I've had my Samsung Series 7 Gamer laptop for over a week now, and I thought I'd share my thoughts on the machine since I haven't found much out there about it. Overall, it's a very fancy, very powerful piece of hardware. And the price certainly reflects that. While you could spend thousands more on even fancier, gobbed-out custom notebooks or even a completely tricked out Alienware the S7G was more than adequate for my purposes (and for the price of a top-end Alienware, you really should buy a desktop system, anyway). I bought the laptop for two primary reasons: 1) To run Guitar Rig 5, which is a very CPU-intensive virtual guitar amp/effects program used for performing and recording, and 2) to play games from the past several years at high levels. Gaming-wise, I'm primarily a console gamer, but since it's looking less and less like the next Xbox and PlayStation will be backward compatible with current-gen games (probably with the exception of platform-defining first-party titles like Halo and Uncharted), I wanted to start collecting my current favorites on the PC so I don't have to shelve and maintain extra consoles when the next-gen rolls around. I wanted titles like Batman: Arkham Asylum/City, Skyrim, the Mass Effect trilogy, GTA4, Fallout 3/NV, Dead Island, BioShock, and Metro 2033 to all be available when the mood strikes me. Not to mention the upcoming final round (for the Xbox 360 and PS3) of highly anticipated current-gen titles: Max Payne 3, Metro: Last Light, Far Cry 3, BioShock: Infinite, GTA5, etc.
While the S7G is definitely a brute of a laptop (in a good way), let me get its bad points out of the way first. The most negative aspect of this laptop is Samsung's proprietary Mode Dial. Basically you can turn a knob on the front of the laptop, and there are instructions built into the system to enable/disable certain features depending if you want quiet (no fan), battery savings (backlit keyboard off), or all-out gaming performance (everything on and maxed out, battery be damned). It's pointless, and what's worse, the interface that overlays on your desktop is annoying. It comes preloaded with desktop themes that will engage a screen saver after 60 seconds no matter what. The good news is from the desktop you can disable the themes and revert to a traditional Win7 desktop, which also kills the screen saver. However, there's still a clickable node in the upper-right corner of the desktop that allows you to tweak the Mode Dial settings; this will not go away. I personally have the dial set to "game" mode all the time; the likelihood that I'll used this laptop unplugged for more than a half-hour is close to zero.
The second biggest disappointment with the S7G is its plastic case. While it looks like a TRON wet dream when the lid's open, the laptop's housing is light-weight plastic. For almost 20 bills, this really needs to have a higher quality metal case. Perhaps it was an effort on Samsung's part to reduce weight, but it's probably an effort on Samsung's part to reduce its cost.
Other negatives: I have the laptop connected to an external monitor via HDMI, and I use an external USB keyboard and USB mouse (running through a USB hub). The laptop sets under a shelf, on which the monitor sits. I put the computer into sleep mode overnight and during the day when I'm at work. The problem is, the factory default settings kill the power to the USB ports when in sleep mode, and I could not get the external keyboard to "wake" the computer. The only way I could wake it is to unplug everything, move the keyboard out of the way, pull it out from under the shelf, open the lid, make sure it wakes, close the lid, slide it back under the shelf, reposition the keyboard, and plug everything back in. I wasted an hour on-line chatting with Samsung tech support, and never once did the support rep understand the problem, even though I explained it to him about 873 times. I went to Google and found the solution: you have to get into the BIOS and enable the USB devices to retain power while in sleep mode, which allows them to wake the computer. Shouldn't tech support know this? If you need to contact Samsung tech support, do yourself a favor and exhaust all other searches before you call because my on-line tech support chat session with Guptarjeeshaputa in Bombay was akin to slamming my face into a brick wall repeatedly for 60 straight minutes.
The final negative is one gamers want to pay attention to: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M is a very, very nice GPU. However, it is essentially a rebadged GTX 580M from the previous generation. NVIDIA will soon release the new GTX 680M, which uses a whole new chipset, will be faster, and run cooler. If I did not need a new laptop immediately, I would have waited for the 680M. If you are concerned about such things, hold on a little longer until laptops are available with the new GPU.
