Samsung AMD-powered ATIV Book 9 Lite NP905S3G / NP915S3G

What are using John, handbrake? You could also try lowering the priority of the application, though sometimes that doesn't work.

 

WinX DVD Ripper Platinum. I've just been testing the option to select the number of cores it uses, but it makes no difference on my X4C (so I should make a bug report). Ideally, I could leave it to chug away in the background on one core.

Anyway, a time comparison for ripping the same DVD: The X4C = 53 minutes and the Book 9 Lite = 142 minutes which is a factor of 2.67 which is slightly more than the different in the sustained clock speed (2.9 GHz vs 1.2 GHz).

John

 

Does it help at all if you set the priority in task manager for the process to "below normal" or you could try setting affinity to limit it to 3 threads? The application may override it though.

 

In case you are still planning to buy this soon, I was in a MicroCenter store last weekend and they had it for $700. Their website also has it for online order currently at $730.

 

The marble white non-touch version is currently on Amazon UK for £399.99.

At that pricing I think it represents good value given it includes a 128GB SSD.

John

 

I saw a UK touchscreen version last week and checked the panel type. It was the same AUO152C as my non-touch version. It looked OK in the store (never the best conditions for making a proper judgement).

John

 

Excuse me. I wanna ask everyone's opinion.

I'm planning to buy an ultrabook and I think Samsung Ativ Book 9 Lite is the best ultrabook I could have (cheap). It is super thin with touch-screen that suitable for Windows 8. But after doing a little bit revision, the main problem I've found is the screen, bad processor and graphic. I want to know its real performance (on Quad-core+AMD). Is it too slow? and its screen resolution (ppi density). By the way, I'm a student. I'm not playing video games but sometimes running heavy software. I'm just doing regular work everyday (such as surfing the internet, downloading, document work, music, HD video, etc). So, is it worth to pay $720 for it with a bad screen resolution and a bad processor? Please help me. Thanks

[email protected]

 

What do you mean by "heavy software"? If you are coming from an Atom-powered netbook then it will feel fast but it's slower than an Intel Core i CPU. Having an SSD means that boot-up time (on mains power) is around 10 seconds. It's also noticeably thicker and heavier than the normal Series 9 notebooks. 1366 x 768 is a reasonable resolution for the size (it's 1366 x 768 @ 15.6" that I can't understand). If the pricing drops by 25% then this notebook will be a good compromise of price, size and performance. It's frugal on electricity (and hardly needs a fan) but Samsung then put in a smaller battery so it doesn't win any battery time prizes.

On current pricing I would suggest you forgo the touchscreen and look for a left-over Sandy Bridge powered NP900X3D. If you can find one then it will cost little extra and has the better CPU and display and a bigger battery.

John

PS: And don't let the Intel lawyers see you calling it an Ultrabook!

 

Hi Everyone,

Have been reading this thread with interest because I'm seriously looking for a replacement for my current Dell XPS 13 which has some screen problems.

For me, this Ativ Book 9 lite looks interesting even if I know that its cpu won't lead to same results as the core i5 I was using.
Now, I think my most heavy usages are manipulating pictures with Gimp or playing quite old games like Amalur Reckogning so I'm hoping this is good enough to handle
that.
The mat screen of the non touch version is something I really look forward to so I'm kind of enthusiast about it. But, I have some reserves as I woud want to use it under Windows 7 or Ubuntu.

Did any of you have a chance to test one or the other on this Ativ Book 9 Lite?
If so, what was the resut, especially in terms of autonomy?

Many thanks in advance for your advices,

 

I agree with John, if you're going to do anything heavy, make sure you get an intel machine. Right now, the best priced Samsung I could find is the X4C on amazon:

Amazon.com: Samsung Series 9 NP900X4D-A05US 15-Inch Premium Ultrabook (Silver): Computers & Accessories

About $150 more, but with ivy i5 and upgradable to 8GB, it should give you much better performance. Or keep checking amazon and the MS store on the 13" models, the X3D-A01 goes as low as $699. I think that's a much better machine than the lite.

 

The screen on the Lite is really nothing special. If you're looking for a great matte screen, start looking at the 13" Series 9. I believe you can get linux working on it as well.

