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Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro Portability and Use
Carrying around the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T with me is easy and very portable. Here you can see the ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T next to my Galaxy Note II which gives you an idea how slim the ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T is with the keyboard dock. Having the processing power of an i5 Core in such a small package has been great! The ability to just carry the tablet without the keyboard dock is another advantage just pop the tablet from the keyboard dock and you can be on your way.
As I have mentioned, I can quickly undock the tablet and go into the conference room where our meetings are held and connect it to our 32-inch monitor to do any presentations, mark up any building plans, mark up PDF documents and use PowerPoint with the ability to take digital notes as well. Using OneNote with the ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T is great! When using the stylus and OneNote to jot down your thoughts, the inking works so smooth with no lag or any waiting for the inking to catch up.
Quick tip, when you are in a hurry and want to jot down a quick note, just press the button on the stylus and hold it while taping the screen twice. This will launch the S-Note to write down a quick note, and then you can save it in S-Memo for editing later. This is a very nice application for note taking.
One thing I do find is, when the ATIV Smart PC Pro is docked in the keyboard, I would have liked the ability to have the screen tilt just a tad more, for those times you need to adjust for better angle viewing.
At home or on the go I use CyberLink PowerDirector 11 for editing my videos. Like I have mentioned before the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T is able to handle all my video editing without any problems. I am able to render a 800MB video in about 3 to 4 minutes and saving it as H.264 video without any compromise at all. You can find a higher spec machine to edit videos much faster but you will not have some of the advantages by having the option to use your laptop as a tablet as needed.
When you create videos the ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T gets warm to a touch at the top where the vent is for the fan. Also the fan is very quiet and if you are in an office or at home with normal noise, you wouldn’t even know that the fan is on. There is a setting that actually keeps the fan very low that even at that point you can’t hear it is on. This setting is great when you plan to use it as a tablet, keeping it cool and giving you better battery life as well. This also keeps your speed to a maximum of 1.2GHz, so you only want to switch this on when you plan to surf, write documents or anything that won’t require a lot processing power. I accidentally had this on once and tried to finish a video that took almost 18 minutes vs 9 minutes once I put the setting back to normal.
Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro Design and Connectivity
The tablet overall quality build is very good in my opinion. The entire back is made of plastic; I can see why Samsung did this in order to help keep the weight down. It does flex in the center of the tablet if you press down hard, but I don’t usually hold it from the center. The plastic material that the back is made of is very sturdy throughout and feels very solid and no squeaking.
The curve around the tablet makes it holding it very comfortable in your hand. You won’t find any sharp edges around the sides. Even though you are using an 11.6-inch display it makes a great tablet around the office or home. On the back of the ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T it has four vents that help keep the tablet very cool. Even when I have been using it for heavy video editing, it gets warm to hot but never has it gotten so hot that it would bother me to hold the tablet.
The rear camera is a 5.0 MP HD. Don’t expect too much from this camera. In low light you won’t be capturing any award winning photos. Outdoors or with plenty of light it does a decent job. So far using the rear camera has been average in my use. The detail that I need to capture especially when trying to capture building plans don’t always show the small detail. What I have been doing is taking a closer shot of the area that I need, but times I need an overview of the building plans which then I am out of luck.
We need to see better cameras on tablets just like we see on mobile phones these days. Why? As more users use the tablets for work, you need a better camera to use at meetings to quickly scan documents, take quick shots of building plans and when going over certain job sites that require special parts that are quickly uploaded to Dropbox accounts and emailed back to the office or to order parts on the go.
What I have noticed is that I get great WiFi performance with the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro. This is a big plus as I have run into other devices having very bad WiFi signal. The GPS (GNSS) does come in handy as you can use it to find locations much faster, especially when out traveling. With Bluetooth 4.0 you quickly connect to Bluetooth keyboards and BT Mouses. The ATIV Smart PC Pro does support WiDi. This makes connecting to a compatible WiDi monitor easy and gets rid of cables. I did purchase Netgear Push2TV which didn’t work on the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro because of the video driver. It required a newer video driver that I installed but it disabled the brightness settings. I reinstalled the original Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro video driver and everything went back to normal. I will have to follow and see if Netgear has updated any drivers for the Push2TV that will work with the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro.
