Samsung X65 (15.4" widescreen)

Yes, I were and yes it still makes me laugh. As for the alternative, there is one actually. And it´s far superior in many aspects. Concerning the x65...I guess I´m out. There will be a major update for MacBooks/MacBook Pro´s this year and that´s exactly what I decided to wait for.

 

Well I finally gave up and have ordered a Vostro, and saved the £500 difference... (only losing out on the HDMI connection and size). Another sale gone Samsung! (not that they really care, but hey)

 

I expect you will have plenty of time to reconsider your options when the X65 finally arrives and your Vostro is sitting in pre-production with shifting EDD.

John

 

I doubt that!

 

Exactly. Just have a look at the Dell threads here. I´ll hold my X65 in hands when this Vostro is not even produced....

@XGeistX
I thought you wanted your NB as soon as possible ?
Why wait for the new Apple stuff that has no release date confirmed at all ?

 

UPDATE !!!!

Just have a look at this:
http://notebook.samsung.de/article.asp?artid=E4869E48-051D-45F0-ABB6-86A83DBF0C10

The X65 in Germany is now called X65 T7500 Bekumar, it does have XP Pro, a 160 GB HDD 5400 rpm and recommended retail price by Samsung is now 1,499 € Euros only !!!! (other specs remain the same)

This is a major update and i suppose it explains why the X65 took so long to get released -> Vista compatibility problems !
Vista drivers are still on the site, but now XP Pro is stated as the only OS.

Model nr. is now NP-X65T000/SEG

 

I'm not so sure that it is a Vista compatibility problem or a realisation / decision that the main market for the X65 is actually businesses, who are still not yet moving to Vista. Samsung Korea had got the Vista drivers ready months ago but I think the then European sales offices said they wanted XP. However, that wouldn't have stopped Samsung releasing a version with Vista for those who wanted it. Samsung don't seem to have realised that the X60 / X65 is also a good gaming machine.

Whatever the cause of the delay, the current evidence is pointing to arrival at around the end of this month.

John

 

I´ll hope that this has been the last delay....

Unfortunately the price of 1,499 € must have been a mistake, Samsung changed it back to 1,999 €. What a pity !

 

Nope, I didn´t say asap. Apple will update the notebooks this year for sure and I will wait for this to come.

 

Ah, ok. Good luck then with the release of these laptops

 

The OS seems to have been a major stumbling block. By all accounts, Samsung were planning to ship with XP but MS weren't happy with that and 'suggested' they used Vista.
As John has said, most of the potential buyers for this machine (me included) want it for business use and so want XP.
It seems that it will ship with a Vista licence, but 'downgraded' to XP, so XP will be installed and a Vista disc will be in the box if you want to use it.

 

This could be a reason for the delay of the X65:

Notebook shipments goal may fall short of expectations amid component shortages
http://www.digitimes.com/pda/a20070815PD216.html

 

The general increase in demand for notebooks in preference to desktops does seem to have affected overall availability.

I would have expected the X65 to be less affected by supply issues: It should be a more profitable model than the low to middle range notebooks so Samsung sensible would give it priority.

Dabs is now listing the X65. They don't normally list products until they are imminent. However, they still don't have the detailed specs.

John

 

The German market now features two X65 models:
(despite the fact that the official Samsung site only shows one model)

The Begum and the Bekumar.
Begum has a 200 GB HDD, Vista Business, 1 GB Turbo Memory and
starts from 1,795€:
http://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/a265632.html

Bekumar comes with a 160 GB, NO Turbo Memory, XP Pro
and pricing starts from 1,699 €:
http://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/a273609.html

I´m not sure if the Turbo Memory module really is absent
in the Bekumar or if its not listed because of lacking
compatibility with XP.

 

Wonderful pricing update !
Begum now from 1,553 €

And Bekumar from 1,497 € !

It´s getting more and more interesting !

 

The pricing is of interest, but does anyone actually have one to sell? All we are seeing at the moment is more people listing the product.

And I doubt if the XP Pro version has the Turbo Memory module installed - they cost around 30 Euros.

John

 

I asked the retailer selling the cheapest Begum, they´ll presumably have the X65 in stock on 7th of September. Samsung announced this date but did not confirm it yet. Let´s see what the other retailers will tell me.

 

Just got the info from Studentbook.de:

Samsung told them that Samsung Germany will ONLY sell the Bekumar
(160 GB 5400 rpm, XP Pro, no Turbo Memory) and it WILL be coming in the first week of September. As i preordered my X65 there (my brother still is a student ) i also got the updated price: 1,449 €. I´m accepting their offer ! Let´s hope that this time there are no more delays !

 

X65 in stock at DigiUK £1116.25.

Play camera software. but no mention of a webcam.

How long will they last?

John

 

£1116 are 1640 €.
That is a lot of money for a T7300 X65 !

German prices for a T7500 X65 are much lower. (around 1500 €) I wonder why the big difference ?

 

Uk taxes... all stuff in Uk are expensive..
1499€, yummy.

 

Ok, the pound is strong right now and living costs in the UK are quite high but VAT in the UK is 17.5% while we have 19% in Germany. Taxes won´t explain the big difference. And i would suppose that expected sales figures for the X65 in Britain and Germany are similiar. Similiar demand should normally create a similar pricing level. (especially in times of global markets). But this is not the case. Well, let´s see how prices change.

