Samsung Series 7 Lovers - Here's The NP700Z5C Ivy Bridge!

What kind of sd card slot does this notebook have. Meaning does the sd card fit inside all the way, or does it stick out?

It would be nice if I could leave one in there always.

 

it's completely flush with the laptop, so you could easily leave one in there forever.

 

HI!
for those who upgraded ram to 8gb, can anyone recommend me a good memory? only one slot is accessible right?

 

@Diaper84: If you look through the last pages, you will find multiple people comment on the RAM you should get. An 8 gig stick would be a good idea if you have the extra 50 dollars.

 

Hey guys, whats your opinion on the heat issues on this one? Is it competitive compared to the alternatives or should I get a cooler?

 

@yacir, I'm sorry I can't help you at the moment -- shipped my S01US back to Amazon and now I'm waiting for the credit to appear (could be 1-2 weeks) before I repurchase. Hopefully someone else can check for you.

While waiting on the refund from Amazon, I took the comment today about the Sony to heart. I was initially turned off by the 640m LE, but after taking a closer look at the Vaio S15, I saw a lot that appealed to me. The orange screen may be a deal-breaker but I'll continue to do more research.

EDIT: I noticed the "free PS3/Vita" promotion ended last Saturday -- if that pops up again at Sony I may not have the self-discipline to hold out for a new Samsung!

-Matt

 

I looked at the worst results because the "higher" results are DDR5... coincidentally. I'm not comparing DDR5 650M to ddr5 640m, i know that it will be faster, that's common sense.

Also: That "23" fps in deus ex is a DDR3. If you go to the review it's pretty clearly shown in GPU-Z. Again, there are no -real- ddr5 reviews on notebookcheck. You need to source your claims. I explained in my post that the only reference I had was the XPS 15, and I couldn't find a review for it on NBC. If you claim 23 fps (which you did, from the MSI CX70) it's much better if you provide a source for it, in which case you would have seen that it's DDR3, and the performance gap is largely due to the difference in clock speed (15-25%ish clock speed difference, fairly similar performance gap).

Of course you can use the throttling.. you can't discount a better result because it -throttles-. If anything, throttling will reduce performance, it will not create an unusually high number. It's marked as throttling because the reviewers want you to know that performance here might not be indicative of the card itself. Why would you think that a notebook marked for throttling would discount the result, when the result is higher? If anything, the 640M ddr5 will perform even better in a computer that doesn't throttle.

If you're not sure about the performance of the 640M LE in the sony variants, check NBC, they have a review of the Vaio S13 which has the exact same GPU in a smaller chassis.

NBC:

On GT650M page.

They DO also say "The performance is exceptionally good in shader-heavy DirectX 11 games and benchmarks." which would account for rare games where memory bottleneck isn't as much of an issue because you reach a shader bottleneck beforehand anyways. This isn't the norm though afaik.

 

1st thing i did was search, but for some reason search doesn't work for me;

 

NP, i looked for the mobo details [which is intel's new HM76 chipset], and found that it supports 2 SATAIII and 4 SATAII ports. which makes me believe I can attach 2 SATAIII drives, however I'm not sure which controller is connected to the optical drive... still trying to figure it out.

 

So I had another live chat with Samsung over the inaccurate specs for the S01UB. Now they supposedly elevated my complaint to the executive customer service team and I am supposed to hear from them in 2 days. I don't really think I will. Best Buy seems to refuse to post my comment in the reviews section with proof that Samsung is lying about the GPU. I am so frustrated because I cannot find a similar notebook at Best Buy with all the features that I want and I have to use store credit. Looks like they are going to carry the S02US but it is not in stock and is a couple hundred $ more. The Lenovo with the 1080p screen looks like it would fit the bill but also out of stock. Any suggestions for me regarding an equivalent laptop at Best Buy? Maybe Samsung will agree to my offer to take this one and give me the S01US and I will pay the difference but I doubt it

Could anyone who has the S01US version with the GT640M run the Unigine Heaven DirectX11 3.0 benchmark and let me know what your fps and score is? I would like this info to use in my argument with Samsung and Best Buy as as they are trying to claim the GT630M should have similar performance. Thanks!!

