Samsung NP930X5J / NP940X5J ATIV Book 9 (2014) 15.6" Haswell announced Jan 6, 2014

So is this device dead?
I don't see any 14 hour battery samsung laptop here
https://www.samsung.com/us/computer/laptops

Surely it couldn't have dropped form 14 to 8.8. Is this the right device? Where is the right device ?

Does side sync work on the device from the 2014 CES?

I am trying to use this device side sync with a galaxy note pro 12.2 as opposed to getting something like a surface pro 3

I wasn't able to zoom in with the camera on the SP3 to take a picture and put in notes and I'm hoping to be able to do that and create documents using laptop, tablet, and pictures by side syncing galaxy note pro 12.2 with this laptop from ces 2014.

 

It is very much alive! Actually, it is so popular that the NP940X5J is already sold out at Adorama, Newegg, CDW and the Samsung US web site. Amazon and B&H still have stock...

As mentioned in the earlier parts of this thread, you can get up to 14 hours battery life if you are careful. But 8.8 hrs are more realistic - they are "Based on MobileMark 2012 test scores that will vary based on configuration."

MobileMark Whitepaper:
http://bapco.com/assets/uploads/support/mobilemark2012/MobileMark2012WhitePaper_1.12.pdf

 

There are not may posts from people that got the touch-screen NP940X5J last week. I guess that means everybody is very happy!

 

I haven't tested the battery yet. I tend to leave it on AC unless I am at the airport and can't find an outlet. I rarely work on battery for more than 3 or 4 hours at a time, so 8.8 hours is more than enough for my needs.

 

Mine is on backorder from Samsung, rats rats rats rats ....

 

That was quick. I ordered mine on Amazon on Saturday and it arrived today! Got few more hours to go at work before i get to play with my new toy. It'll be a long few hours. :-\

 

I just opened it up, played with it for 20 minutes, and everything was all good, until I saw the specs. :-( The Amazon seller sent me the wrong model! I ordered the Core i7/256GB model, but he sent me the Core i5/128GB model. >:-( I contacted the seller and told him to send me the correct model or give me a full refund.

 

It is always best to get it directly from Amazon.

This one is "In Stock" and "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.":

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Editi...402372770&sr=8-2&keywords=samsung+ativ+book+9

 

Yeah, I know, it's just the other seller was selling it cheaper.

 

I wanna restore this to factory settings before I ship this back. How do I do that?

Edit: Nevermind, found it.

 

I'd still buy one from another seller that's not directly Amazon. You'd be saving $165 in taxes.

 

I now have both the 930 (W7) and 940 (W8.1), and I am enjoying both.When i got the 930, I immediately added the Crucial 550 in the second drive slot, no problem. I understand the 940 has no second slot, and that is consistent with my own recent look under the hood. I recall several discussions around replacing the primary (in my case, a 256) with a the Crucial or other larger capacity drive, but I don't see that anyone has actually done it. If anyone has, please let me know what you used as a replacement and whether you ran into any problems. The added drive space on the 930 is a great help to me, and I would like to do what I can with the 940, having been disappointed, along with everyone else, to find it has only one slot. Thanks.

 

Helen, please let us know is there any difference in display reflection between touch and non touch version and how do they compare to Macbook Air display if you had a chance to use it. I believe that touch version should be more reflective.

When you look at black colour across the full screen which one is darker. It is important for movies.

What do you think about touch usability.

Are both versions equally quiet and cool.

Which one will you keep.

Thank you

 

That's a shame they opted to forego the second slot on the touch model. I don't understand why there are two models to begin with. That said, upgrading the primary drive should be no problem. Probably your best bet is to create a bootable usb recovery drive and then use it to initialize the new drive. You could also just do a clean W8 install, I presume the 930 came with the W8 disc, but not sure if the versions will be compatible (Pro vs. Core). If it was me, I would backup the factory image on each laptop externally (using e.g. clonezilla) then configure the 930 with the 2x256GBs and the 940 with the 512GB.

 

Don't know about others, but on my laptop the "color engine" keeps crashing and restarting, about once per day now. AppPath=C:\Program Files (x86)\Samsung\ColorEngine\ColorEngine.exe I am not clear on what might cause this.

 

There is no such file (or directory) on my NP930X5J (Windows 7). I believe you also have the NP930X5J. Did you upgrade/downgrade to Windows 8.1? (It is best to just include that information in your signature.)

