Samsung Q45 (12.1" widescreen)

I picked up a Q45 today from John Lewis in High Wycombe, after reading this thread!
I've been looking at the Q35 for a while, seemed good at £750 from Dixons / PC World. Boy am I glad I looked at this site and found out about the Q45!

JL currently have 2 more at High Wycombe, 1 at Milton Keynes and 1 at Oxford Street. There might be others, but those are the locations that I discussed on the phone when deciding where to reserve it.
At High Wycomne neither the Q35 or Q45 are on display in the store, and last weekend I was in Milton Keynes they still had the red Q53 on display (at £899!!).

As I type this, the new machine is plugged in charging up, might try and write a review tonight if wife and kids give me enough time. Looks like I might have the first review on the web if I'm quick!

Am I excited or what?

 

Congratulations on your purchase. You are getting the rest of us excited. There is a shortage of first-hand info about this model:twitcy:

John

 

nice... at last my waiting ended... at least one of the user has it in hand already... cool... i'm looking forward to read your review... you should be excited... lol... i was too n still am when bought my q35 ruby...

 

My Samsung Q45 arrived today!!

I've had a little play and its very cool. Not really got the technical knowledge required to provide a review, but I can tell you that my scales measure it as 1.88 Kg. Also despite John Lewis saying it had the nVidia graphics card, it has the Intel graphics card. Somewhat expecting this, I am not disappointed, though will try and use it as leverage to get a discount from JL as under the Distance Selling Regulations I have been mis-sold.

The only other information I can give is that under the Windows Experience Index, it gets the following:

Processor: 4.8
Memory (RAM): 4.8
Graphics: 3.4
Gaming Graphics: 3.5
Primary Hard Disk:4.9

Overall: 3.4 (determined by the lowest subscore)

Other than that is just AWESOME (in my professional opinion)

PS When hovering over the battery icon in the bottom right it says that it estimates it will run for about 5 hours under Samsung Optimised power plan

 

Thanks for this info.

Doing a review isn't so difficult. Don't assume that they have to be as comprehensive as mine to be eligible.:rolleyes2:

Think of the unknowns and uncertainties which might affect a purchasing decision, write them down and you are half done. Check if what you get agrees with what you expected. Run some standard benchmark tests and get a better measure of the battery life and you a just about there. (And there is some modest financial compensation for your efforts).

That's good news about the battery life. Try going into Device Manager and disabling Bluetooth and see if it makes any difference. On my Q35 I found that having Bluetooth enabled hit the battery life because it kept the CPU from sleeping. Maybe this has been fixed. See my post (#17) in this thread.

John

 

Hi everyone - it's my first post in this excellent and knowledgable forum

Having used a Samsung X10 for the past 3 or 4 years I decided a replacement was in order. So I chose the Q35 Red (having found John's excellent review last week), and then luckily, stumbled across the world of the Q45.

Usually I like to know exactly what I'm getting - however the past few days have been torture waiting for a detailed review from the lucky few Q45 owners. Finally I decided I couldn't wait anymore - so I've just bought the last Q45 from John Lewis Milton Keynes

Now I'll find out what all the hype is about - I hope.

If no-one beats me to it I'll be happy to post as much info as I can muster by the end of the weekend.

 

Hi

Sorry ive not been more forthcoming with details. Just finished my finals so other than turning it on when I got it, i havent touched it!

As i said, i dont know enough I feel to give a comprehensive or reliable review. However, the cons I have noticed so far are:

Speakers a very tinny. I know you cant expect much for its size though. Furthermore, the audio socket is at the front which is great for headphones (which i suppose, being a portable laptop is the priority) but not good for attaching speakers.

Secondly, the keys are a bit small, especially the right shift. Also the fn key is where left ctrl is (ie of the far outside). This seems to be quite common among some laptops but will take me some getting used to, especially when cut-and-pasting.

The laptop came with a whole load of software which i felt just got in the way. So I spent some time uninstalling a lot of it. This is just my personal preference though. It did come with 4 DVD/Media centres, which i think is a little excessive. This is obviously easily remedied.

