Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook listed at US retailer for $900, 'coming soon'

Ideally, I would, but I'm a student and I have Spring Break in 2 weeks. I need to buy a computer during that time period because my current one is just "unusable" now. If it wasn't for that, I would stick with it and go on, but right now I have no choice.

 

I see. I still think it is a good laptop for the money but I am a bit concerned now by Badmann's post. Anyway for what it's worth, I have received a notification from Samsung that the laptop has been received for repair

Dear customer,
Your Samsung NP530U3B-A01US was received on 03/09/2012. You can expect your unit to be repaired within the next 7 days.


Hopefully that's not the start of the highway to hell

 

Yeah, looks like they took responsibility. Hopefully, you don't have to deal with Samsung support too much. It can only get better from here on, right? Lol, good luck!

Seems like CNET UK and ExpertReviews UK have given the 13" model favorable reviews. I wish they could do long term testing though to see if badmann's issue is an anomaly or a recurring problem.

 

a new review.
no middle vents on that one either. So I must have a bad fan....
Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook Unboxing and Overview - YouTube

 

Yeah, looks like they have 2 different designs going on right now. Strange that they would sell one with less ventilation.

 

Hey,

I got a little problem with the "Express Cache" functionality (that little SSD-drive which is supposed to speed things up a bit) und would be very glad if any of the other owners could share their experience with me.

So when I got the laptop, I did a clean install of Windows 7. During the setup I deleted all partitions, not realizing that I supposedly also wiped the SSD Cache. This might be the reason why the "Express Cache" functionality doesn't seem to be working anymore. Furthermore, I can't install the "Intel Rapid Start" driver, because it simply does nothing when executed.

So my question is whether any of you also did a complete clean install and found a solution for making the SSD work again.

Thanks for your help!

---
Apart from that, if anyone's interested in Linux compatibility: Hardware support under Ubuntu 12.04 Beta is surprisingly well. Graphics, Sound and WLAN are working flawlessly, as are the hotkeys for adjusting brightness and volume. The touchpad works even better than under Windows, providing really accurate two-finger-scrolling. You can even right click using a two-finger-tap, which is great as I used a Macbook before getting this device. Battery life lies between 4 and 6 hours, obviously thanks to the sandy-bridge optimization in 12.04's kernel.

 

See this guide.

John

 

You rock. Thank you.

 

Got this message from Samsung this morning

Thank you for your patience.

Your product has been repaired and was shipped on 03/12/2012.

 

Nice! Did they pay for shipping and everything?

 

yes, when I called the service guy sent me a UPS label via email. And they are shipping it back to me UPS so I did not have to pay anything! I am at home with a cold but I really should call them to see what repairs they did.

 

Thank you very much

 

sorry to post here, may be off topic but I am not getting reply from all experts, please help me.

here my link:

 

Open Device Manager (assuming you are using Windows), and look under Display Adapters. If the ATI card is not listed there, your computer does not have the graphics card. Most likely, the model you bought does not have the card.

Are you certain you purchased 530U4B-S01SG? I could be wrong, but this is a relatively "rare" model since most 14" Series 5 ultrabooks only have Intel HD3000 graphics.

 

FWIW, I went to Best Buy again today and the 14" model they've had on display the last couple weeks was starting to come apart. The Alt key to the right of the space bar had broken off and the Alt key to the left of the space bar was also coming off. I've popped off keys in the past and was always able to snap them back in, that wasn't the case today. The Alt key wouldn't snap back in.

 

Not good, but those BestBuy floor models get pretty beat up.

 

True. But none of the other display models I saw had keys coming off. And many of those have been on display much longer than the Series 5.

Also, FWIW, I saw that Best Buy had dropped their price on the Series 9 (NP900X3A 13.3") from $999 to $949.

 

At Device Manager 2 Display Adapters showing >> Intel & ATI both, Also it have Radeon sticker.

there the spec from samsung website.

thanks in advance.

 

Well I'm typing this on my shiny new Series 5 13 inch. I was hoping it wouldn't have any physical flaws or anything serious I may not be able to live with.

The absolute first thing I noticed as I put my wrists onto the palmrest, was a loud pop sound. Put your finger in between the right CTRL and Home key, then trace an imaginary line straight down to the very edge of the palmrest. If I press here either straight down or in at 45 degrees or so, I get a loud popping sound. Much louder, deeper and more noticeable than even the mouse click. I tried tightening the screws a bit, doesn't help.

