Samsung last month announced a new Series 7 family of thin and light laptops and today it is now possible to pre-order the 15.6” Samsung Series 7 from Best Buy. The Samsung Series 7 laptops look to be a great option for student laptops as they are thin and light, making them easy to carry, yet still come with large enough screens for comfortable viewing. There will be a 14.0” and 15.6” version of the Series 7. The 15.6” version of the Samsung Series 7 is listed as $879.99 on BestBuy.com right now which is actually an amazing price for the specs that you get. Here’s a run down of the full specs of the Samsung Series 7:
Samsung Series 7 Laptop Specs
Samsung Series 7 15.6” specs (model NP700Z5B-W01UB)
- Processor:Intel Core i7-2675QM processor, 2.2GHz and 6MB Cache
- Memory: 6GB DDR3 memory
- OS:Windows 7 Premium
- Optical Drive: Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support
- Screen: 15.6″ LED high-definition widescreen display (1600 x 900 resolution), Matte finish, 300-nit brightness
- Storage:750GB hard drive (5400 RPM)
- Graphics: AMD 6490M graphics
- Wireless:Built-in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n), 4G WiMax, Bluetooth 3.0
- Ports: Media Card reader, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, USB 3.0 (2 ports), DisplayPort, Headphone/Microphone combo, USB 2.0 (1 port)
- Weight: 5.05 lbs
- Web Camera: 1.3MP
- Keyboard: chiclet style, no backlight
- Battery: 8Cell / Li-Po Battery, up to 8 hours battery life
- Thickness: 0.94”
- Note: This Best Buy version has no ExpressCache fast startup (8GB SSD) built-in
Samsung Series 7 15.6” specs (model NP700Z5B-W01UB)
- Processor:Intel Core i7-2675QM processor, 2.2GHz and 6MB Cache
- Memory: 6GB DDR3 memory
- OS:Windows 7 Premium
- Optical Drive: Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support
- Screen: 15.6″ LED high-definition widescreen display (1600 x 900 resolution), Matte finish, 300-nit brightness
- Storage:750GB hard drive (5400 RPM)
- Graphics: AMD 6750M graphics
- Wireless:Built-in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n), 4G WiMax, Bluetooth 3.0
- Ports: Media Card reader, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, USB 3.0 (2 ports), DisplayPort, Headphone/Microphone combo, USB 2.0 (1 port)
- Weight: 5.05 lbs
- Web Camera: 1.3MP
- Keyboard: backlit chiclet style
- Battery: 8Cell / Li-Po Battery, up to 8 hours battery life
- Thickness: 0.94”
Samsung Series 7 14.0” specs (model NP700Z3A-S01US)
- Processor:Intel Core i5 Processor 2430M
- Memory:6GB DDR3 memory
- OS:Windows 7 Premium
- Optical Drive: Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support
- Screen:14.0″ LED high-definition widescreen display (1600 x 900 resolution), Matte finish, 300-nit brightness
- Storage:750GB hard drive (7200 RPM)
- Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6490M
- Wireless:Built-in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n), 4G WiMax, Bluetooth 3.0
- Ports: Media Card reader, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, USB 3.0 (1 port), Headphone/Microphone combo, USB 2.0 (1 port)
- Weight: 4.3 lbs
- Keyboard: backlit chiclet style
- Battery: 8Cell / Li-Po Battery, up to 8 hours battery life
- Thickness: 0.93”
There’s a lot to like with these Series 7 laptops as potential perfect student laptop. The weight of the bigger 15.6” screen version is only a shade over 5lbs and under 1-inch thin so it’s perfectly reasonable to carry around in your backpack and not feel like you’re slogging a ton of bricks. It’s going to be one of the lightest 15-inch laptops out there and will compete directly with the Dell XPS 15z and Apple MacBook Pro 15”. However, the Samsung has some further advantages over those laptops. It has a matte screen, which is great since it prevents the awful reflections you get on glossy screen surfaces. The standard screen also has a high resolution 1600 x 900 display, no expensive upgrade needed, that’s great for movie watching and being able to fit more on your screen. It also has a powerful Intel Core i7 processor and dedicated AMD graphics for blazing performance, certainly more speed than the average student will even need in a laptop – but you’ll be future proofed. It has a sealed battery, but it’s designed to keep its charge capacity no matter how many times you charge and discharge it. The new USB 3.0 port is included, 2 ports on the 15.6” version in fact, and you also get both HDMI and DisplayPort for outputting video to a large monitor or TV. And best of all? The price is $879.99 which is way less than the Apple MacBook Pro and Dell Inspiron 15z. Oh, and the design? It’s amazing, see for yourself:
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The specs of this laptop are amazing for such a low price. I was considering getting a thinkpad T420, but this samsung really caught my attention. Andrew, what laptop would you recommend for an engineering student? Thanks for the advise!
