Series 7 Ultra NP730U3E / NP740U3E with AMD HD 8570M and optional 4G LTE

And/or it will house the 4G antennas in a future release? Remember Samsung Tomorrow announcing:

"The device will also be available with 4G LTE connectivity, further enhancing accessibility from anywhere (touch model based)"


I guess the 740 also needs a digitizer, although I can't imagine putting it right up there.

 

Now listed with Quad Core: NP730U3E-S07DE - heise online Preisvergleich

 

Wooow!!

So S07 is Quad core, I'll take that, thank you!
Tho batterytime would be a lot less I'd asume.

But Sweden probably won't take it in ofc...

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-3635QM-vs-Intel-Core-i7-3537U

 

I don't think there's any certainty that S07 in one country will have the same configuration as in another country. Samsung Germany likes to give its customers plenty of choice.

John

 

Not plenty enough for my taste. Where the heck is the anounced LTE?

 

Another video review http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3t60d1azyo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

Samsung MZMTD128HAFV-000

 

Then it should do better.

Can you re-run CrystalDiskMark making sure that there's nothing else trying to use the SSD at the same time? It would also be prudent to run at least one of the other benchmarks I used here to get a second opinion.

John

 

Can anyone test Wifi signal and speed? asus ux32vd has a quite bad wifi adater.

 

Can we have test results for both the 730 and 740?

John

 

I have the 740u3e s02de here in Germany and my writing speeds are a bit different... hmmm

 

were you able to get 3dmark06 working with the video card detected?

 

Some more test results. Same numbers...

 

I just bought the Series 7 Ultra from Best Buy. I got to say this is probably one of the best values around. 1080p screen is very nice.

First thing I did was upgrade to 16gb of ram (for no particular reason) had no issues. I can answer any questions.

 

There are many questions. Choose and start

 

Can you confirm your SSD model number (as in Device Manager).

I wonder if there is a system configuration problem. Those ATTO write speeds are all extremely low. Two thoughts:
(i) Check the Policies in the SSD properties in Device Manager. My settings are:



(ii) If you don't have Intel Rapid Storage Technology installed then install it. If you already have it then remove it (and if that does fix it, reinstall it again).

John

 

Yup, sorry, the model number is MZMTD256HAGM-000
which is the pm841, if I remember correctly, the mSATA sibling of the pm840... not bad at all

Yup, I have the same settings... still the results see above.

will check...

@Goren: No, I cannot get 3dmark06 or the other versions to run... it always tells me there is a problem with the graphics card, driver blabla... no clue :/


Phil

 

Found a couple of nice videos!!

Angelika Schlächter - YouTube

Think someone mentioned her videos earlier but dno if there was a link before

 

Here are some of my photos from MWC 2013

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/106411197660355170946/albums/5850069323913578113

 

did you buy the ultra at best buy without the discrete GPU? I was art best buy yesterday and could only find the ultra without the dgpu.

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2

 

Best Buy (and the US) do not have the version with the dGPU.

 

The difference in benchmarks between the two drives is probably due to how Samsung designs the the 128 GB vs 256 GB SSDs, I've seen it before in other SSDs. The 256 GB drive has more memory chips so the bandwidth is higher.

 

good news Jean and Batinha

While googling, I saw this post on 3dmark forum. They will fix it!
3dMark 06 and 11 doesn't recognize AMD 8570m video card

 

Note that the although JeanLuc's sequential write speeds are higher (and I have to believe that those of batinhas must be due to an IRST glitch or a hardware failure) the 4k random read speeds of Batinas' are 50% faster than JeanLuc's and my understanding is that the majority of disk I/O is in the random 4k realm. Overall I find it hard to believe that Samsung's OEM mSATA SSD is not going to perform at or near the top of the class given the superb performance of it's retail models.

