The 2012 Samsung Series 9 13.3" (NP900X3B)

[E30M3]

I haven't noticed any heat or excessive fan noise from mine, when the fans are running you can barely hear them. I think its only kicked in once or twice in the 3 days I've been using it. I had a Macbook before this and long bouts of video playback would make resting it on your lap a painful experience, I have not had the same experience with the S9, quite the opposite actually. I'm loving this thing.

Hey guys, how warm or hot (or cool?) does this thing get on the bottom after it's been running for a few hours?

Thanks.

[John Ratsey]

Why would lower resolution have a smaller footprint? That won't affect the screen size, would it?

1440 x 900 would be 16:10 with proprortionately less width and more height, which is what many users prefer - much better for working with documents and web browsing.

John

[isosunrise]

Yes, but if you have two 13.3" screens, one with 1600x900 and the other 1440x900, how would the "footprint" be smaller. Shouldn't the footprint be the same? It is the same size screen no? Just more or less pixels in the same amount of space. I must be missing something.

[John Ratsey]

Look at a photo of the 13.3" S9 and you will see a big bottom bezel and some unused space at each side of the keyboard. A 1440 x 900 panel would have more height (0.5") and less width (0.3") than a 1600 x 900 panel. This would use some of the space occupied by the bottom bezel (oversized in order to get the lid to match the chassis depth which is controlled by keyboard + touchpad) while allowing a narrow machine. The result is an overall smaller footprint.

I've got my task bar placed vertically on the left side of my screen but I still find it difficult to make full use of the wide screen, except for the occasional movie watching.

John

[Thors.Hammer]

Yes, but if you have two 13.3" screens, one with 1600x900 and the other 1440x900, how would the "footprint" be smaller. Shouldn't the footprint be the same? It is the same size screen no? Just more or less pixels in the same amount of space. I must be missing something.

The physical screen (Height and Width) can be different and still have a 13.3" diagonal line. The Mac screen is slightly more square for the 1440x900 native res. The SS9 screen is more of a rectangle. So you end up have the same vertical resolution but another 160 pixels of horizontal resolution for the all important email preview pane. Or columns on a spreadsheet. Or property pane and toolbox in an IDE.

[isosunrise]

OK, I think I understand now. Thanks for the inputs.

[SoundsGood]

Actually guys... I just meant that I prefer the smaller footprint of the 13" S9 over the larger footprint of the 15" version. But since 1600x900 on a 13" screen is probably too much for my eyes, I wish the resolution was 1440x900 instead, which would make things a little easier on my eyes (due to a lower overall PPI). The way things are now, I might be forced to go with the 15" model since I'm fine with 1600x900 on a 15" screen. Does that make sense?

I also happen to prefer a 16:10 ratio over 16:9, but that's a separate issue.

Sorry for the confusion.

[John Ratsey]

FWIW:

1440 x 900 @ 14.1" = 120 ppi (pixels per inch)
1600 x 900 @ 14" = 131 ppi
1600 x 900 @ 15" = 122 ppi
1440 x 900 @ 13.3" = 128 ppi
1600 x 900 @ 13.3" = 138 ppi

1600 x 900 @ 15.2 is approximately 1440 x 900 @ 14.1" with an extra 1.1" added on the side (and 0.12" less height).

Good quality displays with bright backlights are usable at higher ppi (a bit like having good lighting helps to read the small print in a book).

John

[shelleyevans]

Good quality displays with bright backlights are usable at higher ppi (a bit like having good lighting helps to read the small print in a book).

I have been able to get around the smaller font sizes by fiddling with all my apps so that they are zoomed by default at 110% - 125% (I know this doesn't work for you, SoundsGood, with two different monitors). Still there are plenty of labels, etc. that don't zoom, and I'm finding it surprisingly easy to read the tiny print on this screen, so Ratsey is definitely right. I regularly have two documents side by side, and the wider screen is fantastic for that.

My HDD is the Samsung, and my HDD WEI is 7.9.

As for heat: my dell was running between 55 and 60ish all the time with modest web browsing and word processing (hence the constant fan noise-- fan would kick in as soon as I got over 60). For about two days I had an MBA that got hot on my lap and ALSO had fan noise like a hair dryer from time to time. This thing is almost always under 50. Stays cool in my lap. When the fan does go, it's hard to hear (and I'm not sure how many times in a week that I have heard the fan), and when it does get "warm" it's hard to tell that it's warm. Just last night I was marveling at it-- what did they DO to keep it this cool? There's a Samsung ad that claims they put 20,000 hours into engineering this thing. I guess they must be telling the truth.

[narcemea]

Anyone know if it's possible to reverse the direction of the trackpad scrolling?

Screws me up now that I've gotten so used to scrolling on my mac.

Just a note for another couple of bugs: Last night after waking from sleep my Cntl key was stuck in the down stroke (but the key itself wasn't stuck) I pressed it a few times and all was normal again.
Also my wifi signal dropped to one bar for 5 minutes then back up to 5 (20 feet from the router).