Samsung X65 (15.4" widescreen)

That's a good find. It shows they are in production. I hope they don't bother with WXGA in the European models.

1,500 € is about the same as £1,000. I hope they have something good within that ceiling. They can have even better models at a higher price.

It's off topic for this thread, but I am wondering what, if anything, might be in the pipeline as a replacement for the X11?

John

 

You don´t need to be sorry
MBP really is a good notebook !
As you live in Germany and seem to be a student, do you know this site ?:
http://www.unimall.de/produkte,produkt,apple,45,6f4e944fa94b57e4e7edea20ca874550.html
New MBP for 1,710 € !

I´ve ordered an ipod there once, they are directly connected to the Apple store, but with students prices !

 

So the small one is coming with 1280x768? Nice one, Samsung, then I´m out of the x65 carrousel. When this is what´s going to happen for the european market, too, then I´m off.

 

Don't assume that Korean specs will carry over to Europe. Did we ever see the X60 with an Intel GPU? Not that I remember, but it is there in the specs.

The various European country offices decide on the specs which they think they can sell. I hope they would know that users are looking for more pixels, not fewer. The manufacturing cost difference is now very small. As I've said already, 1440 x 900 is a gap in the display range which could sell quite well but isn't mentioned in the specifications (but Samsung themselves don't always follow what they write down, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse).

John

 

However for those of us who are in Korea. Would you go for the warranty, apparently Samsung's after service is very good here? Or would you say "F&%# the warranty, I want power!" And go for the Asus G1s-A1 ordered from the US (I'm thinking Gentech here), with 2.4 GHz, and an 8600 GT. Also, I could feasibly buy the X65 in a day, or wait a month for the Asus? I would appreciate any opinions.

 

Perhaps the key decision is do you really need the extra GPU power?

Apart from the possible warranty/ repair issue with the G1S, a more powerful GPU will also create more heat and fan noise when it is under load and will probably create a little more heat even when it is idle.

John

 

I don´t get your point. Do you live in Korea ? Asus sells there, too.
G1S is a gaming notebook with a in my eyes questionable design. X65 is mainly aimed at the business sector. GPU is of course inferior to the Asus but it comes with an appealing exterior. You can´t really compare these two machines. And i would totally buy the X65, at my age a notebook looking like a spaceship isn´t fun any more.... But if you are a gamer go for the G1S and wait.

 

My bad, I should do more research on obtaining an Asus here. However, I have not found a place that will customize the Asus in Korea. I agree with you though, I really don't like the G1s-A1 design. Thanks for your opinions. Sorry for the premature post.

 

I also couldn´t find anything about G1S on the Korean shopping sites i found when searching for X65. And it´s also not listed on the Korean Asus site:
http://kr.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=5

Go for the X65 then

 

FYI,

Samsung NT-X65A/W221: 1.9850.000 Won
http://pc.danawa.com/price_right.ht...60&cate2=869&cate3=10580&cate4=0&pcode=466627

LG Xnote R500-UP75K: 2.300.000 Won
http://pc.danawa.com/price_right.ht...60&cate2=869&cate3=10581&cate4=0&pcode=469283

 

Holy sh... 1,985,000 Won are 1,600 € ! And that model has the 1680x1050 display ! Can´t wait to look at European/German prices....

 

And it's cheapest price for that model as I know (in Korea)

 

So the "smallest" of the x65 series comes with WSXGA+, ok. They hopefully won´t change that for the european market.

 

how did you reach that conclusion? Here is what I think:

The cheapest price found for WSXGA+ in Korea was 1600€ . They have 10% tax and we have 19% in germany so if you add the tax it would cost about 1750€ in Germany. So if that is the price of the cheapest online retailer in Korea I expect the official price for Europe to be about 1799€ for this model.

A 1799€ model will hopefully not be the "smallest" they have.

 

You didn´t get me right. Actually I do think the 1800 Euro version is the cheapest model with wsxga+, maybe there won´t be a cheaper model with 1280x800 at all.

 

Was there a 1280 x 800 version of the X60 series when they updated it with the Core 2 Duo CPU? I know there wasn't in the UK.

I would hope there is a version of the X65 which is priced below £1000 /1500€. The cost of the display is now a small factor on the bottom line. CPU and GPU will have a bigger impact on price.

I think I have said this before, but I would like a 1440 x 900 option. There is a big difference in the pixel size between 1280 x 800 and 1680 x 1050. The high resolution wouldn't be an problem if Vista had sorted out the display distortions when occur when using a non-standard DPI. I'm running my X60 plus at 110dpi (115% of normal) which is very close to the size I would get with 1440 x 900. I start wondering whether I should think about Dell, who offer this resolution (I wonder what proportion of orders choose WXGA+?).

