New Series 7 Ultra is a great product and value marred by a somewhat disappointing keyboard

I have been demoing and touting this $999 super-ultrabook for its state of the art FHD IPS 350 nit touchscreen, it's unrivaled expandability to 16GB dual channel RAM and unlimited upgrade (by the user) of its standard 128GB mSATA SSD to anything available in the aftermarket. No other ultrabook comes close to these features. And did I mention it costs $999 at Best Buy?

I'm sorry to say that I'm pretty much ready to return this marvel for only one, but one very important reason: the keyboard. I can live with the substandard very short keystroke and less than comfortable feel of its flat metal keys, though not happily. What I can't live with is its aluminum keys against an aluminum background with razor thin key markings that are unreadable in all but the brightest and darkest of lighting. The backlighting - all four levels of it - is totally anemic and actually makes the keys harder to read except in near darkness. I am largely a touch typist so I don't need to see the key lettering very often, but as i type on a variety of keyboards with different key placement it's often necessary to peek or I end up with an unacceptable level of errors. What's more, while Samsung was thoughtful enough to provide a "Fn lock," which enables you to use the screen, volume and other adjustment keys without holding down the Fn (a feature without which any mfr should be boycotted for the sheer stupidity of it!), the thing you can see the least,no matter what the light, is what all of those function keys control, the least standardized aspect of theirs or any keyboard.

If I absolutely had to have the additional RAM or was on a very tight budget I suspect I would struggle with this awful keyboard, but as it is this is a second laptop for me and if it isn't exceedingly light (the best are 2.5 lbs and the S7 Ultra is 3.6 lbs) and a breeze to use (as the Asus UX31A is) I find it hard to recommend unequivocally anymore as I have on many posts during the first month I have had it on demo. I might revisit the decision after the model is updated with Haswell processors and the d-gpu configuration is available in the US. And if you are budget constrained and power starved and this is your only laptop I might still recommend it as a top choice.

But my primary use of a laptop is for typing - there are plenty of tablets out there that do the job nicely for reading and content consumption, for far less money - and this one's gets a 4/10 for me and just doesn't make the grade. Whatever gave Samsung the idea for silver-on-silver keys with illegible markings and an anemic keyboard, I will never know, nor can I fathom it's very short stroke in a laptop as thick as it is. Asus learned their lesson quickly and switched in 9 months to a traditional black key (with some texture to boot) with white lettering and a bright, white backlight. and, with the same screen and same standard internals it goes for only $100 more. Futureproof it ain't, but I need a productivity machine today and this one just falls short.

Final query: why is it that whenever a manufacturer comes out with a near-perfect product, they seem destined to break one key feature so that it is at best a near-great product fraught with a key weakness?

 

I have to agree that someone in Samsung needs to be shown the exit for making this basic mistake which impairs the usability. Both (black and silver) versions of the Series 9 use black keys and, while the backlighting is also weak, white lettering on black keys is easy to read under all lighting conditions (they just don't glow like some backlit keyboards). I would have expected Samsung to be seeking economies of scale by using the 13.3" Series 9 keyboard in the 13.3" Series 7.

Or maybe they thought they were being clever: If you don't like the legibility of the Series 7 keyboard then buy the more expensive Series 9. Unfortunately, that strategy overlooks the possibility that potential purchases take their business elsewhere.

Whatever the reason for this dubious colour choice, we have to hope that the message gets through quickly.

John

 

not too long ago some one posted pictures of a black version of the 7 Ultra. What has become of this black version?
as for keyboard depth and feeling.. what do you guys think of the 7 ultra vs the Asus Zenbooks?

 

Do you mean black keys or a black case? If the latter, they can be real finger oil traps, so be careful. I have not seen one in black, however. I think the Asus Zenbook and Sammy 7 U are quite comparable. See the main thread for details. The Sammy has far more upgradeability but the Zenbook (the second series, UX31A, not UX31E has a far better keyboard. Let's hope, as John suggests, Samsung hears our critique and smartens up. It only took Asus 9 months to release a new model that corrected about 6 major weaknesses of the first Zenbooks - which happened to include a shallow, metallic keyboard!

 

That was probably the Ativ Book series which were on the fishingtree website (which seems to have gone).

I have no problems with fingerprints on the black paint finish on the Series 9 (but I had to touch up the occasional scratch). I would look for the same if shopping again.

John

 

Good point. I forgot that the 9 has a slightly roughened finish and that would resist the finger oils I experienced on the totally smooth Asus UX31A Touch which is textured on the lid but not on the palm rests. I would thus worry if there was a Series 7 in black if it was just sprayed black over the smooth aluminum (or "aluminium" as some would call it )

By the way, John, I know you are an advocate of communicating design flaws to the manufacturer. Do you have a recommended recipient of such feedback to suggest at Samsung? It's curious that this unit has been out for over a month and yet there are so few professional reviews of it to publicly state the flaws, as Lisa Gade did in her review.

 

Since I'm the whiner who initiated this thread I feel I owe it to the community to be forthcoming with updates - particularly ones that reflected my own operating errors! It turns out that - as in several aspects of Samsung controls, especially related to screen and keyboard light systems - there is an additional adjustment for the kb backlight I had somehow missed. I "found" it - it was hardly hidden! - by searching from the Charms sidekick for Samsung controls and under "Settings" "General" there is a keyboard backlight adjustment which claims to be tied to the light sensor, but I disengaged that with an elegant piece of tape over the sensor, for now. In any case, there is a slider for keyboard backlight brightness and mine somehow was stuck on about 60%. When I raised it to 100%, the backlighting improved so much that even in a fairly light indoor environment I could see the key markings quite well and the lighting was fairly uniform - which it isn't at all under less bright settings.

