Samsung AMD-powered ATIV Book 9 Lite NP905S3G / NP915S3G

The AMD-powered Samsung ATIV Book 9 Lite was previewed at the Samsung show in London on 20th June.

Amazon UK is now listing this notebook as being available for pre-order for release on 19th July. There are two models:

(i) NP905S3G without touchscreen for £499 in black or white

and

(ii) NP915S3G with touchscreen for £599 in black or white

Specification data is sparse at present but reports from 20th June indicated that the display is only 1366 x 768.

The price loading for the touchscreen version is surprisingly large. Perhaps Samsung expect people to go for this version.

John

 

Any chance of switching out the panel? I assume it would be $500 US, which is pretty cheap.

 

Or maybe Samsung will offer the unit with a better panel once the other Series 9s have moved to FHD or higher.

A bit of research suggests that the CPU is the AMD A6-1450. It's a long way down the notebookcheck benchmark list.

John

 

They expect it wrong , for example I would pay extra for the non-touch matte screen. Otherwise very interesting laptop, probably I'll buy few for parents, girlfriend to change their current monstrous laptops.

Any info if coming with backlit keyboard?

 

Ouch. 1851 vs 3892 (i7 3537U) on cpu bench is a big step down. It's no wonder intel can charge ridiculous prices if this is their competition. Of course my sandy i5 is only 2304.

 

There's no trace of the backlit keyboard (Fn+F9 / F10 controls in the current User Manual (which is available to download through SW Update) so I don't think that it is on the agenda. The name on the manual folder suggests the model code name is Petra-13.

However, TPM is an option listed in the manual so Samsung must be thinking of having some corporate customers.

The CPU won't win any races but combining it with an SSD will probably make the computer feel more responsive than many notebooks with a much faster CPU coupled to a normal HDD. I expect it will handle web browsing and office apps smoothly which will address the needs of users who want more than a tablet but less than a big notebook. Perhaps a more up-to-date version of the Samsung NC20 (which is still in daily use).

John

 

Can the RAM and the SSD be upgraded? What about the wireless card?

 

But wait a second, watching carefully the amazon's picture;



I can see signs on the F9 and F10 keys. Aren't those signs indicates the light?

I wonder if it use mSata or 2.5" 7mm SSD...

 

Yes, those are definitely Fn-keys to control keyboard backlight.

 

The RAM is probably soldered (and most likely only single channel) but the SSD is likely to be socketed. However, we won't be sure until someone gets one and opens it up.

But is the picture of the Series 9 Lite or borrowed from another Series 9? I'm sure the Lite's display won't look like that when viewed from above. I would trust the keyboard photo (presumably taken on the 20 June Premiere) more:

Samsung Ativ Book 9 Lite is a tiny, quad-core laptop (pictures) image 6 - CNET Reviews

At 17mm thick I would expect it to have mSATA or M.2 SSD. Having a 2.5" drive just adds weight and cost to the basic board.

John

 

You mentioned having access to the service manual, can you post a link to it?

 

You are probably right with all these, this site also says no backlit keyboard. And Number of memory slots 0, Maximum internal memory 4GB.
However for internet browsing 4GB Memory is enough, I just miss the backlit keys very much...

 

Not the service manual but the user manual (guide). You can get it through SW Update (find the NP905S3G). Note that it is a 500MB download because they have put PDF manuals for innumerable languages all in one package.

John

 

I agree, that's overpriced. At $500 I would try it out as a beater, but that cpu is significantly slower than a sandy bridge. And it weighs significantly more, has a poor screen.

 

Look like the US version screwed up with touchscreen.

 

Customers will have a choice: There are also a couple of USA non-touch versions in SW Update's database.

John

 

The Book 9 Lite is currently in stock at Amazon UK.

John

 

Slower than sandy bridge? It's slower even than intel C2D P serie... I saw this in my store, so I was curios to look up that processor. Any ideas about battery life?
Even my 2 year old v131 looks great. I can't even imagine what battery life i could get with Haswell. Even now with i5 2430 wifi browsing is possible 7-8hours...

