I received this laptop as a gift from the Microsoft Intern Signature 2012 event. It was a close call since I was about to buy a new ultrabook and wasn't really even considering this one. I had been really hyped up on the new Asus Zenbook UX32VD, which is i7 and discrete graphics with a price tag a slight cheaper than this one.But when I saw the design and form factor of this Samsung, I guess my initial impression was to give it a shot before maybe trying to sell it in for the Asus.
PROS:
* Display is extremely bright and vivid, even better than the Asus LED back-lit monitor that I have. I seriously just use it at half brightness because it is THAT bright.
* FAST BOOT. I boot from cold at around 5 SECONDS. And less than 1 SECOND from sleep. THAT BLEW MY MIND. This is under the new Windows 8 though, which is supposed to be much faster than Windows 7.
* EXTREMELY THIN, it is the thinnest and coolest looking laptop arguably out there. It is made of PURE aluminum and it is freezing cold to the touch :D.
The brush aluminum is very nice, and it truly feels like it was carved out from a solid block of metal.
* Gaming is OK. I could play SCII on native resolution, with all texture set on low. This laptop is not made for gaming, so if you are planning to do so, expect the fan to run very loudly, and the heating to increase significantly.
* During regular use, it stays very cool and SILENT LIKE A NINJA.
* Battery life is powerful, I can easily get 6+ hours for regular activities (web, reading, word). This is considering that the brightness is so high.
* Versatile power saving controls (even has light sensitive controlled back-light). You can also control whether the fan turns on or not.
* Touchpad is HUGE, and very macbook pro like if you get latest driver with the great gestures. For a windows touch pad, I'd rate it 8-9 out of 10.
CONS:
* 128 gb SSD, is way to little for a $1400 laptop
* I was disappointed with just having an i5 for this price... for the same I could have gone with the Asus zenbook UV 32 VD.
* Fan DOES kick in during gaming :(
* The resolution of 1600 x 900 is only 2nd best to the Asus Zenbook's 1900 x 1080 resolution.
* Number of USB id only two, with only one was USB 3.0.
Conclusion?
This is a unique laptop that does offer some great perks if you pay the price. It doesn't blow the competitors in EVERY factor, but it certainly does in looks, battery life, display brightness/vividness, boot time, and portability.
If you are looking for a business/executive level sexy laptop that'll get the ladies. This one is it. Though if you are going to use it for a lot of work, plan to buy a USB 3.0 external drive bro. The price per performance isn't very good since you have to pay the premium design price, but I believe you do get more bang out of buck for this over the current mac Air.
Other laptops I'd recommend if you are looking into this category would be the Asus Zenbook UX32VD or UX31A (better resolution and processor for same price). The new Visio's also looks promising as well. Also remember that there IS a i7 version of this Samsung Series 9!
(...)
However after looking at the specs and talking to a few IT buddies they convinced me that this Ultrabook would be just as good only way more portable. And they were right. The 15 inch screen is certainly big enough for my purposes and after testing it with my favorite processing power hungry programs (Camtasia and Dragon Naturally Speaking) it didn't miss a beat.
So now I have a sleek, awesome looking Ultrabook that does everything I need and handles my programs with ease. I thought it was going to be a pain in the butt to keep storing things on external hard drives but have found the process of saving working files to and from my 1TB external drive via USB 3.0 to be much better than I expected. My old desktop didn't have USB3.0 so I was used to much slower file transfer times (I love upgrading to newer technology and being pleasantly surprised).
All in all the Samsung series 9 looks amazing, like all Ultrabooks is light and portable, and from the point of view of a user who doesn't do anything too crazy on it besides surfing the web, watching the odd movie, writing articles for my site (using voice recognition software mostly), and editing a few HD videos for YouTube channel, I have found it to be an excellent purchase.
