Q-See QS558-1 8 Channel Full D1 Smart Recording DVR

Stream Live Video Directly to a remote MAC or PC, iPhone, iPad, or Android. Receive email alerts upon motion detection.
Receive email alerts upon motion detection.
Remote Internet monitoring (up to 5 users at the same time)
Customize up to 8 cameras
Includes Pre-installed 1 TB Hard Drive

The Q-See QS558 DVR is a quality home or small business security tool that will work well for you if you know its limitations. I have tested and installed numerous CCTV DVRs and found this one has quite a few bells and whistles for the price point. See details below or the PROS/CONS list for more. (See my photos under this product for more info too.)

It is an 8 channel DVR with H.264 video compression. That means it can record up to 8 analog cameras of your choosing, including audio if the camera supports it. The H.264 means clearer video while using less hard drive space versus older video technologies.

The DVR video output is via VGA, BNC, or HDMI. So you should be able to run a cable to wherever you need to for local monitoring purposes.

The menu system is nice and presents a good resolution. It’s not as clunky as others I’ve seen on other brands. It is easy to navigate through the menus and it even has a built-in startup wizard in the software, which I’ve not seen before on DVRs, in case the included documentation is not enough.

Important features for this DVR are that is can record 30 frame per second (fps) for all 8 channels. That’s good, fluid motion video. It also allows numerous video streams at the same time, so viewing it remotely on your iPhone won’t cannibalize the main video feed. You can stream/record to different places simultaneously without performance loss. (Google `pentaplex’ for more info.)

This DVR also offers motion detection, email alerts for video loss, motion, etc. and multi-user capabilities. You can also run PTZ cameras on it if you wish. Each camera (channel) can be configured for different settings, allowing a fully customizable set up. For example, you may want full D1 resolution at 30fps for street cameras to catch moving vehicles, but half D1 10fps for a side area with little activity.

This DVR is advertised as a universal viewer through software installed on a computer, a web browser, or a smart phone. However, it is not as limitless as it seems. The software can be downloaded and installed on Windows or Mac OS, but the web browser feature is limited. It works on Internet Explorer (IE) 10 and below, but it must install an ActiveX add-on for the IE browser. If you are not an administrator on the computer upon which you’re using, this will not install and it will not work.

Additionally, it shows to support Google Chrome and Firefox browsers, but it does not do so natively. You must download third party add-ons from various individuals to use these browsers. I didn’t like that part. On the up side though, all administrative features were available in the web browser mode as in the software mode.

I installed the iPhone app and tested it out. Be sure to get the viewer app for the series you have (QT, QS, etc) or it won’t work. They have several Q-See viewers, which is a little confusing. Once installed, the app was easy to set up and you can simply swipe left or right to change channels/cameras.

On a side note, I visited the Q-See website to check for firmware updates and it has a good layout with easy to find information and FAQs for the products. The knowledge base was very nice too.

Overall, I’m fairly impressed with the feature set. I do wish they offered better browser support NATIVELY, as well as an option for viewing on a computer where one may not have administrative privileges. But for the price, I would definitely recommend it.

PROS:

* Full D1 resolution on all cameras

* 240fps for full video on all cameras

* Pentaplex multi-streaming capabilities

* iPhone and Android apps available

* Full administrative functions/configuration available via web browser

* HDMI, BNC, and VGA ports

* Can record audio as well

* H.264 video compression = good video at low space requirements

* Motion detection, alarm trigger, or scheduled recording

* Windows 8 and IE 10 compatible

* Small form factor case can be discreetly hidden

CONS:

* Internet Explorer users must have admin rights on computer

* No native Firefox or Chrome support. (requires 3rd party add-ons)

* Motion detection mask blocks could be smaller to allow more finite blocking of a particular area.

Buy Q-See QS558-1 8 Channel Full D1 Smart Recording DVR Now

This is my first video surveillance system so I can’t really compare it to others. However, for the price I think it was a pretty good deal. For the most part I like the entire system… I think the cameras are adequate for this price range, the DVR interface (both directly connected via monitor as well as through an IE browser) seems to be pretty nice and user-friendly.

My only complaint (and it is kind of a big one): At some point I noticed that the DVR had gone from recording only during motion (the way I configured it) to recording virtually 24/7 on all connected channels. After trying some of my own troubleshooting, I finally emailed Q-See support to try and figure out what was going on. Overall their support is okay, but as with many products, don’t expect real help with highly technical problems. I’d consider myself very knowledgeable with gadgets like these and I don’t generally ask for help unless I’ve exhausted everything I could think of which is typically way beyond first level support. The first responses to my query were to be expected: Check your settings, reboot, reset to defaults, etc. Eventually they did find the problem but it was not what I wanted to hear. The problem turned out to be due to having the recording quality set to D1 as opposed to CIF.

One reason I chose this model is because it can record in full D1 resolution, but unfortunately this apparently “breaks” the motion detection option which causes it to record all the time. The problem with that is 1) It makes it much harder to spot “events” when reviewing recorded footage, 2) It wastes considerably more HDD space resulting in previous recordings getting overwritten much sooner than they needed to be and 3) IMO, more wear and tear on the HDD.

When I told them that I wanted D1 resolution *and* motion recording, they said that they can only forward my findings to their programmers and *if* they can reproduce it (and *if* they can fix it), then they will release a firmware update. While I wouldn’t expect it this soon, for those interested, it is 3/18/2013 so any firmware update that may fix it would be released after this date.

So overall I like the system but for now I am stuck recording at a lower resolution than I would like only because motion recording doesn’t work at full D1.

Hopefully they will fix it with an update soon.

Read Best Reviews of Q-See QS558-1 8 Channel Full D1 Smart Recording DVR Here

This is my third surveillance system. My first was a Q-See 8 channel with 4 cameras. It works fabulously. The second system I bought was a Swann, and compared to the Q-See, it doesn’t measure up. So, needing a third system for the property I manage, I am getting another Q-See.

Q-See DVR is top quality. It’s very easy to record, search for events, and backup just specific sections of a recording to a flash drive.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that this system’s DVR has some features that I hadn’t even thought about before I bought it. In addition to the usual BNC to RCA cable, the ethernet port and cable, vga port and 2 usb ports, it also has HDMI output plus an HDMI cable, and an ESATA port for connecting an external SATA HDD.

Also, the indicator lights on the front are a pleasant pale green, which is so much better than that glaringly bright blue that DVRs normally have. This makes a big difference to me since I keep one system in my bedroom. Normally, I cover the front lights with tape, but with this one I don’t have to.

Fortunately I had a camera scanning the entrance to our community and was able to catch a man breaking and entering a truck parked near the entrance. The tenant hadn’t locked his truck so the thief was able to grab the tenant’s stereo system from the truck and run. Luckily, I was able to show the police the entire event on camera and handed the officer the recording on a flash drive. The theft occured just after dusk, so the infrared night vision was on, and still, the quality was good enough for the police to identify the thief.

