It is a great product and gives quality gaming experience. The GTX 675m isn't the best card around anymore but still it holds great power and it is powerful enough to run all games that were released during 2011 at their max settings, It does seem like the graphics card is starting to get left behind as games such as Far Cry 3, Crysis etc. keep pushing the limits of pc gaming, but I can say that this graphics card will also be able to give you a great experience through those graphically intense games.
But enough about graphics, a laptop offers more than just that and I can say that this laptop delivers. The Dolby Home Theater sound system is great and it gives clear quality sound, great for gaming if you do not like using headphones, the system itself is pretty fast thanks to Intel i7 and the keyboard is one of the most comfortable ones I've ever used.
The screen is excellent, it is large and gives great color and brightness, I can say that it is one of the best screens out there for laptops, it even could be the best, the 1080p display does not disappoint especially the 120Hz support gives us beautiful fluent visuals. 4 USB inputs and all sorts of other ones such as VGA, HDMI etc. give great support for multimedia needs. Like that was't enough it also comes with a Blueray disc reader. The laptop also presents us with different modes with different situations, library, reading, balanced and gaming. All modes have their own different settings and work great.
The only problem I had with this laptop was that it has windows 8. Now, I am aware of the hate against the OS but after you get used to it, it is obvious that under the hood it's very similar to the other windows OS's and it even provides us with more variety since it supports apps. I have a Kobo account for books and it's great that I can use it with my computer to read books along with other apps such as Comixology and Tunein Radio. It can be confusing at first sight but once you get used to it Windows 8 won't be causing you much trouble anymore and you may even start liking it. But there are still some glitches here and there which I'm sure will be taken care of in time. It is a fast OS and with patience to learn, it can be satisfying.
This laptop for it's price gives more to it's buyers than other laptops do. I was actually torn between this and the Alienware M17x and decided to go with this since it had more features for the price. But it is still a fact that the Alienware M17x presents a more capable graphics card, yet like I said, the GTX 675m is still pretty capable, combined with the 16 gigs of RAM and the Core i7 this laptop is ready for gaming. If you know how to Overclock and also use the Razer Game Booster application you'll get even greater results. At the moment I tried out a few games such as Saints Row The 3rd and Crysis 2 and I am pleased with the performance. Saints Row the 3rd can be played at max settings on 1080p like butter and Crysis 2 with Vsync turned off never dips under 40.
If you are looking for the absolute graphics beast laptop, than you should try out an Alienware which will probably breakdown fast on you and won't be presenting other features than just graphics. But if you are looking for a laptop that is strong on all the fields, speed, ram, graphics, sound, memory, picture etc. than I'd say give this one a chance because it deserves attention. Plus if you are not satisfied you can always do a return and than get yourself another laptop. I hope this review has been helpful.
Games I've tried so far:
Crysis 2: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, I advice keeping Vsync turned off.
Assassin's Creed 3: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, I advice Anti-Aliasing on normal.
Saints Row The 3rd: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed.
Just Cause 2: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, I advice keeping Anti-Aliasing around Off to 4X.
Hitman Absolution: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, keep Anti-Aliasing and Vsync turned off.
Rage: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed.
Call of Duty Black Ops 2: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed.
Alan Wake: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, I advice keeping Anti-Aliasing off.
The Amazing Spider-man: Can be Played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, I advice keeping Vsync turned off and Anti-Aliasing on low.
Farcry 3: It is slow on 1080p with all settings maxed, I advice playing on High settings with Anti-Aliasing and Vsync turned off or playing using Dx9. Otherwise you can experiment with the settings to see wether you can get 30+ FPS by lowering specific settings.
Max Payne 3: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, keep MSAA turned off.
Serious Sam 3: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, I advice keeping Vsync turned off.
So far so good, no game gave me issues except for Farcry 3 and I believe that is mostly due to the games' bad optimization for mobile Gpu's. I advice keeping AA and Vsync off as much as you can on 1080p since AA does not make much difference on such resolution and if a game supports it play using 120Hz refresh rate because it's definitely much better than the average 60Hz refresh rate.