The glossy touch screen is a negative but I've used some excellent matte screen protectors that take care of that nicely without adversely affecting the touch sensitivity and the brightness of the IPS screen helps you deflect them as well. That said, I am not finding the screen on the 740 to be as bright as I expected. It's not any brighter than my Sony Z13 (about 280 nit) and from memory it seems not nearly as bright as the Zenbook UX31A Touch I owned for a while.

However, I think I can live with the screen. The keyboard, not so much. First the ok news: I don't find it difficult to get used to the key action on the keyboard and I agree with Lisa Gade that after you get used to it though it may not be as comfortable as other keyboards, you can type really fast with it - provided you are in a very dark room! I have had my 740 from BB for a day and I am very disappointed with the keyboard color and lettering. I don't know why these mfrs keep bringing back metallic keys - eg, as Asus did with the first Zenbook line, though at least they had a contrasting black tray; in most lighting I find that the reflective aluminum finish (satin or not, it's still reflective) with no contrast to the color of the kb tray makes it very difficult to distinguish keys on the fly and to see the lettering on the keys.(I'm a 75% touch typist, but with the 4-5 different keyboards I use regularly, I have to peek at times due to differing layouts.) I can't see how anything but black keys with reasonably bold white lettering should ever be used on a "serious" keyboard and I don't understand why Samsung insists on using colored "mood lighting" for its keyboard backlighting, as it also does on the Series 9, rather than nice, bright white, at least in the top setting. Add to that the extremely thin lettering and and I'm afraid I've found my deal breaker for this otherwise exceptional piece of work and value.

I was wondering if there was an ambient lighting dimmer on the keyboard lighting preventing it from going to maximum brightness in well lit environments. I can't find any reference to it nor any apparent control for it, though there is a vague reference in the User Manual PDF I downloaded that suggested "some" keyboards have ambient lighting sensors. Without a much, much brighter backlight for well lit environments, this thing is no more than a science project for the next few days and back it goes (though I have 60 days with my "Silver Premiere" BB membership).

Oh well, I was thinking it foolish to buy a high end laptop now instead of waiting for Haswell and I'm hoping when Samsung puts the new chipsets in this model they will also have done a quick fix of the keyboard, as Asus very impressively turned around in just a few months.

 

Done :thumbsup:

 

Hello everyone!

I recently bought the German 730U3E-S07. I really enjoy this beautiful ultrabook. Look, feel, speed (for such a small device) are awesome!
But my screen (type: CMN1343) suffers from a little problem. Grey colors, especially dark greys, are flickering to some extent. The flickering is not affected by the setting of the backlight (low or high brightness doesn’t change the problem, the flickering is always there).

For example, it is noticeable on the dark background of Acrobat Reader. If you take a look at Online monitor test - By vanity.dk and flatpanels.dk (then move mouse up into the middle of the window and change view to "Black/White grad."), you will see the flickering even stronger on the greyscale. The flickering is noticeable in the BIOS (blue background, especially with higher screen brightness) as well, but not very strong.

Is any other 730U3E user able to confirm this flickering issue?? Or is my unit broken?

Thanks a lot in advance!

PS: The described issue occurs if the screen is running with a refresh rate of 60 Hz. If I use the 40 Hz mode, the distortion is nearly invisible and the image, including all grey colors, looks almost perfect.

 

Are you referring to this image?


I can't see flickering on my 730u3e, with or without AC adapter...

 

Yey, I do! With a refresh rate of 60 Hz I clearly see the flickering especially in the middle of that image...

Sounds like my screen is broken. What a pity!

 

For comparison, the results for the previous Samsung PM830 mSATA are here. I still think there's something wrong to have <150MB/s sequential write speed. Even the Sandisk U100 does better on that test.

I wouldn check that it is not adaptive brightness at work. See this thread.

John

 

I forgot to mention that adaptive brightness control is already OFF. (I even tested both, brightness control on and off, and it doesn't change the problem. The flickering is always there. It's a quite fast flickering.)