Here’s a tip I’d like to pass along:

We have a large property with 4 separate buildings. I’d been struggling to figure out how to run cable to put up cameras all over the property. I even contacted ADT to get an estimate. It was astounding what they wanted to charge!!! Over $20,000.00 to put up just 6 cameras and monitor them!! GEEZ!

I finally realized that all I need to do is to set up separate systems in each building’s utility closet, drill 1 hole in the wall to run the cables to the roof and ‘voila!’ DONE! No trenches to dig, no long cables to run underground and under concrete sidewalks!!

The reason this works is because I discovered that just about the only time I review the video is after the fact. You can just about NEVER watch a crime in real time. So, far better to have video surveillance everywhere and be able to provide the police with the recordings.

In my opinion, Q-See is the best system around, and I’m sticking with this brand. Customer service has been excellent, too. I only needed to call them once for a little advice when I first started, then everything is really easy so I don’t need to call anymore.

UPDATE!!

One big caution: I learned the hard way that the DVR is preset to motion sensor ON. This is the first CCTV DVR I ever purchased from Q-SEE that was set like this. I had thought that something was wrong with the hard drive, that it was not recording right.

When I reviewed all of the settings, I found out about the motion sensor setting and realized why my recordings had blank spots. Once I set it to Motion Sensor OFF, everything is working fine.

I don’t like to use motion sensor. However, if you do prefer to use it, I still recommend that you check the settings and make sure they are set the way you like it. This system is very versatile, so you can do lots with it!

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I purchased this QS558 DVR a week ago, based on a balanced approach between cost and other user reviews. I have it set to record only upon motion detection. After a week of use on D1 quality, the major problem is the “advanced motion detection” capability:

When in D1 quality mode, even though no motion is happening in the field of view of the camera(s), the DVR still records…non-stop….

So at this point you might be thinking ‘Oh silly, maybe you just have the sensitivity too high and something triggers DVR to record (like a bird, shadows, etc..etc…). Well let me elaborate further:

In normal view, there is a little red guy/red dot that appears in the lower left corner of the camera(s) when motion is detected and recording starts. This way you can tell if the system is recording/not-recording. I noticed these symbols on the screen even though nothing was moving in the frame of view of the camera. So I investigated further….

In the settings section, under the AREA column, you can mask areas of the camera view where you don’t want motion detection to be seen/activated. When setting this feature, the entire camera view is shown on the display, overlaid with GREEN boxes/grid. When the boxes are green, no motion is detected. When some boxes turn RED, then those boxes detected motion. Under normal operation, when something moves, the boxes enclosing that movement turn RED, whereas the others stay GREEEN.

My problem is that sometimes the entire screen is filled with RED boxes, even though nothing is moving on the screen (shadows, wind/trees, etc…). This in turn records on the hard drive, until it no longer “sees motion” aka the boxes are green and the sensitivity level is matched. Adjusting the sensitivity doesn’t fix this…it just seems to get randomly STUCK in this mode, where it records non-stop for no reason. Even though there is no motion detected, all the boxes are red, therefore triggering non-stop recording.

When it does work properly, it detects motion (based on the sensitivity level you set) and starts recording for the amount of time you set it. If no motion is detected, it does not record…seems straightforward enough.

I just don’t understand what is going on… I have the latest firmware/updates uploaded on the DVR. I tried a reset (load default settings), power cycles, played with sensitivity levels. I lowered the recording quality to CIF and that seemed to help, but then what’s the point of advertising this DVR as full D1 with advanced motion detection when it doesn’t work properly on D1 ??

UPDATE #1: April 2, 2013: I contacted Q-See technical support and they are giving me the basic troubleshooting steps (sensitivity level, firmware, etc…). The only way the DVR records properly during motion is if you put the system in CIF quality mode. Obviously there is a problem between D1 quality and motion detection. I hope they will release a firmware update SOON!!! I also posted another picture to show you the motion detection software when the DVR is in CIF mode and D1 mode…

UPDATE #2: April 2, 2013: Q-See told me that their Software Development team is aware of this issue and are trying to come up with a fix. Hopefully they will have a firmware update out in a few weeks…

UPDATE #3: April 4, 2013: While Q-see is working on this issue, I tried to play around with some settings, see if perhaps something might help (besides CIF quality mode). I noticed that when in D1 mode and the DVR is set to auto-maintain every day (from the Maintenance section), it records in D1 only when motion is detected. But, occasionally, it records non-stop, even though no motion is detected. This has nothing to do with sensitivity level because all the motion detection boxes/grid on the screen go RED when the problem starts. This D1 -motion detection problem is highly inconsistent and random… I am worried that Q-See will no be able to properly re-create this problem and they will claim that it’s just my imagination, improper sensitivity level, etc..etc..etc…

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This system has the potential to be very good. Cameras have great IR range and resolution, but like several other people reviewing this I quickly discovered that the DVR will randomly switch from motion recording to continuous recording when using D1 resolution. Have been working with tech support for weeks on this to no avail. They even sent me another unit and it did exactly the same thing. Obviously a flaw in the DVR or firmware. Latest firmware does not fix the problem. If you are looking at this system specifically for the ability to do motion recording at full resolution in real time (30 fps), I would have to say look at a different company. If you can live with CIF resolution the system works fine, but that defeats paying the extra cost for real time D1. Hopefully I and everyone else having this issue will get it resolved or I will definitely be done with this company.

LG ANWL100W Digital Device 1080P Media Streamer

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1080p Wireless Transmitter
Wireless Receiver Included
4 HDMI™ (3 back / 1 side)
2 Component AV Input, PC Input, 3.5mm Audio Input
IR Blaster
Physical Characteristics-Depth-8.9
Physical Characteristics-Height-1.7
Physical Characteristics-Width-12.8

I purchased the LG 60pk750 a few weeks ago and love it. I have it wall mounted in a location which is VERY difficult to run wires to. Until now, I have had it temporarily hardwired to my DVR with exposed cable until I found a better way. Enter the “LG AN-WL100W Wireless Media Kit”. I was skeptical about wireless HD, but decided to give it a try after reading the small amount of online reviews. Really not much info available about this product, but did find useful info at Crutchfield and home theater magazine. I hope that this review informs people about this product better.

Functionality:

Before I mounted my TV back on the wall, I decided to test the results through the AN-WL100W (smart, huh). I was actually very surprised… the picture was really good. I watched Discovery HD for a while, flipping between hardwired and wireless and saw NO difference. At times I thought I saw picture degradation, but I would flip back to the hardwired and realized that the source was the problem (broadcast HD is hit or miss). Don’t have my Bluray yet, so this is the best reference I had. Sound was never a problem, though I was just using the TVs tiny speakersI can say that it sounded just like the hardwired. For this test, the head unit was about 4 feet away, directly behind the TV, behind a wall in my garage(drywall-studs-plywood-drywall).