Finally, there appears to be no access hatch to the fans on the back. There is a possibility that by unscrewing the keyboard from behind (four well labelled screws) you can access the fans from the top, but i dont know. Many of my laptops and my friends need the fans cleaned after about a year.

 

Thanks for the extra comments. Everything helps.

Tinny Speakers: Did you find the SRS control (see the attached extra from the manual)?

That right shift key: I agree that it is annoyingly small. Strangely, the X60 plus has a small left shift key, which causes fewer problems. Having a small shift key is a consequence of the national keyboard which has one more key than the standard US keyboard.

Fn <> Ctrl: There is perpetual debate about which key should take the corner position. Unfortunately Fn is hardwired and not remappable, but it is about time notebook manufacturers figured out how to give users choice in this matter.

Access to fan: This may not be so easy (a can of compressed air with a pipe into the corner of the RAM compartment may be the easiest). I would strongly advise that you look into undervolting the CPU (RMClock or NHC) so that your fan runs less often and never gets above the slowest speed. Then your computer is less likely to serve as a vacuum cleaner.

John

 

OK - well thumbs up to John Lewis (& Hughesy for the stock info & MckDandy for the stock number), I collected the Q45 about an hour after paying by credit card over the phone.

I've taken some photos of the contents of the box but have still to charge the battery. I've no idea how long for... the installation booklet is an object lesson in pointless literature. The only real bit of helpful information is that there is a full manual installed in the notebook (that's the notebook that can't be used until the battery has been fully charged for a length of time that I can find out about in the manual). I know there's a link a few pages back but really - would it hurt Samsung to put that info somewhere easy to find?

Usually I'm not too bothered about proper battery preparation - however the battery life of the Q35 (and I hope the Q45) were a big attraction for me, so I'd like to do everything "best practice".

First impression of the machine were, dare I say, a little disappointing. I'm sure that's more down to my inaccurate expectations rather than any fault on the part of the notebook. It's thicker than I expected - very chunky in fact. And although I'm sure I should have known this I'm not keen that there is no catch for the screen. I can see me using a rubber band to ensure it doesn't get forced open & damaged during transit.

More later

 

Welcome ABG,

Unfortunately, computer manufacturers fail to produce perfect products, perhaps because each of us has different needs.

1. The computer will be fully charged when the light on the front changes from orange to green. The battery should take around two hours to charge from empty but I expect that a new battery will be about half charged. By the time you read this I'm sure you can turn the computer on.

2. Yes, the Q35 family is relatively thick compared with computers like the Sony SZ and the Macbook. The big benefit is that there is room for a proper sized fan which isn't very noisy and a standard optical drive. If you want a computer which which keep your knees warm, then it is better to buy one of these afore-mentioned computers. I saw a Macbook in Currys a few days back for £770. Very tempting, but I reminded myself about the way it gets hot, the single mouse button and the lack of a modem socket (less necessary at home, but useful if you are travelling).

3. Don't worry about the latch. That display stays securely shut during travel. However, a sleeve may be a useful purchase and will also provide protection against scratching. I got a becase sleeve (link below). For some reason 12" widescreen neoprene sleeves aren't very common.

Start up and enjoy!

John

 

As usual you are spot on - the indicator has just changed to green. I guess I'm thinking back to early mobile phones where the first charge had to be much longer than usual.

About to switch on but I'm still a bit shocked _ I've just realised that the machine only has one USB port. Given the Q35 has two I didn't think it possible there would be less than two. OK a USB hub will sort that out but really? Just one? That might be a dealbreaker - I like to use a USB mouse and USB 3G modem and the ancient X10 manages that.

Off to use the machine - I'm hoping my concerns will be swept away...

 

Look harder at the ports.

One USB port on the right side near the back (convenient for flash drives) and one on the back near the left side. They could have squeezed in another port but maybe the designer had a bad experience where the ports were so close then the a fat device in one made the other unusable.

