Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
Here's my quick review. First a warning: Keep in mind that I may be somewhat spoiled compared to your average customer, since I have only used business-grade laptops, with top-of-the-line hardware, including, and in particular, top-notch displays, in the last ten years or so (Dell Precision, mostly). Ultimately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it turns out that, despite the nontrivial price tag, the NP900X4C simply doesn't stack up to any of these. Not even in the same league.
The good:
The structural hardware makes a good impression, and looks good. Quite sturdy, tight tolerances, despite being thin and lightweight. The keyboard is o.k., too, for a chicklet, anyway. Nothing to write home about, but acceptable. Also, the machine is plenty quick with the i7, and boot times are nothing short of impressive: It's probably still in the single-digit seconds on a cold boot(!), and wake-up from sleep may be around a second or so, depending on how you count. There's also the "fast-boot" option, which is like an accelerated hibernation, again with wake-up times to your desktop in the single-digit seconds. Needless to say, these are valuable qualities, in particular for my intended use (meetings/conferences).
Unfortunately, this is about where it ends.
The bad:
Screen: I don't find the much-touted brightness particularly impressive. I guess it's o.k., but compared to my 2-year old M4500 it's about the same. Serviceable, certainly, but I saw somebody talking about using this laptop outside, in the sun. All I can say to this is: You got to be kidding... Another plus is the non-glare surface, and fonts and other details look quite sharp. This can also be tuned using a configuration application.
Worse, however, are the very limited viewing angles. Horizontal angles are not awful, but not very good either (may +/- 45 degrees are workable), but vertical is really bad. Maybe +/-20 degrees, if color changes don't bother you too much, that is. If you need to rely on even halfway accurate colors, look elsewhere, period. You won't even see consistent colors top to bottom if the laptop is at arm's length from you. However, if all you do is use this for typing up minutes/notes in meetings, and giving presentations, then these things don't matter much. I would say that the screen would be acceptable only for such very undemanding usage scenarios. Yeah, you can also watch the odd movie in an airplane, I guess. Bottom line: I would say that the screen is mediocre at best, but keep in mind what I said about my background in the beginning. Maybe this isn't that bad for a consumer notebook.
Touchpad: Iffy, at best, and there's no meaningful way to fine-tune the sensitivity. I did extract the alternative configuration tool that is part of the zip file containing the installer (the tool that is installed does not allow you to adjust sensitivity at all; maybe for a reason), but I was not successful in getting the touchpad to respond more reliably. Worst of all, some of the touchpad functionality may not be immediately available after booting. Again, if you're the kind of person who needs an accurate, reliable touchpad, look elsewhere.
Software configuration: Oh.my.god. In my whole career I have never, ever, seen a machine that was so badly mis-configured as this Samsung. First of all, I should say that my standard Windows configuration for years has been one where I have an administrative user for administration and system maintenance, and a limited user for my day-to-day work. Simply put, it is entirely impossible to run this machine with a limited user account. Not only will you be greeted by four UAC prompts on every login you perform, but you will also find that the touchpad does not work reliably anymore (you know, little things like right-click being unavailable for the limited user, sometimes). While the former issue (the UAC prompts, which are caused by inappropriately configured system software) can be solved, in principle, if you reinstall Windows from scratch, the touchpad issue is probably not fixable unless somebody figures out how to properly write drivers and utilities for the damn thing.
Bottom line: Yesterday I was ready to send the laptop back immediately. However, I have already invested almost a day of work in this laptop, and my time is expensive... Relative to the particular use I have in mind, the laptop is serviceable now, and I do like its performance, form factor, battery life, and low weight. I may yet keep it. However, to anybody considering this laptop, you should think very hard about what you want to use it for. All in all, I also feel that, given the low quality of the screen the price is on the high side. Same laptop, same price, with an IPS screen, I would have been a lot happier. Like I said, I may still decide that it's an acceptable value, but there may well be, or soon will be, much better choices out there. Maybe the new Lenovo X1 Carbon, if it comes with a decent screen would be the one to look at. At least Lenovo knows how to build and configure business-class laptops. Samsung very clearly doesn't. I doubt I'll buy another Samsung any time soon.
Hope this is helpful to somebody.
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Zaxxer, Yes, the 1920x1080 version (not the Best Buy one) G73JH does have a pretty good screen though very glossy. It's actually rather hard to compare the two since the S9's display is super bright and matte and the G73's is not so bright (though not dim I suppose) and quite glossy. The G73 does colors better and I believe has better contrast when you can control the reflections. The S9 was great when you could focus the screen to be dead on in terms of angle and really was crummy when it was off by just a tiny bit. It really was an apples to oranges comparison with them so different. It really was painful for me to return the S9 since it was just so great of a form factor.
Thors.Hammer- I think I'm going to be right behind you getting that MBP- I really don't give a hoot about the high rez but I want a good form factor, battery life and decent screen - gotta see one in person first though. If that doesn't work out for me I guess I'll save a bunch of cash and go for the Asus UX31a if it ever actually goes on sale
I think the HD4000 graphics would be fine for me for the use cases that this machine would be used for.
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The customer service rep is clueless. Intel only makes one mobile processor in the Ivy Bridge family that is 1.90Ghz. That's the i7-3517U which is what should be in the NP900X4C-A03US.
Have them send you a picture of the label on the box.
My assessment of the NP900X4C-A03US
Discussion in 'Samsung' started by Pirx, Jun 13, 2012.