Unfortunately that can't be the solution. :-(

 

RAM modules for 730U3E:

Soldered one: EBJ20UF8BDU0-GN-F
Google says: Elpida 2GB PC3-12800 DDR3-1600MHz non-ECC Unbuffered CL11 204-Pin SoDimm Memory Module Mfr P/N EBJ20UF8BDU0-GN-F

SODIMM module: M471B5773EB0-CK0
Google says: Samsung 2GB PC3-12800 DDR3-1600MHz non-ECC Unbuffered CL11 204-Pin SoDimm Single Rank Memory Module Mfr P/N M471B5773EB0-CK0


CL11...? Only? A bit high, no?

 

My 740 unit from Best Buy gets very similar CrystalDiskMark results to batinhas' results. I don't think he has faulty hardware.

The new Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A Touch with the ADATA SSD with Sandforce controller also scores similarly, though it gets about half the score for the 4k random read/read at 32 queue depth (a test that has little meaning on a single user machine, esp. and Ultrabook IMHO). Write speeds in Win 8 with the latest crop of OEM mSATA SSDs aren't that impressive. My aftermarket 2.5" SATA Samsung PM840 (not Pro) does better in my HP Envy 15 running Win 7.

 

OK. I can't think of other causes. We have to hope that other users with this panel will check theirs.

You will need to use a benchmarking program to see the difference between CL11 and CL9.

The results here do suggest that Samsung's smaller SSDs are slower than the bigger ones so maybe that's the reason. It's not as bad as the Sandisk U100. And only 128GB isn't much space so you will soon be wanting to doing the mSATA SSD upgrade club.

 

Sorry about the screen problem!
Tho I'm still jealous..
Since the S07 came to life I'm wondering if it's worth to buy the german version over the swedish one.
Could you take a picture of the keyboard layout, please

 

Anyone else in US but BestBuy:

Is anyone else planning on carrying the Series 7 Ultra in the US? I was hoping that I could find a version with 256G; I was thinking that a few more retailers would carry it; and some online carriers like Amazon, CDW and New Egg. Anyone hear anything?

 

Similar question regarding up in Canada. Right now Best Buy Canada is only advertising an i5 version, and no news of any other carriers or Best Buy and the i7.

 

Thanks for your compassion! Well, I think, I'll send it back to the store, where I bought it. And then I have to wait for a new one...

Sure, here is picture of the German keybord layout. The quality is not perfect. I just used my mobile phone to take the picture, but I think everything important is visible.

 

Sorry if I am mistaking you, but you are saying there is a working mSATA slot, or that the 128GB drive is mSATA itself?

 

Is the black model available anywhere?

 

The SSD is mSATA. See the internal photo at 5:20 in the review here.

No one has yet reported seeing a black one.

John

 

I have got 730U3E S01 since today. Now i am downloading 3D Mark 2006 for some tests. My confing is: 128 GB SSD, dGPU, i5

 

I've been following this thread and the other one for ages to find out when this laptop comes on sale here in the UK.

I spotted it ages ago when it first appeared on the John Lewis site then was disappointed when the item was removed without ever being available.

I saved that john lewis link - Buy Samsung NP740U3E-S01 Laptop, Intel Core i5, 1.8GHz, 6GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 13.3" Touch Screen, Metal online at John Lewis

Just tried it again. It worked! In stock and I've ordered one! Price was £999.95. You can not get to it by navigating the site.

The spec was wrong back when first listed and its still wrong as the screen is not full HD.

Hope the link doesn't trigger a spam trap here and hope it helps someone.

i also found it on Amazon UK for £100 more and 'in 2 to 5 weeks' but S04 in the model number

With any luck I'll be able to join in on this thread from Wednesday...

 

Let me know if you were able to get your laptop from john lewis cause I'm not sure if its a mistake as you can't find it on the website.

Also if you do get it, can you list the actual spec of the laptop you got, as there is not much information on this model, and I don't believe the john lewis website.
Check if it has touchscreen and if it has internal gpu and ati dedicated gpu ?

