The 2012 Samsung Series 9 13.3" (NP900X3B)

Cool thanks.. the recovery is on the disc, correct? No reason to keep it if so IMO...

 

Nope, it is not on the disc (just Windows)... but you can download them off of Samsung's website (drivers, programs). I just backup the recovery partition via acronis just in case.

 

@slopokdave: as I mentioned earlier, I did the re-install from the windows disc, plus drivers I had downloaded from Samsung, and the touchpad driver didn't work at all. I recommend backing up the drivers/software using Samsung Easy Software Manager, which will make a bootable DVD for you, then after you install windows from disc, use software manager to install all drivers (you can pick and choose what drivers/software). After that you can delete software manager if you like.

@soundsgood: I changed dpi about ten times today trying to figure out what happened to my focus, and each time took me less than twenty seconds. But I never rebooted-- just log off, log back on, and it's done.

 

Very nice. Thanks for that. Maybe there's hope for me yet!

 

It takes me seconds on my ThinkPad T420. It's a logoff and logon not reboot.

You should only need to reboot (shutdown, power up) if you are using an Optimus based machine in a docking station. Apparently Intel and NVIDIA haven't figured out how to handle DPI changes properly with their Optimus drivers.

That should be a non issue for the Intel HD 3000 on the 2012 SS9.

 

I'll try that and taking it out outside tomorrow. The color difference went away by just rubbing it, it turns it into the slightly darker color.

I've experienced two occasions were the fans have been spinning fast while the system was idle. On both times I found that the CPU was pegged due to this bluetooth service. I have bluetooth disabled.

 

Could be because I'm still on Vista.

 

I think you meant Samsung Recovery Solution. But, got it.

 

I gave up on my microSD with USB adapter. Instead I got another ISO of Windows 7 from Microsoft, and burned very very slow. Finally, s9 detected the DVD and I managed to do a fresh install.

I guess the 2nd gen S9 is very picky about its devices. At least I don't have to return this. Thank god.

 

Dude! You just lost 10,000 geek points. Why on earth aren't you using Windows 7?

I do admit there are certain aspects of Vista I did like, but Windows 7 is much faster and more reliable.

 

There it is! (I was waiting for this)

Truth is -- are you sitting down? -- I actually LIKE Windows Vista. And I guess I'm kind of a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kinda guy. Well, at least on some things.

 

I installed it not long ago and it brought back good memories.

 

Could one of you guys help me understand something slightly off topic? So here I am, trying to figure out how to work with this suddenly challenging high-resolution, and I am left with two questions:

1) Why did these resolution "problems" only appear after I updated the bios? Could it be that the earlier bios was preventing the high resolution from actually kicking in? or, put another way, can a bios upgrade enable or change some feature of a video card?

2) How come I don't have this problem* on my 24" high resolution desktop monitor? (*This problem, as described by Microsoft: If you set the DPI higher than 96, and you are running Windows Aero, the text and other items on the screen might appear blurry in some programs that are not designed for high–DPI display in this version of Windows. You can avoid this issue by using Windows XP–style DPI scaling for these programs.)

PS yes, I did mean recovery solution.

 

Yeah, where is the silver one?

On the box that these things came in, what does the label on the side with specs say about color?

 

No shame in that - I can't seem to get away from XP Pro. It works, is rock solid and clean. Best OS Microsoft has delivered. win8 sounds like good cause to switch to GNOME, to me.

 

Did anyone from Scandinavia get the NP900X3C yet? This site seems to think it is in stock.

John

 

I can take an educated guess, but it's still a guess. The BIOS update might have affected the output video clock slightly and flipped it from 60MHz to 59MHz (or vice versa).

 

It says Mineral Ash Black, which makes me wonder why Amazon called it Titan Silver.

 

Titan Silver, maybe they had the silver one.

I think it's going to be black like the previous generation

 

I'm officially stuck on these partitions.. see picture. I need to, I assume, merge C and he unallocated 18gb partition, then divide it up into a seperate partition ~45GB or so. Whatever I do I can't do it.. stuck with either too many primary or 3 primary and one logical. Am I going to have to delete the hibernate partition to do this?

 

I got mine from Amazon, it was not Silver even on the pictures.

 

The hibernate (if it is that) partition is between the other two is preventing them from being merged. However, I would be reluctant to delete it without knowing it can be recreated (is that in the Easy Settings?). There should also be a recovery partition. Did you already back that up and then delete it?

