Truth of Samsung Chronos Bad Display Screen!

[dejacky]

After reading several complaints about the Samsung Series 7 Chronos screen, I thought I'd try the laptop in person to judge for myself. I prefer Matte screens because they lack the reflective-glare problem of glossy displays, thus making it easier for my eyes to focus on screen content. The Samsung Series 7 Chronos specs were exactly what I wanted on paper, so I hoped the screen would be clear, crisp, and better in person compared to review pictures and videos. Afterall, the display screen is the most important part of any laptop computer for users who want to avoid eye strain right?

Naturally, I visited a Best-Buy retail store and said to myself: "WOW The Samsung Series 7 display screen (15.6" model) IS HORRIBLE." It looks worse in person compared to the pics/vids in online reviews. I was shocked Samsung would cripple a nice spec'd laptop with such a poor excuse of a "display" screen. It appears there is a blur around the edges of text or anything else displayed on the screen (yes i tried font-smoothing on/off) and viewing angles? There are no viewing angles on these laptops, just a blurrier and more washed out light compared to the already out-of-focus "image" when viewing the display head-on.

The Asus UX31's glossy and jumbled-quality-mediocre screen was much better than the samsung and I dislike glossy screens. In terms of size, The Chronos had my trusty old Dell Latitude D830 beat and ergonomic design is the only thing the Samsung Series 7 Chronos did well in my opinion.

Aside: The cursor would move as I typed on the Samsung Chronos keyboard with my hand slightly above the mouse-track pad without touching it. So, hopefully a driver fix solves that problem.


Pics

[BigNerd]

To be fair... the Best Buy model is supposed to be different from the actual Series 7 Chronos.

It is also missing:

1. Express Cache
2. Backlit keyboard

So the screen may also be something different in the actual S7.

[antisthenes]

I definitely did not notice any blurry edges around the text when I was looking at it at Best Buy. I think this may be a genuinely defective machine.

[antisthenes]

Or rather, just like any display, there's a spectrum of panel quality, and the spectrum on the S7 reaches down further than other machines.

[brookedale1]

What is the color gamut difference between the S7, and S9?

[dejacky]

I really wanted to like this laptop, but the display was a huge letdown.

If Samsung uses a better screen in other "non best-buy" Series 7 Chronos laptops, I will gladly take a look at it and reconsider purchasing. But, the laptop I tested at Best Buy was not defective and the settings were "unlocked" so I could play with admin settings and resolutions, etc.

The feeling I got from looking straight at the Samsung display was that the image quality was not uniform and it was severely impacted by the slightest change in viewing angle. If you put a decent IPS monitor like the Dell 2209wa next to the Samsung Chronos, the "blurry edges around text" become obvious and I'd be happy to point it out to anyone in person too.

Or you can compare it to the Asus UX31's screen and it becomes apparent too. The Asus UX31 screen is not great (nor acceptable to me) either, but it's definitely more crisp and clear and had noticeably less fuzzy image quality compared to the Samsung. Heck, if there is a better quality replacement display panel for these Samsung notebooks, I'd probably buy it. Oh ya, keyboard was acceptable to me on the Samsung too .

[BigNerd]

Based on this poster's unboxing video of the actual S7 model (not the BB one), the screen looks okay:

Originally Posted by jimm15

Hey guys, I just got my series 7 from jr yesterday...been following this forum for the last 100 pages or so. I did an unboxing and initial impressions review on this unit. You can see my review here:

Samsung Series 7 Chronos 15.6" Complete Unboxing and Hands-on Review - NP700Z5A - S04US - YouTube

It's long cause I did an unboxing and some speed tests...
I agree, the screen isn't the greatest...but perhaps it'll get better over time. the resolution and brightness is a nice plus though. other than that, it's a really nice quality notebook. hope you guys enjoy!

[Mitlov]

Originally Posted by BigNerd

To be fair... the Best Buy model is supposed to be different from the actual Series 7 Chronos...So the screen may also be something different in the actual S7.

Originally Posted by antisthenes

Or rather, just like any display, there's a spectrum of panel quality, and the spectrum on the S7 reaches down further than other machines.

Given that notebookcheck.net gave a non-Best-Buy Series 7 a 68/100 for screen quality (very low for them), I suspect antisthenes probably has the correct answer. We haven't seen any confirmation that Samsung is putting a different 900p 15.6" screen in Series 7s sold through one retailer than the 900p 15.6" screen it uses for all other retailers. I understand using a lower-specced screen to cheapen up a model for a particular brick-and-mortar store, but using a same-spec-but-lower-quality screen? That seems unlikely to me. If Samsung wanted to cheapen the screen on the Best Buy machine, you think they would have just used a 768p screen like 90% of laptops sold through Best Buy.