The 2012 Samsung Series 9 13.3" (NP900X3B)

Some information about the 15" Samsung 900X4C came up at Germany's CEBIT:

Samsung 900X4C 15-inch Ultrabook Hands-On, Quick Test Ultrabook News and the Ultrabook Database

 

I run my desktop at 150% DPI because I use the Dell 27" U2711. I can handle 125% DPI on it but 150 is much easier on the eyes. I also have a Dell 24" and because you can't specify DPI per monitor, it's also at 150%.

The trick to using the 24" at 150 is to make sure and use a browser or app that is easily zoomed. IE9 and IE10 are easily zoomed. FireFox is also easy and it remembers per website settings.

I am used to setting the DPI frequently depending on the docked status. It isn't really that big of a deal to me now.

 

FYI, the NP900X3B-A01US has a Samsung MZMPC128HBFU SSD, not SanDisk.

 

Good, because I have one on order. No where's your review? Taps pencil impatiently...

 

Tap tap...

 

hi,
has anyone managed to boot into win7 system recovery using a usb flash drive?

i have set boot order as usb hdd -> usb fdd -> ssd and followed the following process but series9 still boots normally:
any ideas whats wrong with this?

---------------------------------------------------

Required:

USB Flash Drive (4GB+)
Microsoft OS Disk (Vista / Windows 7)
A computer running Vista / Windows 7

Step 1: Format the Drive
The steps here are to use the command line to format the disk properly using the diskpart utility. [Be warned: this will erase everything on your drive. Be careful.]

Plug in your USB Flash Drive
Open a command prompt as administrator (Right click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator”
Find the drive number of your USB Drive by typing the following into the Command Prompt window:
diskpart
list disk
The number of your USB drive will listed. You’ll need this for the next step. I’ll assume that the USB flash drive is disk 1.
Format the drive by typing the next instructions into the same window. Replace the number “1” with the number of your disk below.
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=NTFS
assign
detail disk (for info only)
exit
When that is done you’ll have a formatted USB flash drive ready to be made bootable.

Step 2: Make the Drive Bootable
Next we’ll use the bootsect utility that comes on the Vista or Windows 7 disk to make the flash drive bootable. In the same command window that you were using in Step 1:

Insert your Windows Vista / 7 DVD into your drive.
Change directory to the DVD’s boot directory where bootsect lives:
d:
cd d:\boot
Use bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a Vista/7 image. I’m assuming that your USB flash drive has been labeled disk G:\ by the computer:
bootsect /nt60 g:

Step 3: Copy System Recovery Files to usb
cd c:\recovery
dir /a:sh
cd YOUR_GUID_DIRECTORY (only subdirectory in c:\recovery)
dir /a:sh
xcopy /h boot.sdi G:\boot
xcopy /h Winre.wim G:\sources\boot.wim (Reply with F for Files)
cd c:\windows\boot\
xcopy /h dvd\pcat\bcd G:\boot
xcopy /h dvd\pcat\en-US\bootfix.bin G:\boot
xcopy /h pcat\bootmgr G:
attrib -r -s -h /s G:\*
exit

Step 4: Set your BIOS to boot from USB
This is where you’re on your own since every computer is different. Most BIOS’s allow you to hit a key at boot and select a boot option.

source:
Kevin’s Blog
Create a USB Memory Stick with System Recovery Tools | 7 Tutorials

 

When did you order yours? Has it shipped yet? Trying to figure out when I could expect mine if I order today. 3-5 week estimate on Amazon is not encouraging

 

hAx0R...

in the bios, reorder the boot sequence... also it helps to disable the fast bios boot... the fast bios boot often starts from the ssd, and ignores usb dvd and usb flash

review later, im busy at work too!!! im trying to multitask its very pretty though, so pretty, the screen is amazing... haven't tested the fans yet

 

big up to isosunrise
disabling fast boot in bios solved the issue. boots from either usb interface.

thanks again

 

hAx0R: does this mean you have such a one as this? And you are USING it? Don't keep us in suspense!!!

 

hi shelleyevans, yep picked one up from j lewis the day they came out.
i like:
screen res + matt finish
its a pleasure to use even in bright daylight
keyboard is fine but its growing on me as im getting used to it
resume from sleep is great great great. even wifi is up and running almost instantly.
machine is very quiet. completely silent if running in battery mode
very light weight and solid construction. the screen is so thin but has no flex. i have fiddled about with ux31, lenovo u300, s3 & toshiba z830 on the shop floor and in my opinion the quality of the series 9 outshines all of them big time.