John

 

The hibernate partition can be recreated, according to some directions I got on the xps 13 thread because I had deleted it on my xps 13, but I want to keep it on this for now, if I can.

Yes, deleted and formated the recovery partition. Backed it up first. That's the unallocated/unused 18gb partition.

I see now how the hibernate is in-between so I cannot merge. I don't think there is anyway around this, is there?

Edit: Think I got it... I had to create unallocated space at the end, then clone the hibernate partition to it, then delete the original hibernate partition so that everything else was adjacent.

 

unfortunately, that is an incorrect translation by google. a better translation would be "order item"

 

Hibernate partition... If you have a total of 3 or less partitions, in the Easy Setting, toggle the Intel Smart setting, and it will automatically repartition/shrink the C partition and recreate the missing hibernation partition on reboot. If you have 4 partitions, it will do nothing.

 

Hands on: Samsung Series 9 notebooks are things of beauty | Techgoondu

one of the best reviews I have read so far. Definitely picking one of these up when they put in a 256 ssd which the reviews says they will. Pitty I will have to ship it into Australia as it will be 2020 by the time they arrive here

 

Slopokedave, I'm still intrigued by the Dell. Can you give us your comparison thoughts on XPS 13 vs new Series 9?

Thanks!

 

Oh, one more request for the new S9 owners: How far back can you push the screen?

One thing I noticed that I didn't like on the Dell was that the screen couldn't be pushed back very far. It probably won't bother most people, but I sometimes check my email (or whatever) while standing, which means the screen needs to be "pushed back" for a proper viewing angle. On the Dell, it simply doesn't go back far enough due to the design. How 'bout on the new S9?

Thanks!

 

It opens to about 150 degrees-- seems very close to flat to me.

 

Awesome. I like that.

One more Dell vs S9 question (sorry): Which one would you say is more sturdy and rugged? Like... which one would you be more gentle with and which would you just "grab and go"? Which one would you gladly hand to someone to use, and which would you hesitate to hand over? Know what I mean?

 

FYI, I asked Amazon about the disappearance of the 13". Here is what they said:

Not exactly a surprise. Seemed like a canned response.

 

Given that the Ivy Bridge version is being listed elsewhere in the world, it's not a total surprise that Samsung may not be wanting to make too many of a model which they will have have to discount once the successor arrives. So there could be a month's wait (so the returns period is over) and the next version gets announced.

John

 

Will be glad to post my impressions in a bit. For now I'm off to get am external DVD. Can't blot from USB either. Ugh.

 

Yea, seems sneaky but I guess I don't blame them.

 

Has the 13.3 model been listed with the IVY too or just the 15.4?

 

Search for "NP900X3C". It's listed on several Scandinavian sites with the same sparse details as NP900X4C (which is 15", not 15.4") in UK.

John

 

I'm at a loss... I cannot even boot from my DVD drive I just went out and bought. Why?!?

 

I would say that I would happily give either one to somebody to play with, assuming I were willing to share, which I'm not, at the moment.

They are both great machines. The S9 is clearly the style winner, and after banging on it for three days, I feel pretty comfortable about its sturdiness, both material (case, keyboard) and computer (software/driver/etc.). I'd probably feel happier flinging a Dell around because it's less expensive, but I'm pretty hard on all of my laptops, never use a case, and expect to do the same with the Samsung.

Final thoughts: I love this machine. I wish it were silver, because that shows finger prints less than black, and this one does get a little blotchy. It continues to be crazy quiet. Maybe I would not be able to boot from USB either-- I used an old usb DVD drive, which is fine with me (I don't expect to be booting from USB much, cross fingers). There is a learning curve for the higher resolution-- I have had to spend a lot of time in the past two days fiddling with settings on all my usual programs, to get them to behave the way I would like, but now that I have it-- wow. What an amazing screen. The dell will probably show fewer prints on the body, but the screen is the place I have to stare all day, and so far I don't have one mark on mine, and it's a beauty. I realize that I am not a power user, but I am hard to please, and the fact that I'm keeping this is really saying something. Great keyboard, great touchpad, I could go on and on.

I ended up disabling one finger tap and drag on my touchpad because it was causing a few too many jump arounds. Now I just use a hard left click and drag, and everything is peachy.

I have contacted Amazon twice now about the fact that they disabled the s9 web page. I think it's very bad business practice to take 1400.00 from x number of customers and then drop the page, which is the only place you can go to find out what others think, if the model has been upgraded or replaced or dropped, etc. I have never seen that happen before, and it really goes against their great customer service model.

