop arrives after, what a pain it will be to get someone to forward it to where I am.

latinracer, you should so go b!+ch to BestBuy about this. Sue them for false advertisement or something. They told you clearly and they went back on it!

 

False advertisement? Thats funny go call an attorney and see how that conversation goes...it amazes me in how in our consumer culture people feel so falsely entitled.