**update 6/26**just a quick heads up!
do not bother updating to the new intel driver released 6/4/13 for wifi.
i tried it for a couple days and the wifi issues came right back again.
just stay on the microsoft wifi driver and you will be fine.
**update 6/19**
after a month this computer is still a beast. after reading the long thread and discussion about putting in a SSD, and it being too difficult i figured i would give a shot at installing one. (remember now i have no tech experience). well let me tell you it was retarded easy...and i did it in 20 minutes. and man this thing screams!!!
so you want to upgrade the ssd? do it. its easy. and don't worry the back comes off super easy and no it wont snap if you pull carefully.
steps you ask? don't mind if i do. :)
(before proceeding with this please order some nitrile latex free gloves and a micro philips screwdriver)
*order the samsung 840 ssd with the data transfer cable kit. (to clone your current hard drive)
*install data migration tool off samsung website and clone hard drive. (it took about 45 min)
*shut down computer, flip over computer, unscrew ALL back screws.
*start at front computer corner (left or right, doesn't matter) with a credit card pop up the edge.
*take that same card and push it down the crack on the whole front side of computer.(it will pop all the clips out, don't worry it wont break)
*do the same on both sides pulling the cover back. only thing now that should be connected is the back corner hinge things.
*push the back plate forward off the hinges and the enire backplate will come off.
*unscrew harddrive mount screws.
*unscrew hard drive holder screws.
*replace hard drive with ssd.
*reverse all your steps and re-boot.
this thing boots in 3 seconds now completely and opens all programs instantly.
ill post a few pics under user pics. enjoy.
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ive had this laptop for a few days so far so i will update this review as time goes on.
the good:
1920x1080p resolution w/touch on a ultra book style laptop.
dedicated GPU plus integrated.(good for those who play a game now and then)
back-lit keyboard
the touchbad: i love it, works almost as well as a mac...no joke.
amazing speakers...no joke very good for a laptop.
solid built laptop with premium feel.
decently thin with what i think is a perfect size screen/keyboard
aluminum body.
small power brick.
5ghz wireless support.
decent battery life.
2 video outs (hdmi/vga for dual monitor support)
core i7/8gb ram
the bad:
no solid state hard drive (you can notice it slows loading speeds down a tad)
no matte screen :( screen will have smudges especially touching with your finger.
aluminum body does leave smudges, but not that bad.
the plastic in-between the keys on the keyboard is GLOSSY! so dumb. it gets all greasy looking in-between keys. the picture they have showing it on here it looks matte but believe me its not...not a huge deal but whatever.
fn lock key, adjustable everything, u can even turn the fan noise down or completely off.
THE BIGGEST CON?
Intel 6235 wifi driver. If you on wifi it cuts you off randomly sometimes...and its really annoying, It is not the chip its the DRIVER. was almost a deal breaker but heres the fix:
getting rid of the "intel" driver and reverting to Microsoft driver.
1. Uninstall the Intel Proset wireless software/driver from the computer under control panel uninstall program. (not the blue tooth just the wireless)...after thats done..
2. Open device manager/network adapters
3. double click centrino advanced-n 6235
4.click driver tab
5. It should say driver provider Microsoft / 12/5/2011 / 14.8.8.75
6. click events tab to see if driver service added was (NETwNe64)
that will fix the drop problems.
then fine tune your adapter
1. click tab power management / uncheck allow computer to turn device off to save power
2. click tab advanced / make sure transmit power is set to highest
well i love this thing. its awesome. its slick. its powerful and it will make you very happy.
questions? just ask.
buy it
Cons: WiFi Drop-outs, Auto back-lit Keyboard, Heating/Fan Issue (on first laptop), minor smudging, no SSD
May 14th 2013
Received this laptop today and almost immediately noticed it had a fan and heating issue. Alot of heat keeps being produced at minimal cpu usage (only surfing the internet) so the fan, located right underneath the screen by the hinge, keeps kicking into an abnormally high rpm to cool down the system. The system continually becomes very hot and the top of the keyboard, possibly thanks to the fan location, becomes hot to the touch as well. This includes the 3 or 4 top rows of keys, making it extremely uncomfortable to use for even brief typing periods. Also putting the computer into the lower performance mode with the F11 Fn doesnt do much to fix this heating issue.
In short this means it is a very loud and extremely hot system most of the time... which needless to say completely ruins the computer.
I contacted Samsung about the issue and after about a good 45 minutes they suggested i send the laptop in for repair. I am awaiting a replacement laptop from amazon at the moment, will update to see if same issue occurs or if it's just an isolated defect.
During the periods of time when it is not behaving this way however i am pleased with the laptop (although keep in mind ive only had it for a few hours now). The keyboard is surprisingly very comfortable, the touchscreen works well, and the overall mechanical build is of high quality. The screen has almost no wobble but has some reflection to it like any device. The 1080p graphics on it are a surprising huge step up from the 720p of my 4 year old laptop too.
The matte finish of the case unfortunately allows for minor smudging, which might bother some especially if moving from a silver finish like myself, but isnt a major annoyance. The few times i tested the JBL speakers i was impressed. They are certainly nice especially compared to your typical laptop speakers.
Apart from these minor things and the heating issue I had the Ativ book 6 is a first rate computer by my standards.