 

We wait to see but a slow CPU with an SSD will probably feel faster in everyday usage than a faster CPU with an HDD.

John

 

True, but I have put ssd myself Shame i can't make haswell+6cell combo

 

I know what you mean. I've pondered whether the AB9+ board would fit in my old X3B. I think very unlikely.

 

Saw the lite at best buy. The screen looked washed out. Very poor display even for a tn panel. Maybe worth 500 dollars tops.

 

Was that a model the glossy (touch) or matte (non-touch) display? I have the matte one on my desk and consider it to be good for a TN panel (it's made by AUO - this model according to HWiNFO although that link says it's glare). The weak link, in comparison with the other Series 9s, is the 250 nit brightness which is just about adequate but has no reserve for bright conditions.

John

 

It was gloss

 

Thanks. Until we get some more sightings I will have to wonder whether the touch coating is reducing the quality.

One of the Book 9 Lite's major strengths is the low fan noise. A maximum power drain under full CPU / GPU load at the mains socket of less than 15W means that the fan doesn't have a lot of work to do to dispose of the heat.

John

 

Consider AMD's Temash is competitor to the Atom and AMD's Kabini to the Celeron and Pentium. Comparing it to an i7 doesn't mean much.

Good to see this entering stock. Hope they'll make an A4-5000 version with at least a 1600x900 screen.

 

Yeah, but my NP900X3E-K01US with i7 3537U 2 GHz barely makes any noise at all. Most of the time I can't even here it. If I'm doing more cpu taxing things I may hear a faint whir. If that is the biggest strength over the book 9 FHD then that is not saying much. I just expected a bit better screen on the lite. Underpowered AMD, and crap display is WAyyy over priced in the US. I mean its 800 bucks!! For two hundred more you can get the series 7 ultra with FHD, metal construction, i5 etc... its 3X more machine then the lite. Bad value.

I definitely see Samsung doing some heavy discounting on the lite. So if your interested, just hold on a few months. I see this dropping to around 600 in 2-3 months. Same thing happened when they released the galaxy tab 2 10.1 It was like 400 bucks and had a 1 ghz processor. Its an ok tab and I eventually bought one for 280 dollars which is what its worth. Only took a few months for Samsung to come to their senses on the tab 2. I think they will quickly see the lite is over priced with poor sales.

 

Cannot we start some short of promotion against glossy touch screens? I see customers not really interested of touchscreens in laptops and the glossy layer + touch coat reduce quality, adds weight and price. I see future laptops more and more with glossy touchscreen coming, so will be very difficult to find the one with good screen.

 

I think that may be a matter of opinion in some instances. I for one have taken several looks at the Vaio pro 13 and the ATIV book 7 both of which have touch, both of which compare favorably with matte screens including the ATIV book 9 that I have seen. Also, I use touch all the time for phone, tablet, work monitors and really enjoy the feature. In other words, there is definitely a market for touch screen laptops and you may not be the majority that you think you are in regards to wanting non-touch matte screens. In regards to the ATIV lite, I too saw one Best Buy today. I was impressed by the body styling and comfort but was absolutely blown away by the incredibly poor screen. As mentioned in a previous post it looked completely washed out and fuzzy. Very disappointing esp at the 799 price point. John, you mention you currently have a ATIV lite. Care to share your impressions?

 

I'm sure that Samsung will be watching the sales statistics given they are offering both touch and non-touch versions of this notebook in most markets (although purchasers may be influenced by the price difference). Good sales of the non-touch version could be used as evidence to tell Intel to stick to it's core business of producing chips and not specifying notebooks.

As noted above, my initial impression of the non-touch Book 9 Lite's display was very positive.

Performance-wise, my Book 9 Lite has a Samsung mSATA SSD so no bottleneck there. However, the CPU will will no races (and can't properly utilise the SSD performance). The graphics are relatively better performing but still behind Sandy Bridge. However, that's not a fair comparison considering that the AMD chip is an 8W part which hardly needs a cooling fan so comparison should be made with netbooks and, in that context, the AMD A6-1450 is somewhat faster than the Atom family. And, with the SSD, startup time is suitably brief.

