Samsung 9 Series laptop (ZX310 / 900X3A) unveiled

Did anyone else get a back ordered e-mail from best buy? I have yet to get any which is strange.

 

I was joking. Just venting some frustration at how the information given to consumers are so flaky.

latinracer, I thought you got the back ordered e-mail since you were pretty ticked. I checked BestBuy and input my Order Number at

https://www-ssl.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcat17038&type=page

And it shows a tracking number for shipping. It "seems" like they ARE shipping the item for those who ordered in time.

 

Just got the back order email.

What time did you order yours?

 

Yesterday, 6PM USA Pacific time (3/20/2011). They didn't ask for my e-mail, so I get no notifications of what's happening at all. All I have to go by is that order status link, which doesn't say much.

Did they already charge you? If so, I thought they only do that if the item has been officially announced that it's on its way to you?

 

//// I ordered @ Sun, March 20, 2011 4:08 pm. Why did I get back ordered?

Well my credit card reflects the laptop price. So it looks like it has been taken out. I'm trying to hold my anger but i'm not happy with bestbuy at all.

 

latinracer,

I totally don't blame you. It was already frustrating dealing with all the other retailers. Have you tried contacting a representative at BestBuy again to know what's going on?

Hang in there! Once you finally get this Laptop, it should definitely be worth all the trouble!

 

I called 3 times and each time they have a different excuse and the same old 'i'm sorry but I can do nothing for you'. The last person I called kept saying that it was impossible for people to get tracking number because the laptop has been back ordered since last week. I just gave up already. i'm debating if I should cancel my order with best buy. I sure don't want to deal with any other online retail as they can't seem to get any information.

 

I'm totally speechless. The tracking number I received is valid. Shows up on UPS. Model shipped is Samsung 900X3A-A03. I thought BestBuy was pretty cool, but this seems like a game of luck which is not very nice to consumers. I seriously hope they didn't send me the wrong laptop.

I don't know what to say. I'm out of ideas except maybe nudging you to go to the store personally to strangle some correct answers out of a representative (that's why I went in the first place) but I guess if they don't have it, they don't have it.

Best of luck if you decide to go to a different retailer! Although they all seem the same to me.

PS. How the heck can it be backordered last week when Darren2525 got his/her laptop last Friday? Does that mean we have to personally walk into a BestBuy store that has it there physically?

 

Well, for those of us who have waited some time to try to get this notebook, this is all a bit of a bummer. For some reason, there seemed to be a very few units sent out last week from Samsung for a first shipment. But, it must have been pretty limited. Beyond this, no one seems to think they will be getting any in stock for weeks to come (and then who knows if that will be equally limited in number). All I can say is that I have been down this road before over the years and it's just hard to say how long it will really take before yours arrives. If I had alternatives, I'd probably make my order at one of the big online retailers (like PC Mall) and wait it out. I pretty much have to wait for it to show up on Amazon before I can place my 'preorder'

 

Agreed. I was told it was coming out in February. Then I heard at the end of February it was released in Korea only. USA will receive the laptops in March. Now it's the end of March and all of the online stores I have looked up "began" saying it will come in at around this time, but now they are pushing it back to the beginning of April. Some even mid April.

mcinoman, you suggest PCMall? I thought that was a good choice too because a representative said they are getting them from Samsung directly, but it seems like this is not the case after another representative said 4/13/2011. but i guess if it's a credible store, it'll eventually get this laptop out.

I understand that business do what they do for a reason. I can even tolerate it a bit when dates are pushed back, but I don't like it when one person says one thing while someone else says something else all in one day. It tells me that whatever they have going on is very disorganized. It almost feels like I'm being lied to but hay, I'm not flaming because those representative tell us what the company tells them. One thing I can certainly see is that their system is causing a lot of frustration for others.

