Samsung Notebook 9 NP900X3N (i5-7200U, FHD) Laptop Review

[Redaktion]

Lightest and brightest 13-inch Ultrabook. The Notebook 9 series continues to impress with yet another super lightweight offering for $1000 USD. The 13-inch notebook omits a few key features compared to more popular alternatives, but some can be easily overlooked for the everyday user.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Samsung-Notebook-9-NP900X3N-i5-7200U-FHD-Laptop-Review.244542.0.html

[digitalguy]

I have the i7 version of this and have a couple of remarks.
1. The weight of my unit is 775 grams, on the same scales my surface pro 3 (without keyboard) is 812 grams. Is it the i7 version that is lighter?
2. The sound on my unit is great. Were you playing at 100%? (if resets to 37 whenever you plug a headphone). Have you tested the audio settings (music, game, etc:)? The volume is noticebly louder than that of my surface pro 3 and it beats my other PCs, only the ipad pro 12.9 beats it (slightly).
3. I don't know how much more powerful is the i7 and if the fan is any louder, but there is a silent mode, that throttles the CPU speed, turning it in a sort of Core M, which is great when you want silence.
3. As for using the USB C charging, I have done a lot of tests and here are the results:
it will adapt to voltage, if you use a 5volt charger it will get up to 12 watts with a UBS A port (which is not enough to charge it, but it will discharge very slowly and can last for very long if there is enough battery power), and 15 watts from a usb C port (5v3a), which can often hold the charge and sometimes even recharge it slowly. Now if you use a more powerful charger, like that of the mac, it will charge almost as fast the original charger. I also tested with a laptop powerbank where you can change the voltage and at 12v it draws up to 26 watts (for example when running cinebench), which is generally enough to charge the battery while using it. I haven't tested higher voltages as I am afraid I could fry it.... Anyway the usb port can be very powerful if your charger is more than 5volts.
Still the fact that you can extend the battery life significantly even with a 5000mah pocket powerbank is enough for me not to worry about the 5-6 hours battery life (and with my 20000mah powerbank I could travel to Australia and use the pc for 24 hours...).

[digitalguy]

A quick update concerning UBS C charging
The laptop takes any voltage up to 20v and at 20v it seems to charge as fast as the proprietary charger. And it's compatible with quick charge. So a phone charger or powerbank with quick charge will charge it at up to 18watt, which holds the charge for most uses.
So the sentence "The system can also be charged via its USB Type-C port like a smartphone, but this merely extends battery life due to the limited power delivery." is wrong. USB C charging depends on the charger and power delivery can be very high. It goes from 5v, to quick charge 12v, to 20v and with a mac pro charger for instance it is as fast as the original charger.

[dthrp]

Please review the 13/15" Notebook 9 Pro convertible laptops as well. They have decent batteries for little weight that deserves more recognition.

[digitalguy]

For little weight? They are half a kilo heavier... which for the 13.3" version is over 60% heavier.... and in the 15" one the battery is smaller than the non pro... but sure, a review would be most welcome! I do hope Samsung will make a lighter version of those convertibles however, ideally with a 3:2 screen

[dthrp]

Sorry I should have clarified. I meant relatively lower weight compared to a lot of alternatives. That they use S-Pen that are Wacom EMR compatible and mac like bright, anti-glare glossy displays, I thought were particularly interesting for business note-takers and artists' alike.
I have always been a fan of Samsung and LG since they are among the best component suppliers. Now that they are stepping into the western laptop market once more I think we should take a closer look at what innovation their abundant R&D could potentially offer.

[Bruce Bradley]

these should be recalled for the crap materials of the display a hard sneeze. And the inner layers of glass shatter 3 out of 4 that bought shattered the fourth is in a shell case with extra protection wile carting it around