Later, I mounted my TV with the wireless dongle connected and in place, and put the headunit where I planned to keep it, in a AV closet approximately 10 feet from the center of the TV, to the right front of the TV. This time I could not get sufficient signal strength to get picture. I could not believe it! The total distance from the headunit to the dongle was about 12 feetline-of-sight obstacles were a regular interior wall (drywall,studs,drywall), and the TV itself (since the dongle is mounted on the back). The screen would show that it saw the headunit and was tryng to establish picture, but signal strength was too low.

Form:

The product itself is really nice lookingno question. However, I have a huge issue with the dongle size and installation. The dongle is TOO BIG. The AN-WL100W was custom designed for these LG TVs, yet they still managed to allow the dongle to be the tallest protrusion on the back of the set! WTH?!? This is a problem if you are wall-mounting (why else would you buy this product if you were using a stand on a cabinet?). Similarly, the HDMI and control cables which plug into the back of the TV are not designed with 90 angles, so they get all bent and crimped up against the wall too. With so much design going into the electronics of the AN-WL100W, it simply blows my mind that they didn’t make wall-mounting a slam-dunk by making the dongle just a bit thinner and supplying cables with 90 bends!

Summary:

I was hoping that going wireless (and paying $300) would simplify my location situation. I also liked the fact that it had nice IR repeaters and integrated switching controlled by the TV. The signal quality was good at very short ranges, but was useless at about 12 feet with a reasonable obstruction. I don’t know how practical this is, because I think most people shelling out $300 for this are buying it because they might have an obstruction or distance situation. I would have kept fiddling with it if it hadn’t been for the wall-mounting issues mentioned earlier. This sealed the deal for me to return it.

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We have a cable TV set-top box in our master bedroom, along with a home entertainment system. We also have an LG 55LE5400 HD TV against a wall in our living room, with about 35 feet of open space and one normal drywall between the two spaces. I needed a way to get the HD signal from the bedroom, through the wall, to the living room TV, and this looked like it might do the job.

The product description on the LG website includes the statement “The kit sends an uncompressed, full HD 1080p signal to your TV from up to 50 feet away, even through walls and doors.” If this statement were true, my review would read differently. Unfortunately, this did not turn out to be the case, and a red flag went up in my mind when I noted that the documentation provided with the device also included a “recommendation” to “place the Media Box and the TV in the same room”. Since the distance between my living room TV and the Media Box was only 35 feet, I thought it might work adequately. However, mounting the dongle (receiver) on the back of the TV as suggested in the documentation led to an unusable signal strength at the TV, with frequent drop-outs.

After some experimentation, I have settled on positioning the dongle (receiver) flat on the tabletop under the living room TV screen, with the end with the LG logo pointed at the media box, which is behind the wall in the bedroom. The supplied connecting wiring is barely long enough to permit this, but it’s workable, and with the dongle in this position, the signal drop-outs ceased, and picture quality is pretty good.

So, in summary, we’re getting acceptably good performance from the system at a distance of 35 feet through one drywall. There are no other 5Ghz signals in this environment to cause any interference, and the distance between the Media Box and the dongle is all clear space with no furniture or other obstructions. My opinion is that the LG claim of a useful reception distance of 50 feet is exaggerated.

I rated all item “attributes” for this item midto -high except “Protection”, which I did not rate at all due to lack of relevance.

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This product is advertised as wireless HDMI so I was expecting that this product will not alter video quality.

Unfortunately it does compress video and shows artifacts even at very close range.

I did some further testing and saw that the video is not 1080p 60 but doing a 3 frame interpolation, so it is really doing 1080p at 20Hz, which mean it is lossy video compression, also colors are downgraded.

For a product at this price point this is not matching the quality expected from LG’s product line.

Also be aware, the LG TV supports 3D but this product does not.

Anyway I can’t find a good point about this item.

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I got this free with the purchase of an LG Tv. It does exactly what is says, broadcasts HD without wires. I have it hooked up in my living room to my main cable box via an HDMI splitter and the TV is in my bedroom. The signal does transmit through the wall with out much trouble and the picture is normally perfect. I had some troubles after I mounted the wireless receiver to the back of the TV. LG reccommends the placement but you may want to play around with it before settling on a spot. I moved it a couple inches and now the signal seems to be coming in fine. I did have to get another remote from my cable company for their box, the LG remote wont work with it throught the wireless media kit, the cable remote does just fine. Over all I am really happy with this unit, especially since it was free!

——————Up Date—————

For some reason after several months the signal does not reach my television. Nothing has changed as far as location but some how the signal has become too weak to be recognized. Not sure what has happened…

—————-Up Date—————–

Cut a hole in the wall and ran the wires from our living room cable box to the unit into our bedroom. Did not need to buy new cables, the onles included with the unit were long enough. Must have been a streaming issue with the wall blocking the signal. With the unit now in the same room on separate walls the TV and unit are less than 15 feet apart. Everything is working perfectly now.

—————Up Date————

The unit died again. It cannot send an uninterrupted signal to the TV even with the unit being in the same room as the TV and with a clear line of site. I loved the concept so much when it was working I bought a new unit, it was cheaper than sending it in for repair. Once installed the new unit acted the same as my old unit. The signal pulsed on and off and would not work properly. I sent the unit back for a full refund. I’m very upset as I loved how things worked when they were working. Back to the drawing board!

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This product is great! The picture quality is fantastic! Colors are stunning and the connection is rock solid!

I am streaming wirelessly full HD 1080p 60Hz from my Blu -Ray player to my new 55 inch LG LED TV and the quality is just as good as a top-of-the-line HDMI cable. In fact, I tested it just to be sure, and I could not tell the difference between HDMI and wireless. I can have all my A/V devices hidden in my media center cabinet and wirelessly send the video to the TV across the room. The receiver unit is small and hidden behind the TV, and it gets its power from the TV. So my set up is now clean of unnecessary cables and picture quality is superb.

Great Product! highly recommended!

Educational Insights Wireless Eggspert (7881)

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The wireless game system that turns review lessons into EGG-citing games
2 ways to play – “Quiz Show” and “Wheel of Fortune”
Six colorful eggs light up, flash, buzz, beep, and talk!
Wireless teacher remote and 6 wireless student response buttons
For any grade or subject
New and improved best-selling product
Includes Wireless Eggspert, six wireless student buttons, wireless teacher remote and guide
2.4 GHz for the fastest, most reliable transmissions

Insight’s Wireless Eggspert was to be their next generation in affordable game buzzer line. The concept is solid, as can be see by their Educational Insight Eggspert product, but it falls short on the transmitter to receiver end.

This product’s main attraction is the wireless Answer Buttons (buzzers) which is specified to have a 20-30′ range. Unfortunately the product was shipped to me with only 3 of the six Answer Buttons working fully and the other three working intermediately. Normally I would say this is just a product defect and requested an exchange, but in this case I also found out that when activated at the same time, only the blue buzzer would ring up. i.e. if more than one buzzer was pushed it didn’t matter which on came in first if the blue buzzer was pushed within a couple of seconds of the others the blue buzzer would win out.