 

I suggest PC Mall only because they are one of the largest online/mail order retailers for a number of years and their prices are usually in the middle of everyones - not the highest, not the absolute lowest. I suspect they would have as good access to the middle men (warehouses) who actually carry these things as much as any other (because they do more business overall from them - I'm guessing here - have no inside info). As I have suggested before, I think very very few of these dozens of online retailers who sell computers actually have any stock of most things on their own - that would be expensive and inefficient. I guess they could get them directly from Samsung, but I think that's unlikely also. If anything in all this makes little sense to me, it is that Samsung would begin to announce availability on their own web site (the image for this laptop pops right up at the top of their home laptop page now) and really not have the thing available to most consumers. Just gives people a bad taste for how a company does business even if you like the product in the end. But what do I know about running a company!!!

 

Same here. ~sigh~ From what I'm seeing, it must be tough for sellers to deal with this too as well as consumers.

Anyways, latinracer. If you haven't already, I think you should just stick to BestBuy since you know that store well, plus you can personally come to the store physically. Changing retailers doesn't really make a difference at this point in time because they all seem to be the same. PCmall seems popular as well.

 

I have decided to wait it out with best buy. Just sad that they screwed up my order and yet couldn't explain how they stock items and who has priority. It seems to me that ordering from the store would probably put you on top of the list compared to ordering from the website. Bestbuy didn't offer anything for the inconvenience. I didn't mind paying the extra (shipping + tax) for the convenience of having the option to return the item to the store which most likely won't happen.

If anyone has the laptop delivered please post up a review and some pictures. That would at least keep me happy until whenever I get mine.

 

when I picked up my laptop, there were two left. The salesman was surprsingly knowledgable. He said that they got them in stock Thursday and that the store received 10 units. If I were you guys I woudl call aound and find a Best Buy with the laptop and just walk in.....

 

Darrent2525 mentioned something interesting. I went to BestBuy’s website and searched to see if they have the laptop in stores. So far, Washington, Oregon, and Florida don’t have any, but when I was searching California, I saw

Fresno, CA
Bakersfield, CA
RICHFIELD, MN
ALBANY, NY

stores stated “Available now Pick up 03/22/2011” When I searched, I didn't even put in my zip code, I searched the entire state. Didn't want to go through all 50+ though.

Latinracer, I know you decided to wait, but if you’re curious, do you want to try searching around your area to see if there’s any in stock? Maybe even in areas that are a few hours away?

 

Wow, people seem incredibly impatient these days...

In any event, here is a video of the 11.6" series 9.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/22/dnp-samsungs-ultra-thin-11-6-inch-9-series-laptop-appears-in-it/

 

Thanks for the video Capt'n Corrupt; I hope the USA 11" version comes with 128GB SSD too.

If anyone happens to find a site that has an 11.6" version with 128GB instead of 64GB for sale, please let me know.

 

It looks like Samsung is starting to try to sell this product: I've just had an email from Samsung UK with a brief description

and a link to this web page. [Note that the model number here is not ZX310 but it looks to be the same hardware.]

John

 

So I called (3) local best buy stores and this is what they said...

 

This guy says 5+ hours of battery life but he is an MS evangelist. I haven't had time to watch the video yet but thought it might be of interest. VIDEO: First impressions of the amazing new Samsung 900x

 

German review is out
Test Samsung 900X3A Subnotebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

Summary:
+ Weight
+ Size
+ Battery life
+ Performance (not for Games/3D)
+ Screen
+ Keyboard & Touchpad

- Connectivity (Only a few ports, no VGA)
- No Docking Station
- Long loading times for battery
- Prone to finger prints


Overall 89% is a very high rate on this website, especially for a subnotebook.

 

So just got it today from Best Buy - beautiful machine BUT the deal-killer for me is VGA out. I assumed there would be a cable in the box to allow for this but not.. any solutions on how to get a projector hooked up to this? Most of my clients will have VGA only projectors

thanks!

 

What is vga? Just kidding. Most projectors for presentations have dvi too, so you can do mini hdmi to dvi easily. I would be interested if there is a vga option also.