I don’t use the stylus that is docked in the tablet; I use the S Pen Holder Kit that I had used on my previous Galaxy Note. The same S Pen works on my current Galaxy Note II and the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T with the Wacom digitizer. I do recommend that if you plan to use a tablet for marking up documents, taking notes, drawing on photos, etc… Get a tablet with a Wacom digitizer. You will pay a premium for this but will be worth the price. I have tested both Wacom digitizer tablets and capacitive type tablets and even though you can use special stylus to use on capacitive tablets, it is not the same especially if you plan to use your tablet for digital notes.
Using the stylus on the tablet whether using the stylus that comes with the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T or the S Pen Holder Kit stylus that I use, it feels very smooth when the tip contacts the glass on the ATIV Smart PC Pro. This makes note taking or any other use very easy and comfortable.
Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro as a Chromebook
There is days when I just need to use basic applications, I haven’t picked up a Chromebook just yet. Well, I have loaded the Chrome Browser on the ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T and sort of use it as my Chromebook when the need persist even though it is really not a true Chromebook, but I have loaded and set it up as one.
On the plus side is, the performance is much better than if I would have picked up a Chromebook, and have a full Windows 8 PC to run most any application that I would normally on a desktop computer.
I also decided to write this quick overview of the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T using Google Docs in Chrome browser. So far it is working great! Fast to open any app I have installed from the Chrome Web Store! On the negative side is, the Chrome browser is not optimized for touch screen. It works, but you will find times that you can’t really interact as well as if you had a mouse. You will find some small icons or boxes that make it very hard to use as touch screen.
Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro Battery and Performance
I know many of you have wanted to know how is the battery life on the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T. Well at first like any other battery it needs to run a few charges.
Samsung has a battery setting called “Samsung Optimized” which is what you want to use. This actually gives you the best battery life by adjusting to what you are running. I tried the “High Performance” setting when I was doing some picture editing and compared to the “Samsung Optimized” setting and I didn’t notice any difference in speed performance. By leaving it on “Samsung Optimized” I have been able to get 5.5 hours running IE10, Chrome browser, a couple Word documents, email, Metro apps for news, checking tweets and setting the brightness at around half. If I use the Metro IE browser and stay using the Metro apps and maybe jump into the desktop mode on and off, I have been able to stretch up to 6.5 – 7 hours of battery life. Sure this might not be what most of the Atom Clover Trail tablets are seeing, but this is more than what I expected from an i5 Core processor. Samsung has done a good job.
My usage at work during meetings and when out of office use, I can safely say that I don’t worry to bring along the power adapter. Since I do tend to work more in desktop mode for office work, using Office 2010, haven’t installed Office 2013 yet but will soon. I can go easy 5.5+ hours and most of the times an easy 6 hours. This translates into a full day of computing because I don’t use the ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T the straight 6 hours. You have down time in between that you’re not using the computer.
Samsung is using a LITEONIT LMT-128M3M [Hard drive] (128.04 GB) in the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro. I do plan to upgrade the mSATA SSD drive to at least a 256GB at a later time.
The Windows Experience Index was pretty much like other 3rd generation i5 Core laptops and tablets. You might find a little difference between manufacturers, but overall you should see the same scores.
Summary
The Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro is a great Hybrid tablet / laptop. You will be able to use it as a desktop replacement for work and home use. I am enjoying the ability to have the 11.6-inch display with 1980×1080 resolution. Text is very clear on the display. Using the split screen while you work on a Word document or browse the web is another plus with 11.6-inch screen. Performance is great with 4GB RAM and haven’t noticed any slowdowns. The Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T sells for $1,199. Price will vary.
Again, thanks to Hector. I’m sure he’ll be watching for comments below. Don’t forget to subscribe to his YouTube channel.
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Sorry Chippy, but this fine Tablet is NOT an Ultrabook. It meets the form factor requirements, but none of the other requirements. Nor is this being marketed by Samsung as an Ultrabook
It’s funny. Its got more of the requirements of the next gen Ultrabook. Ssd, widi, touch. As for AT, I’m not sure if it’s got it. Maybe Hector can confirm. Many current Ultrabooks don’t have the AT software installed. As for z-height, there’s an allowance for touch.
I’ve seen Ultrabooks with Vpro that didn’t meet the spec despite their superior hardware. Remember the original series 9? That wasn’t an Ultrabook. The second edition wasn’t either but Intel used it in Ultrabook promotions.
It may not be a true Ultrabook. I’ve already got questions out to Intel of this topic because of the confusion for people tracking it.