So what market is Samsung aiming for with this model? Perhaps people who want a cheapish ultraportable with a proper keyboard, etc rather than either a bigger notebook or a tablet. However, until they shave 25% off the price tag there's too much overlap with the bottom end of the Series 9 range (notably the Sandy Bridge NP900X3D - UK customers can buy it for £630 here). Perhaps, if they offer a faster AMD CPU and the 1600 x 900 PLS display at the current price tag then the product could generate a lot more attention (but 1366 x 768 is plenty of pixels for the majority of customers who are happy with 1366 x 768 on a 15.6" panel aren't going to want a higher resolution).

John

 

While this is true for Europe, but in USA for example the Ativ Book 5 does not have matte version anymore. Not sure how about other models, but if the availability reduced of matte screens, will be difficult to tell from sales.

 

Using task manager, what does the processor clock speed behavior look like? Does it mostly stay at 1.4GHz or 1.0GHz with the occasional jumps to 1.4GHz?

What does CPU-Z and HWiNFO64 say the CPU is?

Would it be hard to get inside to see the internals?

What is the ram configuration?

Sent from my XT557 using Tapatalk 2

 

I bought the ATIV 9 Lite from TigerDirect, and I agree the screen is a disappointment. I took it into Best Buy to compare side-by-side with the other computers there. It appears quite washed out next to anything in the $1000 price range. I thought it was on-par with a $350 Toshiba that was there, and also similar to last year's model for the Samsung Series 5. I'm not sure if this is average, but I was hoping for a high end TN screen, which this is not.

In terms of performance, it feels responsive enough to me and startup times are very brief. CPU throttling in particular functions very well:

When plugged in, my machine is stable above 1.3GHz under load (using High Power or Samsung Optimized power setting). At idle on Samsung Optimized power setting, 0.8GHz seems about average with oscillations above and below.

When running on battery, it maxes out at 1GHz under load (even with High Power setting) and is stable at this speed. Idle on battery is close to 0.6GHz average. (I wonder if Samsung is using the hardware switch to 8W when running on battery?)

There is also an Eco mode and Silent mode (with Fn key activation) in the Samsung Settings that locks the processor down at 0.6GHz (Windows Power Saver setting seems to do the same). I'm not sure what the difference is between the Eco and Silent mode, as they have the same effect on the processor.

 

Hello wingmasterx, thank you for posting your findings.

I guess I am still a bit puzzled about the Book 9 Lite's place in the world hierarchy of laptops...

About Silent and Eco Mode: If it's like the other Samsung models, they both limit the CPU to minimum speed through firmware AND switch to the Power Saver profile.

Just switching to the Power Saver profile itself doesn't limit CPU speed, unless you set Max processor state to less than 100% in the profile settings. It also uses Passive system cooling policy which slows down the CPU if it gets warm, instead of turning up the fan -- that's the Silent part.

The difference between Silent and Eco mode is merely that Eco mode also disables the Bluetooth and WiFi radios (configurable in Settings).

The posts linked here and here explain a bit more about power management on Samsung laptops.

 

Was that the touch or non-touch display? I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the non-touch panel (subject to the viewing angle limitations). Device Manager reports it as AUO152C while HWiNFO says it is B133XW01 V5.

Here is the inside view of the Book 9 Lite.


It's more difficult to get inside than the metal Series 9 models. First remove 11 screws on the bottom and then unclip the joint in the plastic.

The photo shows the integrated Atheros WiFi (south-east of the fan) while the Samsung mSATA SSD is hidden under the gold ribbon cable. The WiFi antennae are in the display and performance at some distance from the router is much better than my other Series 9s with antennae in the chassis.

John

 

I'm curious if the display connection is embedded displayport or lvds (might be something in the graphics control panel).

 

Doing a search on tigerdirect.com shows only touch lite models available. Like I said earlier on this thread this thing has a horrid screen. You know it the instant you lay eyes on it. Not just TN.. Bad bad TN. Shame on Samsung putting something out this crappy at this price point.

