The NP870Z5G Ativ Book 8 2014 refresh

Yes I know of the effect but I was not able to see any hint of it on my screen.
So either
- there are good/bad batches
- they changed the production midways
- they swapped it for a different panel
- I have my screen brigthess in the "right" spot (usually low)
- the effect comes after a while
- I just haven't recognized the effect but when I do I'll immediately see it
- it might be temperature dependent
or all of it ^^

 

Hi all,
I've been in the (German) market for the new 870Z5G. After finding numerous oddities with the offers at all the various online shops, I eventually stumbled on this thread and found that a lot of you have been having similar experiences with the colour and configurations on offer. From what I've gathered - I had to do a lot of reading as I'm not an expert with the tech specs - the configs of the SILVER -X03DE seem to be the best value, but seeing that I can't find a "believable" source for a BLACK version of that, I will have to settle for the -X01DE. That being said, I've been told that the difference between GDDR3 and GDDR5 is quite significant, and the 750M GPU is already a downgrade from the 8770M, so my question is this:

has anyone found a confirmed source - preferably in writing - for the -X01DE with GDDR5 in BLACK??

BTW, I'm not so much interested in gaming, mostly need it to handle CAD and Photoshop well, so it actually almost sounds like the i7-4702 (with less power use) is a better option for me with more battery life. Just not so happy with what seems quite an inferior GPU.

Thanks a lot for any help, and for this thread! - it's been some help already in what's becoming quite the frustrating computer hunt

PS notebook.de hasn't updated their website so far, and cyberport.de havn't responded to my email sent 21.01...

 

Hello everybody,

I got an answer from Samsung Germany!

It is in german, but you will understand it...i will translate one important scentence for you.

The following scentence translated:
If you want to have the Notebook with silver color, then it has the following features and the code X02DE: (that means for me = the X01 is black)

So they dont say that the X01DE is black, but they say, if you want to have a silver one, then it has the Code X02DE and the i5 4200 CPU.

And it has the i7 4700 CPU with 3.4GHz and not the slower 4702 with 3.2 GHz, so almost every german dealer has a wrong description, only notebookkontor.de has a correct feature list...


Piotre

 

Great news! If the X01DE version is really black, then i will pull the trigger!
Sadly the 750m only got the DDR3 Version, but if everything else fits i don´t care that much about this.
I mean seriously. In a game this will be around ~5fps difference.......uuuhhhhh then i will set my graphics a little bit lower and its ok. I mean u cant expect the 750m to be a high end graphic card anyway
My last concern is about the display and i really hope samsung is using a new display in its refresh. Pls god no image rentention/ghosting.
Im not very picky and i dont care much about "backlight bleeding" etc...
I will try to get a Unit soon!
Thanks for your effort piotre!

EDIT: I was just thinking about the Graphics RAM. I´ve never seen any 2GB DDR3 Version of 750m/650m graphics etc.
I have yet only seen 2GB DDR5 OR 4GB DDR3 Versions.
I really think that if they have 2GB RAM that it must be the DDR5 Version. Have u ever seen a 2GB DDR3?


greetings
BlackJack

 

Hi BlackJack,

unfortunately there are some models with a GT750 graphics card with 2GB DDR3 memory, e. g. Asus N550JV.

 

An official partner shop of Samsung offers now the X01 with some more details about the display. Furthermore, they say it is black.
Link: samsung4campus - Bertram Daten- und Netzwerkmanagement GmbH - Ein Angebot von www.samsung4campus.de - SAMSUNG 870Z5G X01 ATIV /4700HQ/15.6"HDWUXGA/N2G/8D3/1TB/--/W8 -

 

Hm, I cannot find any new information about the screen there? Only that it is a fullHD-Screen which is nothing new.

The specifications listed on the samsung4campus site are the same as on the Samsung Website (CH).

Sadly the GT750 has only DDR3 memory... I'm still hoping that there will be a different model for Germany with GDDR5, but still nothing new at the official samsung website.

 

Thanks...

The shop is my local dealer...and the price is only for students. But I am a student
In addition you get 4 years original samsung warranty for only 39 € extra. Thats really cool!

notebookkontor.de
notebookcampus.de
samsung4campus.de

All of them are the same shop. But notebookcampus and samsung4campus are the shops for students.