Here are my results from the S01UB:

Heaven Benchmark v3.0 Basic

FPS:
19.2
Scores:
484
Min FPS:
9.3
Max FPS:
38.4

Hardware

Binary:
Windows 32bit Visual C++ 1600 Release Mar 7 2012
Operating system:
Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1) 64bit
CPU model:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3615QM CPU @ 2.30GHz
CPU flags:
2294MHz MMX SSE SSE2 SSE3 SSSE3 SSE41 SSE42 HTT
GPU model:
NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M 8.15.10.2618 512Mb

Settings

Render:
direct3d11
Mode:
1600x900 fullscreen
Shaders:
high
Textures:
high
Filter:
trilinear
Anisotropy:
4x
Occlusion:
enabled
Refraction:
enabled
Volumetric:
enabled
Tessellation:
disabled

Have to say that I am less than impressed

 

If anyone wants a Samsung Series 7 but is on a budget, you can get the previous gen for $700 right now:

Best Samsung Series 7 NP700Z5A-S0BUS Core i7 Quad ULV 15.6-in Laptop Deal | LogicBUY

 

Really? Do you even read what i said or you just see really bad? Your first setence are completly wrong because the higher results are from an asus n76vz which has the ddr3 version, not a gddr5 lol(like i wrote right after the values and you apparently don't read), if you click in the results appears the laptop and gpu that belongs to the result. http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/6489/cromo.png
Your second setence: What are you talking about? My sources were the links YOU provide in your post lol, like i said :S. "That "23" fps in deus ex is a DDR3" I know now that you said it, but i said that i'm not sure if it is or not, and i said that it could be wrong, i only assume that could be right because you use it in the post before, so i assume that it is gddr5, again, only because you use that value before me.
Your third setence: I don't use the values of throttling because i know that it reduces performes and i don't want to be unfair, not because i thought that it hepls to have better results :S. I not dismisse better resultes, i dismisse all off them and 51,4 is higher than 41,1 but lower than 60,6.

 

Just got my Series 7 today! A couple impressions:

The keyboard is absolutely fantastic. Coming from a blue switch mech keyboard, I don't mind typing on this at all. It's excellent, by far the best keyboard I've used on a laptop, although I have never owned a really nice one. I prefer this keyboard to my brother's Thinkpad Edge E430. I'm sitting with 3 bars of brightness, and the battery has it listed as 8.5 hours - excellent. Keyboard noise is pretty nice as well, quiet with a little bit of a click. I feel like over time, the keys will reflect/shine where my fingers hit the most (mainly the space bar).

Build quality is good and bad. The screen is very sturdy, you can't warp/distort the screen at all pressing from the back. The wrist rest can bend slightly with force applied, but it doesn't feel flimsy. The keyboard area - particularly the side with the optical drive, can definitely bend, but you don't really notice it in normal use. The hinges are tuned almost perfectly - I can open the notebook with one hand without pulling the base up for the most part.

Touchpad so far seems excellent. I haven't really tried multi-touch or anything but it seems responsive, accurate, etc. It's not the most smooth in terms of feeling, but I can click with one finger, drag to select a single letter, etc. It registers one finger click followed by dragging with another finger very nicely. The backlight is also very nice, bright and everything. The one thing that's strange is the wifi key is always backlit when on, along with the blue dot that signifies it being on. I find that a little strange, although I might leave the backlight on whenever I use it because I like the look.

Currently, it's absolutely silent. I can't even hear the fan when putting my head up to the exhaust. That said, it's a little warm. The vents are basically covered up by my shorts. Not too uncomfortable though.

The one big drawback that I can see at the moment is the wifi card. From first impressions, it's abysmal. Wifi is very snappy right next to the router, but at basically the other end of the house, I can barely connect and it seems extremely slow. I'll have to update later with further impressions, but at the moment it seems kind of bad.

