Samsung Series 7 Laptops - 14" Model (NP700Z3)

If you are critical of the Sony Z, i wonder how you will like the Samsung.

The Z series has better black levels, contrast, viewing angles and gamut.

 

I can say YES to all of this points...accept viewing angles. ;-) This hast to be proven first!

But something probably off-topic: do you think the chances are high that we are going to see many great new displays at CES 2012 (especially FHD and IPS)?
Now that we know the 15" in Vaoi SE and HP Envy 15 got an LG IPS panel at a low price point... I wonder if they finally transfer the good IPS, high-resolution displays from the tablets to the notebooks...
How high could that chances be?

 

Well the viewing angles on the Sony aren't great I agree. I've seen the 15" Samsung in Bestbuy, it had worse viewing angles than Sony, especially horizontal.

 

outch, I´ve never seen it myself. But I guess the 14" version won´t be better... I really hope we are going to see some IPS displays at CES....in notebooks.

 

So, weirdly, I left my order with the Microsoft Store open, in spite of their fabulous incompetence, thus far.

Today, a rep from the store (who was not one of the usual level-1-customer-support mooks) called me, and said that there had been a substantial delay getting this model into stock at the warehouse (understatement!), but that they should be shipping out my machine on December 23rd.

 

Edited by Phil?

I don't remember exact details of the Z but I can clearly remember it sucking when I went to see it at the Sony store.

I've seen the Series 7 15" plenty of times at Best Buy, and while it's a watered down version it seemed fine. As far as viewing angles, I don't know, I usually look at the screen while facing it and it seems to work for me..maybe if you want to look at it from the side or upside down, then maybe it won't work.

For now I have the 12.5" Series 3, pretty nice aside from no backlit keyboard or USB 3.0, and 768 display is annoying. Keyboard and build is great though.

 

Me too, I only use the screen when facing it. On the 7 Series 15" from Bestbuy, when facing it, I could see color on the outer right and left looked different than the colors in the middle.

PS. I replaced one word in your message because certain language is not allowed by the forum rules.

 

I guess I don't care because for anything that matters I would be hooked up to a display.

No idea what word that was so how am I supposed to know the next time

 

I saw this too. Someone at the beginning of this thread said that this model number was the "watered down version", but the specs all seem fine. It says it is in stock too! I was waiting for this to come out to gift it for my gf, so I might pull the trigger. Anyone have any updated info? Possibly from the Microsoft store?... because the Microsoft Retail Store has a special $250 off of $1000+ (Westfield Shopping Center, San Jose, CA).

Also, I saw news of a new Chronos Series 5 14" being released. Maybe I should wait for this? http://www.pcworld.com/article/246044/samsung_breaks_the_ultrabook_mold_with_14inch_series_5_ultra_laptop.html

 

I just ordered the 14" for my wife from tiger direct. Tracking number says it should be here early next week. Hopefully the screen doesn't suck like so many of you are saying it does. My 15" variant should be here tomorrow...I hope it can replace my Macbook Pro.

 

Did anyone get this already???

I had been waiting for it since September. After months of delays I finally gave up and decided to go with Toshiba Portege R835-P81 which has been on sale at Am*zon for $699. Right when I was about to buy it, I saw that Tigerdirect had this laptop in stock and decided to wait to see the reviews.

Now Am*zon price of the Toshiba went up!!! Now I can't decide

 

it seems to be on sale now from multiple locations, including tigerdirect.

there is a 01us version and a 05us version, the only difference I can see is 750GB vs 1TB hard drive.

 

I received mine yesterday, also found this test in german:

Samsung Serie 7 700Z3A S01: Tests, Technische Daten, Erfahrungsberichte / NP700Z3A-S01DE

I mostly agree with this test so I am only going to add my personal opinion:

+Build quality is great!
+Display is pretty bright, definitely better than the 15". Contrast is a bit low, but I didnt fiddle with settings yet.
+Running quiet, hdd access is nearly silent
+Keyboard is also very good.

-Driver installation is a bit complicated when you do a clean install. Wifi and Lan do not work out of the box. Also couldn't get usb-boot to work.
-Software configuration is quite complex, with the switching graphics, buttonless touchpad, light sensor, etc it took me quite some time to adjust everything.

I didnt to any heavy lifting yet, going to try some games now

 

Where else besides TigerDirect? I see Office Depo and NexDayPC. Tiger still has the best price.

UPDATE: Placed my order. Should be here the 20th. $1,108.63 shipped!

 

Any chance you could post some pictures or video of the screen?

 

sure, but I don't thing it would be usefull. You can't really judge a screen from photos/video.. especially if the source is a cellphone camera as it would be in my case.

anyway:

both screens on full brightness.