John

 

There is now a 2.0ghz, 2GB Ram and 200GB HDD version of the R70 available in Germany. It is priced at €1349 I guess the official Samsung price is €1399. So it would make sense for the €1499 X60 to have similar specs and a 1280x800 screen. For €100 more compared to the R70 you get the nicer, lighter design of the X60 and better build quality.

If the €1499 X60 had a higher res screen then I see no place for the R70 priced at €1399.

 

I agree. One proof for this is the Korean X65 model with 1280x800 screen for around 1500 € which was hyperlinked some posts above.
I´m sorry xGeistx.... A "decently" equipped X65 will not be "cheap".

In Germany there hadn´t been a 1280x800 model with "old" C2D but with Core Duo Samsung sold the X60-T2300 Chane with WXGA display. http://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/a183009.html

And after all we still know nothing for sure about X65 in Europe...

 

No problem with that. One way or the other I already realized that 1,5k Euro won´t be enough. I´m willing to spend as much as 1,8k Euro and THAT´s it. But concerning a "decent" equipment...I´m not so sure. I´m used to a desktop system running a e6600 @ 3,6 ghz, 2 gb RAM, multi RAID setup, 20" widescreen Dell TFT and a 7900GTX. Maybe I´m too pessimistic, but I´m looking forward to only three good points when buying a medium range laptop: 1. portability, 2. lesser waste of space in my room (use to have a gigantic pc desk), 3. an overall good investment (energy costs etc.). Luckily I got a bit more than 1k Euro for my old system (while still keeping the dell) so the laptop won´t hit me too hard. On the other hand I´m frustrated when I see such weak performance like "modern" battery times. I´m still not too sure about where I want to go with buying a laptop: either I´m going for one of the x65 or something similar, or I´m pretending to be satisfied with some 13,3" solution.

 

I don't know if this is true, but someone I know with Samsung contacts has told me that the X65 release has been delayed because the machines are having Vista taken off and XP Pro installed...

 

That is plausible, but sensibly Samsung would offer both operating systems. The X65 is mainly seen as a business machine. Those people will want XP, but I read that bigger companies who have corporate licences now buy Vista machines and then wipe them and install XP. However, the X65 is also an attractive gaming machine (depending on pricing and specs).

Perhaps a compromise would be a version with a less power GPU and XP, and a version with a top end GPU and Vista. While the operating system issue could be a delaying factor (they could have shipped half and kept half for conversion), I am not sure how abundant the 8600M GPU is at the moment (or more accurately several weeks ago when the components would need to be in the factory).

John

PS: Google has unearthed this X65 in France. T7100 + 2GB + 160GB + 1280 x 800 display (GPU not mentioned) 1 900,00 €

 

Would be so rediculous it wouldn´t even be worth making jokes about it.

 

Lads, this is an old error by the French.... This is clearly a R70. I´ve already seen this "X65" machine on the above linked website some weeks ago when searching for the X65 on Google. Just look at the picture.... And the weight of this "X65" for example is 2.70 kg. That´s the exact weight of R70 according to Samsung Germany. See p.4 here: http://presse.samsung.de/upload/dokumente/200705014_TD-Intel_Santa_Rosa.pdf
X65 weighs 2.49 Kg.
And also the stated model name seems familiar:
http://www.samsung.com/fr/products/notebookcomputer/fiability/serier/np_r70a001sef.asp

There is also a "X65" on the net for sale on another site which clearly is a R65. As i´ve seen one at the moment can buy the real X65 in Korea (i´don´t know about the rest of Asia), but not in Europe.

About X65 and problems with Vista: Ridiculous. X65 will be released with Vista AND XP Pro at least in Germany. It´s been officially published like that. Other Samsung machines with similiar chipset, CPU, GPU and so on are already on the market and they come with Vista. And it runs just fine.... Why on Earth shouldn´t it work on X65....

 

Yeah everything is like the R70 in the specs. But the price!!! are they trying to rip people off? I mean the shop not samsung. Way over priced for a R70.

 

If the UK X65s had come off the production line and gone into boxes with Vista on their HDDs there there would be some delay to unpact the computers, take out the HDDs, re-write the HDDs with XP, replace the HDDs, change the product key numbers, repact the computers, relabel the boxes. All in all a bit of a waste of time and money considering that will be demand for Vista on the X65. I hope that the true cause of delay is something else. otherwise it is symptomatic of some muddled thinking.