 

S/W Update just offered a new version of " Easy Settings" (Samsung Settings in Win 8) and I went ahead and allowed the update.

I just found out that whenever you update or re-install Samsung Settings your Adaptive Brightness and other power tweaks will have to be made again. Even my custom profiles are gone....

 

That was awesome huberth! There is indeed such a file/directory in Windows 8.1, although I am not getting that error.

 

Hi everyone,

First, thank you to everyone in this thread, its been very useful!

I have been monitoring this thread for awhile trying to decide whether to purchase the NP940X5J (touch). I currently have the NPX360, but its on its last leg now so need an upgrade (its 5 years old now). I, like others in this forum, am frustrated with the 256 storage space and was hoping they would release a 500->1TB version like the original reviews had mentioned. I am not tech-savvy enough to buy my own SSD and replace the 128 or 256 one or add a SSD in the 2nd slot of the 128, so will have to be stuck with the one I purchase (hence the 256 version I'm planning on getting). Before the official release some posts mentioned that Samsung often brings out low specs at the beginning and then brings out higher specs later on. I was wondering if anyone still thinks they would be releasing a higher spec (storage space is what I'm looking at since I'm happy with the rest) system from this point on, or if what is out there is it. Especially since other posts have mentioned that Samsung is moving away from laptops, perhaps then no more versions will become available??? And also, others mention to buy this laptop soon before they run out (I think huberth has on more than one occasion)...does this mean we don't think this laptop will be available to purchase a couple of months down the road? I would be ok waiting a couple of months if there was a better system yet to come, but don't want to miss out on this one if this is it.

Thanks for the advice!

 

I would ignore the rumors and speculations. Yes, there is always the possibility that something better comes along in the future. If you read the reviews, there is very little negative about the NP940X5J. Just go ahead and get it! I don't think you will be disappointed.

 

I agree with huberth. There is very little I would change about this laptop in a future laptop. I am disappointed about the missing second SSD slot, but 1TB SSD drives will be available soon. I will replace the 256GB drive with one of those and that will be more than enough for me. Laptop technology isn't exactly progressing by leaps and bounds any longer and phones and tablets are starting to just have just incremental upgrades as well.

 

Just got my NP940X5J K01US delivered today To tell you the truth it's not overwhelming me compared to the "old" NP900X4C I have. But the keyboard is a solid 50% better or more. Key travel is much better and more tactile. Backlighting is still nice and bright. Not familiar enough with the screen to post reviews yet, not sure how the glossy is going to work out. Seems like the screen brightness needs to be at 75% or above to look good to me. Battery life estimate was 6+ hours after a full charge, not 8.8 or 11, but that's with wifi on. Touchpad needs some more getting used to, right now it doesn't seem to be picking up 2 finger scroll as well as the NP900X4C. Speakers are nothing spectacular, different, but not sure if that's in a good way or not. Touchscreen is nice and responsive. There's ~104gb usable space of the 128 advertised.

On the software side of things:
Windows 8.1 is taking some time getting used to. I'm going to look into start bar modifications etc. Realtek doesn't have an equalizer option for some unknown reason? No windows experience index? Gotta go into device manager to check things out. Scrolling is backwards (up is down, down is up), already fixed that back to normal. Like the NP900X4C, for some reason Samsung didn't activate an option to turn off the touchpad when you begin typing, which is a nuisance for me.

I picked up what was advertised as an i7, 128gb model for ~$1200, an i5 128gb model arrived. Not super upset but I'd like to hear whether you think it's still a deal. I'm considering returning it if I decide the side-grade from the NP900X4C isn't worth it. But man, the keyboard is much, much better as I write this, and I could get used to the whole 'being able to right click' reliably without using two fingers

Let me know if anyone would like side-by-side pictures or other comparisons etc. as I'm not sure I'll be keeping it.

 

I really think you could add a second SSD if you got a model that supports it. There's really nothing tricky about it, just remove the screws, take off the back panel, and plug in the drive. Then format it in windows and you have the space.

I wouldn't be concerned about them running out. I haven't seen any Samsung models sell out in the US at least, but there is often a limited supply at the initial release. So I would argue waiting is not a bad option, unless your current machine really is on its last legs. It's also likely the price will come down in the coming months. We don't know if this is the last gasp of samsung notebooks or whether there will be broadwell offerings (I have my fingers crossed).

 

Sounds like a deal to me (care to share your source?). Much more reasonable than the $1500 newegg charges for that model. Performance difference between i5 and i7 is negligible. You have 8GB and can always upgrade the storage. See if you can live with the glossy screen.

