Samsung Series 7 Laptops - 15.0" and 15.6" Models (NP700Z4 & NP700Z5)

The best way to see how good the screen is, for you, is to check the samsung on a stand alone basis, make your opinion, and THEN compare it with other laptops. If you liked it and thought it was ok during the first test and disliked it when compared with other laptops, well it won't matter as when you have it home you don't have 3 or 4 laptops to compare it with all the time and the first time you tried it out you liked it. My 2 cents.

 

One thing to keep in mind though is that mediocre black levels and contrast can become more of a problem after working with a laptop for a while, for example more than one hour.

 

All this heat about the screen is really making me switch choices.

Perhaps a slightly less powerful, but also smaller, sony vaio VPC SA 3L9E.
Anyone can comment on the screen quality of the sony vaio above? Will i be better served in screen department on that model ?

 

Well what can we do about it? For €1000 or so there is absolutely nothing that can match it in terms of the overall package. Sure the screen's blacks aren't as black as a €1500 more expensive Macbook Pro and its viewing angles aren't as wide as a ~€2000 Sony VAIO Z series but what's the big problem really? If you're so used to having "black hole"-like blacks and 180 degrees viewing angles in any direction then just get a different laptop. For the vast majority of people, hardly noticeable drawbacks in the screen isn't enough of an issue to warrant spending an extra €1000 or so on a competing laptop.

In any case, it's not as if aftermarket screens won't be available for it.

 

Same average screen quality.
Tests Berichte auf notebookjournal.de

Sony laptops with good screens: SE, F and Z.

 

Samsung is a Company with enough resources and more than capable of providing a good quality screen in one of there flagship notebooks at a very competivie price. The Chronos 7 is supposedly there best of the best, whats the point of going all out on the specs and then cutting corners ( Ie the screen) doesnt make sense. The screen is very important , id sooner put up with smaller HD , lower Processor for a Better quality Screen.

Well im going to wait and see what happens , who knows maybe Samsung will do something about the Screens and 'fix' it in future releases. Afterall patience is a virtue, so lets wait.

 

Here, even look at a few videos of the laptop.

Hands On Samsung 7 Series Chronos at IFA Berlin 2011 - YouTube

I see no fault with the black levels or viewing angles in that.

Samsung Series 7 Chronos Notebooks Kurztest - YouTube

1:54 has the best shot in that. The viewing angle is only an issue in the third laptop away from the camera. I don't know about you but i've never once in my life needed to be able to see what's on my laptop's screen from an angle that sharp.

The screen isn't out of this world amazing nor rubbish. It's just average which isn't that much of a drawback considering the rest of the package.

 

abc27

ive seen the video and belive me the PC world model doesnt look like that video. Very often they use prototype or early production models at these shows, its more than apparent that things change between now and then. I have personally seen the Samsung chronos PCworld exclusive edition, and wasnt impressed. I would very much like to see the higher spec version for comparision, but thats not currently possible. My opinions about the screen were based on the Lower spec version sold at PC world, the jurys still out on the High end model.

 

I know one way to definitively sort out this issue with the screen.

http://www.pdf-archive.com/2011/11/03/screen-test/screen-test.pdf

Can someone with a Series 7 download that and open it up in full screen (Ctrl and L) and then take a photo/video of it? Get each of the colours and black and perhaps do a quick sample of the viewing angles.

And if everyone with laptops that allegedly have better screens could do the same we can all have a look at the difference.


Ideally, take a video in a darkened room with brightness set to maximum. Make sure that no "enhancements" are on on your phone/camera.

 

Yes, I have the BB version with the i-7 and it has all the virtualizations stuff enabled. There is no option in the bios to disable it, it is enabled by default.

Also, to get Win 7 ultimate, you dont need to reformat. There isnt too much bolatware you couldnt remove in 15 minutes. All you need to do is just do an anytime upgrade and enter the serial number for the ultimate version and within a few minutes, your win 7 will be upgraded in place. This will save you much headaches since all drivers may not be available from the samsung website, at least I know the webcam drivers are not available.

