Samsung Q70 (13.3")

Back to the discussion about the battery life.

After seeing the brief discussion about Portable One's SXS37 (which is Asus), I looked Rizeon's website and saw that they had an S37E and S37S and emailed off an enquiry. Stock is expected later this month. Battery life for the S37E (Intel GPU) is said to be 4.5 hours and for the S37S (8400M G) is "less than 4 hours", which shows that the Nvidia GPU does hit the battery more.

Unless Samsung have worked some power management magic, 4 hours is the most I can hope to see from the Q70. You will see that Asus managed to include 3 USB ports and e-SATA into their 13.3" chassis. The S37E might be a fall-back if the Q70 doesn't meet my requirements. Pricing is very similar to the Q35.

John

 

Hi John I actually think the Asus S37S is technically better allround...i mean the little things like gigabit lan and the 3 usb ports...e-sata...not to mention the 2mp auto focus camera...the fact you can spec it with intel turbo memory and a 7200rpm hard drive...lol...although that would eat battery life.

Thanks to your advice I did get my compal hgl30 from Rizeon...and i think they're a pretty solid reseller especially that they offer insurance backed warranties too...

Not sure about those quoted battery lifes though...i guess it depends on how much ram etc you go for...i found this spec sheet stating the S37S has 4.8Hrs run down time with 6cell battery...that seems a lot!

www.1toppc.com/Merchant2/images/Notebook/Asus/S37S%20Marketing%20Spec%200110.pdf

I love that white colour though...something different...everyone seems to be copying the hp piano black at them moment.

 

btw... what is the different with e-sata incomparison with normal sata? less power consumption or what?

 

E-sata is just external sata...

E-Sata is just more faster and doesn't suffer the bottlenecks that USB and FireWire do...so faster data transfer for external hard disk etc etc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

But it doesn't give power to the external device...

 

i see... okay... now i understand... Thanks for the info..
but the e-sata is somehow hard to unplug?

"It's harder to unplug and can withstand a cable being yanked or wiggled" quote from the wikipedia...

so generally... all this cable plug connection really worried me cause if someone stumble at the cable then there possibility that my notebook fall down...

 

lol good point...didn't think of that...

 

Thanks for these comments. At the moment my concern is the battery life and if the S37S can get to 4.8 hours then maybe the Q70 can as well.

I'm not enthusiastic about black, but I'm even less enthusiastic about white. The brush aluminium palmrest of the Q70 could be a very nice touch, and that is the part of the computer I will be looking at, not the back of the display.

The Dell M1330 is also on my list to look at should the Q70 not fit my requirements, but first I will try Samsung's offering.

John

 

up till now... there still nothing about Q70 on Samsung DE, i try to look at download center if there is anything for Q70 like in Samsung UK. but nothing here. Is there any possibility that this model not gonna be release in Germany ?

 

The Samsung.de is kept reasonably up-to-date, unlike the Samsung UK site which has yet to mention the Core 2 Duo machines which came out in the second half of 2006!

I wonder whether there are not sufficient numbers of new models available to make launches at the same time in several countries. Germany has got the R70 with the 8600M GPU, so maybe UK got first in line for the Q70. Or maybe the proposed German Q70 spec included something which was not in plentiful supply. The M60 seems to have also arrived in UK before the other European countries.

I would expect the Q70 to arrive in Germany within a few weeks.

John

 

Maybe you are right... maybe just the marketing strategy to release it to target country first... which is UK for this example... never mind... just need to wait after all...

 

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but is this not a pretty good deal on the Samsung Q70:

http://www.samsunglaptop.co.uk/products.php?cat=13

Again, I'm still awaiting for some serious reviews of this.

 

Yes, I've seen that and I think it is currently the lowest price. The specs are interesting and claim a couple of features not offered by the other retailers:

However, I think that it will be the same Q70 being sold everywhere. Last week's rumour from DigiUK was that they would get stock on 13th (today). So maybe tomorrow I will be able to clarify what is in the box.