Maybe something like these will work.

http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Mult...1TP4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300854602&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/IOGear-Wirele...MB0S/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1300854602&sr=8-3

 

Ebay also has some possible adaptor cables including this (which specifically mentions outputting a digital VGA signal) and this.

John

 

thanks for the quick reply... but to complicate, the Samsung outputs a mini-HDMI

 

so if you came across a projector with an HDMI-in, you still wouldn't be able to use it w/o an adapter? terrific.

 

I'd love to get your impressions on the screen, sound, battery life, fan noise, keyboard, trackpad, and cooling.

Also, does anyone have experience with Samsung as far as warranty support? What's the typical turnaround for say a keyboard or LCD issue?

 

i still cant find this laptop anywhere . checked a few best buys and they don't have them. just placed an order through JR hopefully will get it soon!

 

I've been following this laptop for a while and I got the chance to play around with one at Best Buy for a quick moment. I thought I'd share some first impressions for those that are interested.

First the positives ... The overall design is very striking in person and it definitely has GREAT looks. While holding the laptop closed, it definitely feels very good in your hands. It doesn't quite feel as slim as they advertise it to be (I don't doubt that its thinner than the Macbook Air, but it sure doesn't feel like it), but it feels sturdy. The screen is EXTREMELY nice. Samsung advertises the screen to have 400 nits of brightness and it really is EXTREMELY bright. I was worried that the screen would just be bright and not be good quality, but it also seemed to have very good clarity and contrast.

Now on to the bad, the chassis of the laptop feels very good, but once you open it up and start using it, there are some problems ... The keyboard is pretty mushy and has A LOT of flex. It looks like they are using a separate deck for the keyboard and as a result, the keyboard exhibits a lot of flex. I found typing on it to not be very pleasant. The touchpad is also not that great either. The texture of the pad feels pretty good (better than the clickpad on my HP Envy 14), but multi touch gestures were also a little wonky. The touchpad doesn't compare to the Macbooks (I wasn't expecting them to be as good as the Macbook, but I was hoping for an improvement from previous generation's Clickpads).

These are just some general observations ... I have no doubt that this laptop has more processing power than the Macbook Airs ... but I would still go for a Macbook Air over this laptop.

 

just curious, for those that have seen it at their best buy's, where are your BB located?

 

I'm located in NYC, so I went to the Flagship Best Buy in Union Square.

 

What's the factor that tips you over to choose the Air instead?

 

I hope this doesn't agitate anyone in this thread, but since I am no longer sure how long it is going to take me to actually get one of these computers - does anyone have any thoughts about running Windows on the MBA (either with boot camp or through a VM like Parallels). It seems I can get the maxed out MBA (256 GB HD, 4 RAM, top CPU) for about the same price as the Samsung 13" - I guess I'd just have to spring for a new copy of Windows 7 for $200 (but then I guess I get both OSs).

I am sure there are countless threads about running Windows on MBA but I wanted to see what the people who are considering the Samsung thought about this.

 

I can't justify getting a mba when both my <2 lb Vaio G2 and G3 from over 2 years ago have the same Core 2 processors. I also hear the battery life is not as great when on Windows on a Mac. I would have bought the mba if it has an i3-i7 processor, but I guess Samsung beat them to it.

 

Apple's MacBook (hot) Air problem - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Tech

I was considering getting a macbook air, but i hear countless stories about the heating problem. I don't prefer either one over the other (mac vs pc), but I really like the samsung series 9 laptop more than the macbook air. It has a slicker design, the color is nicer, and I would rather have a strong sandy bridge processor which the macbook air probably won't get anytime soon.

They are both equally portable IMO. The .1 inch smaller than the macbook air and the few tenths of a pound less probably costs hundreds of thousands to engineer but won't be noticable by anyone here .

 

Does the article address the 2010 model as well? (It was written in 2008 so, it doesn't look like it does...though i did skim it).

