The 2012 Samsung Series 9 13.3" (NP900X3B)

No. From what I understood from CDW, the 3-4 week wait or maybe as long as April was about the 15-inch NP900X4B. He just said that they didn't have any news about the 13-inch either. Sorry - I'm sure that isn't what you would like to hear.

 

if these are all your references I would go with the new S9, but if you can't wait any longer, a Z from Sony (if affordable) or a MBA should work best.

 

Thanks ThreeD, I've just begun to look into the Sony Z. Pricey, but if it will help me get my work done, it is worth it. (Gulp!) I need to stay with Windows (other home computers, etc). The dual platform software alone puts the MBA out of my sights. Even though it is really nice!

 

I am considering the same notebooks. So I am owning a 4 year old Z. So I need an update and I am also not too much of fan of changing to Mac. Therefore the S9 or Z is the best option right now. Even tough the Z is a bit pricey, speakers are not too great and mousepad is small. The rest is the best on the market for this size and the perfomance. Have a look at it.

 

Ever since I heard the new S9 would be coming out I've been looking at it very closely but decided to wait for Ivy Bridge and see what other manufacturers would be launching (especially Sony). Because of the delays of the dual core Ivy Bridge processors (release expected in June instead of April) I've been more inclined into buying the S9 but now due to the problems I've been hearing I've got doubts again.
I currently have a 3 and a half years old 15.4" HP Pavilion dv5, don't laugh at me :cry: , and I'm VERY tired of it and I can't wait to get a new notebook. Considering the fact that I'm a user of an ancient notebook the problems the S9 has shouldn't be a concern for me right? The SSD can't be that bad and the Sandy Bridge processors shouldn't be a problem for me. I love the design of the notebook, it looks amazing, it's very thin and light, the screen looks amazing and the fact that it has a backlit chiclet keyboard also excites me (you know why...)

What I'm saying is that the S9 is very tempting since it would be a MASSIVE improvement over my current notebook but the questions are:
How bad are the S9 problems?
Should I wait for the Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks?
How much better will the Ivy Bridge processors be? What differences can I expect?
Should I buy the S9 if the price decreases BEFORE the Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks?
Some help would be appreciated immensely!

 

I would wait a bit longer after the official release. I won't do harm to see how the first batches perfom. Then Samsung needs to come up with some solutions. Perhaps they will also upgrade the components with the Ivy Bridge relaunch (Sep 2012 probably). You have waited so long, just wait a little longer and buy a machine without any major problems. My 2cents.

 

This is very disappointing news. Samsung is trying to marketing this product like a high-end car with with all the bells and whistles, but lacks a decent engine.

@CJP2: A good alternative to the Z2 is the Vaio S. It has the same specs and you can replace the HDD with a SSD to save even more money!

 

I'm also debating this new series 9.

I work in IT so I get a chance to order, configure and support systems for our company. I just got in 2 new Dell XPS 13's. They are available and ship fast. You can configure it with core i7 CPU and 256GB samsung SSD, which is what I did. These aren't for me but I'm entitled to a new notebook this year.

I posted some quick findings and screen shots over in the Dell XPS 13 thread so check it out here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...2-xps-13-ultrabook-arrives-4.html#post8347013

Importantly how it relates to the Samsung Series 9 is the performance. The 3rd screen down is a picture of the Windows 7 experience scores. It does max out the disk benchmark with a rating of 7.9. I have to say the thing boots incredibly fast.

Now my reason for not getting that Dell for myself was because I'm interested in seeing a super thin and light 15" notebook with 1600x900 screen resolution. The Dell only does 1366x768 and its VERY glossy. Really if it wasn't for the screen I would of already had the Dell in my hands today.

So here I am faced with a heck of a decision. Keep waiting for the 15" Samsung Series 9 or find something else. The Vaio Z looks amazing but configured the way I want it we are over budget, and again I'm not settled if I want a 13 incher. Surprised there's not more 14" high resolution ultrabooks yet, but I guess that will come in due time later this year and on. I want something SOON so I'm not prepared to wait for IVY BRIDGE at this point.... we shall see. I also would like 256GB SSD because I'd like to toy installing MacOS X in dual boot in my spare time. I can't just BUY a MacBook because we are a PC shop and this is a work computer, so bottom line is it needs Windows as its primary function.

 

Oh no!!! Mine is arriving tomorrow and I had stupidly assumed that it will take 8GB RAM as the previous model would...

This is ridiculous!

All I want is 1600x900 13" or 14" with a Matte screen & 8GB RAM... how hard can it be??

I have been put off the Asus UX31 but seems like that is the best choice.. even though it is shiny...

Sony SA is the next obvious choice but I live in the Channel Islands and can't find a reasonably priced supplier...