Buy Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A02US 15-Inch Ultrabook (Ash Black) Now
Bought the latest version of the Series 9 Samsung series 9 15" i7 processor model from Australia (AU). I was planning on buying a MacBook Air but when I went to the shop I found this Samsung laptop that had just landed in AU. Looked great and the shop keeper raved on about it, so I decided to buy it. What was not to like, 15" screen, 8Gb of RAM, i7 Processor.. seemed too good to be true and yes it was.I found the laptop very fast locally when doing things, but as soon as you start using the WiFi it becomes extremely slow. I am a network guy by profession and have built some very large WiFi and LAN/WAN networks for some very large corporates, therefore I know what I am talking about. I tweaked all the settings on the laptop, tried to find the latest driver for the Intel Centrino but here was none. Tweaked my Apple Airport Extreme settings and still no luck, I then also took the laptop to work and also tried with another WiFi router but still no luck. The issue was that I always got a very good signal, but the traffic throughput was extremely slow. I even compared the throughput with a very old HP Laptop running only 802.11b and it was still a lot faster then the Samsung.
Googled the issue after mucking around for two weeks on this and then found that others were having the same issue too and the only way to resolve it is by connecting up an external WiFi dongle. This is not what I wanted, therefore called Samsung for a refund but they just wanted to fix the laptop, extremely frustrated I sold the laptop on e-bay and recovered my outlay. I have now bough another brand laptop and am extremely happy.
BTW. I called up the shop from where I bought the Laptop and they said that they have had several other complaints about the same issue.. apparently it has to do with the casing. The shop however would not give me a refund as I was out of the two week cool off period.
I am extremely disappointed with this laptop and would definitely not recommend this to anyone. Only good if you are not planning on using the WiFi.
Read Best Reviews of Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A02US 15-Inch Ultrabook (Ash Black) Here
Overall this is such a great product with very few let downs. I'll try and keep descriptions shortPros:
I love the brightness of the screen, and the fact that it is matte means I can use it in bright lighting conditions without the glare.
I don't understand this talk about poor travel... the travel on this keyboard is more than adequate for me
It is very thin. Some people have even confused it for a folder when I take it with me.
Another thing I really like about this is the amazing battery life. I can go through a whole day without having to recharge
The subtle keyboard back light is a very subtle touch that I really like as its not a distraction at night like other back lights can be.
The track pad is quite good (best I've ever seen on a windows laptop) and easy to use apart from a few things.
I love the chassis, its so sleek and sexy + it is so light and easy to carry around ( I think I sorta mentioned that previously)
Ok Stuff:
The sound isn't spectacular but its still very adequate for listening to music and its surprisingly a lot louder than I thought it would be. Sometimes if you turn it up really loud it does sound tinny but this doesn't happen a lot unless you are listening to the high-mids.
The track pad two finger scrolling isn't like apples. Not a hardcore apple fan but we use them at school and its always confusing when you have to switch two-finger scrolling techniques.
The screen is really nice but you'll noticed its a little washed out on some angles. By no means should that be a deterrent because its still really nice when looking at directly like normal people do. The detail is quite crisp too.
Cons:
Oh track pad, why must you not two-finger scroll very fluidly? It can be an annoyance when you are two-finger scrolling and take your fingers off the track pad. You expect it to scroll down a lot and lose momentum which it does but it lags a little potentially and driver issue that could be resolved in the future
If you tap the right side of the track pad it doesn't register clicks and that is slightly annoying.
Conclusion: I may have rambled a bit about minute problems but I really do love this 'ultrabook' with a passion. It is amazingly thin and easy to carry around + it has an amazing and bright matte screen that I know you will love. Those concerns people have about washed out colour of the screen are nothing to worry about. This is an awesome device I recommend you get it. GO SAMSUNG!
Want Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A02US 15-Inch Ultrabook (Ash Black) Discount?
Happy with the laptop, with the exception of so many programs preinstalled on it that the 128mb hard drive is actually under 50gb upon arrival. VERY disappointed that reformatting it does not solve this issue. Not many programs come off easily.
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