A Bluetooth mouse is one way to free up a port, but on the Q35 I found that Bluetooth did nasty things to the battery life. I find that the big touchpad is very usuable and a mouse is an optional extra.

John

 

Well I think in my rush to add some info on this machine all I've done is prove I don't know what I'm talking about.

That'll teach me - I must avoid RTFM - I got the info on the USB port from the external diagrams on the Samsung website!

Using the Q45 is a very good experience - the keyboard is good - a very nice feel to it, the screen is bright and vivid and all of this works in almost total silence expect for some muffled HDD noise. Windows is showing 1.99Gb (2038Mb) of Ram.

I'm still updating files etc but overall ATM I have no complaints and lots of good feelings about the Q45.

 

Q45 seems to be a very well balanced ultraportable, I am particular pleased to hear that it is silent as many ultraportable behaves very badly in this area which unfortunately won't get noticed in the shop(where ambient noise trumps it).

 

Curious to know what is the argument for the "outest is Fn" as in Samsung. I used Ctrl more often(copy and paste) and having it as the outest don't requires me to "look for" it.

 

You are excused. I see that the Quick Guide on the website fails to indicate the USB port on the back.

What brand is the HDD? Fujitsu (quiet) or Hitachi (noisier)? Device Manager will give a model number. Samsung never use their own quiet HDDs. Keyboard travel on the Q35 is relatively limited. Perhaps they increased it slightly on the Q45.

John

 

I've brought it into work today to get a better feel for how it works outside the home environment. It is almost silent, and even the HDD noise is barely noticable. The screen works really well - there is a lot of reflection but when you're concentrating on the content you don't notice it. Its only when you sit back and focus on the reflections you can understand some peoples reservations. I'm glad to say I like the high quality feel it gives the display and don't notice it when I'm engrossed in work.

The styling is OK but not eyecatching IMO. The piano black outer looks OK however when you look at it from an angle the highly gloss finish shows imperfections in the smoothness of the coating - tiny areas of dimples etc. Its not noticable unless you look at it from just the right angle but I don't see the pluses outweight the minuses of having an ultra glossy outer case. Despite using a very capable kensington bag with nothing else in the notebook section I have somehow picked up a big mark on the top lid. Its not a scratch but is is unsightly. I travel 6 miles to work by car and have been quite careful with the Q45, so I don't hold up much hope for the long term lovelyness of the piano black lid.

Battery life is interesting. Yesterday it was showing no better than 4 - 4.5 hours when mousing over the battery icon. Today I disabled the bluetooth function and it went up by an hour to almost 6 hours. Its unscientific but it seems to show that the problem with Bluetooth that John described is still there.

Keyboard feel is very pleasing, firm but with just the right amount of travel and "spring". I'm not an expert typist but IMO its just right - apart from the short right shift button which is a problem especially when I type an email address and use the right shift to hit "@"

In summary I feel this is an excellent notebook and a bit of a bargain at £799

Andrew

 

The HDD is a Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00 - I suppose it is noisy in that I can hear it, and when recently using a G4 Powerbook or the Samsung X10 I couldn't, however I like the audible feedback that the disk is active and find the noise quite quiet (and in no way annoying).

 

New to this amazing forum, so here is a short background

I was 10' close to ordering a Q35(silver) a couple of days ago, when I paid a visit to my local JL and came across the Q45 (dark knight?) Back home I did a final round of market-e-research and found the most useful reviews (thanks John Ratsey) and relevant commentary (thanks to all). It's been a rollercoaster since

The way I see it: only problem with Q35 is the 1.5 GB RAM (any idea if this can be upgraded, John?) but the T7200 sounds fine and the machine looks functional, despite the dated silver. It is still available with XP Pro, which means I can run the professional s/w I use.

Q45 looks great to me (I am quite traditional, so no probs with dullness), with tempting mic and webcam, but T7100 sounds limiting and Vista implies s/w complications (for me). All this is pretty esoteric, so...

