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

Have you received the laptop yet? See any difference in the screen qualities?

 

Haha... Yes, I understand... I am just trying to get feedback from real users. I am down to either a custom version (with extra battery) of Sony Vaio SE (silver) for about $1650 that I can get 15 days from now and Samsung Series 7 for about $1300 that I can get 2 days from now.

Can't decide.

 

I don't want or need to know your impression of the screen, but since you have had both. Is the screen the same as the best buy one. If it is I'll go down there and form my own opinions. Thank you and congrats on the laptop, hopefully maybe I'll be joining the owners club soon.

Edit: Also, I doubt anybody has it, but the Viewsonic G Tablet. That is a crap screen, on the off chance someone has the high end version of this laptop and that tablet please for the love of god tell me this is better.

 

Wait, why are you paying $1300 for the S7? It should be around $1150. Don't spend the extra cash on 2 gigs of ram that you can buy for $20 off newegg!

 

Where are you seeing the SE $300 more expensive than the S7?

The i5 starts out at $999 non-discounted with a 1080p screen.

 

Thats exactly it. The i5 with less RAM etc. When you spec em as close as possible its more expensive.

 

I customized mine and added things like:
1. Upgraded memory to 8GB
2. Optional battery sheet
3. Faster processor (i7)
4. Windows 7 Professional (I know some people know where to get it for free but I don't have such connections)
5. Blue Ray (Seems to make sense since it's offered)
6. Larger hard drive (720GB)

 

But then that's not a fair comparison anymore. The S7 doesn't have BluRay even as an option.

I think with similar specs... the difference is less than $300 and what kind of premium do you put on the 1080p vs 900p screen (despite RedOrangeGate).

 

I can't say whether it's the same panel or not for sure but it seems to look better to me. Whether it's a different panel or they changed the settings, I don't know. I definitely had to adjust the settings on the Best Buy model to remove the blueish tint but this one looks fine right out of the box. I plan to buy a Spyder eventually to get the optimum calibration but I'm pleased for the time being. Best part is, I'm sitting with my back to a window with no annoying reflections.

 

1. Sorry for a stupid question, does "RedOrangeGate" refer to Sony?

2. FYI, during last 10 minutes, I pulled the trigger on Samsung. What got me is wait time. My current laptop is on its last leg and I can't wait 2 weeks to get a customized Vaio. If Vaio with full specs was available to ship out today, I am not sure what I would have done.

 

Where is it currenctly in stock? Seems like JR no longer has them?

 

+1
I'm using a glare panel at work, damn I miss my non-reflective S7^^

And I'm curious, can you post the HWInfo Monito Info?

 

Yeah, the red on the SE screen is noticeably orange, according to multiple people in the Owners' Thread. (and once again, none of the reviewers noticed it, which shows how little people think about the screen....)

I'm just hoping the S7 will survive until the Haswell chips come out in 2-3 years...then we'll have real ultrabooks, not the iffy ones that are coming out now.

 

I got mine from PROVANTAGE: Availability of Samsung Series 7 Notebook: 700Z5A-S03 By Samsung

But it was the last one to go. They seem to get them every day or every other day in small batches of 3-4 units. I checked three days ago, they had 2, then a day later nothing. Then yesterday, they got two more in.

 

@amandaville:

So your "real" S7 has the backlit keyboard and Expresscache?

 

F#ck! I don't even know the price of this .. It's still not available in Bulgaria but damn the prices are crazy...
1 149.99 U.S. dollars = 1 662.08025 Bulgarian levs
UK£ 1000 = 2 306.12027 Bulgarian levs
1100 Euros = 2 164.71214 Bulgarian levs
.. teh f#ck?! Can i import it from America ;D

 

I did a mini review on it here : http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/623739-truth-samsung-chronos-bad-display-screen.html
Amandaville, the Samsung Series 7 Chronos screen is JUNK quality, there is no need to debate it and I'm not afraid to say it!

 

I thought Best Buy locks their settings for display..?
Plus it's been say before we all know people had say the screen is terrible. But it was concluded eariler that you should go see it for yourself and then you decide. If you think it's terrible then it's terrible to you. If it's not to you then it just it's not to you.

 

Hey guys, I just got my series 7 from jr yesterday...been following this forum for the last 100 pages or so. I did an unboxing and initial impressions review on this unit. You can see my review here:

Samsung Series 7 Chronos 15.6" Complete Unboxing and Hands-on Review - NP700Z5A - S04US - YouTube

It's long cause I did an unboxing and some speed tests...
I agree, the screen isn't the greatest...but perhaps it'll get better over time. the resolution and brightness is a nice plus though. other than that, it's a really nice quality notebook. hope you guys enjoy!

