I bought this laptop on the 30th not from Beach Camera, but from a nearby Micro Center (though I have purchased something from Beach Camera and was pleased with the experience). First time I saw her, I said 'I do' (not to be corny lol).
Let me say this: there's a reason why the Samsung 9 Series was so popular at CES 2011.
I'm going to start with the looks of this laptop (shocking beginning for this brief review, wouldn't you say?). The first thing I said to my self after opening the box was, "WOW! This is truly a work of art." It definitely is a work of art, even the box was stunning. The metal look, the silver trim on the sides, and the thinness creates an absolutely stunning looking laptop. To top it off, I like how the Samsung logo isn't 'in your face.' I feel like so many companies now constantly try to put their logo all over the laptop - Samsung has it tucked to the side for pleasant viewing. The ports are also in the 'looks'/hardware category for me. The ports are tucked into secret compartments on both sides of the laptop. For those afraid those may become loose over time, it doesn't seem that way to me - they are very sturdy. The duraluminum body is magnificent - it is sturdy and will be able to withstand a lot of use. The battery life is also very nice - lasts a looong time, especially for this category of laptop.
As for the inside of the laptop, the fantastic look/hardware factors continue. The screen is beautiful, and its matte screen is just what I was looking for. The webcam performs just as you would expect. It's a webcam. The keys seem solid and feel like they will last quite some time. I like how difficult it would be to accidentally remove a key while using it (unlike my previous Dell Inspiron 1525 where I was always weary about that happening). When pushing on the plastic (yes, plastic) between the keys, there seems to be very little movement, demonstrating the strength of the keyboard. As for typing, everything feels great - little to no learning curve to type like a pro again!
Now comes the touchpad. First few uses were fantastic. It really feels natural using it. Moving two of your fingers up/down scrolls through a webpage (however, it seems not as smooth as on a Mac, sorry to say), four fingers DOWN minimizes everything ("very nice!", using a Borat voice), and four fingers UP will put you into aero - windows' eye-candy for switching between open applications (though I'll just stick with ALT+TAB). Also, the touchpad is large, which is very nice. Imagine a normal touchpad with left and right buttons, but not separated from each other, and made of very good quality = very natural feeling while using it (hope this was clear enough...); left click is bottom left, right click is bottom right, as usual. After the first few uses, I started running into problems, but this problem hasn't occurred for awhile (see my minor gripes at the end of this review).
Overall, though, I was pleasantly surprised with the touchpad's performance.
This baby boots really fast thanks to its SSD. I experience little lag while computing (i.e. browsing, office, and video viewing). Eventually, I'll probably uninstall most of the bloatware Samsung supplied. Also, I'll probably dualboot Linux soon, as I have been using that for a few years and am used to it (I can only imagine the boot speed after installation O.o).
Here are some of my minor gripes (I didn't think the sum of these deserved a negation of a star): touchpad has been unresponsive a few times for like 5 minutes each time (I reinstalled the touchpad driver...hasn't happened since, though I don't know if this was because of the driver I installed - may have just needed a little more use to function properly), attracts fingerprints, no media keys (not a big deal), and no light on the outside showing that it is charging (also not a big deal).
Not a very organized review, so I'm sorry lol. But for those looking for something to read about it, I hope I supplied a decent enough review. Samsung Series 9 NP900X3A-A03US 13.3-Inch Laptop (Black)
Got mine from the Microsoft Store, where they have their "Signature". So this unit comes clean (they remove the bloatware for you).
First impressions:
Quite impressive. It is gorgeous, it is light, it is sturdy.
It's an elegant piece of hardware. It's not "look at me". It just exudes elegance with its lines and color.
The weight is quite amazing. Obviously, not as light as a tablet (I own an ipad), but for a laptop, core i5, it's quite amazing they packed so much power into such a small form factor.
The material they used for this is impressive. I can hold the laptop with one hand on one of the sides, like it was a tablet, and the laptop does not bend at all.
Performance:
I also have an Envy 17 from work, with core i7 (first gen) with 6gb RAM. So far, performance has been quite comparable. The fact that this baby has SSD helps a ton. It "feels" speedier than my Envy. You can check benchmark tests on other blogs/sites, but from a user perspective (I'm s software engineer, so I always have Visual Studio open with multiple other programs), you'll feel almost no difference compared to a machine with higher specs (I haven't tested video encoding, etc, but for most users, I expect that's a minor part of their use).
Because this is a "travel" laptop and it has work related stuff, I've encrypted the system drive with TrueCrypt. Did not notice any performance hit.
Heat:
My envy 17 is HOT. I mean REALLY HOT. The desk it sits atop gets quite warm on the left side where the vent is. But I can place this computer on my lap and it barely feels warm.
Trackpad:
I'm a mouse guy. Even with laptops, I'm always using a mouse. However, given the limited number of usb ports on this machine, I've decided to give the trackpad a try. It's quite comfortable. I still rather use the mouse, but the single panel trackpad (that's clickable) is good enough for me to use full time. Microsoft, with its Signature, removed the multi touch features. I've only realized that after I read reviews here mentioning them, so I went to the control panel and enabled them. They're awesome. Three fingers click makes it much easier (for me) to use this track pad.
Keyboard:
I'm also a natural keyboard guy (the one that has the keys you're supposed to use with your left hand separated from the right). I'm typing this review on the laptop's keyboard. While not as comfortable as my natural keyboard, where I don't have to bend my wrists to type, this keyboard feels quite nice as well. Probably wouldn't use it for long typing tasks, but for the most part, it should work well.
Battery:
Excellent battery life. Professional blogs will give you more detailed battery tests. But as a regular user, I can tell you, you'll get quite a few hours of use. Really, quite impressive. My Envy 17 can barely hold 2 hours of work on a charge. Most of the time, I'm plugging that monster in after an hour. This one, feels almost like my ipad. I can get a full day of work on a single charge.
Unfortunately, I couldn't see an easy way to replace its battery. I'll confess that I haven't read the manual or user guide. Just booted and started using it. But from the looks of it, you'll have to use a screwdriver to replace its battery, if that's even possible.
SSD:
This is my first system with a SSD. Unfortunately, the recovery partition takes some 20Gb, so you're left with 99.9Gb of available space. So you'll need to be careful with what you put in your system.
Overview:
This is an excellent piece of hardware. But, obviously, not a desktop replacement. It's not intended to be one. I leave my Envy 17 at work and bring it home occasionally, but now that I have this laptop, I don't think I'll be bringing that bad boy home anymore.
What I would change: Replace the micro SD with a full SD slot. Most digital cameras (that I'm aware of) still use SD cards.
UPDATE (04/29/2011):
I was able to watch a full NBA Playoff Game on TV and write some code (probably not the best code I've written) on a single charge. I still had plenty of battery life left. The light weight and battery life made this quite comfortable; something I couldn't have done before with my previous computers.
I will install Photoshop Elements and a game (possibly StarCraft 2) this weekend and update this review.
UPDATE (05/09/2011):
Regarding the heat. It will generate more heat if you're doing video intensive tasks. I wasn't able to place the laptop directly on my lap after a while watching several videos.
Regarding backlighting keyboard: Not really an issue with the laptop itself, but if you use Truecrypt to encrypt the whole system drive, the backlighting won't work on the truecrypt password screen. So if you're trying to use your computer in the dark bedroom while your wife is sleeping, you better know where your keys are in the keyboard :)
But after you're past truecrypt and into Windows, you'll be fine.
I have installed Photoshop Elements and Lightroom. No performance issues whatsoever.'
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