...I just need to know:
1. Is Q45 really heavier than Q35 (incl battery, AC adapter & cables)?
2. Is Q45's screen actually different to Q35's? (size, resolution, reflection)?
3. Does Q45's battery really last longer than Q35's?

I can have the Q35 (silver, T7200, 1.5GB, XP-Pro) for £965 or Q45 for £791 with 3 year warranty from: store.stonecomputers.co.uk (special price for education, open to all students out there)

Q45 looks like the best VFM around, if only it had a T7300...
...And then I discovered Q70, but that's another Forum

Seraphim
--
Writing from a VAIO FR415S with Pentium4(!)

 

ABG. Thanks for the extra comments.

You are right about the display. If the panel is bright then you don't notice most reflections.

I would suggest you look at the becase sleeve. It has negligible weight or bulk but provides good protection.

The "almost six hours" is very promising. My Q35 wouldn't go beyond 5 hours with XP but was showing around 5 1/2 with Vista.

Someone did describe the Hitachi HDD sound as "a field of crickets". but you quickly get used to the noise and mentally block it out.

John

PS: Just a check: You have the small 60W (3.16A) PSU?

 

Personally, I would go with Q45 just for the price. The CPU difference just doesn't worth the difference, IMO. And at the price, most likely you would get the Intel IGP which means it would be a full santa rosa platform that should consume less power than Q35.

 

Yes - its the 60W (3.16A) PSU. Not as neat a design as the larger PSU for the X10 but a much longer cable, which is probably more important.

I will look at getting a becase - thanks.

By far the noisiest thing about the Q45 is the default setting for the volume! When Vista did its first ding I almost jumped out of my skin. I failed to reduce the volume and when using it in the lounge it made another very loud "bing" which caused my wife jump with fright and then give me the evil eye. We're not nervous people - its just that loud.

I've reduced the volume down to 20%

 

Thanks. I thought it was a 60W PSU, but it is worth checking. The 90W is much bigger and heavier.

That says something positive about the quanity of the audio. How's the quality? Personally, I disable all the standard windows sounds.

And another question. Can you check the thickness of the Q45 from bottom of feet to top of lid, at both the front and back? The Q35 is about 40mm at the back and 35mm at the front. I would expect it to be the same, but it is worthwhile checking (Samsung's dimensions usually exclude the feet).

John

 

TBH all I've done is had the usual windows beeps buzzes and short tunes. They sounded OK but I've not really given it much thought. This is the first time I've seen Vista so I've keep everything "as is" until I know what I like and don't like. To find out a bit more about the sound (and screen) I'll try a movie or two tonight and report back.

Front is 35mm lid to base of feet, back is 43mm

BTW the documentation says it's for the Q45 & Q46. Is there any info on what the Q46 is?

 

This 2GB RAM module works fine in the Q35. (And the X60plus and R20).

The version of the Q35 with XP Pro seems to be seriously overpriced. If I were getting the Q35 at the moment, this one is best value. It is the version being sold by PC World etc for £749.99. The T5200 has still got a good turn of speed. The weak link on the Q35 is the Intel GPU. If you want XP, buy an OEM XP.

1. On paper the Q45 is fractionally lighter than the Q35. It is effectively the same weight. The PSU is the same 60W version. However, it seems that the Q45 may be slightly thicker than the Q45. This could only be confirmed by a side-by-side comparison. Similarly, the Q45 may have an improved keyboard (more travel).

2. The Q45's screen is the same size and resolution as the Q35 and they are both glossy. It is possible that the Q45 is slightly better because it is newer and LCD technology is progressively improving, but the Q35's display is good.

3. We would need to have side-by-side tests to be sure about the battery life. We have a couple of reports of 5 hours or more for the Q45 and I know someone who says thier Q35 is good for 6 hours. On paper the Q45 ought to be better if all the power management improvements made by Intel actually work.

The Q45 from DigiUK is currently £775.50 but £791 with 3 year warranty is a very good deal and is probably the one to go for since those extra two years are worth around £100 (check the small print carefully).

