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

See this thread. it might apply.

John

 

anderson did you get yours?

 

Yes, I did. Here's what happened:

I ordered from Amazon and got it in 2 days (thanks for Amazon student) on Tuesday. Opened the laptop from the box. The laptop looked really nice. I opened the lid and noticed that on the right on the keyboard there was some sort of glue or melted plastic residue. I tried removing it using fingernails, disinfectant wipes, even a soft/moderate cleaner, but to no avail. Upon closer inspection, I also noticed that the left side of the screen (the outside part that is supposed to hold the LCD panel) was loose. This caused the laptop to look uneven when closed. What I mean is, when the laptop was closed, there was a gap between the lid and base on the left, but no gap on the right. Regardless of the unevenness, I was worried about the long-term effects of a loose screen hinge.

I decided since I was going to buy a new laptop and hopefully use it for 4 (or more!) years, I would want it to be perfect. I contacted Amazon and they agreed to return and replace it. The UPS guy came and picked up the laptop yesterday (Wednesday). Now I have to wait about 1-1.5 weeks for shipping/processing before I get a new laptop. I did not even power the machine on, but on the outside the machine looked pretty good. It's definitely the form factor I was expecting.

As soon as I get the new laptop, I plan on inspecting it carefully again. Then, I will go ahead and reinstall Windows 7 Pro and OpenSUSE.

 

I also received a laptop from Amazon with the residue on the side of the keyboard exactly as you described. I didn't notice the other issue with the lid as I packed it for return when I couldn't get the residue off. I held off on having it replaced and got a refund.

 

Are you going to repurchase the laptop, look for another one, or hold off buying a computer?

 

that's a bummer, looks Samsung is shipping these out without proper QC. As for me, the repair center for Samsung scratched the bottom of my laptop (did they use a screwdriver to pry open the bottom?) and broke off one of the tabs inside and the bottom was loose at the trackpad, I called Samsung and back it went to the repair center. I should be getting it today. Hopefully that will be it, I have been using my old laptop (HP NX7400) and it sucks compared to the Samsung (spongy keyboard, rubbery trackpad and hyper glossy screen that has streaks in the plastic from factory, you can see the waves where the plastic was poured and molded)

 

Replacement computer came in today. The outside of this model looks fine to me. I'll throw Windows 7 Pro and Linux on it by the end of this weekend.

Anyone know any ways to manually control the fan speed? I'm installing Windows updates on my machine right now, and the bottom of the laptop is starting to get pretty hot. I want to ramp up the fan because it doesn't even seem to be spinning (at least it's inaudible).

The heating is particularly bad when the laptop is charging.

 

AFAIK no one has developed any fan control software for Samsung notebooks. What CPU temperatures is HWiNFO reporting? it may not be the CPU that is causing your heat problem and Samsung may not have enabled other temperature sensors to also control the fan.

John

 

pretty much a lot of laptops that I install Windows on get toasty hot, the bad ones actually restart before the install is complete. You are fine as long as the fan is spinning...

 

I've attached a screenshot of my temperatures. As you can see, I am only browsing the internet and installing updates, and the computer is hotter than what I think it should be. If I unplug the charger, the temperatures go down by about 5 Celsius.

I *think* I can hear the fan running, it's really hard to tell because it's so quiet, but at this point, I would rather hear it make really loud sounds to keep the heat low and let me know that the fan control is working.

If this is only a Windows issue, then I won't mind it so much. I'll be throwing Linux on this later today after all these stupid Windows updates finish.

And if this heating issue continues into the weekend, I may have to return this laptop and start searching for another laptop.

 

I don't see any pics.
Windows stayed in the low 50's for me when I got mine. That was not really doing anything at all, just going through Contol Panel looking at drivers and stuff, and that with the oem paste job. Now on linux Debian and after redoing the paste, which was a gobbed up mess, temps stay around low 60's. I've done plenty of repastes so I know I didn't mess that up but I'm inclined to take it apart and do another just to be sure. I've never seen it go above 76C though, even when stoopid Virtualbox gets stuck in a fit of 100% cpu use. The fan is audible though. It comes on and goes off when needed and sometimes is hard to hear. At full speed, you'll know it's on.

Also this is on kernel 3.2. 3.3 will be (last I heard) released into Ubuntu 12.04 at the end of this month and I'll have it in my Debian repos probably any week now. Hopefully that will help a bit.

 

Thanks for the info. I think I forgot to attach the image and my Series 5 is off right now, but I will summarize what was wrong.