 

@ultrah : awesome! please let us know how you like it? about to order it... did you get 750g or 1tb?

 

the 1tb model was the only one available to me.

some hdd readings:




and temp readings with normal usage and silent mode set to "low".



Again, there are SO MANY settings you can adjust... really crazy. going to try ubuntu next but I dont have high hopes that it will run smoothly with all this proprietory hardware.

one thing that isn't working that well are the fn-hardware-buttons e.g. turning wifi on/off, brightness etc. they only work when "easy settings" is installed and sometimes with a delay, sometimes the brightness doesn't change after standy until I shut the lid and open it up again.

*update* ubuntu boots from usb, sound, ethernet, wifi and bluetooth work. fn-keys too. Only problem is that laptop heats up, fan spins up and the predicted runtime is 1:30 on a full charge

 

What speed is the 1TB HDD?

 

do you mean RPM ? It's a samsung 'hn-m101mbb', 5400rpm.

specs with hwInfo:

Computer: Samsung 700Z3A/700Z4A/700Z5A/700Z5B
CPU: Intel Core i5-2430M (Sandy Bridge-MB SV, J1)
2400 MHz (24.00x100.0) @ 798 MHz (8.00x99.8)
Motherboard: Samsung 700Z3A/700Z4A/700Z5A/700Z5B
Chipset: Intel HM65 (Cougar Point) [B3]
Memory: 8106 MBytes @ 665 MHz, 9.0-9-9-24
- 4096 MB PC10600 DDR3 SDRAM - Samsung M471B5273CH0-CH9
Graphics: Intel Sandy Bridge-MB GT2 - Integrated Graphics Controller [D2/J1/Q0] [Samsung Electronics]
Intel HD Graphics 3000 (Sandy Bridge GT2), 0 MB
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 6490M/6470M/6450M/7490M/7470M/7450M (SEYMOUR XTX/XT/PRO) [Samsung Electronics]
ATI Radeon HD 6490M/6470M/6450M/7490M/7470M/7450M (SEYMOUR XTX/XT/PRO), 1024 MB SDRAM
Drive: SanDisk iSSD P4 8GB, 7.8 GB, Serial ATA 3Gb/s
Drive: SAMSUNG HN-M101MBB, 976.8 GB, Serial ATA 3Gb/s
Drive: MATA DVD-RAM UJ8A7AS, DVD+R DL
Sound: Intel Cougar Point PCH - High Definition Audio Controller [B2]
Network: Broadcom 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter
Network: RealTek Semiconductor RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC

 

I received my 1 TB - 6 GB RAM - 14" from Tiger Direct for $999. It includes a Display Port to VGA cable, Power Adapter, Manual and CD. Haven't had too much of a chance to use it, but it's very nice so far.

 

After the Microsoft Store gave me YET ANOTHER dumb excuse for not shipping my computer ("We had a mixup at the warehouse..."), I canceled my order, and bought this machine from TigerDirect, to be shipped overnight. TigerDirect delivered.

I am taking a TON of pictures for you guys, and will be happy to share, once I can get them off my phone, and into a cohesive collection, with explanations of everything.

Initial Impressions:

COOL AND QUIET. Just wow. Never had a laptop this mellow. Even after testing out an MMO on it, it was still pretty chill. My old laptop would have been starting a house fire by now.

And it feels like quality. Nothing jangly, jiggly, creaky, crunchy, rattly, or loose. The lines are nice and clean. This does not look like a college student's machine -- it's something you can walk into a client's office with, and they know you mean business.

I think that some of the complaints about the screen may be because people forgot what matte screens look like. There IS a tradeoff with them. Because they diffuse the light hitting them, they are never going to have quite the same crisp blacks you're going to get on a glossy screen.

That said, I would like more punch out of my blacks on this, but it's not insufferable. I am unconcerned about horizontal angle-of-view on the display (I'm usually using it straight on), but I DO notice a little bit of viewing angle color-shifting on the vertical. I've had problems with that in the past, with Photoshop, on other machines. I'll report back later, on whether this ends up bothering me, or not. (Initial impressions are that it may be good enough.)

The absolute FIRST thing I had to change from the factory standard settings was the adaptive brightness. The brightness irising up and down all the time IMMEDIATELY drove me bats, but it is easy to fix. If you have problems with it as well, right click the battery in your system tray, click "Power Options", click on "Change Plan Settings", click "Change Advanced Power Settings", expand "Display", expand Enable Adaptive Brightness, and turn both of those settings OFF. Then, just tune the brightness to where you want it, and DONE.

(If I stumble over any other good tips like that, I'll share 'em.)