John

 

so meaning today you will be getting your Q70 already is it? or you will need to wait till digiUK send it to you? i'm not sure if digiUK also have normal shop beside the online shop...

btw kbc... soon you can see if not full review would be at least some review from John at least...

 

If they get stock today then I should get the Q70 tomorrow. Their warehouse is in a separate location to their office so I will see they computer before their sales people.

John

 

nice... now even me getting excited... lol...
looking forward to see few pictures from your S3...
when you received it... please share the spec of the notebook(only the major thing) n some pictures...

thank you...

 

Yep. Would love to see your opinions on this. I like the size and the specs are pretty impressive.

 

It seems that the Q70 didn't reach DigiUK today so we will all have to weight another day, or more.

If the published dimensions of the Q70 are correct, it is relatively thick.

John

 

too bad... never mind, its cool... i can wait even if it take a week or something... hopefully it will arrived soon enough...

 

Still no news about the arrival of the Q70.

However, there is some progress: PDF versions of Q70 manuals are now available on the Samsung download site.

John

PS: Friday evening: The Q70 is still in transit somewhere. Tuesday is now the soonest it will reach me.

 

Quicker! Looking forward to your opinions on this.

 

There's a brief review of the Q70 at gameslaptops.co.uk

The review mentions the 8400M GS, so the Q70 has almost the same hardware as the corresponding R70 but squeezed into a smaller chassis.

Battery life seems to be a problem and was also observed by Trusted Reviews. However, there's no indication of how this was tested. If it is under full load, it could be a side-effect of the moderately powerful GPU.

I wait to see what I can get out of the Q70 when the power consumption has throttled back. Nvidia make big claims about the power-saving tricks built into their new GPUs.

John

 

but still with the 2 usb port.... is it a trademark for them to just use 2 usb port... cause for me... 2 is just too basic... when i use my usb keyboard n usb mouse... then my external hdd can't have anymore port...

n regarding the time of only 1 hour and 29 minutes... seems like it is really bad on the battery life... n i assume they get this time while they are doing all the test on the machine too rite...

but we will see how will the battery life go under moderate use... that should be next week i guess...


" this is bad weekend for me... without my ruby... n now my PC even broke down too... worst weekend ever"

 

I agree that only 2 USB ports is barely enough. One work-around is a Bluetooth mouse.

I'm sure they could have fitted two USB ports close together on the right side. OK, there wouldn't be much space between them, but there's still the port on the back for anything fat.

Bad news about your computing problems. Samsung should have been able to fix and return your ruby by now. Dell have a very good repair performance (perhaps because they needed to) whereas I think the Samsung repair people don't get much practice.

John

 

so true... they have enough space on the back for another usb port at least... btw... there no info on the Battery spec in the review rite... or i missed it somewhere?

btw... regarding my ruby... its not really samsung fault directly... cause they use UPS as the service to take my ruby from my home... n the UPS only came on last thursday... cause at first i thought they came already cause i ask my friend to handle it for me as i am working... but not... too bad...

 

That's putting me off slightly over this laptop. The lack of USB ports. I've also read the CNET review about this laptop being slightly chunky than the other portable laptops? Are there really any other laptop models worth considering which offers similar performance levels to the Q70?

Some real-life photos of this would be nice - I'm starting to have doubts about the look of this one.

 

There is no doubt that the Q70 is not slim and I agree that the available photos make it look somewhat thick. I'm not condemning this because my observations with the Q35 suggest that the thickness helps to bottom cool and provides room for a generous and quiet fan. So I am not against a little additional thickness in return for cool and quiet operation.

As for the USB port count, I find two is enough when you are on the move and when at base there is the option of using a hub.

Appearances: I am planning to post some photos within a few hours of getting the Q70 (whenever that may be).

What are the alternatives? I can think of:

(a) The Sony C series comes in at the same price point but is relatively heavy.

(b) The Rizeon S37 (Asus S37) is also in the same price range and gives the advantage of configuration.

(c) The Sony S series is in a different price range.

(d) The Dell M1330 looks very interesting.

(e) The Macbook.