This is not really a complaint, but more of a warning to those who might be unaware: this laptop is huge ("It sure is, Tiny Elvis!"). It's big and it's heavy, and it's not something you'll want to just pop out of your bag on the metro or an airplane. The power brick is also enormous. When I was unpacking the laptop, I saw the edge of the power supply and thought it was another box of parts. Not until I pulled it out did I realize it was the power brick! It's also worth noting that to order a second power supply, expect to spend some serious money. I ordered a travel/backup supply through Samsung parts (it's not available anywhere else), and it was about $150 for the brick and power cord (note: they are sold separately from each other, so make sure you buy both pieces). The battery also doesn't last long; expect maybe a couple of hours if you're lucky. Again, I knew this when I bought it, but if you've never owned a 17"+ high-power laptop, be aware of this stuff.
Okay, on to the positives. This laptop is very powerful. It has not choked at anything I have thrown at it (with one exception, see below). It also has a very eye-pleasing, modern design. While I normally use it with the lid closed, when I do open the lid it feels like you're at the helm of a spaceship. It's wickedly fast booting up Windows. I go from entering my Windows password to a fully ready desktop in about 10 seconds or less. This is thanks to the 8GB ExpressCache SSD. For everything going on under the hood, the heat output remains nicely under control, even under the duress of Battlefield 3 and Skyrim. While the built-in cooling system is nice, I still HIGHLY recommend a laptop cooling pad; they're inexpensive, easy to use, and keep your big investment running at a safe temp. It also has tons of storage (note that the system has two 750GB HDDs that are NOT in RAID 0, so it has a total of 1.5TB of storage, but not in a single C: drive). Also not listed in any spec sheets is the laptop uses DDR3-1600 RAM, so expect 1600 MHz speeds (verified with CPU-ID).
So far I have had a wonderful gaming experience with the S7G. I use 1920x1080 resolution for all games, and I'm generally able to get high performance numbers even at that high of a resolution. However, DirectX 11 is just a bit too much for the system to handle with some games at that resolution, and I sometimes back games down to DX10. Here are some of my performance numbers (collected using reports generated by FRAPS, or the game's internal benchmarking tool):
Batman: Arkham Asylum 54 FPS (Ultra settings, PhysX on HIGH, 4x AA)
Batman: Arkham City 47 FPS (Ultra settings, PhysX on HIGH, DX10, 4x AA)
Battlefield 3 30 FPS (Ultra settings, 2x AA)
Crysis 2 30 FPS (High Quality Texture Pack, Ultra settings, DX10)
Diablo III 60+ FPS (Highest settings, 8x AA)
Grand Theft Auto IV 62 FPS (Ultra settings, View Distance = 50, Detail Distance = 50, 8x AA, sometimes dips to < 30 FPS during top speeds in heavy traffic)
Max Payne 3 30+ FPS (with HDAO and minimum AA)
RAGE 40 FPS (Ultra settings, 16x AA)
Serious Sam 3 BFE 30 FPS (Ultra settings, 4x AA)
Skyrim 54 FPS (Hi Res Texture Pack, Ultra settings, 8x AA, 13 additional user mods running)
The only game giving me problems is The Witcher 2. To get a playable frame rate of over 30 FPS, I have to switch everything to low. With medium settings I get less than 20 FPS, and it chugs and stutters. After doing some research, I'm finding a lot of people unable to get this game running well, even on machines exceeding the recommended specs from the publisher. I am still investigating this, but I believe this is a situation where the game has incredible graphics, but is very poorly optimized. I can play Battlefield 3, Max Payne 3, and Batman: Arkham City at very high quality and not run into the frame rate problems The Witcher 2 has.
In conclusion, if you're looking for a fast gaming laptop right now, the Samsung Series 7 Gamer should be at the top of your shopping list. I looked at several other brands (Alienware, HP, Sager), and the Samsung, more than any other brand/model, met my needs at a price I was willing to pay. You can spend thousands more if you can afford it, but you get a lot of bang for your buck with the S7G. It isn't perfect, but it sure will get the job done.
Background
Purchased this system as a Grad student for both college and play.
Screen
The screen is a beautiful HD 1920 X 1080 Resolution screen. I've never seen anything like this; not even on a television. It is a retina scorching 400 nits with superb contrast and very deep blacks.
Sound
Dolby home theater surround sound. System sounds lifelike and has a built in sub-woofer. I'm very pleased with the sound quality all though I think the JBL sound system on the new regular 17.3" Samsung series 7 sounds better.