Overall, my initial impression is extremely extremely pleased though. If the wifi card has a limited range, I probably won't have to worry too much as I'll be in an apartment/college dorm the next four years. It doesn't seem abnormally slow (I can attain full speeds) the range just might be low.

I would be willing to do a more formal review with benchmarks etc. if anybody is interested. Just tell me what you want tested.

As far as bloatware goes... there's like none at least on mine. My desktop was loaded with only the recycle bin, and after uninstalling Norton, the only other thing I could find on my computer is Skype (which incidentally doesn't work - I'm reinstalling it now.)

Edit: And wild tangent games, but I'm leaving it on in case I need games and for some reason can't play anything else. It seems completely unobtrusive.

 

Last time I checked, Intel had a slightly newer wireless driver than Samsung is showing. You might want to try it and see if it improves your signal/throughput. I also found fiddling with the card configuration settings improved performance.

-Matt

 

Another weird thing that I've seen is that every like third link I click on chrome is broken. I don't know if this is unique to just chrome, or my computer, but it's annoying. It's not a gap in wifi, but because I'm currently video chatting with somebody without any breaks/problems.

Oh and I blue screened after plugging my charger in. That was weird.

Edit: I can run a google search on internet explorer, but not on chrome (it bugs out randomly). Weird.I might try to reinstall chrome.

 

My son had the google search problem on two separate machines (both HPs) last week -- probably a Chrome issue.

If I had to pick three (admittedly tiny) nits, they would be: limited horizontal viewing angle (esp. faded left/right edges), abrupt edge in the wristpad area (where plastic meets metal), and the weight (esp. the power brick). What are your impressions on those, and HEY how is your trackpad?

-Matt

 

Ok, so I updated the wireless drivers and haven't experienced any broken links, faulty page loads etc. My wireless is also snappy... downloaded Diablo III at my normal speeds and downloading starcraft II right now.

Well my previous computer was 6 pounds, so this is light for me. Viewing angles are poor in my opinion, but not that bad. My previous TN monitor was much worse. I have an IPS monitor (external), so it is noticeable but not bad for me. Things like typing are easy, text is still easy to read at non extreme angles, and I'm unlikely to view movies any time except for on my monitor. The screen is very bright and matte - a plus for me.

That edge in the wrist rest/keyboard area kind of annoys me. When I took my computer out of its box the keyboard metal/plastic (I think it's plastic) was actually popped out, and I had to pop it back in to make it look more seamless. I'll be annoyed if that's normal.

Power brick is big, but I never really considered that an issue. The battery is long enough for me to make it a day without needing to charge it, and if I'm going on a multi day trip, I'll have bag space for it anyways. I don't foresee it being a big issue.

My trackpad is excellent. In the past 3 hours or so of using it I've seen no issues. I haven't really messed with multitouch things since I don't know all the gestures, but every normal thing you might want to do is fine in my opinion. The click sounds a little mushy, but it has decent travel in my opinion, and it is still definitely tactile-y. It just doesn't sound like a traditional mouse click. My friend's old sandy bridge chronos would move the mouse minutely when you clicked with the same finger - I haven't noticed that issue at all really unless I can feel myself noticeably moving my hand. Highlighting something like a single period is easy - I feel like I can make pretty exact movements with it. I didn't notice any of the weird depression issues or anything that somebody (you?) in the thread mentioned earlier. Mine seems integrated pretty seamlessly.

Right now, I'm downloading SC2 and using chrome, and the fan is silent. The loudest part is the hard drive, which is barely audible if you listen for it. If you had ANY background noise at all, you wouldn't be able to hear it. When I type on the keyboard, I can't hear it.

Edit: Would like to say, with all lights off, the backlit keyboard is amazing. There is also a function lock key that I wasn't aware of, that is kind of nice.

 

Dammit stuck between this laptop or the dell xps 15...

 

I would say Samsung series 7 .