I briefly looked at the Rizeon but I think the only colour available at the moment is white (but black is coming).

John

My other concern is battery life. The latest PC Pro got 5 1/2 hrs of light use from the Acer Aspire 5920 (and only 1 hr 20 mins under intensive use). That's a machine with a 15.4" display, the 8600M (GT?) GPU and an 8 cell battery. So, the the poor battery life we have seen in the available reviews are under intensive use, then there is still the possibility that the Q70 could get to 5 hours under light use.

 

Yep, the photos I've seen so far of the Q70 doesn't look appealing. It's probably the black plastic bezel which is putting me off. But then again - it does remind me of the IBM notebooks. It also looks pretty thick as we've mentioned earlier. So it would be fantastic John - if you could get some real-life photos of it.

The Sony C series look nice but the problem is - none of them support the Santa Rosa cores which already doesn't make it an alternative in my mind. The Sony S series are shockingly priced too.

The Dell M1330 isn't out yet and I've not really read much on it, aside from that, it looks pretty slimline. And I'm going to skip a Macbook.

One question though - the Rizeon brand - are they comparable with the likes of Samsung, Asus and Dell? Are they rebranded Asus laptops? I love the fact that you can configure them and the Rizeon S37S looks pretty tempting at the moment? Anything worth noting about the Rizeons?

 

The Rizeon S37 is an Asus barebones model (so it isn't listed on the Asus web site).

Rizeon, as a company, have now been around for a couple of years, and the attraction of these notebooks is the customisation options. I enquired about the battery life of the S37 and got the following reply:

Anyway, my priority is to see what is in the Q70's box and how well it performs. If it is terrible I have the option to send it back.

Oh, and another possible 13.3" model: The Fujitsu 6410. The Lifebooks are usually well built, but tend to be expensive. One standard feature is the bay battery option. That's something Samsung could usefully adopt. I've had a couple of Lifebooks (imported from USA) and the weakness is the small fan in the thin chassis. This tends to get noisier with time. Hence my reluctance to condemn Samsung's approach with sufficient thickness to include a better fan.

John

 

Samsung UK have finally updated thier web site. The Q70 is here.

90W PSU. what are they thinking of. The Q70 can barely be called portable if it has the big PSU. The R70 with the same GPU only comes with the 60W PSU.

Those specs also say the Q70 comes with Vista Business. That aspect doesn't trouble me. If anything, it is preferable to VHP.

Quotable quote:

With the 90W PSU the travel weight will be over 2.6kg. That's barely in the range of lightweight, never mind ultra lightweight.

John

 

nice... so i guess... this model is targeted to UK market first... maybe there are more potential buyer there... but with that big PSU... i don't know why should they come with such idea while they want to make the ultra lightweight...

but i suppose... you can still use ur Q35 PSU for that is it?

so any news regarding your Q70? did they arrived already?

 

I am hoping that the 90W PSU is an error. Samsung UK also list the 90W PSU for the R70, but I recall that R70 users report that it comes with a 60W PSU.

The Q70 has still not reached the distributors in the UK and stocks of the Q45 are also running low. They could all be on a lorry somewhere.

Should the Q70 come with a 90W PSU I will have to seriously consider returning it as unsuitable. While I have a 60W PSU for the Q35, I should be selling that with the Q35 and Samsung don't sell spare 60W PSUs in the UK.

John

PS: This thread and the X65 thread are becoming quite long for products which have yet to arrive.

 

so you are planning to sell ur Q35... i thought you wanna use those 3 at the same time... maybe you are right about the PSU info is differ from the real setting... but all still soooo uncertain...

 

The Q35's display is a little small my my old eyes. The 13.3" display should be OK without changing the dpi setting (which causes formatting problems). Otherwise I would keep the Q35 and not be thinking about another small notebook. I can't justify the Q70 unless the Q35 will be going to a new home, but provided the Q70 shows up soon, there will be time to make detailed comparisons.