I think this product still has great potential but Insight needs to make sure their production line units all meet the same standards as the original wired version of this product. Until this happens I can’t give this product any more that one star. Hopefully in a year this will improve and I can take back this review.

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I was concerned about purchasing the wireless eggspert for my classroom because of the one bad review it received. I decided to go ahead and try it out and return it if it didn’t work (even though I’d have to pay 6.50 for that). It’s not the most durable thing so I hope no students toss it across the room or drop it too often. It works better the closer the buzzers are to the tower. However, I put fresh batteries in and tried it out. It seemed to work fine. As far as buzzer systems go, it’s cheaper than others. I have no idea how long it will last, but it seems to do the job ok.

Read Best Reviews of Educational Insights Wireless Eggspert (7881) Here

My students love the eggspert. I used another teacher’s last year that used the wires. I bought the wireless and after putting batteries in everything worked except the yellow button. I tried replacing batteries, pushing softly, then harder, nothing. I am now in the process of sending it back.

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Mr. Walczak’s class. I purchased this item because I found the wired units very enjoyable during review games. I experienced very similar problems as everyone else seems to be having. Some of the buttons just don’t seem to work, only my purple button works from more than 5 feet away, but none of the others. The teacher’s remote must be within 2 feet just to clear the lights. And none of the buttons work dependably. This was extremely frustrating for my entire class. Also, the lights do not come with an AC adapter, you have to purchase this separately. For this price, they really should include it. Lastly, in total, you will need 16 batteries to run everything at once. Chargable units makes more sense. This company really needs to put more effort into this product. I higly recomend people not purchasing this item.

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IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

A small percentage of our most recent batch of Wireless Eggspert units has a frequency tuning issue that makes transmission difficult or impossible. This issue has been completely resolved in our newest model, Wireless Eggspert 2.4 GHz. If you are experiencing difficulty with an original Wireless Eggspert unit, please contact info@educationalinsights.com for a replacement 2.4GHz unit, which will be shipped to you in March.

Thank you so much for your patience and understanding. We apologize for any inconvenience this product may have caused you.

Panasonic Lumix SZ7 14.1 MP High Sensitivity MOS Digital Camera (Black)

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I am very satisfied with Lumix DMC-SZ7 digital camera. Its small size makes it easy to slip into a pocket. The 10x zoom works well in both still and movie mode. Unlike other cameras I have used I hear no noise from the zoom mechanism in the movie audio during the replay. Auto focus and image stabilization work well. Previously I used the physically larger DMC-ZS7 camera which included an internal GPS to record position coordinates with the picture. I never used the GPS tagging. The smaller size of the newer SZ7 is far more convenient for me.

I was disappointed that Panasonic chose to not include a separate battery charger with the SZ7. Instead, the charger is built into the camera with power supplied by a USB cable. I did some digging and found that other Lumix cameras use the same battery as the SZ7, model DMW-BCK7. Those cameras list Panasonic battery charger model DE-A91BA as an accessory. This charger plugs into an AC wall outlet and has a receptacle that holds the battery being charged. I ordered one of these from Amazon and it charged the SZ7′s battery. I can now continue to use the camera with a second battery while the other battery is in the DE-A91BA charger.

I have tried probably 10 cameras between $120 and $250 over the past few months, looking for myself and my wife each a new camera.

Through stores and by borrowing from friends and family, I understand what is out there, and let me tell you there are several duds and a few winners, but most are very competent outdoors, with decent indoor video if you dont compare to a $400 vidcam, and only passable for low light.

That being said, I now own a Lumix ZS15 (grade A-) and this SZ7 (B+) is for my wife who uses iAuto mostly.

This SZ7 beats Canon Elph300 (B) and SX160 (B+ but heavy), Samsung PL210(B or B-) Sony HX70(B-), and Nikon 6300 (B-).

PROS: Very good Auto results, good Program Mode (SZ7 calls it Normal mode ).

Very usable low-light no-flash with Auto, and even better if you use the “Scene” mode called “Hi-Sensitivity” set at 3mp… where you can get speeds set by the camera according to conditions speeds from ISO 2000 all the way to 6400!! Sure, some other cameras will push ISO (also at lower mp’s ), but usually only with a single jump from 1600 to 3200, with no stops in between, and nothing above 3200! Granted, these high ISO pics will be grainy, but so were the old film cameras with pushed ISO. You will have a photo when no one else could get their under-$200 camera to capture any picture at all !

Very good outdoor video, and better than most indoor video, with no hiss.

Very good zoom better than any other camera in its price range by a lot very smooth and with no clicking recorded into the audio.

CONS: Flash underpowered. UPDATE 10-21-12 : This lil cam has a feature not found on many cameras at 2 or 3 times its price: It can use the +/exposure (on the top of the rear control ring) to make flash pics brighter and dimmer. It will change the ISO being used with the flash, even in Auto mode. You can therefore control the “output” brightness when using flash. I don’t know of any other cam near this price that can do this, plus push iso to 6400 in special non-flash situations. What a combination !! A great camera for art and natural history museums.

The SZ7 has no A,S,or M settings for manual control. (Get the Lumix ZS15 or Canon SX260.)

Overall picture quality is nice in Auto, and better when you learn the +/and ISO properly. But the output is not for 8×10 or larger. This can be said for every cam in the price range, but I just want you to hear it from a real admirer of the SZ7 for what this camera CAN do.

SUMMARY: Best camera out there at this price, or $50 higher, for all-around, carry-everywhere performance…4.2 out of 5 stars.

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This is my sixth Panasonic Lumix, I like to upgrade now and then and when I saw Panasonic came out with an affordable MOS sensor camera I had to have it. OK, it doesn’t have full manual control like other Lumix cameras I’ve owned, but I rarely used the manual settings other than Aperture Priority to get a blurred background. Intelligent Auto (iA) is normally where I leave the setting anyhow.

Features of this camera I love:

-WOW! Fastest camera I’ve ever owned, not only on start-up, but SUPER fast shutter response, and fast recycling to take the next photo.

-Leica lens, one of the best lens manufacturers.

-You can optically zoom during the video.

-The size is not TOO small, yet not too big JUST RIGHT! This is a small camera, but not what I consider to be an ultra-compact where there is NO place to grab onto, those tiny ultra-compact cameras are too easy to drop! This SZ7 is the perfect size.

-Metal body although it feels like plastic, I read on another site that it’s aluminum, good build quality.

-Fantastic photos, HD videos in stereo!

-Pretty decent in low light settings.

-Miniature Effect: I find I use this quite a lot for a blurred background.

-Panoramic feature is the best I’ve used.

Features I’m not crazy about but I can learn to live with:

-Black is the only color choice here, I’m tired of black cameras.

-A mode dial on top would have been nice, instead of menus, at least there is a separate movie button on top.

-No separate battery charger, this is the first Panasonic camera I’ve owned where the battery is charged inside the camera, it must be a cost-cutting measure for Panasonic.

I recommend getting a Class 10 SDHC card if you’re using your camera for videos, the quality is better and they cost only a couple dollars more than a Class 4 or Class 6 card.