Thus I must eat some crow and take back the emphatic comment I used to name the thread to: "...a great product and value marred only by an uncomfortably short stroke keyboard and just adequate back lighting." As such, I would not have created a separate thread about it. I have learned to type pretty fast and with few errors as the key press effort is not bad and it is fairly clear when you have made contact without having to bank each key down until it hits a hard stop! As for the back lighting, while I would say that it is far from the best I have seen (what was wrong with bright clear white, the kind that also showed the key outlines?) I think it is better than on the current Series 9 (unless I missed an adjustment there too!) and at this point, all that is still impossible to see are the special functions that the FN keys operate. You can get to mostly memorize these or use software to make volume, screen backlight, keyboard backlight adjustments if need be.

I'm back to giving this an 8.5/10 and, at $999 giving extra weight to value and scoring it a full 9/10. Please note, however, your $400 savings, 12GB of additional RAM and touchscreen will not offset the complete lack of admiration - and for that matter, even attention - you will receive when using the S7 publicly. It looks like it could be any of a large group of low-mid range Ultrabooks, probably more like a 1990s Toshiba than anything else, lol!

 

Thank you for this

We could update the thread title to reflect your new, nicely balanced conclusion. Just a thought, it's your choice.

 

That's a great idea, but at NBR we have to pray to the "MOD gods" and ask them to change the title, as only they can. My request, Same title except changed "ruined by a terrible keyboard to "marred only a somewhat disappointing keyboard" Thank you, M/M Mod

 

The NBR "MOD gods" are actually very reasonable people

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any tame contacts in Samsung and don't know if they read my reviews. It's possible that the introduction of the L-shaped PSU plug for the Series 9 a few months after I suggested it in my X3B review might indicate that someone read my thoughts or maybe they just figured it out for themselves. They could certainly figure out for themselves that white letters on a silver keyboard aren't a good recipe for usability.

I see that you did the necessary. We moderators have our uses.

John

 

I may be in the minority about this, but I actually didn't mind the keyboard feel at all (and I'm using an Asus Zenbook Prime, non-touch model w/ matte screen). Color choice, material choice, and the bad visibility of the keys is an issue, but I didn't mind the feeling of typing on it at all.

My one big fault, and the reason I returned it (and this is just for me personally) is that I could very easily see the vertical lines of the touch panel on the display -- especially in any white areas. Totally ruined it for me and was a complete annoyance at all times. Some people may not even notice it (or maybe it was just on the unit I got perhaps?), but for me it was immediately noticeable and quite an eye sore. I really haven't sat down to use any other touch panels, so I don't know if this is common among most of them, but for me it was a complete deal breaker.

I know Samsung has a matte non-touchscreen version of the Series 7 Ultra, but I believe this won't be coming to the U.S. at all (maybe because of Series 9), which is quite sad as I would have easily picked that one up and kept it in a heartbeat. I absolutely love the matte screen on my Zenbook and in my opinion trumps the Series 7 Ultra touchscreen.

While I know the new Series 9 will have an updated HD matte screen, I would love to have a Series 7 Ultra w/ a matte screen in order to have the option to easily upgrade the RAM and SSD.

 

@FlyBriUR: Thank you for that input. I always love well argued and reasonable input from multiple sources to balance a discussion.

Have you considered one of last year's Series 7 Chronos models? They're still Ivy bridge; they have one of the best keyboards I ever used (that's subjective, of course); they all have matte screens (which I prefer too); and for non-ultras they really are very compact and have great battery life.

I personally have an older 14 inch NP700Z3A (Sandy Bridge) with a great 1600x900 LCD, 750GB 7200RPM HDD (replaceable with an SSD) and 8GB RAM (upgradeable to 12GB). It is TINY for a 14inch. Viewing angles and colors are not the greatest -- but better than some rumors will have you believe. And I can work outside in direct sunlight. I would buy the newer Ivy Bridge NP700Z3C in a heartbeat -- if I didn't already have this one

Just a thought...

 

I think the reason for the silver keys is design. Most laptops have black keyboards and I think Samsung wanted to make this prettier by matching the keys with the rest of the board. In that respect they have succeeded as it does look very pretty. I've not really had an issue with the keys/back light although i can see that some would get annoyed in slightly dim conditions. Since updating with SW update and updating the BIOS, I don't seem to have an issue with lights coming on in dim conditions. That might just be because I first used it n a hotel where I noticed that but not at home. Anyway, in completely dark environments it's a treat to use.

If it's really bugging someone, this may be of interest: SAMSUNG Series 7 NP740U3E-A01SG Lettering Keyboard Skin Protector

 

so the "fix" still requires a piece of tape to be applied? or have i misunderstood? if not, a piece of tape should not be the solution and this should still be considered a major design flaw.

 

I see it as a bug in the logic in the BIOS and/or Settings. More precisely, it's a feature which someone in Samsung thought was the right way to code things but users think otherwise. They want more control over the backlight behaviour. If enough people complain then the problem should get fixed.

I would also note that with the Ativ Books are superseding the current range and they appear to have black keyboards which makes the white lettering much more visible.

John

 

thanks for the info John.

any idea when the ATIV 7 (black version) and "new" ATIV 9 are due out? do you think samsung is waiting for haswell before it releases the new 9 series?