Idle State with only 1 tab of Google Chrome running (w/AC plugged in):
CPU = mid 50s - mid 60s (C)
HDD = mid 40s - low 50s (C)

(All temperatures are with OEM pasting.)

That's higher that what I expected:
CPU = 40s (C)
HDD = mid 30s or lower (C)

Plus, the bottom panel (the area where the HDD/RAM is accessible) was getting pretty hot (one of the same symptoms of my current laptop). Another concern was that I was barely able to hear the fan; I heard it two times, but barely as it was running <1000 RPM. Other times, when the temperatures shot up to mid 60s, I was still unable to hear the fan, and I was pressing my ear all around the machine. This may be normal with this laptop (or types of laptops), but with my recent bad experiences, I don't want to risk it.

My roomate's laptop is a 14" ASUS that has side vents and stays at 40 C in idle state, so I know my temperatures are high. Granted his laptop is not an ultrabook, it's about 1.1-1.3" think and weighs more, but I want/wish a laptop with good cooling in the thin and light form factor.

I am going to return this laptop on Wednesday. I'll probably keep looking for another machine, but I may not buy one immediately. I may decide to wait it out until Ivy Bridge and buy a computer in the summer.

Till then, time to put up with this overheating Dell .

 

yours runs a bit hot. Here is mine with OEM pasting, with firefox and a couple of tabs open, it is also doing windows updates in the background. But yeah I think you should return it since you are not getting what you want.

 

Yeah, your temperatures are perfect. If I had those, then I would be a happy camper.

 

I just got an email notification that this 13.3" Samsung 5 series will be $730 on amazon. Better camp the site, it won't stay up for long:

Samsung Series 5 NP530U3B-A01US 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver)

 

Jesus! Here is mine while running on AC, downloading some torrents, playing a video and powering an external HD:



Running on battery makes it about 10 degrees cooler (I run a modified "Samsung optimized" power plan). I somehow believed temperatures in the low 70's were still ok. Should I be worried? If so, what should I do?

Edit: setting the maximum processor state to 50% and the system cooling policy to passive (like it is in battery mode) causes a 10 degree drop in temperature and the fan to quiet down (though it's still audible). What I still want to know is if these 70's temperatures are harmful, as I mind the reduced performance more than I appreciate the decreased fan noise.

Edit2: also, what exactly entails the power saving mode of the wireless adapter?

 

What you decide to do with the 70 C temperatures is completely up to you. From experience (and as an EE engineering student), I can tell you that in the long run, it may cause hardware problems. Generally, your computer shouldn't be running that hot all the time. If you are playing a video for a long time (or if it's a flash/streaming video), then your computer will definitely start to heat up. That's just normal. A bigger issue that the excessive heat causes is battery life. Lithium ion batteries retain charge best at low temperatures. If your machine is running hot, the heat can dissipate into the battery area of the machine and cause harm there. I know that for the Series 5, the area that gets hot and the battery area are separated, so I can't feel the battery getting hot based on touching that area. But conventional wisdom says that eventually we will notice a decrease in battery life.

All of that is assuming a generic laptop. Ultrabooks, because of their form factor, may naturally be running hot (I don't know if this is true or not). If this is the case, then maybe Intel and the manufacturers found a way to handle the heating issue. Also laptops made out of pure metal (aluminum designs or unibody metal designs) conduct heat very well, but that also means when we touch those areas, we feel the heat more pronounced. What worries me is that the bottom of the laptop is made out of fiberglass (or so I have heard), so I shouldn't be feeling that much heat.

As for the wireless adapter, I can make a guess as to what power saving modes may be. It probably puts a time limit on SSID discovery.

 

BTW there was a bios update not too long ago. The fan comes on at low speed more often now, and the temps never reach 70 under load. Did you guys have the latest bios?

 

Yeah, I was using the latest BIOS. I originally had version 5 (it was named something longer, but had a 5 in it) and upgraded to version 6.

 

Where are you guys finding the BIOS update? I don't see it on Samsung's drivers & firmware page.

 

the only reason I knew about it is because of the Easy Software manager from samsung, I can't find it on their support page either.

I suspect the laptops that have high temps have the really bad paste job or maybe defective sensors. Amazing that 900 bucks get you such a low rent affair

 

I actually found my update through the website. I went to Downloads & Manuals and downloaded the file from the Firmware section.

 

Thanks, yeah it's there. It's a Windows upgrade program though, not the raw files to use. Guess I'm stuck at the factory supplied BIOS with a pure Linux install.

Those temps are awesome, joeyl, surprisingly low for a SB chip in such a small form factor. I'm wondering though, how long were you monitoring for when you took that screenshot? How long was the laptop powered on for, I'm presuming it was AC?