My recommended Class 10 Card: Transcend 16 GB SDHC Class 10 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC10E

My recommended semi-hard camera case: Lowepro Volta 20 Camera Case (Black)

I’ve used this case for many of my cameras, there isn’t much padding but the semi-hard exterior makes up for less padding.

Read Best Reviews of Panasonic Lumix SZ7 14.1 MP High Sensitivity MOS Digital Camera (Black) Here

I really don’t understand some of these reviewers. They buy a nice little point and shoot digital camera and expect it to have the features of a five thousand dollar SLR and high end video all in one. This camera is inexpensive, compact, and produces great pictures indoors without a flash. It also compensates for uneven lighting. I used it outdoors to take pictures of Christmas decorations -it was perfect. I used it indoors to take pictures of gatherings of long-lost relatives. It was perfect with or without a flash. Macro was perfect and zoom was perfect. Sure you can’t take 300 pictures without a battery recharge and you can’t zoom in on something miles away. Maybe you can’t make a huge poster from a picture of a bumblebee taken from ten feet away. But there is really no shutter lag and the pictures really look good. This camera doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not and people who want it to be something it’s not have their head in the sand. It’s a nice little camera perfect for those quick capture moments that are so often missed because you’re busy with all the dials on your fancy Mount Olympus whatever superzoom SLRs. There is a battery indicator so you know up front when you need to recharge AND there is only one cord for downloading pictures and recharging right in the camera. If you want a spare charger and battery it’s available as well. Granted, if you want to use this camera during a category five hurricane outdoors to film your opus, it will probably not do the job. For those who complain about the detailed users manual only being available on line -I don’t use all of those fancy features anyway and the users manual included in the box had enough info for me. Bottom line: I like it!

Want Panasonic Lumix SZ7 14.1 MP High Sensitivity MOS Digital Camera (Black) Discount?

Panasonic SZ-7 Super Compact Digital Camera

The new for 2012 Panasonic SZ-7 (SZ for ‘Stylish Zoom’) is a difficult camera to neatly quantify. It is one of the reasons that assigning stars to a digital camera doesn’t always make sense. Contingent on your own personal needs, the same camera could be a five-star or a zero-star camera. It all depends on what final form your pictures have and what shooting conditions you anticipate.

It takes very little resolution for perfectly pleasing web-based pictures. Although “snapshots” are often a backhanded way of trying to discredit a camera, for many people a photo album of memories, just snapshots, are often as far as it goes. It is as far as it often needs to, as you can only put so many framed 8 x 10s on the wall.

To try to make this a rational review, I’m comparing the 2012 SZ-7 to the 2010 Panasonic ZR-3. Both are diminutive in size and weight, not as wide as a deck of playing cards and slightly longer. The typical shot to shot time of the ZR-3 is 2.1 seconds, considered better than average in 2010. By comparison, the SZ-7 is a little rocket, with .7 seconds shot to shot. Is the SZ-7 a substantial upgrade from the two years old model? It is and it isn’t.

The ZR-3 is slightly thicker and uses a more substantial battery. While the ZR-3 was rated for 320 shots, the smaller battery of the SZ-7 allows for about 220. While the ZR-3 has a 230,000 pixel LCD, the SZ-7 sports double the resolution at 460,000. Yet, the old LCD has far better viewing angles, the twisted nematic type of the SZ-7 has more dots, but vanishes when looking at it from an angle. The hinged access door to connection ports on the side of the ZR-3 is now secured by a couple plasticy pieces, with unknown durability. I didn’t break the little door off, but it still seems flimsy and fragile. Whether it really is or not, time will tell. The ZR-3 has a familiar mode wheel on the top of the camera, while this SZ-7 uses a button on the back of the camera to access different modes.

This is a matter of personal preference. I find an external mode wheel intuitive, with no looking necessary, but it can be inadvertently bumped on removal from a case or pocket where the mode button is not as vulnerable. Additionally, while the ZS-3 has a fast stand-alone charger, the SZ-7 features the new trend of in-camera charging, taking the camera out of commission or necessitating the purchase of an additional product. With the poor viewing angle screen and the reduction on battery life, all of this might sound like an advance to the rear and a “two star” type of camera. But that doesn’t adequately tell the tale.

On the plus side, the SZ-7 has far better shooting performance, a better (10x) optical zoom, better video capabilities, stereo mics, better burst modes, hand-held night scene, HDR mode, 3D, and a Panorama mode. It is a faster camera with better image quality, image quality that is most obvious in low light. While the image quality is very good for this size and price of camera with a successful backside illuminated MOS sensor, a reduction in megapixels resulting in less densely packed sensor likely would have offered a notch better output. Overall, the SZ-7 despite the caveats mentioned is a more powerful, more fully-featured camera than the ZR-3 at what currently is an entry-level price point of $129.99. Camera prices tend to fluctuate wildly, so what this $179.99 MSRP unit will sell for in the future is anyone’s guess.

Pocket-sized is a vague term, as pockets come in all sorts of sizes. For a small and light camera (less than an inch thick, under 1/3 lb.) it is the sort of digital camera you can carry with you without feeling like you are carrying much of anything at all. Light in weight, light in price, and with very fast shooting performance if you want no excess bulk at all, this camera is very appealing. For snapshots to 8 x 10s under most conditions, along with surprisingly good video, it is easy to say that this camera is recommended and quite worthy of your consideration. It is fast, very very small, light, has a great “dummy” (iA) mode, and is easy on the wallet as well.

For an extra thirty-five or forty dollars, there are longer-zoom options with manual controls, such as the Panasonic ZS-15, in bulkier but still compact frame sizes. As always, only the individual can scale the benefit of features and zoom against bulk and cost, based on their own unique needs. It is always nice to have choices and this is a very viable one.

If you don’t mind more a bit more bulk, the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-ZS15 12.1 MP High Sensitivity MOS Digital Camera with 16x Optical Zoom (Black) is a more powerful package with better image quality. It has been as low as $160 or so. If bulk doesn’t bother you to a point, the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX7K 10.1 MP Digital Camera with 7.5x Intelligent zoom and 3.0-inch LCD Black nets a clear notch up in both still image and video quality, with the lesser zoom the only thing that might cramp your creative juices.

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Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A01US 15.0-Inch Ultrabook (Ash Black)

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Intel 1.7 GHz Core i5-3317U Processor
8 GB DDR3 RAM
128 GB Solid-State Hard Drive
15.0-Inch Screen
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

I’m replacing my 2009 model Dell Studio XPS 1640 that died on me with a bad motherboard hard drive connector :/

I’m a consultant for several clients in San Diego and I use my laptop for EVERYTHING, so not having one meant work stoppage for several days and I needed a new one QUICK. I went to best buy, frys electronics and for whatever reason, costco. I needed to try out every model I could to make a quick, but informed decision.

I went with the Samsung Series 9, mostly because the Series 7 they had at Best Buy caught my eye and nothing else I got my hands on really compared.