Does anyone else have this problem???


Some other things I've noticed which I'm not fanatical about.

-The screen is still wobbly. It's not as bad as the 14" I saw in Bestbuy, but a stiffer hinge would have been nice. If I readjust the screen angle, it flops back and forth for a few seconds before reaching its hapy equilibrium.

-The male end of the power plug where it goes into the computer itself isn't very solid feeling. It slides in, then you press a littles farther and it snaps into place. From there, it can wag around a bit but it won't come out or affect element contact. I don't know if it'll be a problem, but a good knock could likely elicit numerous 4 letter words.

-Going from full sized directional keys to half height sucks exactly as much as I expected.

-The wifi indicator light stays lit regardless if wifi is on or off.

-When I read you guys saying that taking the back panel off was super difficult, I was like, "pff, yeah right." Well..it is. I thought I was gonna pry a fingernail off.

-No way to get the heatsink off to repaste the cpu. You'll have to take the entire bottom panel of the chassis off.

-Same goes with getting to the primary RAM stick. You have access to 1 dimm area.

-Pushing on differnt parts of the palmrest (in the area of the pop sound) does show some bendiness. Strangely, the trackpad itself is the sturdiest part of that area and if you push on it, you can hear it contact the battery immediately below. I think I understand now too, what badman is saying when he mentions the creaking. It makes little plasticy creaks sometimes just when typing.

Oh, and NO VENTS either on mine! It's a US model. But if you look through the user guide, the pics of the bottom panel show vents.


The good things.

-Keyboard is nice. The key depth I have no problem with an I'm trying to readjust to life without dedicated Home & End keys.

-I like the screen. Matte is pretty cool, and coming from 1366x768 on a 16.4", 13.3 is no problem at all. Out of the box, the colors were not too great. Blues and reds needed to be reduced but after that it looks very good.

-The lid is very sturdy. You've got to press pretty hard on the back to see distortions in the picture.

-A Linux live session went all according to plan, for those interested.


Overall, I'm not sure now. If you're expecting the solid construction of a Macbook, move on cause this is pretty far off. I was prepared for that but the Series 5 looks like a $1000 - $1200 laptop, but its built like a $700-$800 machine.

I'm really put off by this pop sound, and its others. The battery is under that entire palmrest area part of the body, so it's just some kind of friction or fitmet issue I think. For $900, I was expecting not to have such an inanely stupid little problem.

I don't want to go through the turnaround time to get a replacement if other users have the same issue. If it weren't for that, I'd say that I would likely keep the computer, despite its faults. Now?..hrmph..

I'll keep the Series 5 around for a week or so to see if its symphony of sounds either dies down or irritates me enough to return it. That's really my only persistent gripe at this point.

 

What's the exact name of the ATI graphics card/driver that is listed in Device Manager?

Did you try the AMD VGA driver from http://www.samsung.com/in/support/model/NP530U4B-S02IN-downloads# ?

 

That sucks. I returned an HP DM1-4010 solely for that reason. Every time I placed my left palm on the rest to type it made a popping sound. I knew I couldn't live with it and ended up sending it back.

One thing to consider, it's more likely that it gets worse...not better.

 

I got my laptop back from Samsung, they did not change the back cover, so that's a given for US models: no middle vents. But they did replace the fan, and for some reason they opened up the whole bottom of the laptop, I know that because they put the bottom back with the hard drive installed which meant that I had to remove the bottom again to swap out with my SSD.

Good news: no rattles from the fan! and they did not damage anything on the laptop by getting into it.


Will let you guys know how it goes.

 

Yeah, I figured the bottom vent panel was a US thing since many reviews for the laptop don't have it, either. The rest sounds very promising, especially after reading RWUK's bad experience. Do you have the popping sound issue that he is talking about?

 

nope, mine does not creak or pop like he said, I can make the laptop make sounds but I have to push down hard on the palmrest, more than any normal person would do while typing.
The screen hinge is as he described though, I would prefer it to be much stiffer.

 

When you took off the bottom panel, did you just remove the screws and pry it off of the keyboard/palmrest area? I may take a peek under there to see if I can figure out the pop sound.