 

Thanks for your feedback.
Actually, and I know this is a real bad reason to choose one or another, but I don't like the design of the other series 9, the full black of the Ativ Book9 lite is the only "attractive" to me. Regarding the screen, I don't want to have the best ever (I' m used to 1366 x 768) and I would be OK if it is "just" a decent one (I read in this thread this was the case, not the worst screen ever but not the best either).
I only have difficulties figuring out the performances, it is said to be somewhere between Atom and core i3 but that's not really meaningfull I assume. And AMD makes me wonder about compatibility with a previous Windows version or with Linux (for Ubuntu, I could read it needed downloading some graphic card driver but was overall OK - though I couldn't get other confirmation since).

 

Thanks for your feedback. Well, I've just checking on Samsung website. Series 5 13.3" UltraTouch and ATIV Book 7 (13.3" LED Full HD Touch) will replace the Lite.

Now I'm confuse to choose which one of it. ATIV Book 7 (13.3" LED Full HD Touch) has i5 (1.8GHz, turbo up to 2.8GHz) with SSD and Series 5 13.3" UltraTouch got i5 (1.7GHz, tubo up to 2.7GHz) but no SSD (just 5400 RPM HDD, SATA2). I know the book7's performances is better than series 5 as it got SSD and better i5. But, is it reasonable to add $210 more for book7 (as series 5 worth $849.99 and $1059.99 for book7) just because of the SSD and better i5? (or something more special about book7). I have to keep my budget. If it worth it to add $210 more, I will just go to book7.

You can check it on the link below:
Specs - Laptops NP740U3E | Samsung PCs
Specs - Laptops NP540U3C | Samsung PCs

I don't really know about laptops. Sorry if there's something wrong.

 

I hope the attached graphs will help you better visualise the performance using comparisons with other notebooks.



wPrime tests the CPU performance using, by default, all the CPU cores. Cinebench provides low-level graphics benchmarks (lower spec hardware can't handle the more sophisticated graphics benchmarks) and PCMark 7 tests overall performance. In single-threaded tasks the CPU is similar to an Intel CPU of similar clock speed (the AMD 1450 wPrime 1-thread score is almost the same as the U7600). Where more cores can be put to work the AMD CPU looks better and when the SSD boost is taken into account (eg in PCMark 7) then the overall performance is fairly presentable.

I can't comment about the Linux support.

Note that the NP740U3E-K01UB is a special version of that notebook which uses Intel graphics and has 2 SODIMM slots. Most versions of that notebook have switchable graphics with some soldered RAM and only 1 SODIMM slot. They all have a 1920 x 1080 resolution display that gives much higher resolution than the Book 9 Lite.

The NP540U3C is much more similar in display to the Book 9 Lite. Both are about half a pound heavier than the Lite which, in turn, is a good half pound heavier than the NP900X3B/C/D etc. (My comments about weight are based on my non-touch Lite which weighted in at 1.43 kg / 3.15 lb. I note that the Samsung US site shows the weight of the touch Lite as 3.48 lb which reduces the weight advantage.)

The Book 9 Lite is, I surmise, aimed a people who want something more versatile than a tablet but still quite portable but without the price tag of an Intel-powered Ultrabook. If you are willing to carry a little more weight and have access to those Best Buy models then they provide more bang for your buck.

John

 

Thanks for those figures, John Ratsey.
Ok, so performances are not that awfull after all it seems. Half the price of other ultrabooks, something near half performances compared to an i5, that seems logical...

 

Some of us from the Acer V5-122P forum have been able to OC the iGPU in the A6-1450 from 400 MHz (Turbo) to 497 Mhz. There is a noticeable and measurable difference but only using MSI Afterburner. In Minecraft my FPS increased about 5-10 on average.

It would be cool to increase CPU clock to 1.5-2.0 GHz but that seems unlikely.

Sent from my XT557 using Tapatalk 2

 

Thanks. That's something to investigate when time permits.

There's plenty of thermal headroom in the cooling system to handle overclocking.

John

 

I'm sorry to ask such silly question but anyone here who's got the Ativ Book 9 lite, do you know about a Photoshop or Gimp experience on this? Does it seems smooth or is it a nghtmare in terms of response time... ?

Thanks again.

 

Hi John,

Is that the price of samsung notebook will drop after a few months of its launch? Book 9 lite with touch screen is currently priced at $ 754 and lite without the touch screen is $ 628. The price is over 3 months ago when it was launched. I want to know if the price will drop by early next year.