 

These ultrabooks take mini PCIe SSD's, so the 830's are too big too fit. Plus, the performance is pretty comparable, only about 15% slower; you won't even notice it. The Asus UX31 uses Sandisk SSD's too.

 

Thx for the quick answer ThreeD!
I think I will wait for reviews, see if Samsung fixes the problems and wait for a price decrease. But I would be unable to wait till September (or so) for the S9 with Ivy Bridge... bottom-line, it's either S9 soon or Ivy Bridge laptop in June.

Even if Samsung doesn't fix the problems I don't think these will bother me too much and a lower price would almost definitely mean that I'm sold, if I buy an S9 I don't think I will ever regret buying it because its pros certainly overcome the cons, in my opinion, especially because I've been living with my stone age HP . Hopefully soon the price will be lowered and Intel's i& CPU will be available.

But how much better will the Ivy Bridge processors be?

 

Ok so I really cannot believe that this laptop is being reported as "up to 8GB RAM" all over the place... but the photo of the underneath is very different to the 900X3A... thank you for confirming

My Lenovo has RAM under the keyboard.. I don't suppose there would be room for more RAM there on such a thin machine though?

Great blog & photos of the RAM upgrade on a 900X3A here: Upgrade RAM on the Samsung Series 9 Laptop | Hedonistica

Ridiculous that we can't get 8GB RAM.. no chance of running VMWare

Back to the drawing board...

 

Direcly under keyboard is no room for RAM! Mainboard is close to keyboard ... would say 0,5mm!

The only chance to get 8GB is if Samsung will sell Notebooks with soldered 8GB Ram-Chips in future!
If you look exactly on my photos: in the middle of the mainboard there are 2 chips above CPU. I think 2x 2GB RAM

I don't know why Samsung doesn't offer machines with 2x4GB soldered RAM

 

Thanks again, really appreciate it, means this is a definite no.

I'm going on holiday next week and my main laptop is being repaired (Lenovo W520 motherboard replaced under warranty..) so I quickly ordered a Vaio SA i7 from Amazon which is definitely heavier than the series 8 (1.68KG vs 1.16kg) but much lighter than my W520 (2.8KG without charger..) so it will feel ultraportable for me, and has the same main specs I'm looking for:

13" Matte 1600x900
8GB RAM (Actually I found somebody put in 8GB + 4GB and that worked.. great!)
5+ hours battery

I had the previous Vaio S so this one should be good. Sad I'm not able to show off the lovely Samsung though.. it will be sent straight back! But thankfully I should get the Vaio just in time. I can see myself refreshing Amazon order page on a regular basis..!

 

Upgrade to 8GB Ram: DEFINITE NO!

Have new information:
Series 9 release in Germany: End of Q2 2012 - begin Q3 2012
(inofficial information is from customer support)

I think its because of Ivy ...

 

So let me confirm this. Is the new S9 delayed until June?

 

No. nobody ever said that. 13 inch probably is delayed until mid to late march and the 15 inch until april.

 

Thanks Laidback, I'll check it out later this evening. Given that the S had the HDD, I hadn't even considered it. But if I can easily swap it out for a good SSD, then this is worthwhile to consider.

 

I see it as a high-end ultrabook with all the associated compromises. You can't expect top-end performance from a machine that's almost thin enough to use as a knife.

John

 

Did I miss something in the thread? Why are you saying it's been delayed, even until late March? I spoke to J&R today and they still say maybe a week at most....

 

I think that information related to the release in Germany (perhaps they are waiting for IB). The new S9 is already on sale in UK.

John

 

Oh okay.... whew.

 

Here is the MSATA SSD from the new laptop:

Samsung PM830 SATA 3 256GB mSATA SSD Review - Ultrabooks To Gain Capacity and SATA 3 Speed - The SSD Review

 

No disrespect intended chap - but, really? We are to believe it is supposed to hit the shelves in a week ' at most' but no US reviewer even has one in advance? I have it (albeit from my rep at CDW from HIS rep at Samsung) that it might be as long as April).... nobody is sure.

Isn't THAT the question here? Where the blazes is the new S9? (And I might add - EITHER one, the 13 or 15-inch?) And seriously, why doesn't Samsung feel any need to address what is (NOT) going on?

 

How do you optimise W7 for SSD? I have the same as your "before" scores on my S9 (bought from JL yesterday) and would like to get the best performance (I am quite happy hacking settings/files/etc, if required)

 

That's what Samsung could put in the S9. However, if you go back up a few pages you will see that one of purchasers of the new (X3B) S9 got a Sandisk SSD.