 

since I had to open the bottom of the laptop, I swapped out the wifi card: Ultimate 6230 for an Ultimate 6300. Did not make a difference at all and I lost bluetooth since 6300 is wifi only. So I put the original wifi card back. in my elitebook 8460p, the card was a Broadcom and swapping the 6300 made a huge difference. Kudos to Samsung for using an Intel card, I think they are better than Broadcom and Atheros and the super crappy realtek.





the laptop is very easy to open it is the same as the S7 series and the Chromebooks, I used a credit card to slide around and get the tabs to release, all you need to remove are the visible screws. There are none under the rubber feet like most other models.

 

Sweet, thank you. I will tear into mine and see what's going on.

 

cool, maybe it is an easy fix...

 

Opened mine up, looked around. I couldn't find anything that would come close to making this sound. There is only the battery in that area of the body. I'm guessing it's just the plastic pieces rubbing together.

But after putting it back together, I don't hear it anymore on its own. If I go poking at that area harder than I did originally, I can make it happen but even then the volume of it's greatly reduced. I'm fine with that since it doesn't happen at random anymore.

I also repasted with some Gelid GC Xtreme I had around. The factory paste was a big mess. When I got the heatsink off, there's this little black film covering the green part of the cpu (I don't know the technical terms for this) and between this little black film and the area which contacts the heatsink, there's a very small groove, about 1/32" wide. I really wish now I took a picture of it, but was too excited to remove the gunk. I cleaned it up with alcohol wipes, used my fingernail over one of the wipes to clean out the grove and put my new thin layer on. If anyone else chooses to repaste their cpu, take the heatsink and fan off as one piece, it's easier.

I did a Furmark Burnin test for 6m:20sec to check my temps against badman's. Here's the result of that.



I can't feel the heat at all when typing, but the bottom of the laptop, center towards the rear gets warm. I do the occasional video encoding so worse case I guess I'll take the bottom panel off. I assume my temps will lower in a week or so after the break-in period is over for the thermal compound. The CPU cores stay in the mid to high 40's when unstressed and that's pretty good compared to other ultraportables I've seen.

I'm likely going to keep the laptop at this point. I'm still not crazy about its build quality for the money spent, but 1. it's a laptop, not a house and it really isn't that bad. Like I've said before, I'm picky. Also 2, build quality is not going to change unless I spend more money. Unfortunately average build quality with a higher price tag is becoming the norm.

 

Is the screen wobble (due to the stiffness of the hinges) really annoying? Would it be a deal breaker?

And how much of a wobble is there? I had an old Inspiron 710 with the same problem. It was super annoying to adjust the screen because after I would get it to the right place, it would tilt forward/backward and distort all the colors (poor viewing angles) forcing me to readjust about 2-3 times.

 

RWUK, good deal on making the noises quieter. I was too excited to get my laptop back together but I do have some artic silver that I will use for the heatsink, maybe this week end

Anderson, the hinges don't move once they are in position, they just wobble a bit before settling, and it is not a problem but could be a sign that it could get worse because the hinges are not superstiff. I think I may buy a squaretrade warranty on the laptop and call it a day!

 

Anderson, I'll second joeyl's comments about the screen. It doesn't creep and won't move at all unless you move it (or the whole laptop) first.

 

Ok, that's good news, thanks.

 

All portable computers are in some aspect a compromise on something. The MBA has a lot going for it, but it does not have USB3/HDMI/GBLAN so that computer is also not the perfect one.

.:tHe.oNe:. - does not exist.

Samsung Series 5 gets really really close.

I had mine for 30-days and have now returned it. The plastic around the usb ports was falling apart. I cannot believe that this computer will stay in on piece for a year.

The money is back in the bank. Im now using my old old Core2Duo Acer 12" witch now is 3 years old and going strong, with GBLAN port

 

does anyone know where the 14" series 5 is compatible with sata 3 ?

intending to upgrade to SSD but doesnt want it to be underutilized.

 

There is a comprehensive review of the Series 5 at Notebookcheck. The hinges get mentioned.

John

 

Nice find. I love that website, I usually check there first for reviews.

 

finally engadget reviews the 14"

14-inch Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook review (NP530U4B-A01U) -- Engadget

 

Does anyone know what type of DDR3 RAM this laptop requires? On Newegg, there are about 3-4 different listings for DDR3.

 

I'm considering buying the 13" model but I have a few questions:

1. Can one use Wifi and Bluetooth simultaneously without any issues?
2. How does the combined microphone in/headphone out work? Can I only use one at the time, or does it come with a converter plug that lets you put in both a microphone and an headphone? I have a Sennheiser headset with 2 plugs that I would like to use.
3. Does the laptop ever get uncomfortably warm when you use it (maximum performance) on your lap?

