What's the real deal with the Series 7?

I wanted to get an hp envy 15 but just found out that service is next to non existent for that model in my country. I just have some stuff to clarify with you owners I have read all of the forums and am still not sure about the answers.

Anyone who can give a one line answer that pretty much sums up the experience would be highly appreciated

1. Is the trackpad that bad even after all the new drivers and tweaks?
2. Does the wifi problem really exist?
3. Is the spacebar a real pain in the for all models?
4. Is the switching graphics still bad even after the newest updates and drivers?

Thanks guys!

 

1. Trackpad is not really bad when you get used to it. However, Elan need to do something with the driver to get it working nicely.
2. Because of the aluminium and thickness of this laptop, the reception is not really good. However, with the newest model, Samsung use Intel wifi not Broadcom and Intel driver is most stable than Broadcom, so it is not really bad at all.
3. Yes it is. The way it was designed made it really bad. There is a trick, but if you don't want to do that, talk to Samsung CS so see if they can fix it at service center. I wonder if they are using something like the paper and put it below the key.
4. AMD switching still really bad. However, with the newest, it's improving. You can manually config with program will use the iGPU and which one won't use it. Hopefully Samsung will listen to us and implement BIOS switch.

To summary my point, it is improving from time to time, so give it a shot. The laptop is very nice, not really heavy. All the things that you asked are not impossible to fix, but it would take time to get everything done. More likely, would OEM manage to fix that or they just ignore us and tell us to buy newest model which they might implement those fixes inside or just using the old trick.

 

1. No, it's very good. Atleast for me.
2. It does for some it seems, but for me it is no problems at all. It is related to your router/gateway thou.
3. I don't have any issues with the spacebar, and I use this laptop to program on, so I should notice if there was. But same here, some have had problems, but there is a "sollution" about inserting a piece of paper or plastic. I have not done this thou.
4. Graphics works fine for me in all applications after the 8.940 driver that is avail in the other threads.

Overall I am very happy with mine and use it alot and there is no other notebook avail atm that I would want to have instead of this.

 

1. My main issue with the trackpad is that it is sensitive to taps but not sensitive to the same degree for drags/swipes.
2. The problems exists but is dependent upon distance to router.
3. I notice that space is not fired about once or twice a day (during coding and debugging) when my thumb is too close to the right end of the bar.
4. Switching wasn't an issue for me even before the fixes.

That said, there isn't any other laptop that I would prefer to have.

 

Thanky you for the heads up, much appreciated

Looks like I'm going to sit this one out and wait for ivy bridge and windows 8 to rollout before pulling the trigger. Envy has too many quality issues out of the box and the S7 on the other hand has too many "inconsistencies".

Are all the new ones being sold equipped with the intel wifi cards? How am I supposed to know?

 

My experience is basically the same as this. I did have to turn off tap-drag in the touchpad settings because it kept selecting things randomly when moving the cursor around the screen. It has been a nice experience since then. Mine came with the Intel WiFi and it has been stable since updating the driver.

 

Do all the new ones ship with the intel wifi card? If ever I will be ordering from amazon and it does not mention anything about that.

 

New models do come with Intel. If you not sure, just check the model number and then go to the support page. If the driver they list fist is Intel, it should be Intel, if not, then it either Broadcom or Intel. But since you can change it later, so you don't have to worry. The Samsung product pages state that all the new models come with Intel.

 

For S03US models, do they all come with Broadcom? Or is there a chance that some came with Intel? Got mine early this month from J&R but have yet to receive it from my friend in the US (I'm based abroad and just had her receive it).

 

Tried and I don't think it's possible to know. Samsung's official page lists it as having intel but no indication whatsoever regarding model number.

Amazon.com: Samsung Series 7 NP700Z5A-S0AUS 15.6-Inch Laptop (Silver): Computers & Accessories

I am so undecided if I am going to purchase or not. I use my laptop mainly for work (documents mostly, no video editing or photoshop), multimedia and games. I'm on an old macbook right now and really really wanna switch to a new pc soon. Should I just hold out and wait for a better laptop to come out? It seems that every other Macbook alternative has issues lol

 

Yeah, turning off tap-drag is a must, but click-drag works even better, so I don't really see this as an issue.