I wouldn't worry about the CPU speed. I would need to use a stopwatch to see the difference in normal use between the T5600 in my Q35 and the T7200 in my X60 plus. If battery life is an important consideration, the faster CPU with a bigger cache is likely to drain the battery a little faster.

The Q70 is another story. They have given that a more potent GPU and my worry is that it will drain the battery much faster. Maybe we will know more in a week's time.

John

 

So it may be that the Q45 is slightly thicker at the back than the Q35, but it would be best if we could have both side by side.

Q46?: Good question.

It is possible that the Q46 would have some hardware differences and be sold in some other countries. We have to wait and see.

John

 

btw ABG... i suppose now you have all set to share some pictures with us... i would like to see it from real pictures.... thanks

 

Hi everyone!
The Q45 is quiet interesting. I suppose (due to only 200 cd/m²) the LCD has a CCFL and isn't one of those nice little LED-LCDs? Couldn't find any information about this.

"Front is 35mm lid to base of feet, back is 43mm" <-- this is really thick and one of the things - in additiono to the missing Draft-n WLAN - why I not bought the Q45 until now. Poorly there seems to be no alternative, which has WLAN Draft-n, is only 12,1" (or 13,3), isn't as thick as the Q45, has a resolution above 1024x768 and weights below 2 kg...

Pictures beside some other notebook would be great. I can't imagine, that I wouldn't be annoyed by a 43mm thick notebook... it's more than 10mm thicker than the one I am using now.

BR

 

OK - here's a couple of it beside a G4 15" Apple PowerBook

 

Some side shots just added - a couple more to help anyone decide

 

My understanding is the LED backlights currently add a substantial amount to the cost. It remains to be seen whether Samsung will include this on the top versions for some of its models. LED backlighting also allows a thinner display (although I wonder if it may be necessary to move to a metal display back to provide adequate strength and protection). Changing the display won't affect the rest of the computer.

Draft n wireless doesn't worry me. I'm not wanting to stream data across a local network and normal wireless is faster than most internet connections. I'm a little confused about what wireless options are available. I've see agn listed (ie no b) and would therefore prefer to have b for another year or two for backwards compatibility. Similarly, I believe that both the Q45 and Q70 still have PC card slots rather than express card. I'm also happy with this since I have various cards which will go into a PC card slot.

The thickness is an issue, but not as much as you think. The palm rest on my Q35 is 25mm above the table at the front and 30mm at the back (it will be interesting to see the Q45 measurements for this dimension).

I believe that the thickness is one reason that the bottom of the Q35 stays cool and the can is relatively quiet. I would hope the same applies to the Q45. I understand that some of the thinner notebooks either get very hot on the bottom and/or have noisy fans.

John

 

Thanks for the photos. Very useful. I see that Samsung have now changed the label for the memory card slot. On previous notebooks it was labelled "Memory Stick" which caused confusion.

I've been comparing the side views with my Q35. The Q45 is definitely a little thicker, but it doesn't look to be as much as 3mm. It the extra thickness to provide more travel on the keyboard or it may be to provide room for the 8400M GPU (listed as on option in the specs in the User Manual). The extra thickness has made enough space to put another USB port on the right side. It's a pity that Samsung didn't do that.

John

 

Thanks for the pictures. Now I know what you meant with:

Indeed, it has a PC card slot: 1 x PCMCIA Typ I und II (Ricoh R5C843) ( german specs)

Damn, it's very hard sometimes to be an early adaptor.. I don't want to buy a Sony TX5 in the end without Santa Rosa

 

I thought the TZ range was to replace the TX?

review here

 

I couldn't decide between 42mm and 43mm TBH. I was using a filofax ruler in the office (with the Q45 balance on one corner) so I reserve the right to have a small margin of error

BTW - I had a very quick look at video playback. The sound setup as supplied is about what you'd expect for a small laptop - poor. No bass at all, so loud noises sound "tinny". Good stereo and not bad as long as the sound requires no bass. The picture looked sharp but playback on windows media player looked a little jerky.