 

Hi,

I am strongly considering this one for my wife, considering thatmost of the stuff she does on her PC or phone could both be done very well with this little machine. We went to have a look, and I have to say that the 1366x768 resolution at the moment matches what she is used to quite well, in terms of pixel density on a 13.3" screen (compared to, say, her 1920x1080 21.5" desktop panel. Everything in Windows Desktop applications just immediately looks right, which has convinced me persnally as well that 1080p on a small screen isn't that hot for Windows Desktop, even 8 (though who knows 8.1?). The Surface Pro with its 1080p 10" screen was readily dismissed as a result.

While I agree the Samsung 9 Lite's panel is no iPad retina screen (which I am using right now), for a touch screen on an ultrabook it seemed decent enough, and very responsive. Coupled with having an SSD inside that performs very well (500MB/s reads, 386MB/s writes or thereabouts), it should be able to keep up with Office applications, browsing and most of the other stuff she does (forum posting ).

I see a huge advantage for touch screen interfacing for her for common stuff versus using a touch pad (a mouse isn't always going to be practical). And its small and light enough to easily slip into her purse whenever she needs it for work/presentations.

In other words, it seems more poised than any other device I've seen so far to take over both her iPad, Desktop and Phone style use all in one. She'll even watch some DVDs on it in bed, is the plan (USB powered external DVD drives are fortunately very cheap).

But if there is a better touch screen alternative, I am of course very keen to hear it. It will probably be 1 or 2 more weeks before we buy it, so I have some time to change my mind ...

Appreciate the feedback! And nice to meet you all (first post)

Arwin

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

I can't see anything that gives a clue about this. Here's the HWiNFO summary.

SW Update lists US versions of both the NP905S3G (non-touch) and the NP915S3G (touch).

John

 

Looks like its only available overseas, UK etc.. Tigerdirect like I say only sells several variations of the the touch. Doing a search on NP905S3G part number produces zero hits on amazon whereas the NP915S3G does produce a hit on amazon. If anyone knows of a site in the US that sells the matte lite, put the link here. Maybe some may put up with the TN touch display but its was truly awful IMO.

 

If you can afford a thousand dollars I would go for the book 7 ultra with 1080P IPS screen. You can always set the windows scaling to 150 percent and also set global zooming in browser for larger text. The improvement in the color saturation and contrast will really be worth it. The screen won't wash out like the lite and has excellent viewing angles.. like all IPS screens do. It will also be brighter then the lite by probably 100 nits or more. And Much better build quality and materials. Great speakers, excellent battery life and port selection. I came very close several times getting it myself but ended up with the book 9 FHD. So if you can afford the extra 250 dollars the book 7 ultra is more then double the system. Its their best system for the money, hands down. No compromise i5 intel instead of weaker AMD that the lite has. It will also give you at least 6 hours or more battery life. This one has a decent size battery. Only place that sells it is best buy. Its an exclusive there.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ATIV+Bo...&skuId=8967042&st=ativ book 7 ultra&cp=1&lp=1

 

I have the touch display. I was also looking for a US outlet for a non-touch version, but I couldn't find one. Samsung also doesn't list a non-touch variant on their US site...

Thanks for sharing the picture of the internals! I also did a BIOS check on my machine and got the SSD part number in case anybody is interested to know: 128GB SSD Samsung MZMTD128HAFV-00

This seems to be an mSATA form factor, judging from sources I found on the web. One place is calling it the Samsung PM841:
https://www.mikescomputershop.com/s...28gb-internal-solid-state-drive-p-236526.html

 

My scenario is almost the same. Key requirement for my wife was light weight < 3.5lbs, since she has difficulty carrying anything heavier, and a battery life of 6hrs. This one seemed perfect. So I bought the ATIV 9 Lite NP915S3G-K02US from TigerDirect in a bundle MS Office deal that cost me $737 for the computer and gave me a $100 TigerDirect gift card to boot (I looked just now but I don't see the deal available any longer).

Unfortunately, I'm in the process of returning mine now. Since my wife would have used this as her primary PC, I'm worried that spending long hours with it may induce eye-strain due to the relatively washed-out TN display. The desktop view doesn't look so bad, though the vertical viewing angles are noticeably narrow. When I really notice it is at the login screen. Using a maroon color as background, the color noticeably fades from top to bottom at any viewing angle. I also found that the screen looks much better in a bright room than in dim lighting. I think the main problem is a large amount of backlight bleed. I could overlook the narrow vertical viewing angles, but putting it next to an IPS display reveals a ghostly hue over the entire screen.

