i received this laptop a couple days earlier than estimated, and i have used it for 4 days now.pros:
the screen is BEAUTIFUL... i mean damn! it's beautiful. crisp. clean. clear. no dead pixels from what i can tell. this is my first 1920 x ? (1080p) resolution screen, and now i understand why some people have to have it. you will not regret the quality of this screen.
fast... i don't have any plans in the immediate future to install an SSD, but it's already a lot faster than my desktop, which ran an e8500 processor.
the build is excellent. super clean for my tastes.
battery lasts a long time. once fully charged, i ran it on battery while downloading / installing / playing music / running programs, and it lasted a good 4 hours.
runs relatively cool and quiet while i did all the above. the left side half of the laptop gets a little warm, but by no means does it feel uncomfortable to use. from my experience in using macbooks, macbooks get a lot warmer than this laptop during normal use.
i read that the sound is very good from this laptop. and now that i've heard it, it's better than i thought it would be. very clean and very loud. i would say that it's a fitting sound system for the screen... and i have to say one more time: this screen is BEAUTIFUL.
cons:
the BIGGEST WEAKNESS and possible DEAL BREAKER con: the wireless card is very weak. i read that the card itself is actually good and strong, but that something about the architecture of the laptop prevents the card from working to its full ability. you have to work relatively close to the router for it to work properly. i would be in a room where macbooks and ipads would get perfect reception, but this laptop would do crazy things and the wireless connection would continuously waver from excellent to weak signal. depending on your use and situation, this could be a HUGE problem for you, unless you want to buy an external usb antennae or something of the like.
the auto dimming screen is awesome and sucky. it's awesome cuz it automatically dims and brightens the screen for you according to the lighting in the room, but when watching a movie in a dark room, the light from the screen itself affects the auto dimming feature, and so the screen brightens and darkens repeatedly. it's kind of funny, but mostly annoying. i'm sure you can turn off the auto dimming feature, but i don't know how.
the keyboard as a whole looks nice especially with the back light. but the keyboard buttons themselves, when compared to a macbook, does not feel as SOLID. this comes down to personal preference, and i've come to like the feel of the buttons.
while comparing the interface to macbooks... i would say the touchpad is about 1.5 steps behind macbooks. it's not as responsive and "crisp" as macbook touchpads, but it's almost there. it's not hard to use, but it does not respond PERFECTLY like macs do.
other thoughts:
the heat of the laptop walks the line between between VERY WARM and ALMOST uncomfortably hot when running graphics intensive programs. it is what it is. if you want a laptop THIS THIN and SEXY to run graphics intensive programs at a super low temperature, you're asking for technology that does not exist yet. you just have to ask yourself what you want MORE. as i was looking for a laptop, i was torn between this and the ASUS g75vw. both laptops' specs are quite comparable, but what the ASUS gave up in thinness and portability, it made up in being able to run everything you throw at it at a very low, comfortable, and healthy temperature.
if you're more into looks and portability, get the samsung. and even then i would give the edge to samsung, because it does a great job of blowing out the heat.
the heat only gets to be a problem if you're in a room that is already uncomfortably warm (85 degrees +)
in conclusion:
FOR ME and my needs... i'm very pleased with this purchase. my only complaint, which is VERY LEGITIMATE, is the weak wireless signal (which is as good as no signal at all) that this laptop gets when about 20 feet away or more from the router. (i use a G router)
BUT i love the overall build quality, performance, screen, sound, feel, and appearance of the laptop so much that i am willing to buy an external usb antennae to make up for its main glaring weakness.
i give this laptop 4.5 STARS.
Back to the review, this laptop is perfect!
-Beautiful screen, deep blacks, super whites
-JBL sound is great! nice subwoofer too!
-Keyboard is nice on the fingers, nice response, not cheap at all
-Laptop case is smooth and sturdy. Solid!
-Charging brick is small, not big at all.
Best of all, this thing is super fast! I use CS5 a lot and wow this bad boy boots all programs so fast!The boot up is fast too.
I really wanted to get this version because the hard drive clocks out faster at 7200 rpm, then the 5200 rpm.
Overall this laptop is great, worth every penny.
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I could not decide between the Asus G75 and the Samsung Series 7 (both 17.3" screens with 1TB drive and 8GB of memory) so I bought 1 of each.Side by side shoot out:
Samsung: GOOD
-looks and feels 90% like a Mac book, which I liked.