 

The dimples you can see in real life are not what are showing up on that photo. They are very minor imperfections, whereas the photo makes it look like the laptop has been made from puff pasty!

The photos are just a few quick snaps - without proper lighting it's hard to get the detail on the finish showing properly.

 

Wow, you made my day! Never heard of this one here in germany. It's not yet listed on any german sony-page, I think. Hope it's comes to germany by the end of June too... Really, really great! Too bad for the Q45 Unless Apple presents a 12,1" MacBook Pro on monday, I will get the Sony TZ.

 

thanks for all the pics ABG... as you said... its not a perfect pic... but good enough for people to at least see what they need to see...

i'm not sure if i didnt read it yet... but i dont think anyone wrote about it yet...

how is the touchpad? is it has any noticeable lag or something like that when you use it ?

 

Glad its helped In the UK the Q45 is almost half the price of the TZ so IMO the two are not in competition.

BTW - have you seen this?

 

I used the touchpad quite a lot today and thought it was very good - it has a nice granular feel and works well with no lag (the vertical scroll is very good too) - however there have been a few times when trying to use the main Vista menu that an option has been opened without me double clicking (I'm moving past to get to a sub menu) - I'm not sure if it's me. the touchpad or the software but its happened a couple of times

I'll try the USB mouse tomorrow and see if it happens again

 

btw... regarding the menu... i dont think you really need to double click to open the sub menu... or maybe i understand wrong what you wrote...

how is the vista experience with that setup`?

 

I think its my description causing problems... I click the Vista start button to pull up the main menu and then I'm moving the arrow cursor across to reveal the closedown submenu when suddenly one of the options I've been moving across is activated. As this happen when I have to take my finger off the touchpad to go back to the extreme left side I suspect it interprets me putting my finger back on the pad as a double click to open whatever the cursor is on at that moment.

Its not something I ever had a problem with on the Apple or the X10.

Vista works well - the Q45 has a pretty good CPU and 2 GB of Ram so I would expect it to work well. It does remind me of Mac OS X.4 but I haven't turned on all the functions I could on Vista so I suppose the definitive answer is still unknown.

 

regarding the vista experience/score i forgot the name in english... you can see it in your control panel>system there will be the score writen on the system info page... you can double click on the word to see the full result...

 

Sorry - I understand... MckDandy posted those a few days ago (my figures are the same)

 

okay... i misread that part i guess... thanks anyway... so you tested already the double click part?

 

Does anybody know if XP Professional can handle 2,5 GB RAM (2GB + 512MB) on a Q35?

I know it can only address 2 GB, but I heard that XP sometimes does not run at all on machines with more than 2 GB.

And would a memory mix of 512 MB + 2 GB slow down memory performance?


Cheers, Ernie

 

It depends on the speed. If the 2GB is DDR2667 and the 512MB is DDR2533, then just stick with 2GB. If they're the same speed, give it a try, but you really won't notice a difference in performance at all gaining 512MB.

 

Yes. 2.5GB works fine on the Q35 with XP (it can handle up to 3GB, which is what I have now got on my X60 plus).

And I cannot find any significant effect on memory speed (as detemined by the SiSoftware Sandra memory bandwidth benchmark) by having two modules of different sizes. So, if you are running many RAM-hungry applications then add more RAM and reduce use of virtual memory.

John

 

So, I went back to local JohnL@Ncle today to scrutinize their new Q45, armed with recently acquired knowledge from this list. I think I decided I can live with 12.1" (wide)screen and squeezed keyboard and shiny black cover and only 2 USBs and even with Vista Home...

...But is the left side of the palm rest really getting so hot, or was it just my impression? I don't think all this heat is healthy after typing for a few hours, which is the purpose of buying the Q45.

Does Q35 also feel hot on the left palm, or is this a new feature exclusive to Q45?

Seraph

 

Its not a feature of my Q45