It's really too bad -- everything else about the computer we really liked. This was our first touch computer, and we also feel the touch interface is needed for a nice Windows 8 experience. The plastic build is well done; we even preferred it to metal body configurations (the plastic stays cool). The computer is responsive, and I was also happy to find AMD in a nice form factor for once. If not for the screen, we would have loved it.

 

Agreed 100%. I really like the ATIV book 7. I was this close to pulling the trigger with the only hang ups being the Ivy bridge processor with the slightly too high price tag ( should be 850-900 IMHO). Also, the ATIV book 9 plus has caught my eye. That said, the ATIV book 7 has been highly rated in most reviews (All with the caveat that its Ivy bridge) has a gorgeous screen, excellent touchpad/ touchscreen and solid battery life. For all those reasons I would recommend the ATIV book 7 over the ATIV 9 lite and its awful awful screen.

 

My v5-122p has the a6-1450 aswell as does the HP 11z i saw at BB. However the wei cpu scores were a bit different. This picture is of two BB laptops, HP 11z and v5-122p


1. What is the lites wei? My v5-122p is 4.1.

2. How is the battery life of the lite under idle and load?

3. Can you run the free GeekBench 3 32-bit demo and post your scores (with link)?


Thanks for those pictures helps a ton, i was seriously considering the lite against the v5 and 11z. I don't like having my wlan fully integrated into the mobo like the lite has it. At the same time the v5 has a single wlan antenna and a 3.5hr battery life. The lite looks great from the outside but is expensive for most of it's internals imo. Lastly the v5-122p has an ips display, 2.5" 7mm ssd bay, miniDP w/ USB3.0 (amd lightning bolt, unconfirmed) and a backlit keyboard.

I thought the 11.6" v5-122p (a6-1450) was a good balance of features for the price. I was after a netbook-like ultraportable with either Jaguar or preferrably Kabini. Sadly Kabini is not being utilized as best as possible so Jaguar it is. Next is a 1tb ssd and 10gb ram to help speed up this slowpoke.

-D


Sent from my XT557 using Tapatalk 2

 

Thanks John. What does it say in hwinfo under the monitor > digital video interface standard supported?

I think it must be displayport, but if not I will have to get it.

 

After a BIOS update the WEI score has gone from 4.0 to 4.1 with the CPU getting 4.5.

However, I don't have a lot of faith in WEI. It's given the 128GB Samsung SSD a score of 8.0 while it gives the 512GB Samsung SSD in my X4C a mere 7.6. Other SSD benchmark programs consider the bigger SSD to be faster.

Testing continues but I played an AVI video at about 70%l brightness for 5 hours and the battery was down to 11%. The processor is rated at only 8W (including the GPU) so it's the computer equivalent of a 3 cylinder car engine - not a lot of power but doesn't drain the fuel tank quickly either.

The results are here. Can you explain what's good and bad?

I can't see anything under either the monitor or the video, but look for yourself:



John

 

Looks like it is lvds not displayport, hmm that is interesting. Thanks.

 

One of the strengths of the Book 9 Lite is the low fan noise when under full load. As noted here, ripping a DVD makes my X4C somewhat hot and noisy (it could do with two fans) so I have moved the work over to the NP905S3G. The only noise I can hear is my external DVD drive (but putting my ear against the keyboard revealed that a fan is running). HWiNFO shows that the CPU temperature gets into the low 60s C.

The downside is that the process takes about twice as long but one can't reasonably expect everything from an 8W CPU.

John

 

I noticed your throttle report with the i7. That really is frustrating, having to move heavy work to the slower PC. Of course I suppose you could accomplish something similar on the X4C by switching it to Silent Mode while ripping; or maybe just tweaking the power profile to 99% max cpu state (to avoid TurboBoost) will be sufficient to avoid throttling and still keep a decent speed.