The only killer for me is the price, but hey, it's awesome for the price.

 

How fast does it boot up from off and hibernate?

 

I got mine just a few minutes ago. So I got frustrated and canceled my online order since every time I called they provided me a different date and some said that it was discontinued or backordered with no eta. I decided to see which states near me had any in stock. Arizona had nothing, WA didn't have anything as well. (My brother lives in wa and could ship it to me) I look into california and it said available for pickup. I decided to call the local store to double check. A sales lady was kind enough to look in the inventory but she wanted to physically confirm that they do have it. 3 hours later and I hear nothing. I call back and she tells me that she is still looking for it. A few minutes later she calls me and says that she found it. It was really well hidden for some odd reason. I told her to hold it for me and that I would make the 7 hour trip to pick it up from las vegas.

So i'm getting ready to head out and low and behold my bro in law family lives about 45 minutes away from Fresno, Ca. They are coming to visit las vegas so it was perfect timing. They pick it up for me and brought it. I save myselft a 14 hour round trip. I'm really happy. I'll post pictures tomorrow. Just pick it up a few minutes ago.

Since I bummed about not having the 256GB storage option I have decided to use vLite (Vista Lite) and reduce the size of windows 7. That should give me plenty more space.

I can't believe that Sony didn't include the hdmi-mini adapter. For a $1600 laptop and they couldn't just add a $5 cable or adapter.

Store info...

Has anyone found a nice sleeve bag?

 

1) is the screen bezel made out of duraluminum also or is it glossy plastic?
2) how are the port doors? are the port doors on the 11" different from the 13"? i'm worried those might become loose over time
3) how's the heat, fan, and real world use battery life?

 

Win7 can probably be gotten for $100 online. Definitely check out the bootcamp thread in the Apple section. I'd be concerned in what those people think about how the battery life is (it won't be as good as when you're running osx) and the temperatures. Depending on how desperate you are for a laptop now, you might want to wait a couple of months for a sandy bridge MBA.

Some of you people are insane.

 

My thoughts exactly. Hope its worth all the effort though.

 

It boots up in about 2 secs. Amazing.

Also, let me mention how quiet this laptop is. First, the fan only comes on intermittently. When it does come on, it is VERY quiet. YOu have to pay attention to notice it. It also quickly shuts itslef down.

 

Boot up from complete power down is 2sec? That's impressive.

 

The reviews are coming in and they are largely positive. As posted before, notebook check has just posted a VERY positive review:

Review Samsung 900X3A Subnotebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

- 9 hours idle! 5.5 hours surfing/video!
- Runs very cool in idle (hot when maxed out for a long time)
- Very low noise
- Beautiful case
- Performs very well (3D kinda weak)

As promised, this is looking like an incredibly solid laptop, perfect for the professional on the go or the affluent. This seems to be the only product that offers this level of performance and good-looks. Wow.

 

Hi,

could sombody please try the mulit-touch gestures of the touchpad? Does two-finger scrolling work as smooth as an macbooks?

Thank you...

 

Oh by the way there is another very positive German review: Samsung 900X3Ai5-2537M - Test - CHIP Online

They say its superior to the Macbook Air. It's strange in Germany we have the reviews and you already have the notebook. I would prefer it the other way around

 

Laptop Magazine has an unboxing

There are "install CDs" but no optical drive.

This is retarded.

 

Twenty-four seconds to boot according to Laptop Magazine.

Twenty-seven seconds for the MacBook Air.

 

2 secs probably from resume... all these videos and reviews, I want mine now. 11.6" still not available anywhere.

 

Interestingly, I don't think that Series 9 actually 'sleeps'. Rather it hibernates as I understand it with zero power consumption (according to the marketing materials on the Samsung site). If true, the MBA will continue to drain battery, whereas the Series 9 will have the same amount of charge as when it suspended. The down side is that you have to wait 6 seconds on wake up. Not terrible.