I made a windows image copy and copied it back onto an SSD and upgraded it to ultimate.

 

To set an example I decided to upload a video of an Inspiron 1545 with a bog standard 1366x768 15.6" glossy screen being tested with the image I prepared.

Inspiron 1545 display test - YouTube

Before anyone freaks out, I know perfectly well a modest Inspiron 1545 is not in the same league as any of the laptops being discussed in this thread. I'm just providing an example. If you ask me, the only issues I have with the screen on the Inspiron 1545 are the brightness and resolution. I've no other issues with it so if the Series 7 can beat that (Which I think it can) then i'd say i'll be fine with the screen.

 

To add to the confusion, from Samsung's Facebook page:

‎@Kevin Park - Hi Kevin, we're pleased to inform that the SERIES 7 CHRONOS 15.6" will be released in Canada early December. For your information, our local Canadian team will be willing to help you to make the right choice - you'll find all detailed contact information by visiting the "support" section directly from our website. Here is the direct link to help you: [ http://www.samsung.com/ca/info/contactus.html]. We hope this helps!

@Lachlan Hayes - Hi Lachlan, we're pleased to announce that the SERIES 7 CHRONOS Maxscreen 15.6" (body 15") will be released in Australia from early November. For more information on retailers, please contact our local Australian team directly - you'll find all detailed contact information by visiting the "support" section directly from our official website. Here is the direct link to help you: [ http://www.samsung.com/au/info/contactus.html]. We hope you'll enjoy all these new awesome features as much as we do!

 

Samsung 700Z Chronos review | Laptops | Reviews | PC Pro

Just in case this haven't been mentioned.

 

Guys, we know its not as good as the macbook pro screen... The point is, its not as good as other cheap screens either... It was at the bottom of the pack at bestbuy when I was there and at the top of the price range. This screen is just not cool at this price point.

I know its just one part of the package, but its one that you can not upgrade easily like a slow hard drive or a small amount of ram. This is one of the things you are pretty much stuck with the life of the laptop.

Go a little thicker and get a low end w520 with the HD+ screen or a dell xps. Google thinkpad barns and noble for about 15% off the thinkpad...

Since I would rather get a better screen than the thinkpad offers, I think I am going to go for the 15" macbook pro. It's only $1700 on amazon with no tax and free shipping + tripple points and $30 off if you get their rewards card. Plus more money gives you a larger tax write off which will help a little... Not to mention the better resale value is worth a few hundred down the road when you want to trade up...

I have an old XP licence already on a 9 year old dead pc I can grab off for booting into windows for free also.. You can probably grab junk from a garage sale and tear the sticker off an old pc also..

Had this had a simi decent screen, not even as good as a macbook pro but thinkpadish, I would have went with this samsung.

 

Can't order the Dell 15z with the 1080 screen right now. The Lenovo T50 is just too big and ugly. The Sony needs a thick slice battery to get any battery life at all. So it looks like I can't find a 15inch which a good display and long battery life is fruitless. Can someone recommend a good 14 inch laptop with a great screen (720p) and 6+ hour battery life.

 

Whether you like something or not is subjective. Sets of figures from so called professional tests don't really mean all that much at the end of the day.

The difference is nowhere near as big as that. It's equal in all respects to Apple/Sony barring two slight drawbacks in the screen. Considering it's about €1,500 cheaper I'm inclined to say "Well, what did you expect?"


Personally, i'd get a Lenovo W520 as it has everything I really need. Its ugliness isn't really that much an issue for me but my major issue with it is the price. It's just out of my reach.


As for the photo you posted later... To be perfectly honest i'd almost put the difference down to Matte vs Glossy.

 

What confusion?

 

Did you price getting it through the barnes and noble link? Mentioned it earlier.

Lenovo - Barnes and Noble Gold

 

The max spec doesn't even match the Series 7 and the battery life doesn't have anything on the Series 7 either. The price is also twice that of the Samsung. The only real advantage is the screen. I can't see how you can justify paying twice the money to get a laptop with poorer hardware just to get slightly higher resolution, darker blacks and better viewing angles.