hey George, the ThinkPad T420 and the Samsung 7 series would both make for nice options as a laptop for engineering, it kind of depends on what your needs are and what programs you use for engineering. I wrote this article with some ideas for best laptop options for computer science engineering students that I think might be helpful. If you need to use CAD design programs like Solidworks then you might need something slightly more powerful than the AMD 6750 graphics card to have good performance in those types of programs. If you aren’t doing 3D design, then a mid-range or even low end dedicated graphics card would be just fine.
Would you recommend this computer for graphic designers who are just starting out and can’t afford a macbook pro? I was thinking about this computer or the HP dv6tqe. Which would you recommend? My dad was pushing me to get the HP because it’s cheaper than this Samsung. The Samsung at Best Buy is $949.99 right now. I would like to be able to use InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop at the same time along with internet usage and listening to music. Please let me know if you know of any better laptops in the same price range or lower that would be suitable for my needs. Thanks for the help
hi Jamie, too bad the price went up from $879 at Best Buy on the Samsung Series 7. You can configure the HP dv6tqe with a more powerful graphics card and processor than the Samsung for the same price, but to be honest the specs on the Samsung are going to be enough to handle your needs. Those Adobe programs you use will eat up processor and memory more than graphics card, so don’t worry too much about graphics. I think the decision should come down to more about the form factor, screen and battery life. I really like the fact the Samsung has a matte screen, it helps reduce eye strain. I also like the long battery life and light weight of the Samsung over the HP dv6tqe. That said, the price you pay will be more unless you can find a deal. If you’re not the one paying, well, it’s tough to force a parent to pay more. I’d say the Samsung is worth $75 – $100 premium over the HP, but more than that and I’d go with the HP dv6tqe. Good luck!
I just got one of these, and aside from software stuff, I’m thrilled with it. The only problem I had was a partitioning issue, which I took care of with a restore, etc., before I started into the standard software magic. The other thing I usually do is expand memory to max capacity. I seem to remember seeing something about a 16 GB capacity, but it could have been another computer I looked at in my searching. Anyone know what the max RAM is for this one?
Jeremy, congrats on getting a great laptop, jealous! From what I can tell it looks like 8GB is the Max RAM, got that from the Samsung site. Anything beyond 8GB of RAM would be more than you really need though, so that 8GB amount should be dandy if you boost it up to that.
Thanks a ton, I thought I had dug all the way through their site, but I must have missed that.
Hi Andrew,
First of all, good review! I absolutely agree with you in saying that this is a great laptop for a college student and certainly hope it gives the MBP a run for its money.
I would like to point out that the extremely attractive price of $879 comes with a few hitches. First of all, it’s up to about $950 now at Best Buy. Also, the version you buy from Best Buy does not have the specs you currently have listed. The Best Buy model is NP700Z5B while the version with your specs is the NP700Z5A model.
Here are some ways the Best Buy version of the laptop differ from the NP700Z5A.
- 6490 Xeymour instead of 6750 GPU
- No ExpressCache (8GB SSD built in)
- No backlit keyboard
The higher-end model retails for ~$1150 (TigerDirect/CompUSA has it for $1090) and includes the features I mentioned above.
hi Kent, thanks for clearing that up, it’s hard to keep track of the retailer specific models (I believe the NP700Z5B is specific to Best Buy) and their specs, so apologies on that. I’ll update the article and note that. The price below $900 was amazing, once it’s above $1,000 it crosses a mental threshold of what people are willing to pay for a “non-Apple” laptop so we’ll see how it sells. I think it will do well still, the Sony VAIO Z is a premium laptop and priced as such and still gets a lot of buyers.
Hi Andrew,
I just purchased this computer to run Solidworks and the performance is slower than expected. I’ve already adjusted the quality settings on the graphics card to favor performance and am only getting a mild improvement. Do yo have any suggestions on how I could get this thing to run faster.
-Andrew