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UPDATE: after about three weeks of not too heavy use, the backspace key fell off. Samsung wanted me to mail it to a repair station in Texas. Still within the return period, so I'm sending it back to Amazon to get another one. Despite the problem, willing to try another one of these; otherwise, it's a great piece of kit. Worst part of it, honestly, are the HDDs, but they seem to be easily changeable.
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I've had this laptop for about a day, and so this is by necessity a first impression; I'll update it later once I've had it longer.
The build quality is superb. I'm not sure if there's any metal in this, but it's high-quality plastic with an attractive finish. The images don't really show that the visible surfaces when the lid is open are a shiny brushed gunmetal gray. It looks and feels good. The shiny closed lid is also good-looking, but picks up fingerprints like crazy. Not really a big deal for me.
The keyboard is perhaps the best laptop keyboard I've ever used. The keys are dished and fairly long-travel, and are probably as close to the feel of a separate, desktop keyboard as is possible to get on a laptop. The keyboard layout is reasonably full, though there doesn't appear to be any way to send a BREAK without remapping. This is only really a concern for software developers using the standard keybindings in debuggers.
The screen, as others have said, is beautiful. Samsung's a big maker of laptop displays as well as monitors and flat-screen TVs, and this laptop is a great advertisement for their quality. It's bright, desktop-like, with great color and clarity.
The graphics chipset is capable of running World of Warcraft on 'Ultra' graphics settings at 60fps+, even in 40-per-side battlegrounds and 25-man raids. That's about as demanding as I get with graphics, and it's wholly up to the task. There are more expensive laptops with the more powerful NVIDIA GeForce GFX 675MX or 680M chipsets out there, but none of them are this affordable, and most of them make worse compromises in terms of weight, size, heat and looks.
Don't mistake, this is a big laptop. However, its styling hides its bulk quite effectively, and the wedge shape means it's comfortable to type on. It's also substantially smaller and lighter than the Alienware 17" offerings, let alone the 18" behemoth.
I thought before getting it that the rotary mode switch on the side was a gimmick, but it's actually quite useful. The settings for each mode are very customizable, and the modes are well-chosen to match common laptop usages. Certainly a lot easier than digging in Control Panel to switch between power modes!
When not in Game mode, this laptop is also admirably subtle. It doesn't scream 'Gamer Laptop!' unless you want it to, unlike most alternatives. You could take this into a sober business meeting and not draw too much attention.
If I had to carry this around every day, it'd probably be too heavy, but my personal laptop usage is as a movable desktop replacement, and this fits the bill. It can be easily packed up and moved, but it needs a substantial backpack and you certainly feel the weight.
For my needs, this is the perfect machine. The only real criticism I could lay on it is that it would be majorly improved by having SSD options, but I suspect the next revision of the hardware will. It does have a small caching SSD onboard, however.
Strongly recommended for the demanding user seeking a desktop replacement with no compromises on computing power and wanting something a bit more subtle than an Alienware.
Best Deals for Samsung Series 7 Gamer NP700G7C-S02US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)
Just received my Samsung Series 7 Gamer today which arrived on time with satisfactory packaging. Laptop looks very nice from an aesthetic standpoint and boots/ runs faster than my desktop does. The dial feature on the side to change between modes feels a little unnecessary but fun so no point in taking off points for that. WASD keys lighting up red from the normal blue of the keys in gaming mode is a nice feature as I've sometimes had difficulty locating my home keys at night ! Also purchased a cooling pad for my laptop, running World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria and League of Legends on maximum settings without difficulty, staying cool easily. Whereas my desktop would get start skipping on max settings in WoW: MoP the Samsung Series 7 Gamer seems not to have any trouble, only minor skip when changing zones etc. where there is a mass overhaul of environment but lasts no longer than a moment. Top of case tends to attract fingerprints rather quickly, just pulling it out of the packaging I already had several fingerprints from where I gripped it ! But then again, fingerprints scuff everything so no complaints there. A nice price-tag but I wanted to treat myself to a nice laptop for gaming (which I spend a lot of time doing) and it does not disappoint! Also, I did a lot of research prior to my purchase and to get similar builds I could not find a lower price !