 

This whole wifi thing is baffling, some users are complaining about a slowdown in dl speeds. Can any of you guys confirm if the NP700Z5A-S0AUS is the one with intel wifi card?

There are currently three versions in Amazon and the only difference I can see is the keyboard layout. No mention whatsoever with wifi cards

S0AUS - No number pad, amazon states that this is the newer version of the S03US, core i7

S03US - With number pad, core i7

S09US - 15.6 inch core i5

 

I got the broadcom chip for Wifi, and still have no issues. But as I said, it's related to your wifi gateway/router aswell.

And if it's a really big deal, you can buy Asus WiFI dongle for almost no money and it's extremely small. I've read about others here that have.

ASUS - Networks- ASUS USB-N10

Personally I don't see the need for it, but the option is there.

Also, it's very easy to change the wifi chip if you want in the S7.

 

i also want to know if you guys are satisfied with the screen. i know its inferior to the hp radiance display and macbook displays but is it good enough to be a better than average boarderline premium screen?

 

Positives:
Matte, so can be used outdoors, or sitting with a window behind you in broad daylight. No way I could do that on my previous glossy HP screen.
It's certainly bright enough.
Negatives:
Black levels aren't great
Vertical viewing angles are poor.
Colours could be more vibrant.

Overall: I'm satisfied, but I wasn't expecting the best so that's a pretty subjective judgement. I suggest you check out a display model somewhere if possible.

 

have you guys ever tried displaying two screens with this ? i plan on keeping my desktop on an external and a browser on my laptop

 

I was going to buy new at full price past week but I went over to B&H in NYC to really LOOK AT IT. it's just NOT great. it's decent. so i'm going to get the ~$750 refurb...

edge: the unit i saw was fine. and my hands came no where near the edge
screen: it's "ok", NOT great, NOT good but good enough...
express card: did some research and it's basically the "hybrid" part of a hybrid HHD, take normal HHD add 8GB of SSD. cool idea, but hybrid 750gb HHD is about $180 now on newegg

price is right
execution not perfect
and hopefully used parts on ebay soon

I'm still going to get one...

 

It depends on how you work. Disabling tap-drag is no go for me because typing during click-drag stops the drag due to touchpad rejection. The only way to alt+tab between windows while doing a drag is to use tap-drag.

 

I've had it connected to one of my TVs via HDMI on a 1080p resolution, and worked just fine. I did have the "main screen" on the laptop, and the secondary content (video) on the TV, but it shouldn't matter much, depending on what you want to do and depending on how the switching gpu really works with the different ports...

 

THe only really horrible thing with this laptop is the fact that we are depending on samsung to update the firmware every time amd does it. And this will not happen.

The rule of thumbs for people that actually need more than the intel gpu should be never buy amd or you will regret it.

 

1) It's drivers, not firmware.
2) We don't have go rely on Samsung for this, there are 3rd party drivers, but Samsung ones are prefered usually.

But yeah, the general idea is corrent, as long as you need specific drivers that is a combination of Intel and something else, you are relying on someone else to provide them for you. Someone who doesn't usually provide drivers. So it is always a bit uncertain how long the drivers will be updated.

Take my Asus UL30VT, which was an awesome laptop for its time, using both intel and a Nvidia 210m. Guess how many times Asus updated those graphics drivers. ZERO times. What they were delivered with was the only drivers they were ever gonna provide.

Atleast Samsung have proven themselves to be alot better here. Atleast they do update their drivers.

 

Most laptops manufactures won't release an update if they feel it does not needed. Also, after a while, they would stop providing us new drivers through their support pages. Either we have to use different models or we have to loop them up. Also, some laptops have some compatibility issues which mean that you cannot just install driver from the OEMs page and it would run perfectly. Like in this case, AMD switchable driver, which you could not just download from AMD site and install because it said it does not compatible with the system.

IMO, I actually considered buying a laptop that has Nvidia Graphic. Before my Series 7, I had 2 HPs, the first one used AMD chipset and it was so freaking hot. The next one used Intel but had Nvidia card and the build quality was great by the time it was released. However, I chose the Samsung not because it has AMD graphic as I always favor Nvidia, but I chose it because it is lightweight and so powerful, and more important, this one is primarily for school work and a little bit gaming because I had my desktop which more suitable for playing game.