Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus - NP940X3G

1400 $ is a decent price. 4 gb ram though is not enough. Really hope its expandable. I'm not buying a 1k+ priceier model with 8gb and 256gb ssd. Is the ram solidered on the previous model?

 

All previous Series 9 models had RAM soldered in at least starting with X3B (not sure about the original duraluminum version). If you want an upgradable Samsung ultrabook, you may want to look at Series 7 Ultra (ATIV Book 7 I think). It definitely looks neat, and if I wasn't in for high dpi to run and develop on, I would have bitten the bullet long ago (though, some would say FullHD is plenty enough). I don't think it's available as Haswell yet, though.

 

I was looking at the Series 7 Ultra. It is a nice machine...and the upgradable RAM was an incentive. But when I held the Series 7 in one hand and the Ativ 9 in the other....I got wooed by the beauty and sleek 9 and decided against the 7. The 7 appears to be only available in the USA at Best Buy and they just got new inventory in.... all non-Haswell.

I should add I gave up last week on waiting for the 9 and bought a Acer S7. ( Should arrive today!)

 

Can I just have 1080p MATTE, 256 gb SSD, same dimensions as the np900x3e's, HASWELL! and i7/i5...6G RAM for 1600?!! to hell with an expensive touch screen display of 3200x1800 resolution. ativ book 9 first was advertised with 12 hr batt life...now its 11 hr...we all know well u have to already minus 2-3 hours from that claim. why not throw out the touch screen and high res to offer a thinner laptop with longer battery life!!!

 

Nice first post rant! Welcome to the forum

 

I am slowly losing the interest in this laptop, thanks Samsung ! You are now making me save money rather than spending it on expensive duralumin crust filled with Intel's moneymaking jam with a ridiculous price of 1300GBP for 4gb/i5/128gb/4400 model, I am guessing I will wait till Christmas and see what the situation is like with regards to ultrabooks and haswell, by that time the price will definitely go down and newer models will exceed this one.

For everyone holding their breath - dont! Its not worth the hassle.

 

Thank you for the tip! I hadn't even looked at the 7 before, just 6, 8 and 9. I cancelled my Amazon order and purchased a 7. My reasoning is this:

- Full HD (had to be at least this)
- Upgradeable (Comes with 4GB, will put 8 more in)
- Stylish, all metal construction
- touchscreen
- Only ~1/2 lb more than the 9+ will be.
- Roughly $500 (or more) cheaper than an equivalent 9 version

The fact that it is slightly thicker and slightly heavier doesn't really bother me, when it is this much cheaper. Yes, there will be less battery life with the processor in it, but I don't see myself being away from power for much more than 5 hours ever anyway.
Thanks again for the tip!

 

Chatted with Samsung online support, and she claimed that the ATIV Book 9 Plus is available.
They need to educate their own support.

 

Man do I have high hopes for this device. It seems like most folks don't think that it is going to make the $999 and under price mark, which is a bit of a downer. I'm really looking for something with 10+ hours of battery life, and the only other viable option is a MacBook Air. What planet have I crash landed on, where an Apple computer is both a better performer and/or at a better or identical price point as all than all current Ultrabooks? This has been puzzling me for the last few days.

 

Why are there people who purchased Acer laptops commenting in a Samsung forum? I would never buy an Acer. It will just make me envious whenever I see a 9 Plus. I love my current Series 9 and sure the 9 Plus will be even better. Patience.

 

It really is a first, the main reason is the Mac has a huge battery, non touch display, lower resolution, and a less power hungry os. Once you pit windows on the MBA it will lose a lot of battery life.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

That I've noticed from looking at rundown test results. I guess it is all because they have control of the hardware and OS.

 

That too is probably another reason why it works out well for apple. Has anyone heard any info about the precision touchpad? It is suppose to offer a touchpad that is up to snuff to that on the Mac.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0QOIWoTJYw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

It's a shame it requires a hardware update.

 

I agree, maybe the software for the touchpad tech could be ported, but probably not I wanted to wait for a machine with this technology, but I guess not.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

Now there's a Pro version?? I hope it's matte. :-D

 

Typo, meant Plus.

 

I broke down and bought an Ivy Bridge Yoga 13. I couldn't wait any longer. I doubt we'll see the dramatic improvement in battery life claimed (Samsung already revised it down once on their site, and the Vaio Pro's battery life is OK) and the lack of any kind of news regarding an i7/8gb/256GB version was all the more reason for me to buy now. I have no idea why the company would be so tight-lipped at this point. If MS & Windows 8.1 really is the reason for the dearth of Haswell ultrabooks out now, I think they might have blown it for Intel and a lot of these OEMs. This was a relatively quiet summer in tech, and I feel they all missed an opportunity.

 

Not to second guess the choice, but it is fairly evident the 9 Plus'es will be out by September. The week of Aug 20 or Sept 1st dates are all but confirmed.

The tight-lip'edness is an industry thing, but the Win8.1 resolution "fix" may be the reason we haven't seen the QHD models yet, but then again, it could be a manufacturing thing.