You will get much more hardware & in low price

 

True I just wish the screen on the Samsung series 7 was 1920 x 1080 but then again I'm upgrading from a 1366 x 768 resolution laptop so either way i'm getting an improvement in screen resolution.

 

Also if possible can somebody make a video showing the screen viewing angles? Thanks

 

All these tech companies intentionally leave some cons in every product for selling their other product.

So, you will have to sacrifice some features.

 

@XPS15

Its essentially a Mac. You're getting Mac style build quality (superb, miles beyond Samsung), Mac style support, and a fairly high quality TN screen. Inputs are also pretty spot on. There are rumors of some heavy throttling though.

If that's worth the several hundred dollar premium for the same hardware like a MBP is, then it could be nice. Assuming throttling isn't too bad, its a better overall product, but its also more expensive.

Samsung might feel faster in different occasions too because it uses its cache to speed up things like a cold start.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

 

Does anybody know of any legit EU store selling one of the 2012 models with the i5 or i7 + GT640M GDDR5 for less than 950€ that ships internationally (to Portugal suffices ) ?

Looking for a new laptop for September, min. res. 1600x900, 7+ hours of battery life (dimmed screen, light work \ idle \ browsing), light (this Samsung is basically my weight threshold) with a decent build, dedicated GPU. These Chronos 7 seem about right, also considering the Asus UX32VD, and the damned Gigabyte laptop that is sold in Taiwan only and AFAIK only shipped to US (that one looks awesome, damn) <.<

 

This XPS 15 is more expensive than MacBook Ratina (You will do side by side comparison).

If I would like to spend $2000, I will not even think for a sec & will directly go with MacBook

 

would not SSD cache be useless [degrading in fact] if u replace the boot drive with SATA3 SSD [like samsung 830]? on board SSD is SATA2.

 

Thanks for the detailed responses! I agree the keyboard is awesome and the backlight is breathtaking. I literally stared at mine in the dark for minutes at a time! The keys remind me of high-quality mahjong tiles! LOL.

Glad to hear your trackpad is in great shape, but to be sure: is your right click all the way on the right-bottom edge of the pad or do you find you need to press closer to the middle-bottom to hit the right-button sweet spot? It's admittedly a minor detail (since I'd probably shift to a gesture for right-clicking) but I'm still curious.

EDIT: update on mine -- well of course the Amazon refund took 24 hours to process, but thinking it would take longer I headed to Best Buy and picked up the Sony S15 (SVS15113FXS). I have NO INTENTION of keeping it (gonna exercise that 30-day return policy) but figured it would be fun to try out (esp. the IPS screen). It's a special order and arrives next week. So I'm moving in slow motion at the moment -- will have to decide whether it's the Samsung or the Sony for me sometime next week! Maybe I'll post a comparison thread to help me choose.

-Matt

 

yes, please do post your comparative review. epsecially the screen viewing angle and oveyall quality. i believe sony has IPS Matte screen .. right?

 

It is definitely in the bottom right corner, right where you should expect it to be. I can get it to activate by pressing it with the tip of my pinky as far bottom-right as I can go. You can also get right click on the middle-bottom-right on mine at least.

Starcraft II and Diablo III installed without a hitch

Oh and yeah, I tried to think of everything that I wanted to know about the computer and answer those questions if anybody has questions I'd be glad to answer them.

Edit: I wish the screen could go farther back/open more. Max opening angle is like 120-140 degrees (not sure exact, if only I had a protractor! ) but subjectively it can leave a little bit to be desired sometimes. That said, I'm sitting on a couch right now and it's perfectly fine, and I still have some extra "opening degrees" to go.

 

Not sure about the 13" (different display) but the 15" IPS is glossy WITH an "anti-glare" coating. Remember I don't have the Samsung with me so the comparison would be by memory. Maybe other owners can provide complementary pix.

