Which Ativ Book?

Hi guys, I'm going to university and I need a laptop.

I'm going to be studying engineering and thus doing a bit of programming and probably a lot of mathlab/cad

Otherwise, I want a light, 13-15" laptop that has a long battery life and fullfills my needs

I've kinda fallen in love with the Samsung Ativbook 9, not only does it look great, it also is very lightweight, has a long battery life etc.

Which Ativ Book is best for me?
The new 2014 version with the 15"? Or the older 13" version?
I7-4500 or I5-4200?

Which one should I get? :/

 

You will need much more than 8 GB of memory and a dedicated GPU if you are doing any sort of CAD work. Since you are still a student, I don't think that you will need a professional graphics card (Quadro, Firepro). If you are set on a Samsung ATIV notebook, look for one that has an AMD Radeon GPU. People here say that they will work better than the NVidia GeForce cards. Alsoook for capability to upgrade to 16 GB of RAM.

The ATIV Book 9 Lite has the dedicated GPU but only 4 GB of RAM which will limit you on the amount of programs that you can have running. I have a 4 year old Samsung laptop with 4 GB of RAM and SolidWorks would crash due to lack of memory.

If the ATIV Book 8 was still for sale, I would probably pick one up in a heartbeat.

 

Won't 8GB be enough for now? Still an undergraduate after all...
I kinda want the Ativ Book 9 it looks really pretty
So my question is, which version of the AB9?
The 2013 or the 2014?
The I7-4500 or I5-4200?

 

You won't notice the difference in the performance between the i7-4500 or i5-4200 in everyday usage. See the notebookcheck mobile CPU benchmark list. If you want a lot more processing power then look at the NP870Z5G which has a quad core CPU. However, in addition the the extra weight of the computer the bigger PSU adds to the travel weight and you need to change the HDD to an SSD in order to get the overall smoothness of the Book 9.

I agree that you can do a lot with 8GB RAM. If you have an SSD then using virtual memory and / or closing other programs will also happen much faster. Needing to have a dedicated GPU for CAD is also a fallacy. It will help with the processing of 3D models (but makes no difference for 2D graphics), but is not essential. The notebookcheck mobile GPU benchmark list shows that the Intel Haswell graphics is among what were mid-range dedicated GPUs of a few years ago.

Your options, in order of size and weight, are (i) NP900X3G, (ii) NP940X3G, (iii) NP930X5J and (i) NP870Z5G. Look through the reviews on notebookcheck.

Battery run time is very sensitive to usage.

John

 

So I5-4200 should be enough for my intended use?
If so, should I get the 2014 or 2013 version? 15" vs 13"?

EDIT:
I'm also confused, why does this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-A...77853102?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item51bddee7ae

cost so much less than this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-A...67930162?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item5b018b4c32

Despite having the same Hardware?

 

To illustrate the difference in the CPU processing power, if the i7 can complete a task in 5 seconds then the i5 will take 6 seconds. Or, for more demanding processing then change the seconds to minutes - either way there's time to wander away and get your favourite drink.

One contribution to the difference in pricing is that the NP940X3G has been on sale for nearly a year during which time the price has steadily crept downwards while the NP940X5J has only been on sale for a few weeks. However, the NP940X3G that you have linked to is also "open box" with a 90 day warranty which further reduces the price. That said, someone here recently bought a notebook from blinq and reckoned they had a very good deal.

I would note that the non-touchscreen NP930X5J which has been on sale for a few months has pricing below the touchscreen equivalent. I would note that any model with a 128GB SSD won't leave you much space so you would need to allow for upgrading the SSD (M.2 2280) to 256GB.

Note also, if you are thinking of importing a US notebook into Europe, you will have to pay VAT on import (some sellers now process this at the time of sale, otherwise the shipping company will need to get the money from you) and also the US keyboard has some differences from the European layout (different sized shift and Enter keys being one example).

John

 

I'm not too concerned about the HDD size since I will have an external drive plugged in most of the time anways + cloud storage
I tried out the Touchscreen and I have to say, I don't want a laptop without touchscreen
I feel like it's going to be really useful during lectures and save me a lot of paper.

I was looking at ebay since it seems cheaper than amazon.co.uk and I really need a laptop with an UK/US keyboard layout

I also looked at the Asus Zenbook UX302... It looks really nice as well so I'm considering that too but I can't seem to find anyone selling one with an SSD and 8GB RAM? Even though Asus advertises SSD on their homepage

 

The open box item on Blinq is a very good deal and I have purchased 5 or more open box items from Blinq.com over the past few years (including my present NP940X3G (KO5: i7/8GB/256GB) and I can vouch entirely for Blinq's integrity and very liberal (30 day) return policy for 100% refund. Also, I registered my machine with Samsung and got a 15 month wtty (12 mos + 3 extra for registering) and have already put it to the test. If your open box model had been previously registered by the original buyer, you many not be able to get the wtty, as Samsung does not allow transfer of wttys - nuts, but Samsung does not care about industry practices, they just make great product!