 

I'm confused. These are the CDM results results reported by notebookcheck.net (of course, a vastly inferior website compared to Mobile Tech Review ) for the 128GB Adata in the Asus UX31A:

These are dramatically different (the sequential write speeds in particular than the results batinhas reports. In fact, batinhas' already impressive 4k random read result is beaten by the 128GB Adata in the UX31A touch model. Wonder why your Asus w/Adata are more similar to batinhas' CDM result for the mSATA 128GB SSD in the Samsung 7 Ultra.

Just for my edification, Lisa, are you saying that just the QD32 4k random read results have little meaning on a single user Ultrabook or are you including the 4K random reads as well? I have always understood the 4k random read to be reflective of the majority of disk access experience of a typical user and far more relevant than the sequential read/write scores. If you are referring only to the QD32 4K results as meaningless "for a single user ultrabook, can you explain why?

Also, can you add some detail to your comment that the OEM mSATA SSDs running W8 "aren't that impressive" compared to your 2.5" retail Samsung 840 running W7 on your HP Envy 15? There are a few too many variables for me to get it straight. Is Win 8 the main culprit here or the OEM mSATA SSDs of late? Have any data to compare the same mSATA SSDs on a W7 machine or the 2.5" PM840 running W8? Finally, and I apologize if I appear to be "grilling you," I'm not, just trying to tap into your vast reservoir of experience; is it not misleading for Samsung to use the same model numbers for 2.5" SSDs and mSATA SSDs? I mean, clearly they are using entirely different size NAND chips even if with the same controllers, if even they are.

 

Sorry for the sequential posts but I want to distinguish this point from the recent discussions of SSD speeds and screen adaptive brightness controls. To make it worst, I am bumping a comment I buried in an earlier post.

I find the keyboard on the new Samsung 7 Ultra (Best Buy US 128GB/HD4000 model) to be pretty much a deal killer for me with this otherwise impressive Ultrabook value. I can hardly see the key lettering at all in a well lit environment whether backlighting is turned off or turned on to its highest setting. The lettering is of such a fine point design and the metal-on-metal keyboard/tray layout so lacking in contrast that I find it hard to recognize the lettering while typing on the fly and wanting to occasionally peek at certain keys due to the variation in placement and size among keyboards I use regularly. This leads either to a slow typing speed (not the higher speed Lisa G. experienced) and/or a higher error rate.

There have only been a few comments about what I consider a total ergonomic fail on Samsung's part here. Am I an outlier with this opinion and experience? Also, is there an adaptive brightness control for the keyboard backlighting? I can't find reference to it anywhere nor can I find a light sensor that I can block with my hand to generate a much brighter backlight. As it is, the only setting in which I find my typing to be on par with traditional white on black keys with bright backlighting is a fairly dark one, in which the key markings are quite clear with backlighting on its brightest setting.

Another area of disappointment to me on the Sammy 7 Ultra is the screen, specifically brightness and, to a lesser extent, contrast. I don't think Lisa measured these in her typically extensive video review but from [recent] memory, the Asus Zenbook Touch seemed significangly brighter - even though Notebookcheck.net found the Asus to have an average brightness of 272 nit and contrast of around 530:1, merely average specs among today's better IPS displays and way, way below the non-touch Asus UX31A (app. 380 nit avg brightness and 930:1 contrast. Having only used the Asus touch model extensively, it is my main basis of comparison to the new Samsung, and subjectively from recent memory of using the Asus for about a month the Samsung seems to me to be considerably less bright and lower in contrast, putting it in a decidedly mediocre positioning. It's risky to evaluate this kind of thing from memory, but I did have the chance to visually compare both the Asus and the Samsung to my Sony Z13, which has been measured and published repeatedly and seems to be about as bright as the Asus Touch with contrast closer to the Asus UX31A non touch.

There are so many different ways to evauate a laptop that I rarely find early reviews - especially professional ones - that draw overall usability conclusions from a user perspective as opposed to composite evaluations of a large number of performance and design variables, rarely giving appropriate weighting to those which often cause machines to be RMAd to the seller and a continued quest by buyers to find the "ultimate/perfect" machine to meet their needs. I've had this model for nearly three days and while I have become more fluent in its key placement, I have a hard time re-adjusting to it. And the screen leaves me - admittedly spoiled by extensive use of Sony Z's for the past two years - relatively non-plused.