 

I'm not American so I'd have to pay 35% customs charges on top of that.

 

Can anyone else compare the screen to their older laptop's screen? As long as it's on par or a little better than my old laptop screen, then I'm cool with it.

 

There is the root of your problem..

 

The top model Chronos I have on order will only cost me €999.

 

His point was simply that you can't blame all the shortcomings of the Series 7 panel on its being matte. Professional displays have matte finishes and don't have problems with their viewing angles, color gamut, contrast ratio, or grayscale tracking. Sure, nobody expects a $1000 laptop's display to match up to a professional desktop monitor, but the refrain in this thread that "the S7's screen is matte so therefore it can't help being crappy!" [paraphrased] is misguided.

It's pretty clearly a low-tier budget panel. It's not the lowest tier because it's at least not an abysmal 1366x768 resolution, but it's down there. If you're fine with that, and clearly there are many people who are, great! Different users have different needs. Let's just not pretend it's a good screen, when it isn't. It's just unfortunate that Samsung couldn't have offered an upgraded screen as an option, even at a substantial price premium. I know I probably would have bought one if they had done so.

Also, I don't know where exactly you are, but in the US, a top-spec Vaio SE doesn't cost anywhere near twice the Samsung if you: a) upgrade the RAM yourself, and b) don't get an SSD. I think in Canada, the SE is even cheaper.

 

The top SE doesn't have the same specs either, the i7 is a dual core version and the GPU is lower.

That being said, your correct, the price difference isn't huge (top spec at 1400 euros in local retailers here).

 

Nice post.. As I said before, my t500 is matt and is much better than the samsung screen and was about the same cost new 3 years ago...

 

Where did you order the computer from? I'm still waiting for mine...

 

Is there anything out of the HP or Dell Lattitude/Precision/XPS range that can match the Chronos in spec?

 

I just checked with the Microsoft store again. They confirmed again that my 14" would ship out today for next day delivery. So hopefully I'll have some impressions by this time tomorrow.

 

Maybe the HP Envy 14 or the Dell XPS 14z. The HP Envy 14 has a crappy screen, poor screen resolution, and is almost 1 pound heavier than the SS7. The Dell is significantly more expensive and has crappy resolution.

I owned the HP Envy 14 and I liked it a lot but I couldn't stand the low resolution of the screen so I returned it after 2 weeks. The screen had horrible viewing angles but I didn't mind so when people complain about the Series 7, it doesn't really bother me after knowing what to expect with the Envy 14.

 

I just spec'ed out a Sager NP8150 on xoticpc that's equivalent to the top UK model, with a better screen and a better video card (nVidia 560M with 1.5GB GDDR5). The total comes out to US $1497.68, which is cheaper than the Chronos's UK price. If you toss in $3 more of upgraded components, you can even apply a $100 coupon. Of course, you do pay a penalty in weight, battery life, and clunkiness, and I guess you lose the ExpressCache.

 

I'm sure that will happen naturally when Samsung gets its act together (so that there's less confusion about what's actually being sold) and when more machines get out to users so that people actually have information with which they can comment.

 

That's not cheaper than the Chronos in the US. It's about $400 more expensive so I wouldn't call it a good alternative.

 

I compared it to the UK model and price because that's what was quoted earlier and it is apparently currently available. I have no idea what the top specs and pricing in the US are or will be, due to Samsung's continual changes, so it wasn't possible to do a comparison.

Edit: the -S01US version, which seems to be the same as the top UK model, was listed at $1300 US. Of course, that version is rumored to be getting a price hike... but if you factor in the better video card and screen for the Sager, and a possible coupon, I'd say you're playing in the same ballpark.

 

For about €100 or so more I can get a Dell Precision M4600.