 

Sorry for the late response: Your question came when I was far away from my 9 Lite. Samsung have bundled a Photoshop Elements trial and I have given it a quick test with a 5MB digital photo (4320 x 2880 pixels). It seems to run smoothly enough. Please advise if you have some specific tests.

Acer are offering some AMD-powered 11.6" notebooks with HDDs but better quality displays for substantially less than the current Book 9 Lite pricing. The Book 9 Lite should, given the current display resolution and quality be a Book 5.

I reckon, as a minimum, Samsung need to take 20% off the Book 9 Lite for it to be competitive. Even better would be to update it with the 1600 x 900 PLS panel. The price differential between touch and non-touch is also excessive. It's as if they are trying to steer people towards the non-touch version.

John

 

Thanks for your kind feedback.

Indeed, I finally bought one (non touh screen) and even if it's not as fast as with my previous Dell XPS 13, the experience is far from being bad with Gimp in editing pictures. Much more better than on a netbook for example while the benchmarks were not telling the same story.

The same for gaming. I only play some "light" games such as Kingdom of Amalur and it runs smoothly as long as you don't want all details (but the same way as you would experience with a core I5 / HD4000...) so it's fine.

I'm really pleased with the screen, the resolution might seem very old-fashion to some of you but as I never had a computer above 1366x768, it's not an issue for me and I like the fact that luminosity is not playing ping-pong with darking/lighting each time I launch an application setup or run any app (like it was the case with my previous laptop).

My only "disappointment" is that I was not able to install Ubuntu via Wubi. I read some tutorials around UEFi bios and so on... but it just isn't booting correctly when I try... I'll give another look with Live USB and try again but for a first meeting with Windows 8, I must say that's it's not that bad after all. Didn't even seriously think about reinstalling Windows 7...

Now, I had some trouble with right-click crashing the whole system. It was due to the contextual menu added by the formatfactory software; if you encounter same issues, you will find some tricks so that modifying register keys and getting ri of the contextual menu and the windows explorer unstability...

I think this is really a good deal for this price (and would be even more if prices drop down in a near future...)

 

Thank you for this useful summary. Do you notice the fast start-up time?

As for installing Linux, Google for "site: Samsung Notebook Forum Linux" and look through the threads.

John

 

Regarding the boot-time, I must admit that it's quite impressive but as it was already very fast on the Dell XPS 13, I'm not a lot surprised. Though, if you look at the price and theorical performances, it's true that the short time to get in the system is very appreciable.

I'll definitvely have a deeper look at the threads you mentioned.

Thanks again.

 

Useful review of this notebook Samsung Ativ Book 9 Lite: 13.3-inch slimline notebook with a secret.

John

 

My review of the NP905S3G has finally been published.

Any comments?

John

 

Read it the other day when you posted, but forgot to give my comments.

It's a great article! I think you make a good case that the AB9 Lite has its good points (low power consumption, WiFi strength etc) and its uses, but that the screen and the still too high price make it a tough buy. Maybe Samsung is hoping that businesses will pick it up because the specs match office requirements, and then they'll negotiate a more reasonable price for volume orders.

I really liked how you stacked your X3B on top for those pictures. It shows the small size differences perfectly. Same with the pictures of screen and viewing angles.

Given that we haven'y heard news from Samsung about any other model series, I cannot help wondering if they are considering just spawning more models off the Series 9 / AB9 brand and let other model series wither.

 

There's a Win 8 Pro version which suggests they are aiming for the business market. However, +£200 on the price for Pro Windows isn't likely to get cost-conscious purchasing departments forming a queue at the door. A bigger battery would have been a useful selling point - 50Whr would make all-day operation feasible.

Look in SW Update's database and you will see that Samsung are creating more new models with the G suffix. eg NP270E5G and NP450R5G. However, before anyone get's excited, I should point out that they use Ivy Bridge CPUs and look like low-end machines without the low-end pricing.

John

 

I've just noticed this red Book 9 Lite.

The colour makes a refreshing change from black or white and the price (£400 as I type this) is relatively attractive.

John

 

Hi Guys,

Just bought an Ativ Book 9 Lite with the touchscreen and there are some weird issues! Every now and then when using the touch pad, 4 or 5 circles will appear on screen (as if touching screen in multiple places) and the cursor will jump to one of them. Also you can have your hands off the laptop and things will get pressed without touching. E.g. go into the Windows store and it will go through to an app, even though not pressed on the app! Help!