The Good:

Battery Life The battery isn’t nearly broken in yet, I have been downloading and installing software like crazy, and I’m getting about 7 hours with brightness set to the middle setting. (See below). I’m used to about 1 hour and 45 minutes with the XPS, so 7 hours is astonishing, and when the battery is broken in I’m sure it will be a few hours longer.

Matte screen & brightness I can actually use this thing outside! It was absolutely impossible using my XPS outside because of the gloss screen and good-for-indoors brightness. OK so I’m not joking when I say this thing is bright. On full brightness it’s actually somewhat painful to look at it if you’re in a dark room. It’s great if you’re outside at high noon on a sunny day, but I don’t see myself ever going above 2/3rd brightness indoors.

Weight 3.6 pounds, sounds a little hefty until you look at it with the screen closed and how much real estate it occupies on your desk. It truly is astonishingly light.

Thickness .58″ thick. That’s with the screen closed. I found that it is only slightly thicker than a BIC lighter laying on it’s side. When you open the screen you’ll be amazed at how unbelievably thin it is. It actually makes me a little uncomfortable when I open it, thinking that my meat hooks will break it. But not to worry, it’s quite strong.

Build quality It’s solid. When I un-boxed it I was worried because of how thin it is and my tendency to be rough on things. But the all metal body is very, very strong.

Boot time With the SSD you can expect about 14-16 seconds.

Wake from sleep With Intel Rapid Start Technology you can expect wake time to be around 2 seconds. Yeah…2 seconds. IRST uses a partition on the SSD that is the same size as your memory, (8,192MB for this ultrabook) and caches the memory to the partition when it goes to sleep. So it’s ridiculously fast.

Heat I got the chassis of the ultrabook just barely warm, and that’s sitting on a pillow on my lap, downloading, installing software and charging the battery. There’s a silent setting on the keyboard (FN + F11) that throttles the processors so it doesn’t generate enough heat to use the fans. I couldn’t get the fans to turn onto a setting high enough to hear it when I was doing regular work so I’d be hard pressed to get this thing hot enough for the fans to be audible. Bottom line, it’s nice typing on a keyboard that isn’t +90*F, or having sweaty legs when you’re using it on your lap.

The OK:

The I5 1.7 Ghz processor & video chip is ample for my needs: I use SQL Server Management Studio, Visual Studio 2010, remote desktop and of course browsing the web. It’s not great for 3d applications, I use Google Sketchup Pro fairly often to design simple wireframe furniture when I’m away from my office and finish off the design on my desktop at home. But it’s acceptable, but not as good as my old XPS when it was healthy.

The keyboard. I love, love, love the keyboard on my old XPS. Keys were soft, but firm when you mashed them, always quiet, and thoughtfully placed. The keyboard on this Samsung is just ok. Somewhat noisy, but not that bad, the travel is short and when you reach the limit of it’s travel it abruptly stops. Granted, the keyboard needed to be thin because you have to squeeze electronics and a battery below it, so it’s not a negative, just something to be aware of if you’re a keyboard snob like me.

The connector on the power cord. It’s tiny and metal, a little bit smaller than a standard headphone jack, but it’s hollow. I have actual fear that someone will tug on the cord (trip over it, or bump into it) and break the connector. Is it possible that there is fault protection built in so that the laptop won’t short out? I hope so, but I’ll just keep it charged and hope that the battery lasts most of the day so I don’t have to worry about it.

The bad:

I really only have two complaints, and they’re equally bad.

First off, the track pad is AWFUL. It’s quite large for whatever reason. It means that your palm will touch it whenever you’re typing and if you’re not paying attention you’ll be typing somewhere you didn’t intend. So it’s not only horrible when you’re typing, it’s awful to use! As far as I can tell from using it so far, there is no pressure sensitivity setting for clicking. If you want to move the cursor around, all of a sudden you’ll notice that you’re dragging a selection box, or moving icons around for no reason. I probably need more time to get used to it. I have gotten better but it’s still an issue. Maybe they’ll come up with driver updates…

UPDATE: Been using this for a few weeks now, still not used to it. I’m better at using it, but not great, I use a USB mouse whenever possible.

UPDATE 7/28/2012: There is a driver update out for the track pad! It allows you to turn off some features that cause all the problems (tap to drag, double tap to execute). That means they allow you to take away functionality to fix a problem that shouldn’t have existed in the first place. It’s now easier to type without causing you to accidentally click the mouse, but you lose some of the features every other laptop on the planet has. I neither added nor removed a star for this.

And next is the screen. Yes, it’s bright, yes it’s matte. But the contrast ratio is ABYSMAL (I can’t find the site that actually told me the value but 175:1 comes to mind). Hard number’s aside, you don’t need them to realize that EVERYTHING is washed out. Some website backgrounds and text (such as Samsung’s drivers page) is so faint that you can barely see them on this screen. It almost looks like a watermark… It is this reason, and this reason alone that I might consider returning this ultrabook. I’m going to give it a few days of use at work and see if I even notice, after all this is a work laptop and I’m only using it to write code.

UPDATE: I just played around with the display settings and got it to look not so horrible: Right click on desktop and go to Screen Resolution > Advanced Settings > Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel > Graphics Properties… Change it to Advanced Mode. General Settings > Color Enhancement Change the Color drop down menu to All Colors, adjust the Contrast and Gamma settings until a photo looks as normal as possible. My settings are:

Brightness: 31

Contrast: 40

Gamma: .7

Hue: 0

Saturation: 5

I’m sure I’ll be playing with this as I go on, but for now it doesn’t look absolutely awful, just mostly bad.

Dan brought up the keyboard backlight, if you need to look at the keys to type be aware that the backlight is a green color and is ridiculously dim. There are 4 adjustment settings, the first 3 are just about worthless, the 4th (brightest) looks like it should be the 1st or 2nd dimmest setting. It doesn’t bother me much since I know the keyboards backwards and forward.

Other thoughts:

I upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate almost immediately after it’s first boot. The drivers on the samsung website all installed without a hitch if you install them in the proper order: Chipset first, everything else on the Samsung drivers page, but save IRST and HECI for last. Getting IRST to actually work after doing a fresh windows install is actually a pain, and I haven’t been successful getting it to work yet. Copy and paste this into a Google search for a guide on notebookreview: “660222-samsung-series-9-np900x3b-np900x4b-guide-intel-rapid-start-technology”

Apparently amazon doesn’t allow you to link to external websites so you’ll have to search for it.

UPDATE: I got IRST working finally. I enabled UFEI in the BIOS, restarted, opened Easy Software Manager and it actually started working. Installed Rapid Start software automatically, restarted and voila! The 8.3 GB partition created automatically and no more error saying IRST not enabled. So it Is now safe to upgrade to any version of Windows 7 and retain use of all the Samsung software. As such I am upgrading my rating from 2 to 4 stars. (It really should only be 3.5…)

It comes with a 128SSD, but has partitions that you can’t see (21.7 GB for recovery, 8.3 GB for IRST) so you’re looking at usable disk space of 89.2 GB. I have just about all the software I use installed and it’s only occupying ~40 GB. If you want to get that space back you’ll have to delete the recovery partition, but you might have trouble returning the laptop if you choose to do so.

