Got my Samsung 550P5C today

Soldato
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Sorry for the poor flash/pic quality.
Received my Samsung 550P5C this morning ,very impressed with the laptop,very quiet and battey seems to lasts ages said nearly 5 hours at one point,came with usual bloatware but I removed the Norton's stuff and getting updates is easy since its likes Dell where it has its own software/driver update program.


I updated the BIOS and sound drivers,still installing ME3 so going to put it through its paces later,btw the resolution is only 1366x768 which I don't mind and disabling Cleartype and smooth font effects in system settings really makes the screen look better,the screen is matt which I love,hate those gloss screens like I had on my Dell.


I still need to install my Colorvison SpyderExpress tonight to set up the colour/brightness but its not bad out of the box.


Quick spec info on this model ,


Processor Intel® Core™ i5-3210M Dual Core (2.5GHz, Intel Ivy Bridge Architecture, 3MB Cache, Intel Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz)
Screen 15.6" (Samsung SuperBright Non-Gloss LCD TFT, 1366 x 768 HD)
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit
RAM 6GB (DDR3)
Hard Drive 1000GB
Optical Drive DVD Rewriter (Records DVDs 8x & CDs 24x & Dual Layer Super Multi)
Graphics Dedicated (NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 2GB Dedicated Memory)
Wireless LAN Wireless (802.11b/g/n Wireless)
Network Card 10/100/1000 Gigabit Fast Ethernet
Integrated Webcam Integrated Webcam with Microphone
Card Reader 3-in-1 card reader
Bluetooth 3.0
USB 3.0 and 2.0.
(SD/SDHC,MMC)







No dead pixels on mine ,do we still get dead pixels nowadays?


One tip I will say get your eyes checked ,got mine done a few months ago when all my 1080P screens looked blurred(on monitors and TV screens) and the glasses I needed made a world of difference.
 
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Soldato
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It's not a bad spec indeed. I was looking at it till I spotted the screen was a bit on the vanilla end of things.

I did not want a 1080P for two reasons,one is better FPS at 1366x768 res,second is well I have two 1080P screens already(TV and monitor) so I can always hook it up to them via HDMI for home 1080P gaming,however I've a dedicated 1080P gaming desktop PC so this is more of a general backup allrounder laptop :) .


Btw over at Samsung HK site(not UK) their version comes with 1600x900 res screen,guess its slightly different specs for each country depending on where you are.
 
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Soldato
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can you check if it uses sata 3? im currently on the market for a laptop but having problems finding out if its sata 3 :(

It comes with SATA2 HD 1TB,checked the manual it says "supports 9.5mm H 2.5" SATA2 notebook HDs only" on page 73.



I'll let you know if I find any further information on SATA etc...I still need to find out what the update is on the BIOS flash I did this morning .
Btw sound is great for a laptop uses JBL speakers which are very clear.


I got the manual from here http://www.samsung.com/hk_en/consumer/computer-peripherals/notebook/series-5-rf-series/NP550P5C-S01HK-support.
 
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Soldato
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Just done the colour calibration with my spyder2express ,colours were out especially blue (screen was biased towards the blue before calibration),now the colours especially brown/flesh skin tones look so much better.

Hardware colour calibration is a very handy tool and worth it for any PC/Laptop IMHO.


I'm more then happy now with the screen.I would not be surprised if its one of the better 1366x768 panels Samsung uses.
 
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Soldato
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I had a play of Skyrim on Ultra settings for good 30 mins,gameplay was smooth enough there was no stutter and looked great on 1366x768 screen,sound was excellent in gaming .
No noise from fan but you could feel the heat coming out from left side vents(quite normal for gaming) by putting your hand next to air vents.


I probably try the beta Nvidia drivers later since still using the default Samsung ones.
Overall I'm very happy.

Btw I've added another pic to show how slim it is.

Installed latest Beta drivers from Nvidia, no issues in gaming so far :) .
 
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Associate
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Sorry to hijack this thread and also if this has been asked before but is it possible to upgrade these?

From the specs it has a 1TB Sata II 5400rpm HDD, would it be possible to upgrade this to a SATA III 7200?

Also the stock RAM is 6GB DDR3 1600MHz would it be possible to put in two 4GB DDR3 1600Mhz?

Sorry if these seem daft and thanks for any help.
 
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Soldato
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Sorry to hijack this thread and also if this has been asked before but is it possible to upgrade these?

From the specs it has a 1TB Sata II 5400rpm HDD, would it be possible to upgrade this to a SATA III 7200?

Also the stock RAM is 6GB DDR3 1600MHz would it be possible to put in two 4GB DDR3 1600Mhz?

Sorry if these seem daft and thanks for any help.

You would have to remove a 2GB ram module and install 4 GB ram module to have 8GB ram(has two ram slots comes with 4GB and 2GB installed),the laptop has space for 2nd HD drive,if you want HD or SSD then you would have to buy one and install it yourself,manual says 2.5" SATA2 for HD but SATA3 HD or SSD should work(should be backwards compatible) however no guarantee of SATA3 speeds.


Remember no mechancial HD comes close to SATA3 speeds let alone SATA2,you should be able to install SATA3 7200rpm mechancial HD,don't see why it would not work,SATA2/3 speeds are really for SSD to gain the performance.

Btw you could check with Samsung UK support ,they should know.


Looking in Device Manager its based on Intel HM76 chipset which according to Intel supports SATA 3,see here http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/chipsets/performance-chipsets/mobile-chipset-hm76.html 5th down on right side,so don't see why SATA3 will not work at full speed with SATA3 SSD etc...on this laptop.
 
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Soldato
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Hey, thinking of getting the same laptop so can I ask where you got it and what kind of warranty you got?

I don't think I'm allowed to say where (due to OcUK rules) but well known chain stores stock it and if you use "Samsung 550P5C" in Google search you see plenty of well known online and retail shops that sell it,as to warranty its typical 12 months but a lot of places allow you to extend the warranty etc...I never do however.
 
Man of Honour
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In the process of removing the bloatware default installation on my new Samsung laptop :( unfortunatly don't have a stock OEM/OA recovery media to hand. Such a pain.
 
Soldato
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Rroff it comes with a OEM Windows Premium 64bit disk too. It's just a standard windows disk to do clean installs from without all the blaa blaa that comes with it preinstalled. I installed Windows ultimate 64bit on mine and removed the restore partition because it's just a waste of space for me.
 
Man of Honour
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Ah didn't bother to check the disc I assumed it was just an identical copy of the restore partition as is usually the case. Cheers.
 
Soldato
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Yes it comes with 2 disks one the drivers + samsung apps and one the full windows 7 premium 64bit disk. Only the restore partition has the same install that came preinstalled with all the junk.
 
Associate
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looking at this model myself for £629.98 and there is 100 pound cash back on this model, going to get it from a high street store on Monday Morning.

got a 240 samsung ssd to put in this for boot up and leave the 1 tb in as a backup internally.

this laptop should last me 3 years give or take.

Kenneth.
 
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