And they have an official service station, so they can change the HDD to a SSD...

But it seems that they dont have a 870z5g in the shop available, so i have to wait till they have one in the showroom...

Piotre

 

Hello everybody,

Now I can confirm that there is probably no GDDR5-version of the new Ativ 8. Today I received a NP870Z5G-X01DE which should have the following specifications according to the shop:
i7 4702mq; GT750 with 2GB GDDR5, WLAN AB/G/N, silver

I received:
I7 4700mq; GT750 with 2GB GDDR3, WLAN AB/G/N/AC, black (I was positively surprised by the AC7260 WLAN-chip)

I’ve also made a quick test with 3D-Mark 2011 and I don’t think it’s a really good notebook for occasional gaming contrary to its predecessor. Result: 2350 points which is a much lower result than I expected (Asus N550JV: 2735 points; Ativ Book 8 880Z5E-X01 3252 points; source: notebookcheck.net).

So overall I think the Swiss Samsung-website says the truth about the new Ativ 8 model. :-(

 

Could you check what display they used is this model?

 

So then, the information I got from Samsung Germany were right and the most shops have wrong descriptions...

@StringTheory: 4702, silver and GDDR5 sounds like "notebooksbilliger.de" shop, right?

yeah, that would be cool.

@StringTheory: For example you can use this tool to read out the display panel: EnTech Taiwan | Utilities | Monitor Asset Manager
you just have to download and install it, when it starts you directly see all informations. It would be very nice if you post a screenshot of this informations



And please tell us about everything from the 870Z5G


Edit:
It would be also nice if you can look if the Main Memory is splitted into 2x 4GB modules or 1x8GB.

 

Yes you're right about that.

According to the tool the screen model is: SDC234C / 156HL01-801. I don't think this is the same screen as in the 870Z5E model or is it?

What I found a litte bit annoying was the quite inhomogeneous backlight. I don't know if this is "normal" but my old 17-inch Dell with a LG 120Hz-display doesn't have that.

I could not check this directly because I didn't want to open the laptop, but the description on the box is: "8GB (DDR3L 1600MHz/On BD 8G)
So I think the memory slot should be free.

 

Thanks for your answer!

uffff....

I cannot find anything on google with that code... i can only find something when i search for 156HL01, then i find that:
Display 15.6 FHD IPS LED matte SAMSUNG 156HL01-101;
http://vozforums.com/showthread.php?t=3568891

Is here any Display Panel expert which can help ?


@ StringTheory
perhaps you can copy the hole information from the tool? You can just mark the informations like text and copy+paste

ok

 

Regarding the RAM, then 8GB on board would be single channel, which CPU-z or HWiNFO should be able to confirm.

Also, on board RAM usually doesn't have any SPD data (this is the timings data that is coded into normal RAM modules).

You can check these aspects without having to look inside.

John

 

Hello again,

I made a some pictures earlier today...

There is a screenshot of the system configuration:


And there is the label on the box:


Here you can see what Information the monitor-tool gave me:


And finaly a picture of the screen taken in complete darkness. It's not as bad in reality as it looks here but you can see what I mean... the backlight is not really uniform (the white dot in the middle is not a dead pixel, it's a little picture - I used Irfanview, because it was the easiest was of getting a absolutely black screen without the need of further tools.)

________________________________________

edit: I made some further tests regarding the backlight-issue - I believe that the increased brightness in the upper corners is related to the viewing angle. If you go further away and use the telezoom of the camera they are nearly gone at the picture. Anyway, the backlight bleed on the lower edge is still there.
________________________________________

@John: sorry, I'm a little busy today. Maybe I'll check it tomorrow.

 

Thank you for the pictures!!!

 

That is quite a lot of backlight bleed.
I hope the models they start making for North America have better quality control measures.
Also, I am very much hoping the new models do NOT have the same IMAGE RETENTION issues of the previous ATIV-8 models.
I returned mine as that was a big deal-breaker for me.

 

The screen is SDC324C. If you google for that, it seems that it is the same panel that Asus uses in the N550, but I'm not sure as the sites are chinese. I'm in the road using my phone, so researching is a bit uncomfortable. If I am right, this is a great panel with good contrast and without Image retention.

Gesendet von meinem Nexus 4 mit Tapatalk

 

Oh, sorry, I falsely wrote SDC234C in my previous post... SDC324C is right, yes.