-better lighted keyboard
-better battery life
-better sound
-great screen
-light weight
Samsung: BAD
-the wireless antenna on the Samsung is a crap design, as part of the aluminum case I read, and has 1/2 the power/distance of the Asus. Sitting in my living room (35' from the Airport Extreme router) the Asus runs at basically the same speed as on my desk, but the Samsung runs at 1/3 slower and buffers video. 10' further on our dining room table the Asus runs just a bit slower and the Samsung swings from no signal to 4 out of 6 bars without being moved or touched, and another 10' on the porch the Samsung has no signal.
-Runs hot
-touch pad is almost unusable
-not upgradeable
Asus: Good
-runs fast
-quite even with fans on high
-cool in lap
-great screen
-upgradeable
Asus: Bad
-the G75 at Best Buy on display had already had the screen go bad, so I guess I'll just have to keep the protection plan on it.
-case is matte and shows every finger print
-hard to open screen (no finger slot)
-so so sound
-short battery life (4-5 hours)
-REALLY heavy (8+ lbs)
Doing a restore on the Samsung and returning it, which stinks because I liked it a little bit better for the sound and weight, but that does not matter if you can't use it in the primary place I bought it for.
Read Best Reviews of Samsung Series 7 NP700Z7C-S03US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Silver) Here
I bought a nearly identical laptop from BestBuy (same internals except a 1TB 5400rpm drive instead of a 750gb 7200rpm drive) but as I mention below, I upgraded the hard drive so I see that as a very minor distinction.Pros:
+Powerful with a 3rd gen i7 and graphics card with 2GB dedicated memory this is a powerhouse of a machine (see one exception below).
+Quiet The fans on this is effective (for reasons I mention below) without sounding like an airplane.
+Sleek This is actually lighter than the 15.6 laptop I replaced while giving a larger, brighter screen and slightly longer battery life
+Display for me 1080p was a minimum, but the brightness and color rendering on this are surprisingly excellent, and it is matte too, minimizing glare as an added bonus
+Sound I usually take for granted that laptop speakers are junk, but this has a (tiny) sub-woofer and large sound bar that actually produces both substantial volume and quality, not matching my dedicated systems that cost $100+ for the speakers alone, but far exceeding any sound I ever expected would come out of my laptop.
+Ports (2) USB3.0 + (2) USB2.0 + VGA + HDMI + Mini Display Port + Gigabit ethernet connect to everything old, new and future (except thunderbolt) without any adapters to remember (take that apple)
+Build quality the bottom is plastic, but everything else about this laptop is aluminum, a nice upgrade from plastic
+Modern headphone jack the headphone and microphone jack are the same, utilizing the headphone/ mic combo from a smartphone. It won't let you do anything with the buttons, but now you don't need to buy a separate mic
+Trackpad a large single piece trackpad that is very responsive and multi-touch enabled.
Cons:
-Can't quite do everything at once the power supply and cooling system cannot sustain running the system at 100% CPU and GPU capacity simultaneously so it throttles down slightly. The speed drop is subtle enough not to be noticed in anything but the most intense video games, and it allows for a quieter and sleeker cooling system, but if you want every ounce of horsepower for gaming buy the gaming edition with a higher power power supply and more thorough ventilation.
-NOT meant to be upgraded there is one screw to get to one of the memory slots allowing you to upgrade to 12GB ram, but it takes ~10 screws and prying open with a bunch of snaps to get to the hard drive, battery, and DVD drive, but the second memory slot is still inaccessible. Opening it IS doable (search YouTube for a how-to) but getting to 16GB RAM is not an option.
-Sharp Edges if used without a separate keyboard the edges are very sharp, and can be uncomfortable on the wrists.
-Smart Caching overblown in the last 2 years I went from a 5400RPM to 7200RPM to 7200RPM + 16GB SSD to SSD. The first three jumps are slight (10-25%) increases in speed. The last is a major upgrade (2-4x as fast). I tried this machine when I got it, but I couldn't operate at the slow speeds and had to go to my SSD. The caching helps a little, but upgrading to a SSD will make a world of difference (also, Microsoft Windows User Experience Scores are all 6.7-7.7 EXCEPT the Hard drive which is in the 5's Upgrading to an SSD moves it to 8+ so that the system is no longer slowed by data transfer rates)
Recommendation:
I find I almost never use DVD's anymore my movies are archived, and my programs are downloads, so I replaced my main drive with an SSD($70-400), and bought an inexpensive adapter (
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