 

For those who liked the look of the Book 9 Lite but didn't like the AMD processor then look out for the NP910S3G which uses an i3 Haswell CPU.

Here's an example listing.

John

 

It's listed as an 1.5GHz Intel i3-4020 Y with11.5W TPD: NP910S3G | Skinflint Price Comparison UK

That's an interesting option as there are not many Ultrabooks with ULV CPU. Certainly not a workhorse but good on the battery. I was using a similar 1.4GHz Core2 SU9400 with 10W TDP for years, which I was quite pleased with on the move.

 

The Intel version of the Book 9 Lite (NP910S3G) is starting to appear on Samsung websites such as here.

The pricing here is a long way adrift of the $500 which Intel was forecasting for Ultrabooks a year or two ago and we can't blame the SSD for this difference given that the price differential between 128GB SSD and a 2.5" HDD is less than $50.

John

 

Hi
Haven't posted on here in a while and not sure if this is the right place but here goes....
Am looking to get my son a new laptop for school and want one that will last the school day, so around 6 hrs i guess.
Last year got my wife a Chronos 7 Series with touchscreen - awesome laptop, can't fault it, especially the 10hr battery life. Anyway, have my eye on an Ativ Book 9 for my son but can't decide between the Lite and the Plus. I know the AB9+ is way better than the Lite (similar to the chronos in many ways) but it is TWICE the price of the Lite. If it was for me I'd have to have the AB9+ because I do a lot of heavy stuff in work and would need the extra power but my son is only going to use it for email, internet, and some school project stuff which mainly means light use of office applications. He's not a gaming freak either so no need to worry about that.
It's the classic dilemma of Heart (AB9+) -v- Head (Lite)!!
Advice/comments appreciated.
Thanks
Rob

 

The Lite has a relatively puny 30Whr battery and will struggle to give more than about 6 hours of frugal usage (see here) with 5 hours being more likely in everyday usage.

You may do better by looking around for a refurbished previous generation Series / Book 9 (NP900X3C / D / E / F).

John

 

Forgive me if this has been addressed. I searched and could not find any discussion on this particular topic.

I'm very interested in an ATIV Book 9 Lite. I understand that it is not a powerhouse, but it fits the bill perfectly for how I intend to use it. I also have an ATIV SE phone, so the styling is comparable. My question is in regards to model numbers. More specifically, I'm confused about the last few digits. For example, I've located this laptop on the website of a well-known big box retailer and I'm met with two distinct model numbers and two different prices for what appears to be the same computer as far as the specs are concerned. The numbers in question are as follows:

NP915S3G-K04US - $669
NP915S3G-K01JM - $628

I seem to recall reading that the last two digits are indicators of the region in which a particular model is to be sold, but I'm not positive on that. However, I live in the US, so the model number of the first one may support that theory. Aside from the last two digits, what about the K04 and K01?

Any insight into the model numbers and/or why the prices may differ for what appears to be the same computer would be greatly appreciated!

 

That's the first time I have seen the JM suffix. We've previously had UB which is Best Buy special versions. A search of Samsung's SW Update database reveals that NP915S3G-K01JM is there, but not under any country. Given that the first hit by my search engine for that code took me to the Walmart website then I wonder whether JM is a Walmart special code for global distribution (but they are all going to have the same (US?) keyboard irrespective of country). So the customer would be saving because the company put in a big order and doesn't take an enormous margin. Given that the Book 9 Lite is a year old and AMD has recently released better CPUs I'm surprised that the price isn't lower.

Don't lose sleep over the other part of the code (K04, K01, etc). It is basically a unique specification identifier so that if the factory is asked to make another batch then they know what to put in. I've never understood whether there is any special significance behind whether the first letter is an A, K or S (the three most common) while the numbers are, sensibly, assigned in sequence based on different specifications ordered usually by the country marketing people from the list of options provided by the factory.

John

 

Thanks John! I had a feeling that I would check back to find that you've replied. Your input is much appreciated.

Before I go through with the purchase, do you have any knowledge of upcoming ATIV models? I am a bit hung up on the fact that this model has already been out for quite a while. I hate coming in on the tail end of a product's life cycle... even though I don't really need a more powerful machine.

 

There are strong indications that Samsung is withdrawing from the notebook market as discussed here (if not, their factory must be almost fully occupied making notebooks for someone else since supplies of the 2014 range are limited).