You know (pardon my side-rant), I'm glad that I shave my head, cuz I'm otherwise tempted to pull my hair OUT! It seems EVERY machine we like has some tell-tale flaws. On the Sony, I'm more than happy to trade down to the lower CPU/GPU for the lighter weight (4.4lbs) and better screen. But GUESS WHAT??? It's the same IPS panel as the older HP DV6's which means orangegate. Plus I'm hearing that Sony support is just plain awful. And the S15 BIOS only allows SATA II. ARGH.

-Matt

 

I wish you hadn't said that. Now I will insist on getting a perfect one if I reorder from Amazon!

-Matt

 

Well, in that case the right click is totally fail!

Maybe Amazon got a bad batch, who knows. Would be weird, but I did order mine from Newegg...

Edit: Update on gaming potential: I played SC2 in some lategame 1v1s, a semi quick monobattle, and some 3v3s and didn't notice much lag on basically all high settings. I didn't do an official benchmark so I can't give actual numbers, but it seemed very smooth to me.

Core temp recorded a maximum of 91 degrees celsius on one core and 90 on the other 3 during the probably 2 hour gaming session. I didn't notice any big slow downs or such, so I don't think throttling is occurring. It is pretty warm, but I was playing on an external monitor/keyboard so that's not an issue for me. The wrist rest is pleasantly cool, but the keyboard is warm. After xing starcraft II out, the notebook is pretty much absolutely silent and CPU is down to 50 degrees or so after a minute or two only.

I almost wish the fan would run even longer after a game closes to cool the keyboard down faster. But it's definitely nice.

Another edit: Ambient temps are a -little- high at 25 celsius/77 fahrenheit. So that might affect temps, if it was lower it could be in the 80s range, which I would consider pretty decent. Ivy Bridge's tj max is 105 celsius.

 

ah orangegate and only SATA II ( definitely not a trade-off for samsung's flaws.

-Thanks for letting us know about it.

 

since u asked .. let me draw ur attention to my question
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...heres-np700z5c-ivy-bridge-83.html#post8727722

Secondly, I was curious about the SATA Controllers and found that motherboard [which is intel's new HM76 chipset], supports 2 SATAIII and 4 SATAII ports. but I'm not sure which controller is connected to the optical drive. Do you know how i can get that info?

 

Oh hmm, that's an interesting question. If you replace the HDD with an SSD, I don't think the express cache will be disabled... I -think- it's an mSata SSD right? So it would still be active. I'm not too positive though. You could disable it if you need to, although I almost feel like the PC will automatically boot through the fastest available drive (samsung 830). I am by no means an expert on that though and unfortunately I'm not very positive about answering that question

Umm. I can go into the BIOS and see if it's listed there, but I'll update you tomorrow on that - I'm busy right now and don't want to spare the 10 minutes necessary (I need to leave somewhere in about an hour). I imagine its Sata III, but that's just guessing again.

The laptop is still very quiet, even though I've been running a 1080P stream (Starcraft II MLG Arena) for the past few hours. The keyboard is only moderately warm, definitely not unpleasant to the touch. And the build quality I think is better than I said earlier, the only flex I really find is above the optical drive (numpad area of the keyboard). The wrist rest seems solid.

Something I didn't mention earlier is the USB3 ports feel a little "sticky" when you put in usb 2 items. I don't know why, but it feels a bit like forcing them in. It isn't dangerous though, they go in easily enough, but they definitely aren't as smooth as the other USB port on the right side. I'm very impressed and happy with my buy though.

As to the orangegate issue on the Sony - I think that was the only IPS panel on the market at the time for 15.6" notebooks, so that's why it was used. As far as Sata II and the DDR3 graphics for example, I'm not too sure why they did stuff like that. But hey, its Sony.

I can confirm for the umpteenth time that you can install the verde 304.79 drivers from Nvidia by the way. I wouldn't recommend overclocking the GPU or anything like that though - the laptop gets hot enough as is (although I don't think really dangerous)

Edit: Alternatively, if you're trying to remove the CD drive and install an SSD, you can just take out the HDD inside already and put it into the CD drive slot, so even if its Sata II, you won't lose speeds because a HDD doesn't saturate Sata II. Then put the SSD into the main port, and you'll be good to go.