I haven't seen anything written about it, so forgive the conjecture, but I imagine Samsung is making the LCD panels for all QHD displays, including the ones for Zenbook. They already make the "Retina" panels for the macbook and ipads as well. Last time I looked Asus doesn't fabricate panels, it just assembles ones from Sharp, Samsung and Sony, amongst others.

 

Keep in mind how poorly ivy bridge has sold, many OEMs are trying to milk out some more sales on that platform with back to school I believe. Also, Haswell will not be refreshed till 2015, so there's not a real incentive to update every model immediately.

 

Engadget decided to endorse the specs that B&H posted and the August 20th release date. 1399$ for a nice 3200x1800 glossy touch screen display...the rest -_- 128GB, i5, and 4 GB ram. I suppose they'll wait until sales slow before they release the much more awaited matte version.

 

Related Engadget story:

Samsung's 3,200 x 1,800 ATIV Book 9 Plus looks to arrive August 20th for $1,400

 

I wonder (hope) if they'll have a model with higher specd internals but lower display rez.

Sent from a different Galaxy using Tapatalk 83.

 

I like Engadget, read it daily, but they should know this kind of thing isn't absolute confirmation.

PS: we know you are watching, Mr or Mrs Engadget.

 

Has anyone wondered how the 9+ will drive all this pixels? I mean, MBPr 13" resolution is 2560x1600 and HD4000 poorly performs. There's a lot of reports of bad performance and I don't expect Samsung to do a better job than Apple since they don't even have the software control.

 

that's exactly what I'm waiting on. better performance without the gimmicky high res, touch screen tricks

 

The ATIV Book 9 Plus comes with the (brand new) 4th generation Haswell chipset. It's graphics processing unit is specifically designed to give good performance for a large number of pixels.

 

Unfortunately the processor actually comes with a last generation HD 4400 graphics instead of HD 5000.

I think if we actually start using a laptop with touch screen, we would quickly switch to regularly using the touchscreen. Think about it - we don't do it now because we are used to using the touchpad. But with a touchscreen, we could just rest our hand near the bottom of the screen and slowly scroll with our finger just like on a tablet! I'm not sure exactly how it will play out, but I'm willing to bet we will quickly adapt to the touchscreen controls and find them very helpful even in desktop mode! And I don't think the high res is 'gimmicky'... I mean sure there are other more important aspects of the screen like brightness and reflectiveness, but the high res doesn't hurt! Especially for less price than normal rez.

I'm wondering that too for gaming and other graphic intensive things, I would definitely not buy this laptop until I read the reviews.

 

In defense of Samsung, HD5000 perfoms just slightly better than HD4400 as you can see here. It's not enough to justify the price increase. Noticeable gains might only appear on Intel Iris Pro 5200 and it's TDP of 47W/55W perhaps HD5100 but it's just a HD5000 over clocked since it lacks the 128MB eDRAM from Iris Pro.

A discrete graphics is what we wan't but it ain't happen in a laptop so thin.

 

HD 4000 is last generation. HD4400 is brand new. The difference between it and HD5000 is that HD 5000 has twice the execution units so it's beefier than HD4400 but more power hungry. HD4400 is still 4th gen haswell though.

 

Oops you're right! Yeah I looked at the stats and it seems like the HD5000 is only marginally better than the HD 4400... Personally I have a desktop for gaming so I'm not worried about the graphics performance though. So not gonna be doing any gaming on this laptop anyways. If they decided on the HD 4400 instead of the HD 5000 for battery purposes then I'm all for it!

 

probably not the right forum for this but since someone mentioned the acer s7-392 does anyone care to comment on this vs the ativ 9 np900xse-k01us.

I'm torn because price is the same but the specs are better for the acer - 8gb ram vs 4 and haswell vs ib i7 chip. It seems everyone is in agreement that the ativb 9 is amazing, build quality, screen etc. Don't know anything about acers though - whats the reputation of acer and particularly the s7?

 

Have you looked closely at its keyboard? For me it's a no go. If not that (and design) I would've probably skipped waiting for the 9+ and got it already.

Contrary to what you'll here from most people here, I consider Acer a good laptop brand as a long time owner of 3820TG.

 

I bought the Acer S7 after waiting for the 9+ and getting impatient. I posted a modest review here. I really like the machine a lot and I am happy w/ the purchase except for one design flaw. The front edge is sharp and the way I type my wrists rub against it and it hurts! I may have to send it back since I am not sure I can re-train myself on laptop typing. A shame. Best laptop I have ever owned with regards to speed and flow.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/726019-acer-aspire-s7-392-haswell-owners-lounge-12.html

 

Anyone have information if and when there will be Ativ Book 9 matte versions that feature Haswell? I want Haswell primarily because I think it will reduce fan activity. I am also wondering which will cause less fan activity, i7 or i5 (with a situation like 25+ chrome tabs + office + mail client + background AV and updaters etc.)

Moreover I have been investigating the matte-glossy problem and I am not too fond of matte screen foils to put on the screen -- btw. I wonder why matte touch is said to be not technically feasible - the foils don't interfere with capacitive screens, so it obviously it does work? I have also been thinking about using one of those transparent plastic screen things.... you know, not foils but sturdy plastic that you can temporarily put in front of the screen to prevent others seeing what's on your screen lookng from the side. These also have an anti-reflective effect. So one could have the best of both worlds... though it might be hard on the eyes due to qualitity /contrast loss?