Honest reviews on Samsung Series 7 Gamer NP700G7C-S02US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)
It's about a year now since I've used this laptop and guess what. It's still amazing as ever.
I get to play all the awesome games like heart of the swarm, bioshock, call of duty, dead island riptide etc, and they all run smooth, and laptop is very silent and never gets hot.
But by the way, the reason why I'm updating this review is because mostly people talk about the specs, but I wanted to talk more about how comforting physically it is to use this laptop. The laptop has a keyboard that almost feels like typical desktop keyboard with an actual satisfying feeling of press and guys with big hands like me can use it. Most thin form factor laptops use pebble style like macbook. There's no problem using such keyboards, but this samsung gamer laptop has one super comfortable keyboard. Hours of usage and your wrists arent tired compared to flat style laptops. I just hope Samsung comes up with a new gaming laptop and I would definitely up for that one as well.
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So I've used the laptop since last August, and here's my opinion so far.
1. Hardware
pros
-fantastic screen clarity and brightness, size
-keyboard not cut down to fit laptop, but feels just like typical desktop keyboards (very comfortable)
-Dual cooler. it sometimes got slightly warm, but you'd never feel hot. great cooling system. but it does get hot when you play in a warm, hot environment. just play far away from the heater (obviously).
-speaker is fairly great and decent with light bass. it's at a decent level that unless you got a nice subwoofer speaker from bose, laptop's own speaker would suffice your usage.
cons
-heavy. even though I knew it was going to be heavy and big, I thought I could carry it around for work to other states. turns out it's better not to attempt that. can be considered as thick and heavy. power bar is the size of a brick.
-there's lighted up turbo icon above the keyboard. it has no use but doesn't really look cool either. different design or something cooler on next version.
final thoughts on hardware
-very sturdy and greatly designed laptop that can be used for a long period of time without discomfort that only downside is its thickness and size, but pros cover cons.
2. Features
-they got those four modes using dials. you will never use it. at least I didn't. always put them on game mode because I play games, but didn't really feel much difference and feels fussy switching whenever you're word typing and then play crysis, etc etc.
3. Power
-After 6 months of heavy, very heavy usage, everything still boots up instant, and loading is fast. I can still easily run Farcry3 on high and that applies to basically any games. there are no limits to this machine in current era. whatever you want to play will be playable on midhigh to very high.
Conclusion
-After several months, the laptop still greatly satisfies me, and always feels very comfortable to use.
who is this for: heavy gamers, or IT employees requiring processing power. or if you want something really cool at a decent and cheaper price from Amazon
who should stay way: people who want to travel with it often.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Samsung Series 7 Gamer NP700G7C-S02US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)
I was kinda hesitant about buying a laptop to replace my 4 year old media/gaming pc. I wanted something that I could connect to my tv in the living room for my main source of entertainment since I play a reasonable amount of games and use Hulu for shows. Also I wanted something that I could take with me and have the same great experience on the road. As of right now I have my gaming mouse and keyboard connected to the device. When setting up Windows, the keyboard on the laptop felt really well positioned and very east to type on. The screen on this looks amazing and a lot of my friends that see it can vouch for that. Being that its a Samsung screen i'm not surprised on how great it looks. What I'm more shocked about is that Samsung makes a great laptop. Ive owned a few Samsung devices in the past such as tvs, phones, and tablets and loved them all. When it came to computing I always stayed with my "goto" brands HP or Asus. Its only been about a week of owning this and I've thrown Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Guild Wars 2, Torchlight 2, and Deus Ex Human Revolution at it and it seems to run everything on high really well with a high frame rate. I was kind of amazed on how good Guild Wars 2 ran because for some reason that game benchmarks a bit low on other systems. I was getting a reasonable 50-60 fps in major hubs so no complaints there. All in all I know for $1500 I could have built a pretty monster PC but I wanted the mobility and I believe I made the right choice. If your looking for a great laptop this is hands down the best price I've seen and I'm glad that Samsung is stepping up to the plate in gaming mobility.