The price is also high for a bottom end X65.

John

 

I would also be interested in the real cause of the delay. But i am sure we will never know.

 

I'm interested in the cause, but not as much as I am exasperated waiting for the machine...

 

So am I. Come on Samsung...

 

We have an official European X65 listing now !!!
Samsung France is presenting this model:
http://www.samsung.com/fr/products/notebookcomputer/power/seriex/np_x65a001sef.asp

It only has a T7300 ! But a WSXGA+ display.
Nothing about prices...

 

SAMSUNG X65 XEV 7300 T7300 2048/160GO 15.4' €1707.22
http://www.i21.fr/produits/marques-SAMSUNG-Portable.html

about half way down the page. Search for X65

 

Ah. Thanks.
Now let´s hope that Samsung Germany doesn´t treat us with a T7300....

Now i´ve found a cheaper one here:
http://www.showpage.fr/detail.asp?cat=0&Constructeur=SAMSUNG&ref=NPX65A001SEF

 

Sorry the price I posted was without tax. It is 2041.84€ with tax in france.
If I add 19% tax (Germany) to the french net price I get 2048€.

Bad bad bad... This is not even a top end model.

 

Ups... I think my link above is also without tax. French price with tax is 1,924.34 € !!!

But wave, you remember the ridiculous price of the French R70 (so called "X65"). They seem to be quite pricey in comparison to Germany / UK.

Can´t wait for a German release....

 

I more and more tend to think that in the end (release) I won´t even care for the x65-series when I read about what you guys brought up concerning actual pricing. A 2000+ Euro notebook? Then I better get the MBP with the full 256 MB gfx which is about 400 more, right? It´s so desperate and sad. What would have been a good price? 1,5-1,6k for entry level x65 up to close-to-2k for the highend one. From what I hear and read it´s way overpriced.

 

Quite often the pre-release prices are high.

The nearest comparison I can think of is the M60 which arrived in UK with a better spec than the M55 which it replaced but at a very similar price.

Compare the new M60 with the top version of the X60plus.

That M60 has equal or better spec and is slightly less expensive. Another example is the Q45, which is less expensive than the Q35.

The last rumour about the X65's arrival was July, which is less than 2 weeks away.

John

 

John, I really hope you´re right... But concerning the release date I have my doubts. Sure it was said end of June, early July, but shouldn´t there be more information on the net before the release. Like previews/samples and pics and stuff like that? From what it looks like now the release feels ages away.

 

It has already been released in France. Germany and UK will follow soon, it´s just a matter of weeks.

Did you read the whole X65 thread ? There are many links to various websites where you can find pics, Software, Bios Firmware and also the German manual of the X65. Samsung France and Samsung Korea are presenting the X65 already on their sites. Enjoy

 

The Samsung France page for the X65 gives some interesting info. The model listed has T7300, 2GB, 8600M GPU, 1680 x 1050 display, no Firewire, HDMI, webcam (which doesn't show on the pictures). It's not clear if the wireless is agn or abgn.

John

 

I think you ment 1680x1050. The x65 does support up to 2048 x 1536 on an external display. Also all wireless cards support B wireless. It has the intel Centrino draft N wifi chip. It does support B also.

 

Yes. A typing error, now corrected.

John

 

Let me know if this is a duplicate.

http://www.notegear.com/Content/con...topage=&TNum=570&kind=2&SearchString=&Search=
Its a review in Korean.

 

Thanks for the link !!
Here´s a translation by Google.

Edit:
What a fantastic review ! Lots of pictures and informations.

 

Thanks for the link. It's a very detailed review. Samsung have managed to avoid messing up what was already a good design. The black keyboard is an improvement to the appearance (and won't suffer from the paint wearing off).

I was hoping for more than 2hrs 50mins on the battery.

John

 

I´m thinking about getting the 9-cell-battery. X65 would be perfect then !

 

Is Sense X65 the official name? In the picture it says SenS X65 but in the text they called it Sense. Doesnt Sense mean teacher in japanese?

 

It should say "Sens". That is what is on the computer in the photos.

I think they only put that name on the Korean models - I've seen the name previously.

John

 

I don´t know. But the official Korean name is Sens X65.

 

Yeah they also called the R70 "SenS R70" in the benchmark lists in the end. Must be the korean name.

 

Does anyone btw know the meaning of SenS ?
I couldn´t find anything on Google.

John, thanks for transforming my looooong link !

 

BTW, they also have detailed reviews of the R70 and the Q45, which I have added to the relevant threads. However, nothing about the Q70 at the moment.

John