 

happens...

Well, actually, I found out that the SDC324C (which is a Samsung panel) replaced the old LG/Philips panel of the N550 a couple of months ago (at least in china). I have not found any technical information about it yet... Some chinese guys mention that Asus says it is a superior panel (if I got google translation right) - but hey, that's marketing, you know...

 

@ John:

this is the information from CPU-z:


It is single channel RAM. So I think the memory slot should be free.

 

Does somebody know, why the GT750m is probably performing so sluggish?
Could it be a driver issue? I tired to use the current Nvidia drivers (beta and WHQL) but they didn't work - "no compatible hardware detected"...

Here are the 3D Mark 2011 results (2334 points): 3D Mark 2011 - Ativ 8 NP870Z5G

I expected a lot more (round about 2650-2700 points)... is it possible that it is because of its relatively low turbo frequency? GPU-z listet a maximum of 1006MHz (base-frequency: 967MHz) which was hold throughout the whole benchmarking process - so there is no real throttling. Competitors like the Asus N550JV (also with GDDR3) have the ability to overclock the same card to 1163MHz as I found out (3D Mark 2011: 2678 points - source, same CPU as Ativ 8)...

Actually even the GT745m which you can find in some Toshiba notebooks has a higher turbo frequency and a higher 3D-Mark result (1045MHz, 2407 points, source)

Could a driver update change the maximum turbo frequency of the GT750m?
_____________________________________________________________

I recently had a private conversation with Piotre22 and he proposed that it might be the power supply - it was really really hot during the benchmarks and all other laptos I mentioned above have at least a 120W instead of a 90W supply.

Maybe thats the reason for the relatively slow turbo frequency.

 

Thank you.

Can you also look at the SPD page and see what is shown for each slot. I would expect the RAM to be in slot 1 but there probably isn't any part number or timing data and the other slots will be empty or nothing. [The reason for 4 slots being listed is because desktop computers can have 4 RAM slots.]

Pulling some RAM in the empty slot should give some performance improvement to both the CPU (particularly if quad core) and the Intel graphics (when running). 4GB is enough to get pseudo dual channel and most of the performance improvement. According to the User Manual there is a RAM slot cover on the base.

John

 

Hi John,

The SPD page is completely empty (all four slots). So there's no futher information...

StringTheory

 

That's confirmation that the only RAM supplied with the notebook is soldered.

Thank you.

John

 

/So does this mean that there is or isn't likely to be a free slot to add an additional 8GB of RAM?

 

There will be an empty RAM slot under the cover on the bottom of the computer and pages 99-101 of the User Manual show how to upgrade the RAM.

Having 8GB on board gives purchasers the option of upgrading to 16GB. However, I would caution that it would be unwise to assume that all the Z5Gs will have 8GB on board. Some countries my decide to save a few dollars and order 4GB from the factory.

John

 

Lets say the North American version does come only with 4GB of memory. Would adding an identical 4GB stick show better performance than adding a non-symmetrical 8GB stick for a total of 12GB? I'd like to throw as much mem into the system as I can but not at the cost of performance.

 

If you never need more than 8GB total then full dual channel RAM will run slightly faster than asymmetric dual channel RAM. However, the speed difference is only likely to affect the Intel graphics, which is not an issue on a notebook with a dedicated GPU.

I did some research into this aspect a couple of years ago and the results are in this thread. While the Sandy Bridge platform is now two generations out of date, I don't think there have been any significant changes in the Intel memory management so I believe those results are still applicable.

John

 

If you combine a 8gb and a 4gb module, you would be able to use 2x4gb in dual channel mode. If you use more than these 2x4gb, the remaining memory would operate in single channel. Not sure how this technique is called, I googled it a couple of months ago and I do not remember the details...

 

I was searching for more information about the new 870z5g and i found an italian online forum

They saw the bad pictures from the new display panel at this thread here and made some pictures with their 870z5g: [Thread Ufficiale] Nuovo Samsung Serie 7 Chronos / ATIV Book 8 (770Z5E/870Z5E - 15") - Pagina 98 - Hardware Upgrade Forum

The Thread is named with the old 2013 Ativ8 but the are talking about the new 870z5g....and they are talking about a new Bios Version, also with pictures.
I hope that it is still possible to install Win7...