Windows Experience Index Ratings:

Processor: 6.9

RAM: 7.6

Graphics: 6.4

Gaming graphics: 6.4

Primary Hard Disk: 7.5

Bottom line: It’s no desktop replacement, but it’s adequate for my needs. Being unplugged for 7+ hours is ridiculously awesome. I can’t wait for taking a day off to sit at a park, cafe or beach and working on both business, and my tan, that sounds sexy enough to keep this thing around. I’ll be updating this review as I use it.

Buy Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A01US 15.0-Inch Ultrabook (Ash Black) Now

It’s a gorgeous piece of hardware and I liked the computer a lot but…

I purchased this machine (From ANTOnline don’t do that, they have a 30% restocking fee). Only to discover that the 128 GB SSD only has 60GB available after OS install. It’s 90GB before OS install as they use 8GB for hibernation partiion and 25GB for recovery partition. 60 GB is utterly unusable for me. So I thought i’d just upgrade it, but Samsung (pulling an Apple) decided that the SSD isn’t user accessible so your stuck with the memory and SSD size.

Read Best Reviews of Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A01US 15.0-Inch Ultrabook (Ash Black) Here

I had the np900x3b (2012 non-ivybridge 13.3″ series 9) since it was released and have loved it. Loved everything except the 4gB RAM. Being a Chrome user who likes to have 100s of tabs open, I couldn’t do much else other than ‘browse’ the web.

The np900x4c, while significantly heavier-feeling than its younger brother, is still extremely lightweight and sexy (3.5 pounds).

The 8gB of RAM is user-upgradeable//replaceable, and the 10 hours of battery life is awesome (note: I have not tested it yet. Windows reported that I would have about 6+ hours with a full charge while running High Performance mode with maximum brightness).

Pros:

8gB RAM

ivy-bridge processor

graphics are excellent it can play Diablo 3 without a problem

micro-HDMI out so you can watch Netflix on your TV with ease

good number of ports (2xUSB 3.0, micro ethernet, 1xUSB 2.0, micro HDMI, SD slot)

excellent build quality (very sturdy duralumin)

15″ screen

touchpad worked well out of the box (very impressed with that

Cons:

feels kind of heavy compared to other ultrabooks

the enter key is not the furthest right key (makes it harder to press quickly/easily/at night without a day of getting used to)

128gB SANDISK mSata SSD still 440 mB/s read/write speeds but not as fast or as high quality as the Samsung SSD found in the np900x3b

SD card sticks out thus cannot be left inside the laptop (which would be nice because you can get a 64gB//128gB SD relatively cheap, effectively doubling the storage capacity of the machine)

Want Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A01US 15.0-Inch Ultrabook (Ash Black) Discount?

First of all, I want to address some common criticisms of the 15 inch Series 9 (NP900X4C-A01US) in other reviews:

Screen. Several have said the screen is “horrible” with very poor contrast and limited viewing angles. Perhaps Samsung has made some improvements but mine is just fine even with the out-of-the-box default settings. Yes it’s sensitive to viewing angle in the vertical direction but you just adjust the angle of the screen and it looks quite good. Pictures, movies, and any combination of text and background colors I’ve yet seen all look reasonably good. The screen is better, overall, than a few Dells I have. Like any mat (vs glossy) screen the blacks are not as black but I prefer that over lots of annoying glare and reflections.

Touchpad. Some have said the touchpad is a problem. Again, I’ve had no issues with mine. The cursor doesn’t randomly jump around, I didn’t have to turn off the gestures or upgrade the driver, and it generally does what I want it to do. Again, it works vastly better than the multi-touch pad in my newest Dell. It’s made by Elan.

WiFi. A few have complained the WiFi performs poorly. Granted I have a great WiFi router, but the Series 9 has equal or better signal strength anywhere in the house compared to my other laptops and devices. It’s always 4 or 5 bars.

Upgrade Options. One negative review here complains the SSD can’t be upgraded without voiding the warranty. I’m not sure that person is aware that most Ultrabooks, the Macbooks, etc. have the same issue and often use proprietary OEM SSD boards (as the this one does) rather than regular 2.5″ drives. Sometimes the SSD is part of the motherboard. Laptops designed to use only an OEM SSD can be made thinner and lighter. If you want to pop the bottom off and upgrade components, get a regular laptop not an Ultrabook.

STRENGTHS:

Thin & Light. Samsung says it’s the thinnest 15 inch laptop made and it’s one of the lightest. The charger is also small and light. In a backpack you really notice the difference. It’s nearly as powerful as a 15 inch Macbook Pro but far thinner, lighter, and cheaper.

Cool & Quiet. The fan almost never comes on and it has a silent mode if you manage to get it to come on. It also doesn’t make any squeels, whines, chirps, or other noises that some laptops (even with an SSD) make.

Amazing Battery Life. I managed over 8 hours of constant use with the screen up fairly bright and heavily using the WiFi even on the first charge of the battery (it should improve further). With a full charge the time remaining estimate is often over 10 hours. For such a thin and light laptop with a fast CPU this is as good as it gets.

15 Inch Screen. A rare Ultrabook feature and Samsung wisely chose not to cram full HD 1920 into only 15 inches.

Well Done Industrial Design. Samsung is really giving Apple lots to worry about. This Ultrabook is every bit as sexy as any Apple laptop. The non-glossy dark charcoal metal finish isn’t a fingerprint magnet like so many other laptops these days. The nearly all metal chassis is very rigid and well executed. The indicator LED’s are very small, blue, and tastefully dim rather than blindlingly bright. There are many nicely done details.

Fast Boot & Wake Up. The SSD and fast i5 CPU really help here but Samsung has added their own fast wake up technology and it really works. Almost by the time you swing the screen fully open the logon screen is there and even a full “cold boot” is very speedy.

Lighted Keyboard. Many Ultrabooks don’t have one including the 15 inch Vizio.

WEAKNESSES:

Sharp-ish Front Edge. There’s a large palm rest area, and as long as you use it, the Samsung is comfortable to type on. But if you have big hands and like to rest against the front edge of the laptop, the metal edge there (just like all of Apple’s current laptops) is a bit sharp and only slightly beveled.

Keyboard. For an island/chiclet style keyboard it’s as good as any I’ve used and I like it better than the Macbook Air keyboard. The layout is great. But the keys have limited travel and my fingers don’t naturally fall into place as readily as with more conventional older style keyboards. It’s unfortunate Apple started this fashion trend and nearly all companies, including Samsung, have followed.

Upgradeability. As mentioned above, Ultrabooks are generally difficult or impossible to upgrade as they don’t have any extra room in them. This isn’t specific to this Samsung, it’s true of most Ultrabooks. You should buy the model you need to begin with. At least with 8GB of RAM you shouldn’t need to add memory.