 

1. Most people don't have any issues.
2. I'm pretty sure you can only use one at a time, and the laptop does not include a converter (you need to buy that yourself).
3. According to badmann, it does get quite a bit warm (not excruciating) underneath after heavy use.

 

browsing through the forum I found out a link to Samsung parts

Other_Computer - Original Samsung Parts & Accessories and Products

It's good to know in case I have to modify something

 

Nice. Hows your laptop? Still holding up fine right? I think I'm going to order mine tomorrow from Amazon.

 

Thank you!

 

the laptop is running perfect and the fan is dead quiet. However since the Samsung repair center touched it, I have a lot of scratches on the edges where they pried it open and this has been bothering me. I called Samsung, and they said they would fix it if I send it back. I have to find a time to do that

 

I'll echo joeyl here, mine is running great too. I spent about a week with Windows before I decided to keep the laptop. Now I have Linux Mint exclusively but I saved the Samsung restore partition. Compared to my Core 2 Duo P8600 with an ATI card & 7200RPM hdd, it's very fast. Other than about 15 seconds from off to usable desktop on the Samsung compared to about 25 on my old Dell, there's no discernable difference I can see in performance. Great heat management (I'm really impressed by that actually) and the only part of the computer you feel heat on is the towards the back center (top above keyboard and bottom) and it's far from what I'd describe as uncomfortable.

The only thing that doesn't work w/Linux is the wifi & fan control key combos and I had to change a Pulseaudio config file so mute/unmute worked. I'm not worried about wifi buttons since even in Windows, Fn+F12 for wifi just gave you Samsung's control program and you had to then switch the radio on or off. Now it's just middle click on the network icon, enable/disable wireless. done.

The fan is very quiet. I've not done any video encoding yet which would be an overnight thing, but I feel no lag with anything (/ is on the ssd, /home is on the hdd), the fan isn't constantly ramping up and then back down, and video playback in vlc is great. That does get the fan going but it's easily drowned out in background noise unless the room is dead silent.

Battery life is about 4 hours on kernel 3.2 but I've not spent time tweaking anything special for power managememnt. I like the touchpad a lot. The button clicking is kinda loud but multi-finger tap and scrolling work perfect so I stick with those. I really like the matte screen. I look at all the Macbook Pros reflecting everything nearby, then I feel good about my Samsung. I'm glad I kept this and though it feels a bit brittle at times (coming from a 7 lb behemoth), no problems so far with anything coming apart or breaking.

 

That's really good news, man. That's exactly what I needed to hear. I'm also planning on putting on using OpenSuse as my main OS with 100 GB for Windows 7.

I don't think I'll ever really end up using the fan control setting. I bet it's pretty cool, but I don't think I will have a need for it, especially after everyone tells me the machine runs quiet anyways. I mean my old computer was a giant 16" Studio XPS that started to get pretty loud as it overheated over the years, and I also had to use a notebook cooler so that added fan noise too, so this sounds like a big relief.

This wifi setting is something I can see myself using frequently (when I'm away from home and trying to save battery). But if it doesn't work because it doesn't control the radio setting directly, then it's no big deal since I can just disable wifi through the OS.

The fan turning up running VLC is pretty funny, but doesn't sound so bad.

A battery life of 4+ hours sounds very good to me. All my previous computers have been entertainment/gaming notebooks that could barely last 2 hrs. So twice the battery life from that sounds great. The weight is also really nice. I was getting real tired of carrying a 6 lb laptop everyday. With the extra weight, it's still probably going to be stronger than the Samsung (which is natural), but I think I can take good care of a computer and be just fine.

I've read a lot of flaws about this computer because no computer is perfect, but it's good to know it's not all bad.

 

Nice, I've been meaning to try Opensuse, just haven't gotten around to it. A quick warning, the ssd isn't bootable according to the BIOS menu, so make sure you install the bootloader on the hdd. My first install didn't boot bc I put grub onto the ssd.

 

Got it, thanks for the tip. I've ordered the laptop. I should receive it by Tuesday.

 

Just got mine off eBay today for $720 Pretty happy with the price. Not too happy about the display resolution.

Also looking for a HDD bay to replace the optical drive in the 14" Series 5. Anyone?