Now I know it weighs 2.7kg and is thicker than a Series 7 but that doesn't really matter to me. The screen is apparently amazing and the spec more or less matches the Chronos. I don't know much about the battery life though. They mention about 6 hours of surfing on WiFi here with the 9 cell battery but I just can't imagine a workstation lasting that long.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Precision-M4600-Notebook.62946.0.html


Should I go for it?

 

I wouldn't. Why not go for the Dell XPS 15z if you're going to stick with Dell?

 

Lack of a quad core and an extremely poor GPU.

 

Samsung NP700Z5A-S02US Series 7 Notebook PC - Intel Core i7-2675QM 2.2GHz, 6GB DDR3, 750GB HDD, DVDRW, Backlit Keyboard, AMD Radeon HD 6750M, 15.6" LED Display Pre-Order Now (Ships Early October) This Product Has Limited Exchange Privileges.

In stock, reckon this is the full spec, apart from the 6GB RAM instead of 8GB? I'm not bothered about an extra 2GB RAM especially for an extra $150 as advertised on samsung's website.

 

That looks to be a Tigerdirect feeder site, so if TD doesn't have it, they don't either. (Which is why it says "Available for Pre-order" there.)

 

It says in stock but 4 lines below it, it says, "Availability:Available for Pre-Order Details (Online items only)". Kind of confusing. Is it in stock or is it available for pre-order? Anyone order from this company yet? Get a tracking number by chance?

 

I see, your probably right. Is there any idea then of when the full spec CHRONOS version will be released in US and for how much? It's available here in the UK if I'm not mistaken on dabs. I'm looking to buy from US though, cheaper. I couldn't care less about the screen, I've never seen so much talk on one detail of a laptop. I don't mind if it's not amazing, as long as it's not terrible, I use my monitor a lot of the time. And preferably the 6GB RAM version because as I said before according to the RRP an extra 2GB RAM is $150.

 

I might have missed it but what were your issues with Sony?

 

now...microsoft store is telling me within the next 2 weeks...

 

Basically, I bought this expensive machine (Vaio Z) hoping it would last me 3 years like an equivalently-priced MBP would. Instead, exactly a year after I bought it (and hence after the warranty date), the thing starts falling apart. The fan has gotten crippled (I've cleaned it out with Q-tips and rubbing alcohol and it still doesn't work), meaning I can't do anything graphics-heavy, the ACPI heat sensor is broken so I can only run Ubuntu on it now, the bezel has cracked despite "carbon fiber" [ie plastic] being a "more premium material" than metal, the down and right arrow keys don't work, and the fingerprint reader is broken. (That's in addition to the terrible battery life and crappy touchpad.) I'm not that tough on my machines, and I've heard exactly the same thing from everyone I know who's owned a Vaio: they're shiny and great at first, but they're effectively disposable.

 

I'm pretty sure that online store is a scam-store, they accepted any kind of "safe" payment methods like Western Union money transfer. I've just chatted with one of their agents,"Paul", couple of minutes ago and he said the laptop is in stock and ready to ship. Check this out before doing anything crazy :

MyWorldPhone.com - myworldphone.com - Reviews, Ratings and Prices at ResellerRatings

 

Has anyone with one of the express cache-equipped machines checked to see if it's possible to swap out the 8GB MSATA SSD with a larger MSATA drive?

If so, is there an appreciable difference in boot speed?

 

After some careful thought i've decided to cancel my order.

I thought it out and came to the conclusion that if i'm going to spend €1000 on a laptop I want it to be absolutely top notch in every aspect. The screen coupled with its dire performance in Battlefield 3 on Notebookcheck.de came together to make me realise that it just isn't as perfect as i'd expect a €1000 laptop to be.

 

i feel like i've been waiting ages for this laptop...i might actually just cancel this order and wait for ivy bridge

 

Hi

Im giving this a miss , like others ive waited ages. Best option is to wait a bit more and hope the next Chronos Series doesnt suffer from the same problems as the 7 series, Samsung learn from this!

 

Ah, just the overall confusion regarding the launch that is running rampant through this extended thread, this time on release date instead of specifications. Figured some people may be interested.