 

I know it is kind of smart cache that loads up windows files and frequently used ones on 8 gig SSD and loads it from their on startup, but I dont think [i could be wrong] it would be that smart to assess the two drives [boot drive and on-baord SSD] and go with the faster one. I have an impression that since it stock comes with low-speed HDD , the cache mechanism simply goes with loading files on SSD and use it for boot [knowing that HDD is slower].

but i would love to be proven wrong and if the cache mechanism really assess the drives and uses the faster one, then hats off to Samsung!

and for SATA controller, oh yes u can do it whenever u have time. it is nothing super urgent . and yes, i would definitely replace the HDD with SSD and put the HDD inplace of DVD. it is just I was curious to know.


PS : yep we can always turn off express cache if we want. in fact my question was about the same that if we put SSD in the device, express cache rather becomes liability - forget about the benefits

 

Well things are going faster than planned this week -- Sony S15 arrived today, so I've had a chance to play with it a little. Some first impressions:

- Lighter and thinner than the Samsung -- a real pleasure to hold in the hands.

- The IPS screen...wow. Superb. Excellent horizontal viewing angles and super-sexy blacks. The Samsung display is great for everyday use but the Sony is a total knock-out. The red/orange issue is only apparent if you look for it.

- Overall build quality of the Samsung is better. Sony feels a bit more fragile. Keyboard (especially backlight) on the Samsung kicks the Sony's butt.

- General speed and zippiness of the Samsung is better -- of course the Sony in my hands is a Core i5 but it's apparent.

- Sony is a lot LOUDER. I really appreciate how quiet the Samsung is -- I can definitely hear the Sony fan and HDD. They are not bothersome but they make the Samsung seem dead quiet.

- Trackpad on the Sony is excellent. It works perfectly. Scrolling and gestures are great. But I also think I feel some extra warmth under the right side of the wristpad area. I loved how super cool the Samsung is.

- Really worried about battery life on the Sony -- I haven't compared to the Samsung specs but I sense it will get 1-2 hours less per charge. That's a surprise -- I thought/hoped the Core i5 would be less of a power drain.

- Holey moley, I think a full system recovery on the Samsung took 15 minutes. I thought I'd give the Sony recovery system a spin, and it must be an hour and running! Probably because of the 5400 RPM drive.

I have a crazy weekend, but if things calm down next week I'll work on a more systematic set of comparisons.

-Matt

 

Well a 5400 RPM drive wouldn't be 5x worse, I believe the average slower amount should be the % difference in rpm. Either the express cache helps or your Sony is crazy

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

 

Hmm, not looking good: not only did the restore fail but now the machine is not booting correctly. Maybe that drive was troubled.

-Matt

 

Clearly Sony is trying to screw us all over! At least its the Sony and not the one you keep.

Oh yeah, the snappiness of the computer would also be helped by the express cache on the Samsung, since Sony doesn't have that. It would make a big difference.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

 

True dat. Losing the Express Cache would be a pain. FWIW -- totally hypothetically speaking -- I would remove the Sony's HDD, move it into an optical disk caddy, and then put a 128GB SSD in the original HD slot. There's a great tutorial + video and it looks pretty reasonable.

Update on 2nd day: I am rerunning the factory restore on the Sony S15 and it seems to be going a bit faster. This machine and the Samsung have such distinct pros and cons that I can see it will be a difficult choice.

-Matt

 

Personally the fact that I have an IPS monitor made me ok with the samsung. I can tolerate it in every day use since its not color rich anyways (notes and whatnot) and a 15" screen really isnt good enough for movies unless it's just a few people - so I would probably use my monitor anyways.

 

I would test both laptops with an SSD installed to be honest... it's too much of a difference for me to get back to HDDs on laptops at least x).