Keyboard
Most comfortable keyboard I've ever used. The keyboard slopes back to accommodate wrists and sys cooling. The keys are a curved style like Lenovo's laptops. Very ergonomic. White backlighting; "WASD" keys light red in "gamer mode."
Performance
One of the best-performing systems available for the price. Runs cool and quite. One game won't run so far; "Tribes Ascend." I'm very upset about this as it's my favorite game to play right now. It will not run on any of the new gaming laptops with 3rd gen i7. Battery life is not that good (2.5-3.5 hours). No wifi or connectivity issues. Wifi has great range and seems a little above average.
*****Coreection*******
The game would not run because of the Nvidia driver. I had to delete a file from the Nvidia driver folder. I don't recall what file was deleted. Tribes Ascend now runs on the system after deleting the file. I have not noticed any problems with the system since deleting the file.
Design
Plastic Chassis, glossy black-like finish and black-anodized brushed aluminum palm wrest and keyboard area. Overall, a beautiful and sturdy computer. I'd prefer all aluminum, but Apple would probably start another lawsuit lol :-P. At-least Samsung didn't ripoff this design. System looks both fun for gaming and professional in office environments.
Value:
Great v competition in my own opinion i.e. Dell Alienware and Asus G75. I'm am biased as Samsung is my brand of choice and Apple second to Samsung.
Concl
Overall, I'm very excited and pleased to be the owner of Samsung's first gaming system. I think they are a company that takes themselves seriously and will continue to excel in their ventures. Thanks Samsung for a high-quality and innovative gaming system.
Hope this quick overview helps.
Buy Samsung Series 7 Gamer NP700G7C-S01US 17.3-Inch Laptop Now
I've had this laptop for about a week now and I absolutely love it. I have a busy lifestyle with kids so the only time I can carve out for gaming is late at night. I used to head down to the basement while my lovely wife would be in bed and play on my desktop. I got tired of feeling neglectful of my wife and getting eaten by spiders in my unfinished basement so I figured it was time to get a laptop for the bedroom.
I purchased this tray to use in the bed: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GU7GAK/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00 and the laptop sits atop it perfectly.
After my wife drifts off to sleep I pull out this bad boy and am treated to spectacular gaming experience in ultimate comfort.
Pros:
Best screen on a laptop I have ever seen, it can even do 120Hz if you want. The brightness is nearly blinding (in a good way) and the black levels are excellent.
Keyboard is pleasant to play on and the backlighting really helps when playing in the dark. The best part of this keyboard is that it doesn't feel cheap and it has extensive "anti-ghosting" for gaming. It really helps when playing games that require a lot of button pressing.
Very quiet. This was a huge concern for me due to the fact I am lying next to someone while playing computer games in a bed. My wife says she has no problem sleeping with the small amount of noise it does make.
Very cool, I've had laptops that feel like they could boil a pot of water, this laptop runs at a very reasonable temperature considering the internals.
I can run all of my games on ultra (so far). I've only played Diablo 3, TF2 and SC2 so far but it looks a heck of a lot better than my desktop sporting an older 9800 GTX.
Cons:
It's HEAVY. Not really surprising considering what's in this thing but it's noteworthy. I will never travel with it so it's not a huge problem for me.
Doesn't support RAID, it comes with 2 750GB drives but no hardware raid which is kind of silly. Not the end of the world but it would have been nice.
The video card is not an AMD 7970M. The 675M is still a great card even if it's just a re-labeled 580m but it's not cutting edge anymore. I was aware of this fact when I bought it but it didn't stop me from forking over my cash based on how great this laptop is otherwise.
I would highly recommend this laptop to anyone who wants a great desktop replacement gaming laptop. It does not feel cheap; it's gorgeous and has all of the features you need for gaming. A job well done by Samsung.
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I read literally hundreds of reviews of everything I could find. Being retired I simply can NOT afford this. But it kept "calling out" to me....The wife "called out" a few things her own self when I showed it to her as well. But, I simply will cut to the chase and say I love this thing. I have no games that I can't run at their highest settings. To my amazement, it even plays Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings so fast it literally altered game play. I mean, it was so slow on any of my other 4 computers I had abandoned it completely. now, it simply RIPS through all that used to flat kill my other rigs.