 

I had expected the X65 to come in at around this price. It will probably drop by around £50 once there is a good amount of stock. However, the T7300 is disappointing. Overall, this model of the X65 doesn't represent much improvement on the previous X60 plus. It has a slightly bigger HDD and 2GB RAM plus a finger print reader but overall it costs less to make than the X60 plus would have cost 6 months ago, so someone is making a good profit. And Samsung UK only gives 1 year warranty.

It is possible that it does have a T7500 inside. It won't be the first time that Samsung UK have got the specs wrong. However, this version of the X65 should be aiming at the below £1000 price point and maybe it will move there once the current supply constraints are over (I'm sure the UK price of the R70 has gone up since it was released).

I note that Samsung's recommended price of the X65 Bekumar is €1.699,00, not the €1.499,00 mentioned further up this thread.

John

 

The above stated UK price would be ok for a T7500 X65.
If they really have it in stock chances are small that there are still errors in the cpu specs, aren´t they ?

1,499€ is the lowest market price for the Bekumar in Germany right now.
(1,490€ to be precise)
http://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/a273609.html
Recommended retail price by Samsung really is a theoretical figure....

 

Samsung have got it wrong in the past: They eventually agreed that the X60 plus has the X1700 GPU and not the advertised X1600 but they never agreed that the HDD was 120GB and not the advertised 100GB (but users only had about 100GB of free space).

More recently, when I was reviewing the Q70, there was considerable uncertainty about whether the missing wireless card should have been a/b/g or a/g/n.

One problem is that the label containing a summary of the hardware is on the pretty box which is inside a sealed brown box which only gives the part number.

Anyway, the important thing is that the X65 has finally arrived, but I think that supplies may be limited. One of the competitors, the Asus V1, is even more expensive.

John

 

Is this confirmed?

 

Nope. greenegg himself didn´t reveal his informant.

I´ll ask my retailer.

 

Mine is listed as shipping with XP Pro, haven't seen anything about vista, and to be honest, that pleases me no end - I wasn't looking forward to having to downgrade from Vista, and now that it's shipping without, looks like I won't have to...

 

Where did you buy and when is it arriving ?

 

lambdatek http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?prodID=B80741

slightly more expensive than digi uk, less than Dabs, but they tell me it's on its way to me now - should arrive tomorrow

 

Lucky you

We want pics !

 

We are all getting excited. :twitcy:

Looking forward to your first impressions, and more.

John

 

No sign of it yet, but it's early I guess. Just reflecting on the fact that it's replacing my four-year-old vaio, much-loved and much travelled and which cost about twice as much as this, four years ago...

 

His answer: Samsung Germany won´t add a Vista Business license to the X65.

@banjotime
You´ll forget your vaio soon

But i get your point. My X65 will replace a 5 1/2 year old Compaq Presario aka the machine that never disappoints

 

Oooh, Oooh, Oooh - it's here!

 

Definitely no Vista - on the PC, or on disc

 

Cam ready ?

 

Ain't got a camera I can take snaps of it today with (what was I thinking? ) - I'll post some tomorrow.

My first impressions - design-wise, exactly how like my old vaio it looks.

Display is gorgeous - the matte finish is exactly what I like, and the high resolution is great; effectively, that's what I paid the premium for, since I could have got a cheaper machine with a similar spec, but a 1280 display.

Keyboard has a nice smooth finish, very positive action, nice feel

I'm just in the midst of setting it up (and that takes a long time in my business!), so I'll report my impressions as I go along

 

Sounds great !
One thing: T7300 or T7500 ?

 

Thanks for the update.

Can you check the hardware specs as supplied (i) the label on the box and (ii) the components listed in Device Manager against what is published such as here. Samsung have been know to get it wrong and, if you are lucky, you might have more than expected.

Thanks,

John

 

Just been offered a T7300 for £995 + VAT

 

Specs seem accurate - core 2 duo, t7300, 2GB RAM, NVidia GeForce 8600M GS

 

DigiUK's current price is equivalent to £950+VAT and in stock (at the moment).

John

Thanks. We were hoping for the price then they would chuck in the T7500.

So the display is matte? DigiUK show it as gloss. Fingerprint reader? Wireless a/b/g/n? Is the HDD a Hitachi?

John

 

Fingerprint reader - check; Wireless - abgn, check, HDD is a Hitachi, 160Gb

 

Sorry, definitely matte finish display - smells lovely too, but that's maybe more info than y'all need, right ?

 

So - do you feel that there is any point paying the extra for the T7500?

 

Not really, the actual performance gain is quite small. However, for its spec, the X65 is a bit over-priced. I suspect that Samsung are taking advantage of the lack of competition in that market segment but having a T7500 would have eased the pain.

John

 

Thanks. I may have one in my hands tomorrow...

 

DigiUK assure me that, according to the label on the box, the X65s in their warehouse have a glossy screen.

Smell isn't normally mentioned in reviews unless it's particularly bad.

John

 

Situation in Germany is different though as the X65 over here has a market price of 1500€ "only" and a T7500.
Competitors as the Mac Book Pro, the Toshiba Tecra S5 or the HP8510p (with comparable specs) are more expensive or as the Asus V1S not available with a T7500.