I would recommend you buy the unit from Blinq provided it meets your needs. You will need to install a larger SSD, but not necessarily immediately, and there are increasingly more to choose from at $.50/GB or less, still making it a great deal. (Btw, I found only one problem with my unit: battery capacity was at 94.5%. When I contacted Blinq customer service (I recommend Bethany) they offered to take an additional $150 off the machine, so my final cost was $1,025 for the top configuration! If you find anything that "might" imply a possible future hardware issue, you can probably get them to take an additional $100 or more off, though no guarantees - they know me well. (PS: after doing the Samsung BIOS calibration routine and just running the machine through a few battery cycles (100% -> 20%->100%, etc) and the capacity went in steps from 94.5% to 95.9% to 97.3%! )

Anyway, if the model suits you - and the price is certainly great - go ahead and buy it, put it through its paces (probably best to return to factory config, load all Windows Updates than upgrade to W8.1 via the Windows Store; it takes about 2 hrs total, but you end up with a perfect specimen). Then go to register the unit over the phone and see if that works and they check (it will appear on the "My Account" page on the Samsung web site) that your warranty status is confirmed. Alternatively, even if you can't get the Samsung wtty, you could opt for a Square Trade (unfortunately, $300 for 2 yrs for this model, open box, I think - check) but that would include ADH which the Samsung wtty does not. In my experience, consumer mfr wttys are not worth a great deal anyway, especially just 1 yr when you have 30 days to try and return this one. (Most hardware problems tend to show up very early in the life of a computer.) Also note: once you open the back and upgrade the SSD you have technically voided the Samsung wtty anyway. These consumer companies are not especially consumer-friendly.

Feel free to PM me if you want more specifics, but if this is the machine you want (and do follow John Ratsey's advice on this - you can't get better or more knowledgeable advice!), and you're not in a huge hurry, go for the Blinq machine as there is no risk to trying it.

The 15" machine is, as John indicates, brand new and you will not find discounts anytime soon. Even discounts on the Ativ 9+ are hard to come by except from open box resellers like Blinq or eBay listings (from individuals - less advisable) and the new 15" model is, to my knowledge, in a class by itself as a 15" Ultrabook, much less a Samsung.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Boah heavy advertisement
What exactly does Open Box entail? Will it have all the accesories etc. in it?

And I'm still unsure about the 4500U vs the 4200U since I don't really know what I'll be needing *sigh*

 

"Boah heavy advertisement" ? I have no idea what this means! If you are facetiously suggesting I seem to be promoting Blinq you are absolutely right, but not because I have any interest - economic or otherwise - in the company, but because I'm a strong believer of turning members on to great finds in an Internet full of scams!

Open box means that the original retailer (largely Microsoft Store, but often Best Buy and others) in these recent crop being sold by Blinq) had a return policy that allowed buyers of new mdse to return the item if in brand new condition with no signs of use/abuse cosmetically or operationally. They also must come with all the original packing in pristine condition. The reason these retailers wholesale out the OB models is that by law they cannot resell them as new and while some will resell their returns for a discount at the store or website (BB often does so), most just don't want to create confusion among customers nor in any way cause customers to not buy new and wait for a returned unit to be put into the "open box closeout bin." The issue of obtaining a new product warranty - described ad nauseum in my previous post! - is the one thing that might make an Open Box significantly less valuable than a new, unopened one, but you heard my riff about wttys from consumer mfrs like Samsung so, caveat emptor.

As for the 4500U vs the 4200U I thoroughly agree with John R and advise you to consider them functional equivalents. The i7 is marginally more powerful but only in certain applications, and then only 15% or so faster and the i5 gets marginally better battery life - most of the time, not always - but we're talking less than 30 minutes per full charge. TBH, the best reason for choosing an i7 is for resale purposes! People perceive the i7 to be much more superior than it is and, particularly if the unit is already a year or more old when you sell it, prospective buyers will sometimes perceive it to be less "dated," as much as that is largely hogwash. Get the best deal you can from the best seller overall and let the choice of cpu, between i5-4200U and i7-4500U be way down on the list of things you care about. By all means, if you end up with two identical alternatives, one with the i7 and one with the i5, do not pay more than $100 more for the i7 and consider not even paying that much, though at that price I would, again, for resale purposes only.

I hope this helps you. Between this post and my previous one, I have exhausted absolutely everything I know about the subject.

 

Use during lectures is a strong reason for opting for the 13.3" notebook. It will need substantially less space than the 15.6". However, a tablet would be even better for that purpose.

Don't grumble about the positive words from a satisfied Blinq customer!

I wouldn't hesitate about buying "open box" if the price is right and have done so several times in the past. Most of the time everything is like new.

Don't worry about the CPU speed: There's not a lot of difference and both will appear slow for heavy processing if put next to a quad core CPU with a much higher power rating. You want portability and suitability for use during lectures and therefore have to compromise on performance. If you do start building and rendering big 3D CAD models then you'll soon find out the tweaks to reduce the processing time.

John

 

Great guys you really helped me out big time Thank you very much

The only problem that I got now is that I need to wait until August 14th to make the final decision/purchase... I hope those deals will be still around by then / the Ativ Book still available