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

Windows 7 professional is not worth it unless you already know that you need the few extra features in W7 Pro. If u do professional (science, business, etc) work then u might need it.

You can always upgrade the RAM by yourself for less.

 

I hope Amazon pricematches Bestbuy for at 950.. That beats 1150!

Samsung - Series 7 Laptop / Intel® Core™ i7 Processor / 15.6" Display - Silver - NP700Z5B-W01UB

 

Thats the equivalent of the base $999 model with the 6490 gpu and no express cache. Thats not the $1149 model.

 

In Korea, the Series 7 is expected to release in late December...
Quite ironic if you consider Samsung's nationality...

 

Crappy of Samsung to do that... I hope they don't pull a Sony here in Norway - "official" release of the Vaio SE is also early October, but they don't get here until late November. Way too long to wait. The Samsung rep on the Norwegian Facebook did assure us that the October 2nd release is international, so now I don't know what to trust anymore.... I seriously don't want to end up with a Dell 15z with its heat problems, missing numpad and glossy screen(urg). It's would to be lovely to have a matte 15" screen instead of a glossy and grainy 12,1. Ever tried to write code on a 800-pixel high display? Not fun.
Will be harder to cope with the missing wacom digitizer display tho. Wacom bamboo tablets, here I come

 

I think I know why Samsung might cancel or put off the 14'' chasis model, its aim is to compete head on with Apple, and Apple doesn't have a 14'' model, only 13'' and 15'' model.
Also, Apple's 13'' model doesn't have dedicated graphics, so..you know why Samsung put 6490m instead of higher specs. It is not meant to compete with other 13'' models with higher GPUs.

 

True, but having a 14" with the same specs as with the 15.6" is a winner combination if you ask me. Its Radeon 6750M is enough to make it a gaming laptop in its own right. And why would it base its product lineup to what Apple has? The 14" laptop market is a lucrative one nowadays, given its not-too-small and not-too-big form factor for portability and usability.

 

Yes I agree with you. I too hoping for a 14'' model with 6750M.
I was just making a guess on Samsung's possible strategy.

 

And now the rep on the Facebook page responded to someone else with:

But he doesn't seem to know why these models are not listed on the site. I certainly can't find them anywhere for preorder.

 

Yea I still can't understand why they put such a crappy card in the 14" when the msi x460 get a gt540 in a slimmer body.

 

The screen is the only 14" part crammed in a 13" chassis. Cooling concerns perhaps for a more powerful GPU?

 

Man I so hope this is true.

 

If they had room to fit a non overheating 6750 in a 13" alongside with the internal battery (big enough for the promised 8 hours) they'd do it, sadly there's a reason why no 13" laptop has a fatass graphic card. Without an optical drive it could be very possible.

 

anyone knows (or has pics) anything about its cooling? since i see no cooling vents on the pics. does it have the same solution as MBPs?

 

That's why the 15" screen in a 14" body was the perfect one!

 

I have been thinking of getting the Dell xps 15/15z for a long time but I think I'm sold on this. It's pretty much everything I wanted in a laptop

lightweight
long battery life
good graphics card
quad core
good screen
backlit keyboard

I want to wait for someone to do a review on it first though just to make sure

 

It'll run fine, even the fairly weak Intel HD graphics can run DVD's and Youtube. The HD6490 is perfect for mid-level gaimg as well. I had that card in my recently sold MBP15, and I played Call of Duty Black Ops at native 1440x900 res.

 

The BB specs list that one with a 512MB video card, while Samsung has 1GB?

 

Yeah, the Best Buy one for 949 has a 512MB video card. I hope they didn't remove the smart cache from the best buy version as an early poster might have mentioned. That's partly what drew me over from many of the other windows laptops.

 

The 15" is less than an inch wider, and not as deep or thick as my current 14" laptop (old lenovo y410). It also weighs less. I'll likely be getting one unless something way better is announced for this holiday season.

 

Ok Samsung on Youtube posted promo videos of the 3 models of samsung series 7 laptops (13", 14", & 15")....these are the chassis sizes not the screen size..
13" chassis ----> 14" screen size
14" chassis ----> 15" screen size
15" chassis ----> 15.6" screen size

SamsungNotebook's Channel - YouTube

the 13" doesn't have a multi card reader up in the front like the 14" & 15"....
i7 in 15" and i5 in 14" & 15"...