I had an easier time adapting to the buttonless trackpad style than I was expecting. However, I still keep clicking the right button when I want the left button. I'm expecting I will train myself to do this right, eventually, but I do wish I had some kind of tactile cue for where the buttons areas are. Also, I had to step down the speed on the mouse pointer in the Mouse settings, so that I had a little more control over my pointer, because it was a bit insane, when I first started up.

Boot and reboot speed is fantastic (as advertised), and the machine seems plenty zippy. I can't wait to compile some code with it.

I've just started a round of testing some modern 3D games with it, and I'll report back with settings, framerates, and screenshots, soon. Initial impressions with what I have run so far: Not winning any benchmark championships, but definitely playable.

The weird: No microphone port. It's got a combined ear/mic port. I can use it with my old iPhone earbuds, I guess, but my brand new headset will have to stay with the desktop.

 

So far, on Low graphics, SWTOR runs at 10-30 fps, depending on what you're looking at. Usually, it runs around 15-20. It's playable, but you should probably stick to your desktop for heated PvP battles.

Skyrim, in contrast, runs at a fairly reliable and thoroughly playable 30 fps on Low, and the environments look fantastic even on that setting, but the already awful PC version controls are completely unusable. This is due to two problems:

1.) The picking areas for menu items in the UI seem to be wrong. I suspect that Bethesda has a scaling problem in their math, here, and didn't test well in this resolution. The upshot is that you can't use the trackpad (or, likely, a mouse) to pick anything out of menus in the game.

2.) This laptop does not seem to scan its trackpad when you're holding a key down. This is a serious problem for mouselook games (such as shooters). However, this problem is probably easily solved by plugging in a mouse.

For Skyrim, I would suggest, instead of a mouse, plug in a USB XBox controller. The UI is extremely poorly designed for keyboard-and-mouse anyway. If you do this, I think this game will play great on this machine.

Still impressed with how cool this laptop stays, relative to my old machine. Wow.

 

My only gripe about this machine, visually, is that some keys look to be sticking a little too far out, or out at an angle... it doesn't seem all the keys are perfectly flat and aligned and level. It's just a few keys like the F10 and F11 keys.

 

Ok, its here. I have to admit this machine is very impressive and a lot better than expected. built quality is above average. The screen might not be as good as on the macbook pro but i rather have a mate screen instead of glossy with more saturated colors. Backlit keyboard, very quiet, lot of power and long battery life. The best thing about the display is thow they have fit a 14" screen into a 13" case. just beautiful! Sold my Vaio Z. For 2000€ one of the worst laptops I´ve ever worked with. I will wait until the new Macbook Pros arrive. For the time being the Samsung is just perfect!

 

Picture Time! My first set of images of the machine in action are up here:

Samsung Series 7 14" - First Pictures

 

Did you guys order the NP700Z3A-S05US or the NP700Z3A-S01US ?

The S01US has the 750GB HDD which it says is 7200rpm and has fast start technology.

The S05US has 1TB and doesn't say the speed and doesn't list fast start technology.

Ultrah said he got the 1TB and it was 5400rpm but he also has 4GB ram and not 6GB like listed on Tiger. I might go to the store tomorrow and look at the S01US they show limited stock at the store, but for the same price the 1TB model would be better but I would probably want to put in an SSD anyway so it doesn't matter or the express cache/fast start.

I would really like to know what the mini display adapter really is, Tiger shows it as Micro-HDMI and yellojello called it display port which I'm sure it's not. I would like to run dual displays so Micro-HDMI would help

 

thats not quite correct xzybit, I got 8 GB Ram and the small SSD (SanDisk iSSD P4 8GB, 7.8 GB) for fast start.

 

Oh sorry I see the ram on a second line, 4GB as SDRAM

I know you got the 8GB SSD, but the S05US listed at Tiger Direct has the 1TB and doesn't mention the SSD or the fast start, so wondering if you got the S05US and if you got from Tiger Direct? I thought you were from Germany

So for Tiger Direct maybe the better choice is the S01US with the 750GB HDD because it says it comes with the SSD fast cache boot and a 7200rpm drive, the S05US doesn't list the drive speed

 

So what's the verdict on this lappy? Good? Not so good? What do you like or dislike about it?

Thanks.

 

I have the S05US. (That's what's printed on the bottom of the case.)

Just to be clear, the 1TB drive is a SAMSUNG HN-M101MBB (according to dxdiag). It is, indeed, a 5400 RPM drive, but it doesn't feel at all sluggish, to me. (Modern caching technology really mitigates a lot of this.)

The S05 HAS THE EXPRESS CACHE.

Don't take my word for it -- J&R advertises this same model with the Express Cache (as you can see here: Samsung NP700Z3A-S05US Series 7 14" Notebook PC - Silver in PC Notebook Computers | JR.com

And here's some more evidence, from my machine:



I don't think it would have usage information, if it wasn't there!

