Samsung Ativ SmartPC Pro

Hi,
A quick search arounf here shows next to no info on this machine.
Well, I am looking to purchase a small Ultrabook convertable, like the Sony Vaio Duo 11, or indeed the Samsung Smart PC Pro.
I had a look at the Sony and samsung today and here are some thoughts.
The samsung is quite light compared to the sony, and it is fairly steady even with most of the weight in the screen as opposed to in the keyboard.
The detachable keyboard is quite nice, although it 'looks' quite cheap overall.
In the UK there is only 1 hardware model, which comes with 64GB of SSD. This is almost a deal breaker for me. Although ive been looking at microSD cards and the latest Sandisk models read at upto 90MB/s which is suitable as a 'D' drive for everything apart from programs. A 16GB will suit nicely.
The standard install out of the box including recovery partitions etc only leaves you with about 15GB of space, so not alot to play with.
Overall it feels nice and is a tad more expensive than sony at £1000 (Sony is the same spec but 128GB of SSD).

Any one else have one or used one, any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

There's the Trusted Reviews review but it doesn't say much. This Amazon info is more comprehensive and the reviews are worth studying. One mentions the SSD as 4mm. That could mean the mSATA format, which is swappable provided there's a way to access it.

John

 

Hi,

I just bought my first tablet and its going to be Samsung Ativ PC Pro.
The reason i bought such powerful thing is because my work programs need full windows 8 and lots of CPU power. This device will be perfect combination of power and portability. Im so exited to get it. Unfortunately i have to wait at least a week. I was told from shop that warehouses get them 3.12. And it takes additional 4-5 days to trasport it from Austria to Estonia.

There is one exellent youtube review and comparsion of new ATIV PCs.
Here it is:

Samsung ATIV Smart PC PRO (700T) *Unboxing Part 1* - TechTestDrives | HD - YouTube
Starts from unboxing and next videos are review and last one is comparsion of non pro vs pro.
I think those videos answer most of the questions.

One thing i was confused about is if keyboard dock comes with tablet. I discovered that with product code extension xxxx- A02xx It will come with keyboard. A03 and A04 may not come with keyboard and are generally cheaper. Also A04 is not full HD.
But just to be sure, you may want to ask reseller before you give them your money.
Also you would want to make sure that your device has sim card slot, if you need it. Some countries do not get sim card slot as also shown in the video.
I have German version. This does have sim card slot and supports 3.5G-4G mobile internet speeds through HSPA+ technology.

 

Looks like there are non existing in Europe at the moment. My order was pushed to 22.01.2013. Im cant wait that long. So i cancelled my order.
Im still looking and hoping to get it somewhere sooner.

 

I'm actually thinking about replacing my recently acquired Samsung Series 9 15" with this 11.6" tablet. Big drop in screen size, sure, but if I can upgrade the SSD to 256gb and maybe find a way to upgrade the RAM from 4gb to 8gb, then it will have the exact same processing power as my Series 9!

The only other downfalls would be a sub-par keyboard for this (after all, it's not a laptop) and the fact that it will probably cost me about $400 more even after selling my i5/8gb/256gb 15" Series 9....which gets to be pretty pricey....though it would also function as my main laptop.

 

I was thinking about getting one of these a few months back, but changed my mind as i read the memory is soldered to the motherboard and is not upgradable, so check before you buy if this is important to you, also there could be other version with more memory.

John.

 

I have a 700t Smart PC Pro, purchased about three weeks ago in store from Future Shop in Canada. i5, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD and the package I purchased included the keyboard dock. I also have a Sony Duo 11 i7/8GB/256GB. I develop hardware and software for mobile devices in my day job so I end up with a lot of hardware

I am amazed how little selection there is in the convertible market at the moment. As Windows 8 almost dictates a touch device to make any sense, and with a standard laptop format poking at the screen like this isn't a naturally comfortable position.

Tablet itself...
Pros:
- Good battery life
- Relatively light weight when used as a tablet without the dock
- Good performance

Cons:
- No wired Ethernet
- Touchscreen gestures, particularly in desktop mode, is hit and miss but the Sony Duo 11 is worse.
- On-screen Windows 8 keyboard nowhere near as comfortable or error-free to use as the iPad, although this is a general fault on all 9"+ widescreen tablets, Windows or Android.

Dock comments...

Pros
- Dock has proper touchpad

Cons
- Keyboard dock connection very, very flaky indeed, makes it almost useless to use sat up in bed unless you stay perfectly still.
- No backlight in dock
- Considering the dock's weight (needed to stop the laptop toppling over), an extra battery within the dock itself would seem sensible rather than filling the dock with dead ballast.
- Dock ports only USB 2.0
- The dock USB port covers are irritating and I think superfluous.

I had a scare yesterday, when, after a Windows update, the machine rebooted and was stuck in an EFI signature mismatch. For a while I suspected the unit was bricked, but I fixed it in the end. It wasn't pretty. The second post in the following thread fixed it How can I repair the Windows 8 EFI Bootloader? - Super User

Cheers, Howard