Overall, I'd call the Samsung 7 Ultra a solid effort but a near miss in the premium space which actually seems reasonable given its decidely non-premium price for what it offers in standard form.

 

I can share my thoughts on those topics...

I agree with you about the key lettering at some extent. It should be like the s9 series. The worst case scenario occurres in medium light condition when the keyboard light kicks in turning the characters color the same as the keys. Really bad. My way arround is to use the keyboard light only in low light room conditions. As far as typing experience, i'm adapting really fast! I can type almost as fast as with my old laptop, but I tend to like low travel keystrokes with a high definition "click". I hate mushy keyboards, this isn't.

For the light sensor, you have to check your laptop manual. Mine rests near the web camera, on top of the screen. But again, I barely use keyboard light...

As for screen brightness, you must turn the auto-screen brightness off to effectively get the max brightness. If I turn it off, the max brightness increases way behind my comfort zone.Right now,I'm typing in a medium light room and the manual brightness is set to a bit less than half. As for contrast, I tend to agree that the Asus zenbook has better colors and contrast, not by much though.

The possibility of ram and ssd upgrade, extra ports with normal size and dedicated GPU made me choose this one intead.

The only thing I really regret are the appplications that don't use the full HD resolution (almost everything). Everything is so small... Programing is a real pain if you don't adjust the resolution to a lower value, and if you do so, there goes the high definition image... Also, many programs like Labview, don't like it when you incresase the text size to 125% or even 150%, Some text appears truncated.

 

Well I have a city link parcel tracking number so something is on the way

As to spec. It should be i5/6Gb/128G and 8570 graphics. I'm also expecting a full HD display not the 1366x768 on the website as I've not read of this model with anything other than full HD. If it is not then I may well be using their returns policy.

 

lovelaptops: I was referring to 4k random at a queue depth of 32 in CrystalDiskMark: in a non-server/non workstation doing heavy duty tasks, it would be rare to manage that long a queue depth for disk reads/writes. The standard 4k random test with a shallower queue depth is however very relevant to performance. My UX31A Touch with the 128 gig ADATA drive isn't getting anything like the write speeds you linked to BTW.

In my full written review I complain quite a bit about the keyboard visibility issue and list it as a con: Samsung Series 7 Ultra Review - Ultrabook Reviews by MobileTechReview

However, I'm one of those touch typists who rarely needs to look at the keyboard, so it hasn't affected my speed despite how much it bugs me. The only time I really need to look at the keyboard is for the Fn settings (brightness, keyboard backlight, volume) and every time that makes me curse.

In my review I cover they ways you disable the ambient light sensor. Until you disable it, the display looks sadly dim and when it's dim contrast is reduced too. Once disabled, it looks lovely and quite bright. At max brightness, it matches the Zenbook UX31A Touch.

 

Out of the box and using adaptive brightness, I thought the screen was too dark no matter what the ambient light, even when manually bumping the levels up. The problem was solved by disabling the light sensor in Services and adjusting brightness with the function keys as needed. It's a nice screen and most users shouldn't find it too dark or low in contrast.

The keyboard is easier to type on than I expected, and the resistance helps make up for the short travel. Like others have said, I'd prefer the symbols to be higher contrast, but it doesn't slow me down under normal lighting. Haven't used it for typing much in the dark, but the blue LEDs make me think of low rider lights.

 

Hi,

I bought this laptop and tried to open it yesterday. I can't release the bottom cover because of the plastic latches than run along the back.

I have a 8gb SODIMM to put in but while I wait for my replacement msata drive, does anyone have detailed instructions on how to safely open this laptop without breaking anything? If someone knows how to open this and makes a youtube video, I will be appreciated (as most other visitors of this thread will, surely)

thanks in advance,

LG