As far as I can tell, from all of my research, so far, the faster drive is the only reason to choose the S01 over the S05. If anyone has any good, authoritative info, though, feel free to chime in.

 

Love it, so far.

It's important to stress that this is not just a good-looking machine. It's a nice feeling machine. All of the surfaces feel nice to the touch, and everything is sturdy and solid. Honestly, I don't think I've run into this kind of build quality in a Windows laptop before. Samsung put some love into this model.

So far, it's hard to find things to complain about. I think that my biggest complaints are that 1.) I sometimes hit the right button on the trackpad, when I wanted to hit the left button, 2.) The computer doesn't seem to scan the trackpad when you're holding a key down, and 3.) I can't use my new headset, because the computer has a combined headphone/microphone jack. I'll learn to overcome #1, and the other two are pretty minor complaints.

 

I tried to find one today while I was in BestBuy but I only found the 15.6 version. I know what you mean about the "feel", I liked it too. I also prefer having separate left and right buttons on the trackpad.

Anyone know where I might be able to see the 14" version in person?

Thanks.

 

You can 'fix' the #3 problem by a simple small adapter which converts mic jack + hphone jack to a one combined jack. Example: http://www.amazon.com/Unknown-3-5mm...ZM8M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325512169&sr=8-1

 

can we do a standard 2.5" ssd 6bps swap?

 

Yes, you can. Note that you may not be able to use the bracket for certain SSDs.

 

Why are these things in such limited supply? They only seem to be available at a couple of places. Where are they? And why aren't they more widely available?

 

hmmmm, so tigerdirect sells the same S05 model, but doesn't mention the express cache feature. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1705041&sku=S203-140403

edit: oops, slightly redundant with xzybit's posts -- curious to know his outcome. The S01 is only available in stores (limited stock) -- no ordering online anymore.

 

Yeah, I'm really hesitant to order from Tiger Direct, but they are the only ones who have it right now. I have two CompUSA / Tiger Direct stores in my area and one of them said they had 1 or 2 of the S01 models and nothing on display, so I think they are sold out now. I wanted to order before the end of the year for a 6% cashback online.

Tiger doesn't mention express cache, but they mention Fast start which isn't the same thing. They also don't show the HDD speed and we know that the 1TB model is 5400rpm, while the 750GB model is 7200rpm. I think I would get either one now or the 750gb model if it had express cache and get a 512gb SSD at the beginning of the summer when they hopefully are a little cheaper.

 

Very strange. It's odd how unavailable this laptop is. Really makes me wonder why.

 

I bought my S05 from TigerDirect, and as you can see from my earlier screenshot, it sure looks like it has ExpressCache.

 

I bought the S05 from Tigerdirect also, and can confirm that I have the same hardware as Malkyne stated WITH 8 GB EXPRESS CACHE, 6 GB RAM, and 1 TB Hard Drive. It was $1099 Wen I purchased it, and the following week, it dropped to $999, so I was able to get $100 Tiger Direct credit (although refund would have been better).

I'm not sure how big of a performance difference there would be between the 1 TB 5400 RPM vs the 750 GB 7200 RPM, but overall, I rather have more space since I don't game anymore... also there could be debate over noise, heat, and battery life.

The weight is specified as 4.3 LBS, but it actually weights a little over 4.5 LBS. (I did leave the plastic liner on the front lid, but I doubt that weighs much)

The dimensions are a wee bit smaller than a 13" Macbook Pro, so any laptop sleeves made for 13" Macbook Pro fit this perfectly. I tried my lady's Caselogic sleeve for her 13" MBP and it does indeed fit very nicely.

 

-1 to my reading. Somehow, seeing the J&R link, I came to the conclusion it was bought there (when obviously that wasn't the case ; ' )

I appreciate the confirmation. I'm looking into this for my girlfriend, who is excited to get it, but I just don't want to make an investment if Samsung is doing wacky things.

 

How do you guys think this Samsung compares to the Asus U46E-BAL6? Anyone compare the two?

Thanks...

 

series 7 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> u46e and u46sv imo

 

How? Why? In what ways?

 

Just build quality and slimness alone blows the ASUS out of the water.

 

Can somebody figure out what the VGA adapter really runs off of? Is it micro HDMI or something proprietary ?

I want to run dual displays off the HDMI and the other port that uses the VGA dongle, but using actual VGA isn't going to cut it.

 

At compusa I saw the 14". Very nice machine. Imagine just a smaller 15". Compusa is tiger direct but they still have stores in Florida. $1050 for 15" and $999 for 14"

 

Maybe. I haven't seen the Samsung (I wish I could). But the Asus actually seemed pretty impressive, and I'm not at all an Asus guy. Reviews on the Asus aren't too bad either, frankly.