If you don't have an SSD available then meh, but from my experience laptops without SSDs always feel "slow" to me now

 

Agreed. But...I just installed my first SSD a few days ago (daughter's 12" Core i3), so I'm relatively new to the game. It reminds me of getting leather seats in your car -- once you do, you can't go back to cloth seats! Actually, the same thing is true for me and...thick-cut bacon...whipped cream...Henckels knives...

What's cool about SSDs is they're now under the $1/GB line, and approaching $.50/GB. It's funny: when I picked up our first (OCX Agility 3), a 128GB at $65 and starting reading the forums, the first thing I noticed were posts from 3-4 months ago raving about getting them at $1/GB. It's really astonishing how quickly prices are coming down. How soon before HDDs are completely gone, and only hybrid or SSDs are the norm?

-Matt

 

Prices have dropped like 35% in the last months, while HDD ones stood the same. I noticed that the other day and was surprised for them to be under 1€\GB mark, but they're still heaps and bounds more expensive than HDDs, and it'll probably stay that way for some years.

Heck, we might see another new tech coming up and replacing SSDs altogether before that, lol.

I wish reviews actually did try SSDs in the laptops that don't come with them by default, as it's usually very easy to replace them nowadays.

 

I dont think hdd will ever be completely replaced. Barring silly thing like Thailand floods that literally doubled production costs/end user costs, they are dirt cheap compared to SSDs. I think high capacity hard drives will always be available for server/large file storage purposes. Like applications where an SSD doesnt help, like storing bunches of music files. (Or probably text files)

 

Oh, but it will. Traditional HDDs will start to suffer from magnetization problems with too dense \ too close platters, where the magnetic fields generated will start to erase data rendering them useless. I don't think they're far from the cap now, to be honest.

There's already new tech being developed, and the future will bring more non-ferromagnetic storage devices. Eventually there'll be one that will render HDDs useless.

At any rate, I'm sure that someone that spends upwards of 1000$ in a laptop is able to afford a 256GB SSD at least, and that should probably be more than enough to hold all your important data \ programs, being easy to bring an external HDD in case you need more space, or chop the optical bay off and put the HDD in there even.

 

Hey everyone!

I just received a NP700Z5C-S01US from amazon.

I'll return the machine in the next day or so, there are several bright pixels and the display appears darker along the right edge.

In addition to this I get what I can best describe as artifacts if I drag a window around. It primarily occurs on the borders of the window but also on some elements inside. The edges and other thin lines will appear as a rapidly changing dashed or dotted line, if that makes sense. The artifacts are not a deal breaker, as I'll return the machine I have not spent much time trying to fix it but worry that its a symptom of a larger problem.

However even beyond these issues I haven't been real impressed with the display. I'm curious what others have thought and if they've had similar issues, this model is the perfect fit for what I was looking for but I'm considering ordering something different now if I thought I'd get a higher quality display.

 

Howdy! I also returned my first NP700Z5C -- trackpad issues. In the meantime, I've decided to try out the Sony SVS15113FXS, and here are a few impressions:

- I started out thinking a 1600x900 screen was ideal, but the FHD display on the Sony is very impressive. It's glossy with an anti-glare coating.

- The horizontal viewing angles on the Samsung are so-so -- like you I had dark edges. The even illumination on the Sony is much better. I'm beginning to think I should hold off and get something with an IPS display (if I don't keep the Sony).

- Something today really surprised me: I tried a few games (BFBC2 and Skyrim) on the Sony -- which has a weaker video card (slower 640m LE) and it not only played as well as the Samsung, but it was MUCH cooler.

- On the other hand, the Samsung has clearly better battery life.

I'm curious what we'll see in the next few months. I was definitely ready to buy, but both the Samsung and Sony have weaknesses I'm willing to wait and see fixed!

-Matt

 

Thanks for the reply! I spent a long time looking at that same Sony machine. The i7 and ports on the left side (nitpicky I know) of the Samsung eventually won me over, but I'd give those up for a better display.

I play a lot of games myself and its nice to hear it runs well, even at the higher resolution/slower GPU. Is the Sony very loud when running compared to the Samsung? I half remember reading that somewhere.