15" has a numpad, the 14" basically has same keyboard as 13" except there is more space on the sides of keyboard on 14"...

we know for sure the 13" gpu is 6490 & 15" gpu is 6750..but as far as i know we have no clue regarding the gpu of the 14" cos it isn't mentioned anywhere on the net.. full specifications of the 13" & 15" are mentioned at samsung web site..

regarding the size of the laptops, samsung is really confusing lot of plp... on their website they use screen sizes to classify them but where as on youtube, they are using chassis sizes to classify them..
like most people i too am waiting eagerly for the 14" (chassis) model..looks like they are gonna release it later on since no one has this model up for pre-order yet..i jus hope it has 6750 in the 14".

 

I hope they put i7 in the 15'' screen model.

 

i'm delighted so much of the video focussed on the 14" chassis, makes it seem less dead-in-the-water than we have assumed from its absence on the official samsung page.

please let it be released
please let it be released soon
please let it include the 6750M

 

I still don't see the point of the 15" instead of the 15"6, the weight difference is minimal and you gain the SD reader and numpad.

 

Some new video from the Samsung Canada showroom or so, shows the 6750 15"6 model, what's interesting is that it can be held pretty easily with only one hand Samsung Canada Holiday showcase event - Series 7 notebook - YouTube

Am I nuts or the two USB ports are backlit ??

 

Haha ... its probably being lit from the backlit keyboard. Looks like those two USB ports are right below the keys.

 

I don wanna crush ur hopes but the video mentions i5 processor for 14" chassis(15"screen)... If they were releasing it with i7 they would have clearly mentioned it.. Why will they promote with lesser specs?? So mostly no i7 in 14"chassis(15"screen)..

 

To correct you, even the 14"(15" screen ) had a SD card reader up in front..

The only diff we know so far between 14" & 15" chassis laptops is that the 15" (15.6"screen) has a numpad and 15" has i7 but where as 14" will mostly have an i5 processor(info from the video of 14")..

I know the weight diff is minimal, but I don like numpad on my system and 14" chassis(15"screen) is perfect size for many out there including me.. 15.6" screen is just little too big for me..

 

It's the same video for the 14" and the 13". They just changed the name. Maybe the i7 is an option.

 

Unfortunately, they aren't the same video.
Check out the 2:03 mark for both videos, the 14 shows the 3rd usb port and the 13 only has the ODD. So we're probably looking at an i5 in the 14.

I really hope the 14" has a 6750 but I also doubt it.

 

I prefer the non-numpad keyboard.

It offsets the main keys too much and I don't 10-key.

But I would get the 15.6 with numpad if it had 1080p rez like the Sony SE.

 

They claim it is a 14" in a 13" chasis but the weight of the Samsung 7 14" is the same as the 14" MSI and the MSI has a 540GT which is far superior. It also has an optical drive bay.

The X460DX is the perfect computer with the exception of the screen. Thickness size and weight on the X460DX outstanding for a 540GT GPU and i5 with drive bay. The Achilles heal is the screen.

When I heard Samsung was coming out with high quality matte 14" screen with dedicated GPU I immediately returned the 460DX. I could not have imagined Samsung would make literally the worst possible GPU choice to put in the computer. I am truly astonished at how terrible this choice was. There is no point in having a dedicated GPU with this generation of i5/i7 unless the GPU is faster than the integrated HD3000. The 6490 is not faster than the integrated intel HD3000 on the i5/i7 chips. About the only thing you gain with such a terrible card as the 6490 paired with this generation of i5/i7 is dedicated graphics memory. At the cost of battery life.

I am disappointed the X460DX has a crappy screen and I am nerd raging that the Samsung 7s 14" has a terrible video card.


Really a terrible choice on Samsung's part. No excuse for it. They would have been better off putting an i7 and leaving the graphics card out entirely.

 

After watching the video for the Series 7 14 I must say that the dimensions and weight are pretty much perfect. I really hope it gets the 6750

 

Samsung already officially announced that is comes with the 6490.

Worst. Decision. Possible.

I hate that card. More so because it is was originally made specifically for low end Macbook Pro's.

Really awful that Samsung decided to copy Macbooks all the way down to the bad specs.

 

ok dude we get it

 

You are mistaken... Samsung released specifications for 13"chassis(14"screen) & 15"chassis(15.6"screen).. they dint release any specifications or any details on their website about the 14"chassis(15"screen)..

like i said samsung did nothing but confuse lot of people with the sizes..

 

All looks good on paper except the 1 year warranty . I hope there would be some option to extend it to at least 2 years.

 

For what it's worth, according to benchmarks posted earlier in the thread the 6490 is about twice as fast as the Sandy Bridge integrated graphics. I don't think that necessarily makes it worth it, but my 2010 Vaio Z has an underclocked 330M that's roughly equivalent in performance (but not DX11 like the 6490) and that was a pretty serviceable machine for older games until the fan started going.

