Samsung Series 9 Questions

A couple of questions to you Series 9 boys if I may ?

I love the little 13.3" but have only seen a couple in real life, I favour the silver colour but it comes with HD3000 (Sandy bridge) GFX
The "C" model which has the HD 4000 GFX Has the Aluminium Chassis but the only ones I have seen Look a dark blue colour, feel stiffer
and more solid than the Magnesium but I Just do not like the Colour...They seem to call this colour many names and in Pictures it looks
Black, Are they all the same Blue Colour ?

Given that the 15" has the same spec C & D models It looks like I could get a Silver 15" but Just how bad is the 15" screen compared to the
PLS 13.3" ?

Hows the Aluminium 15" chassis compared to the Magnesium version ?

Finally what's the chance of a better 15" screen with the new Model and Is the 15" just a little too big in regard to still looking like a sweet little toy
like the 13.3, reason I say that is my logical head says all we are really getting here is a nice piece of overpriced engineering really, which I've always
been a sucker for

Thanks in advance

 

1. There are D (magnesium) versions with Ivy Bridge. Samsung caused confusion by also releasing some D models with Sandy Bridge in order to lower the entry price to the Series 9 range.

2. All the C versions are "volcanic ash black" which is actually very dark blue.

3. I haven't had the C & D versions side-by-side to see if there are any noticeable differences in the build quality. The magnesium versions are slightly lighter.

4. See my NP900X4C review for some side-by-side photos of the two sizes. While the 15" display isn't up to the standard of the 13.3" panel it is still very usable. For me, the better legibility of the bigger screen size has more than compensated for the lower viewing angles.

5. A FHD panel is promised for the 15" but we don't know what panel technology will be used or who will make it. 15" is a non-standard size but fits nicely between the 14" and 15.6" sizes.

6. You may also want to look at the 13.3" Series 7 Ultra.

John

 

Maybe It was a B version I Used, but it was more Navy blue than Black, I assume this is the standard colour ?, I recall your 15" review you mentioned Blue tinge
Are the Ivy bridge parts a different number ? also SSD brand I assume is a lottery ?

Great review, and guilty of getting me interested in these

Regarding the strength I recall the Aluminium being more stiff especially the screen (more like the Macbook Air) but I could be wrong !

Yeah, thought about the new 7 series, Nice but there are things I don't like about it and 1080 is to high a resolution for a 13" screen, could be tempted to replace my old Toshiba with the 15.6" version though

Thanks for the reply

 

1. My X3B and X4C are the same shade of bluey-black. In most lighting conditions they appear to be black. I like the colour and prefer it to bare metal which is a source of distracting glare.
2. You need to check the specs of individual versions to see what CPU is used.
3. A 128GB SSD may well be the Sandisk U100 but the 256GB SSD is most likely Liteon or Samsung and are equally good.

John

 

I've had both colors and currently have the NP900X3D-A02US. See the specs for it at Series 9 13.3 NP900X3D-A02US. It's the i5 Ivy Bridge, 4GB RAM, and came with the 128GB mSATA SSD. I replaced that with the Crucial m4 256GB mSATA SSD.

Although I think the dark color looks great, I prefer the silver mag case because it doesn't show fingerprints and dust as readily as the dark aluminum case. I have never noticed any glare from the case.

The only glare you need to worry about is the screen, and the matte screens are identical. It is a very different experience from my 13" Retina MacBook Pro.

 

I can only find the different CPU option in US models so far.
Just to put this colour issue to bed I found this picture that looks how I recall the colour
http://http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NP900X3C-A07UK-Samsung-Series-9-900X3C-13-Ultra-note-book-i5-3317U-1-7GHz-/140948180856?pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item20d12a8f78

I assume the US models are the same

From what I read about the SSD's I would not be happy with anything less than the Samsung SSD otherwise it's more money for a Crucial

 

I am totally with you regarding the colour, It's silver for me if possible. I would possibly get kicked off the forum if I said what I really think about Gloss screens

 

Off topic how do you hide a link under text......I tried a couple of things ?

 

1. I fixed the link. The blue tint is much more visible in sunlight or by flash gun.

2. The Liteon SSD is at least as fast as the Samsung.

John

 

It Was more how to do it, looks like the html does not work when previewed.as I tried a couple of things

I will take a look at Liteon, had no idea they did SSD's

 

Here's a Crystal DiskMark result for the Liteon SSD.

John

 

Looking at the comparison there, Liteon looks very good

 

Note that the other result on that link is for a fast flash drive.

CDM results for the Samsung 256GB mSATA are somewhere in this forum and my results for the Crucial m4 and Sandisk U100 are here.

John