John

 

I am utterly flabergasted about this. I can't believe Samsung would pull this . One thing is for sure, the Series 9 machines are now off the table for purchase in my case. At least until it's clear Samsung is taking this issue seriously and providing top quality components for their machines.

I'll probably just wait for the ThinkPad X2 now. F em.

 

How many here wish Apple made a Windows laptop with a Windows keyboard? Raise your hands!

 

All this negativity.. bah... but I see why. It has caused me to look at other laptops. I'm anxious, though.

I have a work Lenovo, but I don't use it for personal use. I've had several tablets over the past 2 years. ipad, xoom, galaxy tab 7, galaxy tab 10.1, ipad 2, transformer, and transformer prime. It's time for me to go back to a laptop/notebook! I'm leaning towards the Asus UX31, or maybe even last years series 9 if it would dip in price.

 

Screw it... I went out and bought a Series 7.

It's still about half the thickness of the 3+ year old machine its replacing... plus I'm in IT, QA contractor so I coul.d probably benefit more from the horsepower: 8GB RAM, quad core (hyperthreaded, so looks like 8-cores), and I'll put a 128GB SSD in here and turn the internal drive into an external.

And if S9 drops in the next few days, I can always return it

 

Lets hope S9 prices drop soon and make Intel i7 CPUs available.

 

Optimised settings:

1)prefetch, superfetch and windows-search - services deactivated

2)defrag deactivated

3) Timestam deactivated (cmd an then "fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1")

 

Maybe they didn't have any of the PM830s lying around when the first shipment of the new S9 was put together. And, given the CPU and memory (only single channel, I assume) limitations of the S9, it's unlikely to be able to get full benefit from a top end SSD.

John

 

Haha, I've been saying this for years! I can't stand how the alt key is in the wrong spot.

Apple with windows keyboard, USB 3, display port and matte screen....or third party thunderbolt displays, ie. Samsung or NEC

 

Ok, I'm not utterly flaborgasted. After all it's the 128GB drive in the 13.3" system. I'll be really disappointed if this holds true on the 15" 256GB Series 9 model for the US.

 

Got it! Thanks!

 

Thanks, I got most of them already (did them last night), but not the timestamp one

 

I'll take two.

 

Hi,

I have two questions:
Can anyone compare the Screen to the MacBook Airs?
And the library-mode, will it turn off the fans permanently?

 

Hands firmly raised!!
I have gone from a 13" MBP to a T420s thinking it would be good, but I miss the MBP badly. The touchpad for one is just insanely good in comparison.

All I want is a 13" Mac with 1600x900 or better and 8+ GB ram support.
I replaced my primary hdd with SSD and optical with 640gb and it was nearly perfect

Try this - Guide SSD Tweak Utility

 

My Best Buy had an old series 9 last week, 1 left, none other in the area.... now, none of them have any, and not available to order.

I hope this means the new one is coming.

 

is this better than 1st gen 9 series?

 

That's like asking is a 2012 BMW better than a 2011 BMW. Spec wise, yes.... but the actual experience and preferences may vary.

 

Depends on what you consider better. The specs are near identical in processor/RAM/HDD terms. I have played with both in John Lewis side by side, both showing the same presentation. 2nd Gen screen is nicer, obviously so seeing them next to each other. Keyboard/trackpad are pretty much the same, I couldnt tell any difference. 2nd Gen chasis is much better. 1st Gen appears to be plastic with a few "slabs" of Alu/Duralumin just stuck on. 2nd Gen is a proper Alu chasis which feels and looks much nicer.

In the UK the price difference between 1st Gen and 2nd Gen is £200/~US$300, and for me the screen and chasis are worth the extra price when you are already paying out quite a lot

 

Is it true first gen can have the ram upgraded?

Also, doesn't the first gen suffer from really bad wifi signal strength? Is there a fix for that?

 

Thats a fair point, I seem to remember a strip down of the 1st Gen and it did have swappable RAM so that could be considered a bonus. Doesnt bother me as I dont use the laptop as a powerhouse by any means. I want it to be reasonably powerful, but light and quiet

 

@sensationxe Did you manage to get the WLAN problem fixed? I need to buy a new laptop within the next 14 days and I'm indifferent between the Asus UX31, the new Samsung 9 Series (if it ever is available) or the Series 5 Ultrabook.

 

Today I got a new Intel 6230 Wlan chip ...
I changed it and wlan works great!!!

 

Great news..is it easy to change the chip or in general to open the body or do you have to remove the whole mainboard to access it?

 

Not quite. But something like this?

And.... it's running Windows 8.







P.S. it's flies. Super lightweight OS. Boots in 10 and shuts down in 2 seconds.
A little tweaking, and ALL the trackpad gestures work like butter.
One system, two O.S's Great looking machine, with great battery life.
it really is the best of both worlds.




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