SanDisk U100 SSD. Some NP900X4C-A01US laptops apparently ship with a Samsung SSD but mine has a Sandisk U100 128GB drive. So far it’s plenty fast but the reviews of the U100 indicate it’s a bit slower than a lot of newer SSDs. At least SanDisk knows a lot of about flash memory and it should be reliable.

Display. It’s a normal TN LCD which means it has limited viewing angles–especially vertically. If you’re doing critical graphics design, photo editing, etc. you may want a laptop with an IPS or otherwise better display. But for everything else, I think the display is fine.

Samsung Branding. The default Samsung-specific screen backgrounds, user icon, etc. are not all that visually pleasing but everything is easily changed. It’s kind of odd Samsung did such a great job on the physical design and then made poor choices for the “soft” stuff.

WHY THE 15 INCH SERIES 9?

I did quite a bit of Ultrabook research and ended up with this one because:

15 inch screen with 1600 pixel resolution. Some 15 inch laptops run at 1920 x 1080 (full HD) and you end up with really tiny eye straining text or you have to increase the text size or lower the resolution creating fuzzy re-scaled text. And the 13 and 14 inch Ultrabooks suffer from either not enough screen real estate (i.e. 1366 screens or 1600 jammed into too little area).

Thin and light chassis. Samsung claims this is the thinnest 15 inch laptop made and it’s one of the lightest (take that Apple!). The nearly all metal chassis also makes it durable, attractive and solid.

SD multi card reader. You would think this would be in all Ultrabooks but it’s not. Even the new 15 inch Vizio leaves it out for anyone with a camera or wanting an easy way to take desktop files with you it’s nearly a must have.

Bright screen. Ever tried to use a laptop outdoors even in the shade on a sunny day? You can actually do it with this one.

8 GB of RAM. A lot of Ultrabooks at this price and under only have 4GB of ram and many are not easily upgradeable due to their thin designs. 4 GB isn’t enough if you want to run virtual machines or like to have lots of windows/apps open at once.

2nd gen i5 Sandy Bridge CPU. This is an ideal CPU for an Ultrabook. It runs cool and offers amazing (10+ hour!) battery life yet it’s plenty fast for anything except hardcore gaming. Faster CPUs just make make more heat which means fan noise and a hot lap. Slower processors don’t help battery life much. The i5 is the sweet spot.

No Power Hungry ATI/nVidia Graphics. A few ultra portable laptops use a dedicated graphics controller but, unless you’re a gamer, you just don’t need one and they seriously shorten battery life, run hot, require noisy fan cooling, etc. The Intel 4000 graphics in the Samsung work great for watching even HD video while not using any unwanted power.

Value. This isn’t a cheap laptop but, compared to other Ultrabooks, you get a lot for your money. The 15 inch Vizio is perhaps the closest competition and it doesn’t even have an SD card slot to view pics from your camera.

USB 3.0. In my opinion it’s a must have for faster USB storage access and future expansion options. Contrary to some specs, it has 2 USB 3 ports.

Gigabit Ethernet. Some Ultrabooks, and the Macbook Air, lack a wired ethernet port. Not everyone needs one, but if you need to move large amounts of data, even the best WiFi is far slower than a gigabit wired connection. A wired connection is also far less prone to glitching HD movie playback.

128GB SSD. Some think 128 GB is too small, but my last ultra portable laptop had only a 40 GB SSD and I made that work just fine with Windows 7. I’d MUCH rather have an SSD than a noisy, fragile, error prone conventional larger drive. If you have huge amounts of video, movies, etc. throw them on a 32 GB or even 64 GB SD card or small USB 3 thumbdrive. If you need even more storage, use a USB 3 external 2.5″ portable drive. You can get a terrabyte for around a hundred bucks.

Industrial Design. As mentioned above, Samsung is one of the few companies challenging Apple with their product design. The Asus Zenbook is another but it only comes with much smaller screens and has other drawbacks.

HDMI + VGA. Some Ultrabooks leave off one or the other or even both. A lot of projectors (especially the ones built into meeting rooms) only accept VGA.

Minimal Bloatare. Some manufactures load up their Ultrabooks with so much trialware and other unwanted software they take 4+ times longer boot than this Samsung and you lose a lot of drive space. The companies are paid to put all that junk on there and some of it gets left behind even if you try to uninstall everything. Samsung was far more restrained than most and out of the box the Series 9 boots very quickly. I only removed the games and Norton apps.

CONCLUSION:

Everyone’s needs differ, but I’m really happy with the Series 9 so far. And I’m somewhat puzzled by some of the negative comments. Either Samsung has poor quality control (unlikely), they’ve made running improvements (more likely), or some here have chosen to unfairly critize it as they favor another brand or have unrealistic expectations (perhaps most likely). Mine is an Amazon verified purchased and I can only comment on my Series 9.

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I first heard about the 15″ Samsung Series 9 back in early 2012; I wanted it as soon as I saw it but it was $1,500. Definitely not worth it back then. Fast forward to January 2013 and the price dropped to $1,019 on Amazon for the Windows 7 version, i.e. trigger pulling time. (I immediately upgraded to Windows 8 for $15 through the Windows Update Offer when I received the laptop).

I bought the Samsung with the knowledge of the other reviewer’s gripes with the screen and trackpad as the main caveats. In general I agree, the screen is not quite up to par. It looks decent from one specific viewing angle, but if you move your head at any variation from the sweet spot the picture will look washed out. Viewing angles are just bad. However, after making adjustments with the Color Enhancement from the Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel, I got a much better looking picture that doesn’t look quite so washed out:

Brightness -1

Contrast 48

Gamma 0.8

Hue 0

Saturation 1

The track pad is decent enough though, you just have to be hyper aware to not let your palms rest on it so that the mouse pointer doesn’t spaz out. Multi-touch gestures on Windows 8 are quite responsive. Keyboard is so-so, again I’m still getting used to hovering my palms up in the air all the time.

In terms of performance, this thing is plenty quick with the SSD and 8 gbs of Ram. No noticeable slow downs. Memory was extremely tight with only 50gbs or so of usable space, which is ridiculous. I would recommend deleting the 21 gb Samsung Recovery partition in the C: drive and using that as additional storage. This probably would make returning the laptop impossible though.

All in all, comparing the Samsung to the newest generation Macbook Air that I’ve had for 5 months, i would say the screen, keyboard, and the trackpad are far superior on the Macbook Air. The only advantages the Samsung enjoys over the Macbook Air is that it looks more stylish (in my opinion), is slightly thinner, and has much longer battery life.

In terms of recommending the Samsung, I’m on the fence. 2013 will probably release a slew of Windows 8 convertibles/laptops with 1920 x 1080 screens for about the same $1,000 price point. There’s also rumors of the Samsung Series 9 being upgraded to a 1080 screen later on this year, but of course you’d probably be paying around $1,500 when that version comes out. In summary, this laptop is a decent buy at around $1,000, but if you have the patience or don’t need a laptop right away you should wait it out and get a newer 2013 laptop with much better specs for the same price point. In your face.