John

 

okay... understood... so i may have to say... i still have the middle age eye then... cause till now the Q35 fit me just nicely... but like i wrote before... what i really interested about Q70 is the palmrest actually... eventho on the review, saying that the palm rest not that "outstanding"... but i will wait for some real pic of that...

 

just some info... there are some pictures regarding the Q70... eventho i'm still waiting for john to received his model... seems like the model delayed quite a time already now...






more picture from Aving USA here...

 

Some news:

DigiUK still haven't got their stock of the Q70 but Free Range PC has, so I've made a new order and cancelled the old one. So, tomorrow I hope to know what is in the box.

John

 

so meaning by tomorrow... it is today(27.07.2007) is it? so long delay from digiUK... good to know that you gonna get it soon enough...

please attach the pictures later okay john...

 

I was tempted to start a new thread, but I think it is best to keep everything together.

So here's the Q70 first impressions:

1. The PSU is only 60W , but someone thought it would be a good idea to change the mains power socket to the 3-pin cloverleaf type, so it means the mains lead is a thick 3-core cable.

2. The Q70 is definitely a bit thicker than the Q35. 45mm at the back including the feet (Q35=40mm) and about 39mm if the feet are discounted. At the front it's about 35mm. Width is about 311mm, front-to-back (including battery) about 240mm. The weight with 6-cell battery is 2.022kg. The Q70 just fits into my 13" becase sleeve.

3. The brushed aluminium palmrest is a darkish grey - much darker than the silver paint which Samsung have used a lot recently. The front edge is a relatively sharp corner.

4. I attach a copy of the specs on the box. This says the GPU is 8400SE and the wireless is agn.

Time to turn it on - the power light is green - and find out what is actually inside. More later.

John

 

thanks for the quick info n picture john... looks nice...
n good to hear that it come with the 60W PSU instead the 90W which published before...
regarding the palmrest... that's seem to look nice too (now wondering if there is any metal brush finished sheet like that)
but there is blue coloured button at F7 and F8... wondering what thats really do...
to come with the SATA hdd... is it the Hitachi hdd too?

i will ask more after you write some more about that... thanks again...

 

The HDD is Hitachi. I thought it was by listening to the noise, and it is confirmed by Device Manager. See the attached Device Manager listing for the key hardware.

I can't see Bluetooth and there's absolutely no trace of Wireless in Device Manager and there is no mini-PCI card in the mini-PCI card slot. Perhaps Samsung couldn't decide whether to provide abg (which is in the published details) or agn (as on the box), so they left it out completely!

The other big question is the GPU. The Vista Experience Index is worse than the ATI 1250M IGP in the R20.

My first estimate of battery life is around 4 hours light use. I am currently playing a DVD on 3/8 brightness and it says 1hr 52m remaining with the battery on 89%.

John

PS: And whoever put the cover over the ports on the right side never tried using the USB port.

 

thanks again for the infos...

hurmm... doesnt this graphics card suppose to be better than the ATI 1250... or am I the one who have wrong info?

regarding the battery... how much is the power in this 6 cell battery? is the same as the Q35 battery?

how bout the resolution of the screen... it handle up to how much resolution?

as it maybe still too early to ask... but how about the warm underneath the notebook? is it noticeable or this is another model with a good cooling system?

regarding the bluetooth and wireless... doesn't it suppose to be in the specs of the Q70 ?

 

It is supposed to be better than X1400, but I suppose there are some drivers problems

 

The NB8M-SE is the 8400M G, which is the bottom of the 8400M range. This is what is stated in the Q70 manual, although the specs on the Samsung UK site say it is the 8400M GS. Whatever, it is, it is fast enough for my needs. So far, I haven't looked at any settings in the BIOS or looked for newer drivers. The GPU details show 128MB of dedicated RAM. There is clearly more than one version of the 8400M G since Nvidia's specs say "up to 256MB dedicated memory".

The Q70's display resolution is 1280 x 800 (same as Q35) but Nvidia's specs say that the GPU will handle up to 2048 x 1536.

The Q70 battery is exactly the same part number as in my Q35. In an ideal world the extra power consumption would only be that needed for the bigger display.