 

Thank you for the info

Its interesting that the 930 model is $450 more then 940 I would expect it to be less

 

I'm a bit puzzled with everyone's fascination with hard drive size )) To me thats secondary as I would never consider a notebook for data storage. I would pick a NAS or some 'cloud' solution any day.

The far more important question to me is memory. Does anyone have any info regarding updatability of the 930 or 940 model to 16GB? I apologize if this was already covered in this vast thread My old Series 9 NP900X3C has 4GB and its killing me. I just upgraded my work Lenovo x230 to 16GB and it made a huge deference with my use.

 

1. Some of us don't like to rely on an internet connection for access to files.

2. The RAM is 8GB but soldered. If you want more than 8GB then you have to look for the NP900X4C with its two SODIMM slots. I don't expect a version of the NP930/NP940 to surface with more than 8GB in the near future unless Samsung redesign the mainboard to replace the second M.2 SSD slot with a SODIMM slot.

John

 

Thanks for the reply I guess if I want 16GB and 1920x1080 and 15" in the Series 9 form factor, I'm out of luck

I understand the slow access issue with remote storage I guess many people have huge amounts of data / content they HAVE TO access all the time, although not sure what it might be. Maybe recording hours of TV content to watch offline? not sure Personally I would never use something like a notebook for archival purposes, far too easy to have the drive go bad and loose it all. I prefer to use RAID5 NAS and backup to offsite as well.

 

Some of us work with data we can't store "in the cloud" for security reasons. You can put it on an encrypted external drive, but you still have to carry it around with you when you travel. I do back up my data religiously, just not to the cloud. Also, when you spend 20 hours on an international flight, it is nice to have some videos on the local drive you can watch on the plane. I can make 256GB work with an external drive, but I definitely wouldn't fit on a 128GB drive.

 

Thats true although there are ways to make things secure in the 'cloud'. I run QNAP NAS at home and have secure VPN access when on the road. That give me almost 8TB in 5 x 2TB in RAID5. Sure its not a solution if one is on a plain or off high speed mobile internet connection

 

How do I keep the "Chargeable USB3.0 port" (on the right side, closest to the memory card slot) powered on for charging my cell phone, even while the laptop is in sleep mode?

How do I enable chargeable USB on my NP930XJ5? (The manual does not tell me, except to say that there is a Chargeable USB 3.0 port (optional) )

EDIT: I found it in Easy Settings

 

Hi Helen,
Could you please let us know if is there any difference in display reflection and display quality between the touch and non touch version.
Have you decided yet on which one you are going to keep?

 

Am I overlooking an easy way to have the touchpad automatically turn off when I type? I know other laptops offer it, just never found it on a Series 9 other than fn+f5 to manually turn it off/on. One of my biggest gripes with the computer.

 

I found this:

Touchpad Blocker disables your laptop's touchpad when you're typing so you don't accidentally click or move a long line of text:

Touchpad Blocker - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download.com

Also reviewed here: 3 Free Tools to Disable Your Laptop Touchpad When Typing
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/touchfreeze-disables-laptop-touchpad-when-typing/

I haven't tried it. Let us know how it works for you.

 

The touchpad settings under Windows 8 are under Setting/Change PC Settings/PC and Devices/Mouse and Touchpad:

Touchpad: On or Off
Enable swiping in from the left or right edge: On or Off
Reverse scrolling direction: On or Off
To help prevent the cursor from accidentally moving while you type, turn off taps or change the delay before taps work:
No delay (always on)
Short delay
Medium delay
Long delay
Turn off taps

 

I'd like some clarification on the disk space. When you say there's 104GB usable: Is there any "recovery partition"? Is the discrepancy between 128GB and 104GB due to (a) a recovery partition or (b) the initial Windows OS installation and initial software?

To ask another way, what is the actual free space number for the main Windows partition (drive C: presumably) when the laptop arrives? (i.e. accounting for both the recovery partition, if any, and the initial Windows OS installation and initial software.)

Thanks.

 

Thanks huberth, I'm going to try that out tonight, I've been trying to find something since the NP900X4C which had the same issue. For some reason it's not listed as an option in Windows, kind of like the equalizer in Realtek for some reason.