You can use google translator for the italian forum: Google translator

Piotre

 

-> Piotre22: Do you've any suggestions why notebook4campus.de doesn't offer RAM upgrades for the NP870Z5G ?

 

In your opinion which screen is better? the one in 870Z5E or 870Z5G?

 

@golden toaster: no..sorry. But I would call them...

@XXVII2014:
Good question...we need a direct comparison...
I just called notebookkontor, but they wont put a 870z5g to their showroom at the moment, because the new 870z5g is rare...

 

There is a rumour that Samsung is closing it's PC division by 2015.

 

Specifically their Windows notebooks in favor of Chromebooks.

 

This is one source of that rumour.

I have to wonder whether the announcement was also aimed at Microsoft and Intel who have been trying to force glossy touchscreen notebooks on consumers who don't necessarily want them. Nonetheless, I think the notebook market has passed its peak.

It was only two years ago that Samsung provided matte displays across the whole notebook range in response to complaints about glare problems affecting usability. I find it interesting that Samsung have released the NP870Z5G (matte display) and not the NP880Z5G (glossy touchscreen). This might be an attempt to differentiate themselves from competing products.

John

 

Today I had the opportunity to compare the NP870Z5G to an NP870Z5E.

Viewing angles are similar, both had some backlight bleeding on the edges of the screen. Colors and maximum brightness are quite similar too, perhaps the older model has slightly warmer colors at default settings.
BUT there is a huge difference: the old model has a very agressive anti-glare-coating on its AUO9003-screen which results in a very grainy texture covering the whole picture (visible on uniform areas e. g. white backgrounds). The G-Model doesn't have that - it's antiglare too, but not as "agressive" as the E-Model. You can still see a little bit of reflection on the newer notebook if you look from the side which is not the case with the older model.

The BIOS is completely different regarding the user interface, as was already said in the italian thread linked above. But after a short comparison I think most settings are nearly the same (but I didn't make a detailed comparison).

Here's a real world picture of the new model - I think nothing changed compared to the older black Ativ 8 models...

 

@StringTheory: Very nice, thank you for sharing that information. Interesting about the difference in the anti-reflective coating. Several members had mentioned about graininess on the original 2013 S7/AB8.

 

@Dannemand: no problem at all, I was searching some information about this new model myself and haven't found much. So I decided to share anything I could find out...

What's interesing too is that the G-model is obviously slightly lighter than the E-model - the G has 2,294kg, the E 2,383kg according to my kitchen scales...
Both have i7-CPUs and 1TB HDDs.

 

Any word on a US version yet?

 

@golden_toaster
Seems like samsung/notebookcampus now offer RAM upgrades (up to 16gb).

@StringTheory
How does the 870z5g compare in general to the 870z5e (with the new intel core and nvidea graphic card, for ex. in gaming or so)? And do you think its worth the extra money (the diffference is 140€ on samsung/notebookcampus now...)?

 

Hi, the difference is 40 € again...

I think it depends on your expectations if the 870z5g is better or worse than the 870z5e.
The new Nvidia graphics card is definitely a lot slower than the 8870m in the older model (3D-Mark 11 Score ~2330 vs. ~3250). I think the reason for that is - apart from the slower gDDR3-Memory - the relatively low turbo boost frequency of the graphics card (1006MHz - others boost up to 1163MHz). You also cannot install Nvidia drivers, only those provided by Samsung (at least at the moment). So if you're a intensive gamer that might be important. But a huge advantage of the 870z5g - in my opinion - is the better display (absolutely no graininess).
And if you're planning to run Win8.1 it might be a lot easier with the 870z5g due to some driver issues with the 8870m in the older model...

 

@StringTheory
Didn't notice the price difference now though, well, with 40€ I guess I might go with the 870z5g since I am not "that" much of an avid gamer... but I guess I wait and see a bit. thanks for the infos

 

I enquired about this laptop at a popular store in Australia, this is the response I got.

Unfortunately we've received news that Samsung will not be focusing on notebooks any longer thus we have no ETA for this product at all.


Kinda annoyed as the Ivy Bridge is pretty much unavailable at any reuptable stores, looks like I'll be getting the Asus N550

 

Hello again,

I just wanted to tell you my recent experiences with the NP870Z5G.