My temp readout shows 40C after the computer wakes from 3 hours of sleep! TThen it climbs up to the 60's. That doesn't seem right.

 

It was on AC so that the CPU can ramp up all the way to 100% that screenshot was taken probably after 30-45 minutes of usage. In all fairness though, the ambient temp here in the desert southwest of the US has been quite cool when I was using it. However last night we climbed up to the high 20s Celcius and my temps were in the mid-50s after an hour or so of use.

 

What type of HD does this Ultrabook use ? Is it a 7mm or does a standard 9mm allso fit?

 

It uses a 7mm drive. I went to install a 7800rpm 9mm drive and found HEY!, it didn't fit!

Also for the Linux peeps out there, using the corrections recommended by Phoronix for the kernel power regression helps A LOT with temps and adds a bit onto battery life. I totally forgot abou this and now I'm rarely out of the mid 50's C unless I'm doing something cpu intensive. See here.
Ubuntu Forums - View Single Post - [ubuntu] Samsung series 9
Ubuntu Forums - View Single Post - [ubuntu] Samsung series 9

 

Hey guys I have been reading your posts with great interest. Yesterday I went to the shop and saw this ultrabook. It is within my price range and when I saw it it looked good to me. I wanted to think about it and make a decision today. When I started to think about it I remember it felt a little warm yesterday when I touched it in the shop and started to look on the Internet and found your posts and I am glad I did.

I am not particularly convinced yet about the heating issue. I don't mind if it get's warm a bit but I don't want it to be too much. I don't do crazy stuff normally than only browsing the internet, watch movies through HMDI (quite a lot) and downloading stuff. When I am home, it's basically always and i'm doing stuff with it. Do you guys still have issues with the heat? Is it too much that you don't advice to buy it, or is it in your eyes normal behavior? How do you like the laptop now that you are using it for a couple of months, would you still recommend it?

At the moment it has a really good offer in the UK 750 and you can claim your tax back, so it will be around 660. This is at the moment in my price range. I really want to go for a smaller laptop/ultrabook and this one really looked fine for me. For the last 3 years I have been using Acer Aspire 7535 17". With this one I have had always issues with constantly being warm at times hot and the fan is quite noisy and always there

 

I think the answer is that the vast majority of the users of this model have no problems (otherwise this forum would be much busier). Your likely usage isn't going to heavily load the CPU unless the videos are using a flash format (I have just checked ones I made in .AVI and .MP4 format and the CPU usage for playback was 10 to 15% (but ripping them is CPU intensive)).

With the current Samsung VAT refund offer, a lot of the products look very competitive. If the Series 5 ticks the right boxes then I would get it. it's a model I looked at closely but I like a higher resolution display (so I paid a lot more money for an NP900X3B).

John

 

Mine is fine, I have it for about 2 months. Sure its not super cool, but it doesn't burn to the point I need to stop using it for fear of it overheating. I can use it on my lap all of the time I want to.

Its not super well built but its the best ultrabook for the money, imo.

Pro tip: keep that sheet of soft cloth/paper that comes with the laptop and put it inside whenever you close it. The keys touch and smear the screen if you don't use it.

 

Hi, I could use some help.

While replacing the HDD of this laptop I accidentally ripped the flex cable from the motherboard. Could someone be so kind and take a picture or tell me how the small black thing is inserted into the white connector at the motherboard? Here's a picture of what I mean: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tsyi5y3c44hsiwo/IMG_20120617_205906.jpg.

 

not sure if this helps but this is the only picture I have, I need to check if I have a higher res on my camera itself

 

Thanks! Friend of mine who has been fixing notebooks came and helped me, it is working now

 

I'm getting to the end of a 90-day returns policy on my NP530U3B-A01UK, and can't decide what to do. I've been very pleased with the overall performance and ergonomics of the laptop, but there are a few build quality issues which make me worry.

The worst one is that the edge between the top of the screen and the bezel is quite sharp, and within a month of usage it scratched a line across the middle of the touchpad buttons. This seems like a ridiculous problem, and merely closing the laptop shouldn't scratch away paint on the inside.

Second, the keys rub on the screen and leave marks. I guess this is related to the above, but you have to wonder why they didn't just add in 1 or 2 mm of space to stop this.

Lastly, the touchpad drivers disable the touchpad when a key is held down - which makes any gaming impossible without a USB mouse (being able to hold down W and still use the mouse is essential!).

Has anyone else experienced these issues or is mine a one-off? If these problems are common, what is the best alternative?