I've just looked again for new models in SW Update's database and can't see any new entries so I don't think that a successor to the Book 9 Lite is imminent.

Before parting with any money for the Book 9 Lite you might want to look around for a used / refurbished Series / Book 9 NP900X3B / NP900X3C / NP900X3E / NP900X3F / NP900X3G. Even the old X3B is a better piece of hardware than the Book 9 Lite with the one exception of the Sandisk U100 SSD which you might find in it or the X3C.

John

PS: If you haven't read my Book 9 Lite review then it is here.

 

I'll see what I can find as far as the other models you mentioned. Although, I have to admit that I'm not a fan of used/refurbished; I just love being the first owner. I've read your review and I'm positive I can live with almost every aspect of the Lite. The two areas of concern are the screen and the lack of a backlit keyboard. To be honest, I'm just more ready for a change than anything. My current machine is a Vaio F233 with an i7, an upgraded 256GB SSD, 8GB of RAM, a Blu-ray player, and a 1080p screen, so I know I'm giving up a lot. It's just too massive to tote around. With my newly acquired Ativ SE phone, I'm also interested in moving to a Windows 8.x laptop with touch capability as I feel it will be a nice compliment to the phone.

Again, many thanks for your input!

 

Right, the only reason to consider the lite is if you are going for a less expensive samsung touch laptop than the AB9+. You may also look at best buy for the Lenovo Yoga, which I think is superior in nearly every respect and often on sale.

 

Let's say I can get the i3 touchscreen version of (I think the model number is NP540U4E-K04US, but I'll look it up later to confirm) Ativ 5 for a comparable price to the AMD-powered Book 9 Lite (NP915S3G-K04US). How does the build quality compare? On the surface, the 5 series appears to be a slightly better deal and from what I've read, the 9 Lite is not on par with the rest of the 9 series in terms of materials. I have a 256MB Crucial M4 SSD on hand that I can install in the 5, so I'm not worried about the 5400rpm HDD. Which route would you go between the two? Am I missing something obvious about the Ativ 5? Aside from the lack of a factory SSD, would I be giving anything else up? The size and weight difference seems negligible.

 

Notebookcheck found the NP540U4E's display to be very dim so you may want to try to see it before making a final decision.

In other respects, a Book 5 upgraded with an SSD would be much better than the Book 9 Lite. I've always been surprised that the Book 9 Lite's price didn't quickly drop by at least 25% to a point where it would be more competitive.

By the way, my Book 9 Lite review seems to have lost a lot of content during website reformatting. The original version is attached so you can get a better idea how the performance compares with an Intel machine.

John

View attachment Samsung NP905S3G review.pdf

 

Hey Guys, hope that this thread is still visited.
I have the np915s3g with windows 8 on it.
I was struggeling, because it doesnt have an optical drive so I tried to put win 7 with a bootable usb on it, the bios looks nothing like the normal bios and after few changes secure boot off etc. it still doesnt show me the usb stick as an boot priority device.
So my question would be is it possible to install win7 on it with an external drive?

 

Hi Dannyoceanic, welcome to NBR.

I am guessing the reason it will not boot your USB is that it was created in the "traditional" way, as an NTFS partition on a flash drive using MBR partition style. If you used Microsoft's ISO/USB tool to create it, that's the reason right there.

Your laptop (and all laptops pre-installed with Win8.x) use so-called UEFI instead of the good old BIOS. And UEFI can only boot from a FAT32 partition on a drive with so-called GPT partition style.

To make your USB stick UEFI compatible, you can create the USB with another tool (such as Rufus) or create it manually (as described in this Win8 installation guide). In addition to this, you have to make sure Fast BIOS/Fast Boot and SecureBoot are disabled in your BIOS in order to boot an external device.

That said, you want to think twice about installing Win7 in UEFI mode on your model: While Win7 is theoretically UEFI compatible, Samsung's Win7 drivers were made for legacy BIOS mode, and have been known to cause compatibility problems in UEFI mode. Win7 generally works best in legacy BIOS mode on Samsung laptops. Unfortunately, switching to BIOS mode before installing Win7 will wipe your disk, including Recovery.

The post here discusses considerations before downgrading Win8-delivered Samsung laptops to Win7, including how to backup your Recovery first. If you choose to proceed, this Win7 install guide has the necessary steps.