 

Thanks for such a detailed review! It does seem like the screen is adequate. However, even from this video, one can see that viewing angles are not great. This is probably not important for most of us but can be important if you using it to demo software or collaborate.

 

Thanks for the unboxing video... congrats on your purchase. The screen looks fine to me... the BB one looks worse and less bright.

 

Nicely done.

It seems that the palm rest is made from the same material as the keyboard part?!
Is that true or is it like on mine where its plastic?
Btw. I have a VGA adapter

 

i just got mine.
i will let you know my impression.

 

If you go to the Sony website and customize a SE with a dual core I7 processor, it becomes at least $300 more expensive. When you customize the laptop to specs similiar (but worse) to the S7, it comes out way more expensive.

Now shut up and get in line to buy the S7.

 

Thanks, the fine build quality it seems to have in your video conviced me to take it over a small netbook + big desktop rig.

 

I totally agree...not the best laptop for presentations or watching with a group of people, but for personal use, probably will be good enough.

 

I guess because I didn't go through Sony's CTO. I bought via an Amazon retailer and got an SE i5, 6gb, 1gb vid, 650HD, BluRay, 1080p screen for $1079. That's not $300 more than a similarly configured S7 (which would not have BluRay or 1080p screen).

Hehe... I may still get the 14" S7.

I'm trying to decide between that, an ultrabook (the Asus UX31 or the Tosh Z850) or the Transformer Prime. Seems like the Prime will save me the most money.. but the UX31 and the 14" S7 have higher resolution screens.

I am glad that based on jimm's video, the actual S7 seems much better than the BestBuy neutered one.

 

Yeah there's no break in the panel...it looks like one smooth piece entirely. It appears to be a thin board of brushed aluminum. doesn't feel cheap and looks nice, but who knows what's underneath it.

haha...yeah I guess we in the US didn't get it, what a bummer.

 

I would rather have the solid panel than the adapter...

 

Maybe only the S04 gets a brushed pannel ? What's yours ?

 

got to love the thinn bezel so sweet.
the screen is not that bad for normal users.
unless your in to photoshop and etc that require more vivid colors.
i had tried both sony sa and sony se model. (which i both return last week to microsoft store)
i would say that series 7 is alot more better screen than sony sa.
if i have to compare to sony se. on my point of view i wouldn't notice the difference. i didn't like the red color (sony se) showing more orange.
as for the viewing angle it will depend on you. im currently sitting down and looking at it and its no problem. if you go about 45 degree left or right it still looks okay.
like the other post everyone has a different standard. so go judge from yourself.
it makes alot difference if your sitting down or standing up. (i also went to bb to check it out)

 

Hello,

I got my S7 yesterday and I thought I'd share my initial impressions.
It is the quad core i7 with 8GB RAM, expresscache and backlit keyboard.

First, the screen. In my opinion it is far from garbage as someone said earlier (that was for the BB screen but I believe mine is the same). It is a bit washed out and vertical viewing angles are not good. I notice small shifts in color from moving my head up and down an inch. Contrast is also nothing to brag about, blacks are a little lighter than I'd prefer. My overall experience is still that the screen does its job well enough, but it would not work well for color critical photo editing. That I had figured out before I bought and I will use my external display for photo work. If a better screen that fits the chassis would become available I would consider changing, but for me the screen was not a deal breaker. But I'd sure would like better contrast, viewing angles and SRGB color gamut.

The trackpad is so-so. Probably I just need to get used to it, but I think the macbook ones work better. Keyboard is fine, but not rock solid. Would have preferred without numpad to more easily find enter and back space, but I'll be fine

AMD graphics is powerful but does not run OpenGL which is an issue for me. I hope to find a workaround or possibly a driver update that fixes this. Nvidia's Optimus is alot better than AMD's attempt on switchable graphics.

The WiFi card does not do 5GHz 11n which was a disappointment for me, so I may consider switching it to a higher spec card, if the built-in antennas can handle 5GHz.

The Ethernet input does not fit snugly around the ethernet cable connector so it is quite loose. It hasn't affected performance, but I am a bit worried. Has anybody else noticed the same problem?