5/16/13:
Received replacement laptop yesterday and was suffering from same heating/fan issue initially for a bit even after the initialization and all the updates were completed. Today however the fan has been low and heat minimal unlike the initial laptop. Ran the replacement laptop at max cpu usage and experienced the same heat as what the initial laptop experienced at 3% usage, fan wasnt interchanging btwn rpms though which is another good sign for this one. Also confirms something was terribly wrong with the first unit. Additionally putting it into low power mode with F11 puts the fan to a whisper even quieter than the 'low' rpm it has been at today (had no effect one defective unit fyi).
To be more specific than before the defective computer became very hot where the fan blows causing the keyboard keys to become hot and uncomfortable. Fan would not run at a consistent rpm for a long duration but rather interchanged between medium and high, along with a rare low, when simply browsing the internet. Running the photoshop app alongside certainly made it worse. Plugging the battery charger in also causes the fan to increase rpm and vice versa independent of the charge on the battery too on both computers.
5/27/13:
Had this replacement computer for awhile now and was experiencing frequency wifi drop-outs and connectivity issues. After uninstalling the intel driver and reverting to the windows one (as described by dissed in the review below) I have not experienced any issues! Had to change power settings as well so that the computer wouldnt turn off the wifi to save power.
Another issue is that the computer automatically turns on the keyboard back-lighting during low light conditions. The reason this is an issue is that you are unable to turn this off and unable to control the brightness level.
Certainty had alot of headaches with the defect unit and wifi issues, these things aside this laptop runs great!
So in quick summary computer initially has lots of wifi issues/drop-outs and is prone to become a bit hot/noisy under heavy loads. Unable to turn off keyboard back-lighting during the night and smudging is pretty common on the casing (but not too bad). Battery life was about 4.5 hours in my case which is alright considering the i7 and graphics card inside this laptop. Lastly had to make a few setting changes due to alot of automated things that dont make any sense (like putting the computer into sleep mode after 1min idle on battery and disconnecting wifi adapter after 5min). Meaning that someone who isnt great with computers might want to avoid all this hassle.
Buy Samsung ATIV Book 6 15.6-Inch Full HD Touchscreen Laptop (Mineral Ash Black) Now
I love everything about this laptop. The display is gorgeous Full HD. The JBL speakers are fantastic. The touchscreen is very responsive as well. I do have a couple issues with this Laptop though. It came with a dead pixel to the left center of the screen, it's only really noticeable when watching darker videos or darker backgrounds. But during those particular times, it can be quite annoying. On top of that, I'm having the same WiFi issues as the other two reviewers are having so far. If I am just sitting in a webpage typing and the laptop isn't attempting to connect it's fine and seems to be working great. But if I go to youtube or another website to watch an HD video, sometimes even just a basic webpage, the WiFi will start doing the same thing as the other reviewers. As expensive as this laptop is, I'd expect the Wifi to work properly.I love Samsung products, I own a Galaxy Note 2 cell phone, I have a Samsung Google Chromebook, a Samsung HD Television, and now this laptop. I'm hoping I can have it replaced with a model that has a fixed WiFi card and preferably without the dead pixel. I'm going to give it a day or so and see if the WiFi issue gets resolved, but if it doesn't I will most definitely be returning the laptop and hopefully having it replaced with a fully working model.
So I'm giving this Laptop a 2/5 for shipping with a dead Pixel and a pretty terrible WiFi issue. Changing battery settings didn't help my issue at all. But I'll happily give this a 5/5 if I can get the dead pixel and wifi issue resolved.
----------------------------------------------------
UPDATE:
I received my replacement Laptop today and the WiFi was still an issue for me. After reading "Dissed" review (which was added after my original review) I followed his advice and deleted the default Intel WiFi drivers and let them roll back to the basic Microsoft drivers and I've had Zero issues since then. The WiFi is working perfectly and quickly. It's also nice that this unit has no dead pixels. (also, my original model was having Touchpad issues that I didn't notice until after I wrote my original review) this unit has zero issues with that at all. It's an amazing laptop with a top quality screen. Worth every penny. I have now kept my promise and will upgrade this review to a 5/5. Fantastic Purchase so far.Just got this laptop in the mail today. Been playing with it for about 3 hours. I love this laptop! I haven't experienced the same issues as the first reviewer. No heat issues, little to no fan noise and wifi connects no problem. Browser speed is faster than my new workstation I use for work. I'm really impressed. The keys are really comfortable and quiet. It has a number pad which is nice. It's so sleek and pretty. It's just a beautiful and it feels sturdy. The screen is really crisp and very responsive to touch. Overall after a few hours of playing with this beauty, I absolutely recommend this laptop.
Update 5-24-2013.
Have had this computer about a week, still loving it. I started having some intermittent connection issues with wifi. My other laptop and dropcam connections were experiencing zero problems. I followed what the first reviewer said about changing the power settings for wifi to maximum performance. I still had occasional issues. I did the rollback to microsoft driver fix that a reviewer, dissed, said would fix the problem. Now this laptob is nearly perfect. So yeah, no other issues to report. My only noticeable negative is that this thing loves fingerprints. It's really no big deal, just wipe it down every so often. Windows 8 doesn't seem to be everyone's favorite software, but after playing with it for about a week, I've gotten used to it and now I actually prefer it. Boot up from sleep is pretty much instant. Really enjoying this machine.
Want Samsung ATIV Book 6 15.6-Inch Full HD Touchscreen Laptop (Mineral Ash Black) Discount?
Just received my laptop and am really impressed. Though much heavier than my wife's series 9, this laptop is very sleek and well built. I did have the same wifi issues as the others. After trying many suggested fixes I was finally able to resolve the issue by rolling back the driver to the Microsoft version. Three days later and not a single dropped connection.
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