The bottom of the Q70 is warm during DVD playback. I would say warmer than the Q35. It also seems to be blowing out more hot air than the Q35 does during DVD playback. But since the Q70 might manage 2 hrs DVD playback whereas the Q35 gets to nearly 3 hrs, this means it is using nearly 50% more power (= heat). Only a small part of that will be to light up the bigger display so the CPU / GPU are creating more heat.

The wireless definitely should be there. Bluetooth is listed as optional in the specifications although the information given out by Samsung suggests that this model should have Bluetooth.

The audio is good - its the same arrangement as on the Q35.

John

 

The specs as detailed on Free Range PC seem to suggest that both Bluetooth and Wireless should be present (as well as an 8400M GPU). Have you had any luck activating these interfaces yet (if they are there).

It's a nice looking model - what purpose do the blue F keys serve? - I've noticed this feature on a few of the more recent Samsung notebooks.

 

the extra resolution for external monitor then... but really nice..

okay thanks for this info...

fair enough... to have bigger display surely need more leds back there... hence more heat n power... but does the warm really that much that you feel unconfortable? cause i think the arrangement for the fan still the same like Q35 too rite...

regarding the wireless n bluetooth.. maybe there some update regarding that... driver update or something similar...

so far so good... so how is it? for the time being... will you keep it... or you already considering ordering the other model within your options?

 

The label on the box mentions the wireless but not the Bluetooth (the corresponding labels for the X60 plus and Q35 both have +BT after the wireless card. The Q70 box doesn't have +BT. And with no wireless card in the mini-PCI slot I don't think it is a software issue. Device Manager has no unknown devices.

There have been previous problems with inaccurate specs being published for Samsung notebooks. Samsung UK eventually agreed that the X60 plus has the X1700 GPU and not the X1600. And we had uncertainty about the GPU in the Q70.

As for the coloured F7 and F8 keys, I presume someone thought it would be a distinctive touch.

Normal notebook displays have a small flourecent tube as the backlight. LED backlights are new and more expensive. But the basic principle is the same. The bigger the display then the more power will be needed for the same brightness. The computer itself stays quite cool and the heat gets blown out by the fan.

I'm going to be sleeping on this. The Q70 matches the X60 plus in terms of processing power but my plan was to have something more portable.

I thought I would visit Nvidia for an updated driver and see if it worked better but I found that the standard Nvidia driver does not support the 8400M G. Knowing the speed and frequency at which Samsung update their drivers, this counts against the Q70.

Some preliminary test results:

PCMark05 : 3898

3DMark05: 1477

3DMark06: 962

This is much as I would expect for the hardware. The 8400M G does relatively well in 3DMark 06 but is not much better than the X3100 in 3DMark05.

One interesting result is the high result for Sandra's memory bandwidth benchmark. The best I had previously measured is about 3200MB/s. The RAM is standard PC5200 so I presume that the 865M chipset has got some improvements to memory management.

John

 

i think you might be mixing up the 3100's 3dmark05 and 06 scores...the x3100 gets approximately 900-1000 3dmark05....so 1477 is a good bit better and is a bit worse than some machines with the x1400 (my fujitsu gets around 1750ish 3dmark05)

 

do you ask Nvidia if they will release any driver for this card ? just wondering... maybe they are doing it... n not updated the website yet... just in case they have... then maybe you don't need to wait too long till samsung release any driver for that.

that's nice... btw... what is the score of your other lappy? just wondering how much different of it regarding the improvement of the memory management.

 

I'll have a clearer idea of comparisons when I look at other results, but 1477 is way behind the score of the 8400M GS.

Regarding the GPU and PowerMizer, I just found the attached in Nvidia's help.

"Not available with Vista".

The CPU is chugging along at 800MHz and 0.85V so it has to be the GPU which is using the power and making the fan work. It definitely looks like the X3100 is the way to go if battery time is the main requirement.

John

 

John,

The Samsung Hong Kong page has drivers for the Q70 (the specs detailed for the Q70 suggest that the HK model contains the 8400G). Might be worth a try?