Build quality is nice but not perfect. The screen feels less sturdy than I'd like but that's the price to pay for a thin chassis, unless one goes macbook pro/air.

Overall I am happy with my choice. I had Sony SE and Sony CB on my shortlist, and I actually ended up preferring the CB out of those two. It has a very nice screen which sadly (for me) is not matte. I'd say the CB screen's colors are better than the SE screen, from a side by side comparison in the Sony store.

/Anders

 

Has the Chronos i7-Version a better Quality as the i5-Version?
In the unboxing Video with the i7-Version, the Touchpad Area looks like Aluminium, but the Notebookcheck i5-Version looks like Plastic.

i7
Samsung Series 7 Chronos 15.6" Complete Unboxing and Hands-on Review - NP700Z5A - S04US - YouTube

i5
http://www.notebookcheck.com/typo3temp/pics/f7d468ff9e.jpg
http://www.notebookcheck.com/typo3temp/pics/c8fc90ce57.jpg
http://www.notebookcheck.com/typo3temp/pics/7db5219cae.jpg

 

How comes your backlit keyboard is white and not blue ?

 

Notebookcheck tested the german version, it has plastic, mine with i7 has also plastic.

Yes noticed that too, but not using it regularly anyway.

Its supposed to be white..., mine is also white.

 

isn't suppose to be white?

 

The S04 in the video is blue...

 

That might be a camera white balance issue.

 

Usability, Screen and Speakers Samsung Series 7 Chronos 700Z5A - Laptop - review - Trusted Reviews

Another review saying that the screen is NOT bad. I can't believe that guy made a whole new thread talking about how bad the screen is.

 

Ok to be honest... either they are lying, or they had a different screen.
The screen is not BAD, but its definitely not "easily one of the most impressive laptop panels we’ve come across"...

 

All of the TrustedReviews reviews I've ever read have been glowing...I don't really trust them, I think they take money from vendors.

 

Just from elf's picture and jimm's video... the screen seems brighter to me on the non-BB models... or is it just me?

 

did any of the owner tried fresh install?
i want to do an fresh install is there any issue?
i think i saw somewhere that fresh install cause 8gb cache to not run?
thanks

 

It looks brighter to me too.

 

I wonder if one brave soul can take their S7 into a Best Buy and do a side-by-side screen comparison.

I find it hard to believe that Sammie would use a lower quality, same rez screen in the BB model... but you never know.

 

If you try it, do NOT delete the 100MB "System" partition.

 

The 100MiB partition is created automatically during the installation of Windows when the main C: partition will be bigger than a certain size (may be ~100GiB) or when the end of a smaller partition is after a certain sector. In this partition, I think there's nothing more than the bootloader files and the kernel; it's created for compatibility reasons in case the BIOS won't recognise the BigLBA and so it's capable of accessing only the first ~130GiB of the hard drive... When the kernel is in memory and the proprietary driver loaded the whole disk can be read and so it could access files and partitions beyond this limitation.

All this to say: in my 1TB hard drive installed in my desktop I have the 100MiB system partition (C: drive about 140GiB); in a previous installation I hadn't because the C: partition was ~54GiB.

 

OMG!! Holy , the German version is completely different than the US.

Look at Ganxxtas Picture:

https://picasaweb.google.com/112978...-tuLP_xgE&feat=directlink#5668546579169959074

And compare it to the video in around minute 15:45:

Samsung Series 7 Chronos 15.6" Complete Unboxing and Hands-on Review - NP700Z5A - S04US - YouTube

It shows that the touchpad area is in one part at the us version, but the german version is build of two parts. You see the slight slot between touchpad area and keyboard area in the german version.

What s!!! Aah I hate them..! It could have been such a good laptop, but they it up! Screen not up to highest levels and plastic in german version, nice move!

I could live with the screeen, I guess, but this is too much !!!

 

Please for the love of the god people, somebody play some games on this thing. From the photos and especially jtimm615's unboxing I am so set on this computer if it can run BF3 minimal settings native res and other modern games. Looking forward to becoming an owner soon hopefully. Thank you by the way jtimm its a wonderful video.

Edit: jtimm where did you order, id like to do whatever I can to get the all aluminum.
Edit 2: I'm assuming you got the JR S04. Why isn't the S04 on the Sammy website its only on JR from what I can tell. Oh well.

 

If it is true that you can overclock the 6750 into 6770 then there's reviews of the 6770 where they benchmark it using battlefield 3 as one of the games I believe on notebookcheck