I also wonder, why don't they wait for windows 8.1? I don't like the idea of buying a notebook so near to the 8.1 release that has not been explicitly tested (drivers, hardware, control software) to work definitely perfectly with windows 8.1. Hmm.

Sorry if I'm not "getting it", with some of the above.

 

What I currently think of doing is get an MBA 2013 13" and run Windows 8 on it. Gets some rather good reviews in this configuration: The 2013 MacBook Air has amazing Windows 8 perfomance - MacRumors Forums

I'm a bit afraid of two things with the 9+
1) might get hot, just like previous editions of the series 9
2) trouble with high-res in Windows -- see Kirabook reviews (tiny YouTube bars etc.)

EDIT: but I don't like the look of MBA's display/bezel, so I'm still waiting at this point

 

From where did you get this information?

In my experience the 13.3" Series 9 (X3B etc) runs cool and quiet due to its twin fans.

The 15" Series 9 is noisier since it has only one fan but keeps noticeably cooler than my Lenovo T420s which, under sustained load, would reach 95C and start to throttle.

John

 

Hi John, thanks for the info on these two. I meant primarily X3C and E -- these were the ones I've been reading reviews of. It's good to know your X3B is cool and quiet, maybe they'll solve this issue with Haswell? (although Sony has not in the VP, which runs both hot and noisy)
I've read in several places about it getting hot. What I can recall now is:
- X3C: Samsung Series 9 review (13-inch, mid-2012) | The Verge
- X3E: Samsung ATIV Book 9 Review | Laptop Reviews (the hottest of all compared)
They said it's rather hot than noisy, as the fans are always quiet which might be part of the reason...

How heavy load you're working under? Apart from the palmrest, X3B runs hot as well:
Samsung 900X3B-A01 (Series 9) Laptop Review - NotebookCheck.net Reviews
(cf. X3C: Review Update Samsung Series 9 900X3C-A04DE Subnotebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews)

 

Be aware that the SSD in that under windows has the worst reviews of any SSD in history..even worse than the Sandisk U100

 

In MBA? Good to know, thanks. But why is that exactly? I mean, how is the OS involved in handling the SSD so much differently?

 

I am guessing this is due to poor implementation on the controller level with regards to Windows. I am guessing the controller only truly excels in OSX since it is driving it in a fashion that the PCI-SSD controller supports.

 

I am not into hardware that much, but are you saying it is that distinct from, say, Sony Vaio Pro's PCIe SSD that it makes Windows performance poor?

 

I´v had 4 Series 9 and never had an issue with it running hot. But you can run any laptop hot if you want I guess. The Macbook retina witch I´m using right now for example. And the Zenbook ux31e was hot AND the fans where spinning all the time. Well I would not worry about it anyways if you are looking for a series 9.

 

Not sure why but here is the test. It is really bad under windows but fine under apple software.

2013 MacBook Air NGFF PCIe SSD Review (256GB) - Pre-Configured MBA Doesn't Set The 'PC' Performance Bar | The SSD Review

 

Thanks for your feedback, Paul & Don. That's some good news. I guess I'm staying with the series 9 at any rate then!
Now it's a question of 'is Haswell really worth it'. The charger is so light that I'll very rarely need more than 6 hrs work on WiFi on a single charge, and I'm not sure if i5-4200u 9+ for the price of i7-3537 x3e provides any added value, while it takes the awesomeness of *matte*..

@paulreedsmith: may I ask why *4* of them?!

 

Finding it very frustrating that the price of the NP900X3E hasn't budget when the 9+ is about to be released.....

 

Thanks for your various links.

My own temperature measures on the X3B are here. My testing method is to run wPrime 1024M once to warm up the computer to warm it up and then do the temperature measurements with an infra-red thermometer during a second run. Perhaps only running wPrime (only a CPU benchmark) isn't quite as demanding as notebookcheck's fully stressed CPU + GPU.

I'm surprised by the Verge's temperatures on the X3C. Given that people here don't report such temperatures I suspect that any tendency to get that hot was addressed long ago by a BIOS update. One should remember that the Series 9 is an Ultrabook, not a mobile workstation and the thinness combined with the metal casing do facilitate transfer of heat to the external surfaces.

My own typical usage does not involve running multi-threaded CPU-intensive programs for long periods of time. Sometimes, such as today, I run something that takes a long time but was only single-threaded. I checked the CPU temperature and it was in the low 70's C. The fan must have speeded up although I didn't hear it.

John

 

Interesting. That's a good point on the BIOS update, this has happened before..
As long as it doesn't make your fingers sweat while watching 1080p video streams (well, that may depend on the videos too), I'm ok with it being an 'ultrabook'..

 

900c3d, 900x4c, 900x3c, 900x3c

 

Features - Laptops NP940X3GI | Samsung PCs it looks like they updated the features page! A sign of official announcement soon?