I had a minor issue with wifi where i had to disable n-mode in the centrino settings as it was causing my router to reboot. i think this is more an issue with my router though (thomson router on plusnet). everything is working well now after turning off n-mode. I am connecting on a g network.

room for improvement:
trackpad could be better: there's about a 10mm wide zone on the outer sides and upper perimeter of the trackpad that does not respond whatsover, so its actually smaller than it looks. Also 2 finger scrolling isnt always as smooth as it should be (on firefox anyway)


I uninstalled most of the junk that came included and wiped the recovery partition + hibernation partition (on an ssd???)

windoze index:
cpu: 6.3
ram: 5.9
graphics: 5.6
gaming graphics: 6.2
disk: 7.5

 

I'm confused... wouldn't 150% on the 24" Dell make everything HUGE? What am I missing?

Also, not sure it matters, but I've got a Dell U2410.

Oh, and: tap, tap...

 

Amazon.com

I purposely waited. I don't want to be the earliest adopter on everything this year. That and I'm pretty sure the 128GB SSD isn't going to cut it (for me), especially with all of the slices the makers are taking for fast boot and what not.

 

Not really. By default when IE9 or IE10 launches, they'll also be at 150% zoom. Yea, that's huge. But I bump the zoom down to 100 or 125. Looks very good then. Same for FF and Chrome.

Other apps handle it differently. If I have a VM running at 1024x768, I move the windows to the 24" and they look really good.

I keep email and other widescreen apps like Visual Studio on the 27"

If I need to do a bunch from a single machine, I can add a third monitor to the mix (another 24"). Usually before I need that kind of landscape, I drop everything to 125% DPI or just fire another machine up on the KVM and dedicate another monitor.

125% DPI on the U2711 is still very usable to me. 100% is just too small.

 

Thank you so much for all your thoughts. It's nice to know it hasn't merited any complaints-- and especially nice to hear that it's quiet. I wonder if it runs hot, as some have suspected it will....?

 

Mine just came in from Amazon to the US. This thing is a beauty and utterly amazing. For anyone wondering, the SSD is a SAMSUNG MZMPC128HMFU-000, which got a windows score of 7.9 without any tweaking.

 

I'm green with envy of you guys that have yours already

 

Hi guys!

Have anyone tried any gaming on them yet? I'm not looking for serious gaming, and BF3 and such is probably out of the question. But it would be nice to be able to play some pretty decent games, since I'm considering buying this to replace my old (early 2008) stationary PC.

 

ok I have decided..great ssd+great display..then..samsung s9 gen2 it is..now how to get it..is the problem!

 

tell me about it ... I so want to be able to just want into best buy or order on amazon with next day shipping

 

How good are the horizontal and vertical viewing angles?

Im so sick of having to find the 'sweet spot' of my glossy screen everytime.

 

I can't really promise, but if I recall correct, it was 170 degrees, or maybe 160. For both vertical and horizontal. So pretty good, so to speak.

 

If screen plus a ridiculously thin laptop is what you're looking for, i don't think you can beat the s9 in the US. The screen and viewing angles are pretty amazing, much much better than a glossy screen. I think another poster posted some photos in this thread with a few different viewing angles, but photos really don't do it justice. It's definitely one of the best screens on an ultrabook thus far.

 

How's the battery life?

 

It's about 5 hours with wifi set to max performance and medium-high screen brightness. At least that's what was being estimated from the battery icon. Won't know for sure unless someone actually runs a test though.

 

Thanks for the info! Much appreciated. I was hoping it would get 6ish. Are you finding the 4 gb of ram to be sufficient? Is it shared when the graphics? I can't remember the last computer that I had with only 4gb; but then again I'm always running VMWare.

 

My problem is bigger than yours..I am outside of the US..and our country does not sell this yet..so need to scour friends across the globe to buy me one

 

No problem at all. I'm not sure if its shared with the graphics or not, but this definitely isn't a performance driven laptop. I might be biased as I use a Sager laptop with I7 and dual ati cards. But it does feel like it gets bogged down when running too many applications. I also wouldn't trust it to play too many modern games, unless you like your games choppy.

 

Letsplay, when u say too many applications, exactly how many b4 the i5 S9 feels sluggish? Cos I usually have Outlook, Word, Excel, PDF, and ard 20+ browser tabs open at the same time.. would this be a problem?

Thanx 4 sharing ur experience to aid the rest of us hopefuls in our quest for the perfect ultrabook

 

Been busy with work, so haven't had too much time to play with the SS9 today. Anyhow, both my fans sound about the same when the cpu is stressed, none of that issue like the UK ones I guess.

When I close my lid, the laptop doesn't seem to go to sleep - it just shuts off the screen. When I press the power button, it does go to sleep however. My settings in the power panel seem fine. Anyone else have that issue? I may have uninstalled some important software when I was uninstalling the bloatware (not that bad actually). When I open the lid however, it does wake up from sleep (if forice sleep with the power button).

 

It's actually not that bad... I probably used too strong of a word. I have about 20 websites (about 6 of them flash heavy) and running a virus scanner with a movie playing and watching another video on NBA.com. I must say, it's impressive, especially for a laptop this thin. I haven't installed my office products yet so I can't test that out for you just yet.