If there does end up being a 6750 in the 15/14, then I'm getting that machine, but judging by the videos and photos there isn't really all that big of a difference between that and the 15.6/15, and the difference in weight is pretty negligible.

What distinguishes the Series 7 from the MSI and various flavors of Sony is the build. The fact that it's a unibody makes a huge difference, and from what I've heard Samsung in general has better build quality than most PC makers. My Z, supposedly Sony's top-of-the-line machine, is just out of warranty and already apparently on its last legs.

 

I'd recommend getting a SquareTrade warranty--3 years with accidental damage coverage should run you about $250. Never had a ST warranty myself, but I've heard very good things about them.

 

Oh, it doesn't have a unibody--for some reason I thought it did. Too bad.

 

That's correct. I have herd That the bottom plate in Series 7 is aledgedly constructed from synthetic material, and the wrist-rest is "faux Aluminum". For totally metal construction, there is the Series 6 rugged .... But no I7 as yet on Series 6 that I could find. See models available in US at:

http://www.samsung.com/us/business/laptops/all-products

 

I am not done ranting yet.

They were so close to the perfect machine and they blew it.

 

The 6490 is slower than a fully clocked 330M in fact it is slower than the 350M.



The build of the Series 7 does look to be far cleaner than the MSI X460DX and Samsun does usually have nice build quality.

However, MSI is actually rated better than Samsung for laptop reliability: http://www.pcworld.com/article/21140/reliability_and_service_laptops.html

MSI is very underrated by consumers who do not recognize the brand so you here alot of people on these forums assume MSI is a "budget brand" and therefore low quality. PC builders and tech geeks tend to respect MSI more than the average consumer because we have been using their components off and on for years. MSI actually is an outstanding motherboard/component company.

I would rather buy a laptop manufacturer who actually specializes in motherboards than a company that just buys from third parties or contracts the components out and puts them in a sleek case like Alienware/Dell or rebrands them as though they are "business grade" like HP and Lenovo. Sony.

The appeal of Samsung for me was the screen.

 

Just curious, where did you read about the synthetic bottom plate? It looks like it's all one piece (except for the plastic palmrest) judging by the photos.

 

Yeah, I can't imagine buying a new machine with a 1366 screen, especially for gaming. I don't really see what the reliability of their motherboards has to do with the reliability of their laptops. I've never had a laptop motherboard or SODIMM fail, but I've seen plenty of broken fans, inverters, hard drives, touchpads, etc. It's all about the quality of the build as a whole. If the MBP didn't have such comparatively crappy specs, that would be the ideal PC.

I just don't like the design of the MSI and I'm not convinced that their durability ratings aren't just a function of the fact that people have low expectations for budget laptops.

(Lenovo's laptops definitely are "business grade"--they're the old IBM laptop division, which was once the gold standard for business laptops and I've seen no evidence that they've gotten worse.)

 

But Lenovo THinkpad are ugly, really ugly.

 

It's a laptop bound for the retail shelves anyway, and I'm sure Samsung has a particular target market in mind they're aiming for with the 6490M equipped 14". Though I agree that sticking in a fairly weak GPU is a bit unfair, it is the first time Samsung released laptops of such a caliber (Build, screen, keyboard, Expresscache) so I'm at least OK with it. I'm sure with IvyBridge and AMD's 7000 Southern Island GPUs later in 2012, we might see revisions of the Series 7 with arguably better specs.

And please, if you find the MSI X460DX the ideal laptop for you, then do so by all means. It's not helping that you're all pushing for an MSI within a Samsung thread. I agree that they make great motherboards but I beg to differ on the laptop part, having owned 2 of them over the past years I just hate the all-glossy plastic build especially on the palmrests.

 

Has samsung releases the gpu of the 14 chassis, 15 in screen? That could have the 6750. It is not much bigger than the msi. 339 and 239mm and 4.4 lbs for msi vs 350 and 230mm and 4.8lbs for samsung. I'm more worried about heat. X460dx has awful heat management. Based on reviews gets over 100 degrees.

 

I just lol at you guys who are like:
- They give better graphic card in xxx laptop
- But the cooling system is crap
I hope a magical 16nm GPU with low TDP on ships with the skinniest series 7.

 

I not asking for a miracle with the cooling. The macbook pro does a fine job. The important part is to keep heat away from hands. I'd way rather have a very loud cooling that kicks in with your playing games to keep cool than one that gets super hot. But when in idle is fairly silent. I believe that is very doable.