Finally, could you guys share your thoughts about best practices for battery conservation? I use the computer about 5 hours a day, and I could plug in the whole time. Should I unplug when fully charged, run it down and then plug in again? Plug in the whole time except when I'm out and about? Should I enable battery conservation in the bios?

Thanks for all your enthusiasms and tips. (I'm about to change my notification settings to daily digest, and fade slowly away...)

 

You seem way ahead of me on the computer curve, but the USB 2 port is on the right of this machine, not left, as in the 15" model… I had to disable fast boot, and boot up from a cold computer, not restart. Plus I used a very low end, older, dvd drive. Those are my only thoughts...

 

I was just reading back a few pages and saw a note on the disabling fastboot, worked!!!

All of these new optical dvd drives are not ac powered anymore, 2 USB... strange, but seems to work either way. Although the LG I got has a y'ed USB cable, so I had to add an extension to reach the other side.

 

First off, thanks for helping me before slowly fading away!

This higher resolution learning curve is the only thing that scares me about this machine. If I fiddle with the settings to get things "just right" for the laptop screen at 125% DPI, it most likely will look different on the external monitor at 100% DPI. I think it'll come down to either yes I can handle the laptop screen at 100% DPI or no I can't. Simple as that.

Anyway, thanks again. Enjoy your new laptop!

 

Tiger Direct has this in stock at retail stores, I have 2 around me I will check today. Hopefully Best Buy will have it in stock soon, and as soon as they have an 8GB with 256GB SSD I will get one. If the 15" had 1080p I would get that.

 

You can't do per display DPI settings. I wish you could.

 

I totally agree on this. They should disable the ability to buy the product, but nothing more.

I'll send them another message about it this evening. Maybe we can get them to light it back up.

 

Someone needs to call Jeff.

 

I agree that the S9 seems very picky about boot devices.

I got my replacement S9 today. I am able to boot using a USB flash drive but not an external DVD drive. Neither device worked on my first S9 so this is progress.

I will keep this second computer and return the first.

 

What model LG drive did you buy?

 

jeff @ amazon . com

 

LG - Super-Multi 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Rewriter - GP10NB20

So first impressions and comparisons to the Dell XPS 13 now that I've gotten the system setup how I want it:

-I like the Samsung display better, of course. While I've never been a fan of matte displays, I use my notebook a majority of the time in a brightly lit den. Viewing angles are infinitely better, the actually screen rotates back more than the XPS 13, and of course the resolution makes everything much more sharper

-I prefer the Dell keyboard, however, the Samsung's is not bad. Less travel, I find myself almost missing keys here and there; the Dell was 0 effort. I think in a day or two I will be used to it on the Samsung, however. I liked the Dell's backlighting. Samsungs is good though, very different with the colors.

-I prefer the Samsung trackpad, after I installed Win 8 and installed Samsungs drivers. Whatever came with the Samsung on Win 7 was bad; right clicks weren't registered very often, but is better now. Two finger gestures, and all gestures, are much smoother than the XPS 13. I do prefer the physical feel of the trackpad and wrist area of the XPS 13, but function over form.

-The XPS 13 feels more solid. Maybe it's the extra .5lb, but mostly the materials. Samsung feels like Samsungs often used "plastic" feel almost. Not cheap, but not as solid or quality feeling as the XPS 13. I noticed on my Samsung that when I attempted to move it by grabbing it by the screen, not something to do really, but its so light that you almost want to, the right hinge has a slight wiggle sometimes. Not sure if this is reason enough to exchange or not. I like the look of the XPS 13's fully covered glass display too; so sweet.

-The Samsung has been completely silent and cool, not even in silent mode. The XPS 13 sounds like a small vacuum sometimes. I honestly think it has a defect because I noticed even resting it on a table so it could breath it was still going full blast and rather hot underneath.

-Performance seems to be similar. They use the same SSD and other hardware. I noticed that when I sleep using the lid, and I open back up, I have to press the power button to resume. Don't like this, makes it "feel" slower; wonder if I can change this??

Any other requests??

 

I'm sure I'll come up with a few, just give me time.

Apparently a lot of the Dell issues have been resolved with the latest drivers. It's now reported to be whisper quiet, and the trackpad issues are supposedly fixed now too.

Even though I'm still very attracted to this new S9, something about that Dell keeps tugging at me.

Oh, thanks for the comparison, much appreciated. If you think of anything else please let us know!