 

iso, for me sleep mode worked fine, but the touchpad was acting up when I first turned on the laptop. I installed avast and all of a sudden I couldn't click on anything. Had to use the keyboard to do a complete restore from the samsung utilities software. But once I did that, everything started working perfect. No issues whatsoever.

 

so when you close the lid, and when you open it, the login screen goes on? are you sure it actually went to sleep? i may need to do a factory restore. i did make a backup before i turn it on.

OK, I just reinstall the stock image, and my laptop still will not go into sleep mode when I close the lid (it just shuts off the screen). It goes to sleep mode with the power button. Opening the lid will wake it up though, just closing it won't put it into sleep mode. Might be some conflict with Samsung's "Fast Start" because turning that off/on will change the settings for the lid closing options, except it doesn't seem to affect the outcome.

 

PC Pro doing a labs test of the new series 9, Should be out soon....

 

Thanx Letsplay!
Well, hope to see more tech reviews and user feedback soon... actually v. soon, since I have to get a new laptop within this week or the next

 

@letsplay

thanks for giving us a taste of the S9. Still dreading for a full review. But, what are your thoughts on the speakers? Quality would be a plus (like the ux31), but i would be happy if its loud enough to fill a room.

 

Das ist katastrophe!
Guy on the video mentioned the brightness of 15 inch version screen is 300nit!
According to him 13.3 inch version has a brighter screen. (400nit!)

I was waiting for 15 inch S9 to become available but now I have to order both and compare the brightness of the screens.

 

such a shame its only single channel and 4gb of ram, is no-one else concerned by the pathetic 5.9 on the WEI RAM score? my ancient desktop from like 3 years back easily outperforms that! shocker! and with no option for dual or more than 4gb thats a total deal breaker for me as i use VMWare and XPmode

such a shame as i was considering chopping in my Z830 for one as its so jaw droppingly pretty

also the cpu seems sluggish as well on the wei??

 

Can anyone share how big and heavy the power brick is? I often have to bring my charger along. I'm still sitting on the fence between the S9 and Dell's XPS 13. The XPS comes with a tiny power brick so I would like to know what the S9's is like.

 

Oooh, thanks for reminding me... For those that own the 2nd gen S9, is the power cord a 2-prong plug or a 3-prong plug? I too am looking at the Dell XPS 13 and the S9, and I noticed that the Dell has a 3-prong plug. It's not a deal-killer, but I'd prefer a 2-prong plug.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/att...12-samsung-series-9-13-3-samsung-np900x3b.jpg

picture posted by mcsven back on about page 14 of this thread, brick looks pretty small, baring in mind size of the laptop

edit: i'd also hazard a guess thats its a 3 prong plug into the brick from the wall plug side

 

The power adapter is small and good quality, 3 prongs. I believe it is the same as this.

Slim Netbook Power Adapter, 40W

 

This is my fix for that problem so I can use the thinner and lighter 2 core mains cables with a PSU that has a 3-pin socket.

John

 

Well if the Series 9 doesn't quite match up, there is always this Gigabyte: Gigabyte’s Ivy Bridge U224 Ultrabook review: first look | PC Pro blog

 

Lolz - I'm still on the fence with the S9. Just found out that the hp envy 14 spectre can have two SSDs and 8gb ram. It's just so much larger and I'm wary or HP batteries. All 3 hp laptops I've owned never made it more than 1 year on the battery. Only about 150 cycles.

 

iso, I don't get the log in screen when i open the lid either. It might have something to do with samsungs fast start program. But it does go to sleep (or something else for that matter) cuz the computer pretty much shuts down (fans shut down as well as any videos/music I'm playing etc.)

laidback, the speakers to me are just fine. I think they are a little tinny but loud enough for me. But I'm really not too picky with my speakers though. It just has to sound decent. I can see someone from like the avforums be disappointed with it though. But maybe someone who's more into that sort of thing can give you a better idea.

 

Actually The 10mm on the sides and top of the trackpad are de-sensitized, meaning that you can't start the trackpad from those areas, but once you are moving the trackpad, you can use those areas to continue moving the pointer. This is probably for typing purposes as people tend to hit the trackpad with their palms when typing. At least that's the case for the US version as it seems we got the better end of the deal =P

 

I remember seeing that... And I remember being disappointed that it wasn't more like the single cable asus...

 

Hmmm... I guess mine may not be going into sleep. When I play a mp3, and close the lid, the music is still playing. I've reverted back to factory now with default bios. I know the screen does turn off as I close the lid, so it knows its being close and probably not some sensor issue. Fast Start still works if I open the lid after I manually put it to sleep, so the Fast Start does work.

 

Thanks John. (although I'm not really sure what that thing is! )