A week ago I changed my Laptop - returned the first one to the seller, got a new one in exchange. The reason was that the first one had a strange failure with the HDD which powered down every few seconds just to power up again within seconds even if settings in Windows didn’t allow any power saving.

The new one I received has a proper working HDD and also some other advantages compared to the first one. What I found out early was that the edge of wrist rest has a much better finish now (a lot less sharp than on the previous unit). In addition to that the display now has a much better backlight concerning the homogeneity – backlight bleeding is almost not existent anymore. The only slightly unpleasant thing with this new unit is that the screen is not precisely fitted to the bezel – it’s a little bit crooked – but it’s really very minimal so it doesn’t annoy me.

I also opened the bottom of the laptop and can confirm now that there is definitely a free RAM-slot – the existing 8GB are all onboard.

What I found interesting is that the “wifi card” seems to be soldered on the mainboard now - as far as I can tell. I saw pictures of the NP870Z5E and there it was removable.

Here a picture of the screen in the new unit (looks a little bit dark, but I would say this is how you would see it with our own eyes):

 

Thanks for the update.

The latest Book 9, the NP900X3G, also has soldered WiFi.

John

 

Hard to read this. Waited for about a month before buying the Ativ 8 (old version) in USA, because hoping for a refresh. Bought it th 27 dec.

Its super smooth and all exept i have quite a heavy display Burn. i Know this is "normal" but i hate stuff like that.

Do you guys think i can get it refunded? Because of the bleed? and will i be able to use the international warrenty if so? (live in Norway)


Chers.

 

Read through the thread for the previous Book 8 (I would work back from the end).

I'm sure some people have got their display replaced under warranty due to the screen burn. The international warranty cover should work although the repair is likely to get longer if the model you have was not sold in Norway and the service people have to specially order the part.

John

 

Hello-
I've been following the Ativ 8 for some time now - and am growing less and less fond of the prospects of a new US version
Had really hoped they would refresh with a new NVIDIA 800m series GPU, but they are not (?)

The major things I considered the Samsung Ativ 8 for were, as far as I know (which is not a whole lot), it's the only Mac Book Pro-Like PC
(Battery Life, Dimensions/Thin&Light, Discrete GPU, ect)

*I'll make a new which laptop thread as well, but wanted to hear specifically from other users that were/are considering or shopped for
Samsung Ativ Book 8, whom are likely also familiar with similar configured competing mfr/models...

---> Could you guys/gals recommend some alternative/similarly equipped and sized mfr/models to this Samsung Ativ 8
--> As well as some, perhaps, options that have higher performance components ie: GPU * BUT still retain the major selling points of the Ativ 8:
BATTERY LIFE, Size & Weight, lower price point than Mac Book Pro with GPU (now $2600!!!)

MAJOR FEATURES/SPECS Alternative MUST RETAIN:
- Less Than $2000 (Prefer to stay at/below $1700, especially if user upgradeable RAM, Hard Drive - don't want to pay inflated OEM $ for 16GB RAM!
- *Battery Life Must be equal/better than Ativ 8 (>5 hrs) * Can achieve battery life with switching to integrated Intel Graphics when GPU not needed
- <1" Thick, < 6 lbs
- Discrete GPU
- Upgradeable to at LEAST 16 BG RAM
- 15"
- WiFi AC Integrated NIC

ADDITIONAL/PREFERRED FEATURES & COMPONENTS (not REQUIRED, but certainly Preferred!)
:
- - Intel Core i7 Quad Core Haswell
- - Intel Integrated HD Graphics 5200 (at least Intel HD 4600) - for battery saving mode performance (?)
- - NVIDIA Geforce 800m Series GPU (prefer 860/870m) or similar AMD (?)
- - RAM - User Upgradeable to 16GB+ (Available Non Soldiered RAM Slots)
- - User Upgradeable Hard Drive (1-2TB 7200 rpm?)


I know a Sager would fit best, but the 2 hours battery life is a deal breaker!
Would prefer a larger reputable laptop mfr (not knocking Sager/Clevo, just don't see how they could have optimized software, drivers, ect like a much larger mfr - maybe naive?)

Thanks for any/all feedback..

*** Also, is there any truth to the rumor/reports that Samsung is dropping laptops in/around 2015?
That would potentially be real bad for continuity of driver and various support, ect making the Ativ 8 even less attractive...