I'm not sure how to exactly check for the partition size. When it arrived it showed as "70.9GB free of 104 GB" in My Computer. I'm not sure how that's allocated, but I've only installed ~50 MB (yes MB) of programs so far. Haven't tried deleting any excess programs etc. yet, but obviously it's not quite as much usable space as most people assume when they see a 128GB SSD advertised. I'm not sure where the ~33GB of used space came from, or where the 24GB of "missing" space went. My guess would be the 24GB of "missing" space is used for the recovery partition.

 

Correct the 24GB is for the recovery and other hidden partitions (you can view these in computer management). Recovery can be removed and the space reclaimed if you back it up to a thumbdrive. While a bloat-free Windows install should only take up about 15GB or so, hibernation and the page file will take up the amount of RAM installed, in your case 8GB each. IIRC hibernation can be turned off by the command: powercfg.exe hibernate off. The page file can be reduced to 1GB or so and not affect performance.

 

Followup: Can someone please list the commands (or a link to web page containing instructions) for each of these two steps?

(1) Backing up the recovery partition to a USB drive (so that the recovery partition can be safely removed from the main SSD).

(2) Using a USB drive containing the recovery partition to recover the main SSD back to initial state (say, after I've wiped Windows and installed Linux, then discovered Linux isn't working well with the hardware and need to recover the original SSD state so that I can return the laptop for refund).

I want to make sure I understand the instructions enough to feel fully confident that I can pull off both steps (the 2nd one only if necessary) without any risk of mess-up. Thanks.

PS. Also, does the recovery backup have to be a USB drive? Can I burn recovery discs instead if I don't want to use a USB drive? Is it more risky to burn discs vs use USB drive?

 

See this post by Dannemand, the SRS expert (I don't know whether you can use DVDs but I wouldn't recommend them over a usb drive):

If you want to save an image of the drive after you've installed applications/migrated files (and preserve F4 recovery) I would recommend clonezilla.

 

Is there any reason you wouldn't use the backup feature of Samsung Recovery? I created a backup image with it after I installed my applications and migrated my data. I haven't tried a restore yet, but it even works from Windows like Acronis without requiring a reboot. I won't be testing a restore (knock on wood) until I buy a larger SSD drive to replace the 256GB drive.

Backup says it only makes an image backup of the C drive. So I think the process would be to restore the factory image and then recover the backup. That would be two steps instead of one with Clonezilla to restore all the partitions, but doesn't seem like that big a deal.

Making a bootable USB stick with a factory image is done through Samsung Recovery and is very simple to do. Samsung Recovery is available as a boot option (if you have the recovery partition), or a Windows application. You just insert the memory stick and select that option and then choose a target drive. I don't know if the target drive can be a USB DVD burner (I have one, but it is not with me at the moment). There is no internal DVD drive on the Samsung. The factory image is 9.8GB. You can buy a 16GB USB drive from Amazon for under $10.

The Options in Samsung Recovery are:
Recover
Backup
Disk Copy
Factory Image
Run Backup Server
Help

 

If you have a Win8 model, that means you have SRS6 (Samsung Recovery Solution 6) with all the necessary tools built in, as described by members g045cvi and TJoseph -- and as you suggested yourself: You use Recovery to create a so-called bootable factory image backup on a USB stick, which can later be used to re-image the disk to factory state if it gets messed up -- including working Recovery and factory Windows installation. It is also a great tool in case you want to sell the computer someday.

You have to use a USB flash drive (16GB should suffice for your model). Unfortunately SRS is picky about which USB sticks it likes. If you choose one it doesn't like, there is risk of a corrupted backup (and no warning about it). Follow the first two steps in this post for guidance.

You cannot make this type of bootable backup to an external USB drive (although SRS pretends to do it anyway) nor to a DVD. It has to be a USB stick that acts as a removable drive.

If you can accept leaving 1GB of Recovery on your disk, you can delete just the SAMSUNG_REC2 partition (the bigger one) and leave SAMSUNG_REC (the smaller one). This will allow you to still boot Recovery with F4 and have access to general backup/restore features (as described by TJoseph). If you create a regular (non-bootable) factory image backup on an external USB drive before you delete SAMSUNG_REC2, you can use that as your primary restore image, and only use the USB stick backup as a fallback if the disk gets completely messed up -- or when you need to image a new disk. This post elaborates on that.

If you have a Win7 model, you have SRS5, which unfortunately does NOT have that handy bootable factory image backup feature. Instead, you can create a so-called Admin Tool (fits on a 512MB USB stick) which allows you to re-create functioning, but empty, Recovery on a new disk -- the ONLY way to do that. Combine that with either a file and folder copy of the entire Recovery partition and/or a backup of the Initial Image and you can manually piece together a working SRS5 Recovery with factory image. Both the Admin Tool and the Initial Image backup must be made in the secret Management Mode. This post has the details on that procedure.