I will leave all the already repeated hype to the others...I just want to throw out there that this is rock solid for weeks now. Bummer was the price dropped a LOT within a few minutes of my buying it but I kept it anyway. Not going to make Amazon suffer & send it back then reorder! I guess I never paid top dollar before yet came away still so happy. Only weird glitch I have had is once I had turned Bluetooth on and my games ALL turned to crap. I mean this computer flat fell on it's face! More embarrassing was it took me 2 days to figure out the problem and what I had done to screw things up. Most of the reason it took me so long is I had been playing nonstop for 18-20 hours both days! I was mortified once I realized my stupid mistake.
Other weird thing is that every single time I open the lid I KEEP getting a damned warning that my auto update feature for Windows needs to be turned on. What pisses me off is I have changed to do auto update over 200+ times already and it simply won't hold that setting! I finally turned off the notification setting altogether so I don't completely lose my old mind. Go to change the speaker volume after a few hours of game play & risk burning your finger, it DOES get that hot. But...it has been rock solid unless I do something stupid to sabotage things so not going to ding it for that. I am giving this a rare 5 stars after honestly torturing it for a month now. I will downgrade it on the spot if it bites me in any way or as I find weaknesses that simply have not shown themselves to me yet. I SO wanted the Asus to save money but all the complaints in reviews scared me off. Glad they did too after a month with this beauty. Like so many, the black is uninspiring, wish it was the candy red like at the CES show. But if after all I have done to this, WITH this the past month, if I still love it this much, at this price and with me on my meager Social Security check to live on...well, it must have EARNED that 5 stars.
Sept 25 2012 UPDATE:
I know being retired is gonna wear me out.....Now I have a battery issue. I always have it plugged in yet after 10 hours of gaming my battery is dead (well, down to 12% remaining). I am forced to close the lid and it then takes a couple hours to slowly recharge so I can resume gaming. Not sure if I am the only one having this problem? Of course I should take a break by then anyway I suppose?
October 25 2012 Update:
Samsung Support (for ME) has been a pleasant surprise. A woman who spoke perfect English and in America now less (!!!!) advised me to do a battery recondition. I did this while explaining to her she was full of crap....well surprise, it solved my problem. I now have had 3 weeks of gaming 12-18 hours a day with my newer XCOM: Enemy Unknown as well as Medal of Honor: Warfighter both as max settings with ZERO issues. Due to this and some new negative reviews that look like scam reviews by LOONS or trolls I am raising this to a well deserved 5 stars. On it's own, this deserves it. I waited to go 5 stars until it had been time tested, not to just rush in when all excited etc. And 1 warning. If you ever have to use the supplied restoration disk that Samsung provides to restore? Well as another reviewer correctly explained, you LOSE EVERYTHING you need to make this computer work! I recommend you go to Samsung NOW and do the following. Go to their support area and download each & every available download so when & if you need to restore, you will have all these drivers ready to go. If not, no track-pad, no sound, no nothing....REALLY pissed me off. It was a nightmare experience but a lesson well learned. Trust me, you NEED to do this now, before you get stuck. Now that everything has "burned in", has a couple thousand (yes thousand) hours on it, all is rock solid. Gaming has become my life sadly, but I am all smiles so why worry? 5 solid stars all around. For the record I am not any kind of Samsung "fanboy" or even Samsung "fan codger"! I have adjusted my rating on this 3 times now and maintain my reviews to honestly reflect all that I spend my money on. I am loyal to NO brand. I just call em like I see em.
10 Month Update on June 19 2013: This computer has fully EARNED it's solid 5 stars. I can't kill it. NO game I have bought even creates any challenge for it. Other than my wife, this has been love at first sight, and a love affair than has never waned......
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I feel like i really did my research before ending up at the series 7. I was torn between this, the MSI GT70 and the ASUS G75. At the end of the day it boiled down to professional comparisons, and build quality. I saw SEVERAL editors choice awards from different publishers. The stats are slightly better than the other two as well on paper. I read over 70 other customer reviews with the only CONS being stupid crap like the charger is too big and keyboard is too thick. Boo hoo. This thing is a big bad game devouring monster that could power the starship enterprise. The build is super solid, screen is amazing, and it hasnt broken a sweat with any game or task yet. Runs super cool as well. Amazon was amazing i had it to my door 22 hours after ordering. Couldnt have spent my money better.
This review is broken into several parts for those that would like an in depth review, or would like to know specific details.