This post has some overview for both SRS5 and SRS6.

As go45cvi mentioned, you can also create a complete disk image with Clonezilla and restore that. The reasons you will see me generally recommend to use SRS tools are (1) they are readily available and do not require booting a Linux live-CD and (2) 3rd party cloning and imaging tools generally don't understand SRS and tend to lose it when they restore or clone (for the reasons described here). That is true for Acronis, Paragon, Ghost -- and even Clonezilla. But as go45cvi found, when making a complete disk image (not individual partitions) Clonezilla seems to preserve the proprietary link information in the partition table that makes SRS work.

 

I notice no difference between the two screens. They are both glossy and tha.t is fine with me because I do most of my work in a cave ;-) I also like the depth the glossy screen seems to impart. My plan right now is to keep both systems, though I am still a little troubled by the lack of a second drive slot on the 940

 

, v
No difference in reflection, both equally glossy. Do not have an Air handy to compare, sorry. Both equally dark, tested using Potplayer and and ISO of Life of Pi mounted on a virtual. Touch is great, very smooth and very responsive. Now, about the fan and the matter of quiet: this is a big deal for me because I am one of the folks with very sensitive hearing, and I have sent back a lot of systems because of noise (I often record voice and it has to be VERY QUIET in the area where I record. Anyway, both the 930 and 940 are whisper quiet, even when playing the Bluray ISO.

I will keep both.

 

I agree that upgrading the primary (the only) drive on the 940 "should be no problem," but I have yet to see a post in which someone has actually done it, so I am cautious. Huberth replaced the secondary on the 930, and I followed his trailblazing, but no one (I may have missed it) in this thread has upgraded the 940. My plan is to use Shadow Desktop for the image and do a bare metal to the new drive.Then supply drivers as needed.BUT, I will probably wait until someone else does it first. I am a real coward.

 

Thank you Helen,
I think i will pass this one anyway. No retina like display and no display port or hdmi 2.0 means it is not future proof. Now add to this flexible chassis and you get the answer why Apple is still number one. The problem is i am Windows user and this Samsung is the best Windows laptop if you don't need gpu.

From digitaltrends review:
"Unfortunately, the chassis doesn’t hold up as well under close examination. The use of metallic construction isn’t enough to keep this thin system from bending under its own weight, and chassis flex is the result. Picking the device up with one hand often generates a groan or pop, as various components shift. While this isn’t a functional issue, it’s disappointing, given the system’s premium price."

Also, why there is no semi glossy display as an option. They already have semi glossy tvs.
Too many omissions. This is what happens when you calculate too much.

 

I have never noticed a chassis flex and I carry mine around with one hand all the time! And while the NP930X5J is not perfect for gamers, when it comes to productivity apps its PCMark 7 score (which digitaltrends did not even mention) of 4700 matches all other comparable systems (except for the MacBook Pro).

Check out the Notebookckeck review - performance section:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Samsung-ATIV-Book-9-2014-NP930X5J-K02DE-Ultrabook-Review.117595.0.html

But I like Digitaltrend's conclusion:

" Samsung’s ATIV Book 9 is essentially a 15-inch MacBook Air. If you’ve ever wanted such a thing, well, here’s your chance to own it, albeit with Windows 8.1 instead of OS X. The ATIV Book 9′s razor-thin profile, minimal heft, and bright display make it more portable than some 13-inch Ultrabooks, yet it still provides the space and comfort of a large, mainstream laptop.


http://www.digitaltrends.com/computer-videos/samsung-ativ-book-9-2014-video-review/

 

My NP940X5J doesn't have any noticeable flex or make noises when I pick it up with one hand. It is a pound heavier than my previous ultrabook (Asus UX31E) and is not as easy to grab with one hand when it is open, but that is the trade off for the bigger screen.

 

I suspended both my 930 and 940 between two desk chairs and dropped an original IBM CRT monitor on them. No flex at all. Well, I didn't actually do that, but I agree with others: this is one of the more solidly built systems I have ever had, so no worries, at least in my experience, in that regard. No flex, no noise. Heavy and a little awkward with one hand, though, but to be fair, it isn't a tablet ;-)

 

LOL

You had me for a second there, rereading your first sentence to see if I got you right.