For consumers, there’s not too much of an issue as they don’t know the specific requirements of an Ultrabook!
I can modify the Ultrabook Convertible reference. No problem.
Sorry for the late response everyone. The Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T might not be considered an Ultrabook but it sure does come close to been one. On the plus side is, you have the option to convert into a tablet.
The ATIV 700T doesn’t have the AT-Technology which I think is keeping the ATIV 700T from been considered an Ultrabook.
According to the specs listed for the current class of ultrabooks (Chief River), hybrid devices can be ultra books if they are less than or equal to 23mm. As for the other requierments it seems to match those as well, as other people have pointed out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrabook#Specifications
What’s the weight in grams : I didn’t find it in the text
The tablet alone is 820grams
Tablet and keyboard dock is 1360 grams
Why doesn’t this fit into the ultrabook category. It uses an i series ultra low power cpu, ssd storage and fits in the dimensions allowable for an ultrabook. Maybe you are confusing it with its little brother which uses clovertrail.
@Daniel Microsoft says the weight is < 2 pounds
@Dan My guess is that it has never been tested to meet the requirements of an Ultrabook. But for sure I know that it is missing the security requirements of Intel(R) Anti-Theft Technology and Intel Identity Protection Technology. There are Z-height requirements, battery life requirements and very specific responsiveness requirements; both resuming from hibernate and general disk responsiveness. Microsoft is not marketing it as an Ultrabook either. For an overview of the Ultrabook requirements see http://download.intel.com/newsroom/kits/computex/2012/pdfs/Ultrabook_FactSheet.pdf
WiDi not working may be due to Netgear, depending on what version of the device you have. On my Ultrabook, lack of firmware update for the Netgear device prevents it from getting WiDi to work. They said they are getting it soon, so I am waiting patiently.
Yes agree about Netgear Push2TV drivers, but for WiDi to also work it requires the current Intel video drivers on the computer. If you upgrade the video drivers on the ATIV 700T, you cant adjust the brightness any longer. Samsung has video drivers to work with some of its software. I was able to use the Netgear Push2TV WiDi with my Samsung Series 7 Slate with no problem. On the Series7 slate I had the current drivers and worked perfect.
I did also see that Netgear will have a firmware update to make the Push2TV work better but at the time of testing with ATIV 700T it didn’t work.
Hi, I use WiDi with my 700T almost every day at work. I use the standard HD4000 drivers and an Push2TV PTV3000. I am using a publicly available beta firmware for the device, and it works very well.
You mentioned running it in chrome, the other day by accident in the right side options I found a button that says re launch chrome in windows 8 mode. This would probably help with touch screen part since it launches it as a metro app.
Chrome browser has the option to run in metro app when you chose to run in Windows 8 mode. It actually doesn’t help out to make it more touch friendly. You still get the same as the desktop Chrome browser. I still notice at times that Chrome browser whether in desktop or running in metro, doesn’t run as smooth as the IE metro and desktop IE browser. Still really loving the ATIV 700T as it has been a great Ultrabook and tablet for taking notes at work, on the road and at home.
Edit: Also forgot to mentioned that the ATIV 700T does have TPM 1.2.
What about online games like Dofus and facebook games? will it handle them well? i think they mostly depend on processor and ram more than the GFX card …
I haven’t tested DOFUS online games but I had my wife test her games from Facebook and they all worked well. Everything played smooth in our testing.
Ok thank you a lot for reply and review. :) I’m thinking about getting this for university next year ^_^
Has any done the color calibration test on this model?
What is the color gamut? Better than Asus Zenbook or Taichi or at least on par? I would be grateful if anyone can provide me the information. Thank you very much.
Didn’t do any color calibration on the ATIV 700T.
Did you download the drivers from Intel website? I didn’t see the Beta firmware at the time of testing the Netgear Push2TV back in December. I will revisit the Netgear Push2TV again later this month. Nice to have for true wireless setup at the office.
Maybe you want to review the super functional case I just designed for the Ativ 700t? check it out..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvtAcGLbcwM&list=UUQapojdb58NHELLVWdzq8BQ&index=2
Oops.. wrong video!! Try again..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvtAcGLbcwM&list=UUQapojdb58NHELLVWdzq8BQ&index=2
I give up..
I returned my uk model because it ran out of hard drive space after 30 Days use – they only ship with 64gb , about 14gb usable space. Also, the plastic back with all then stickers and fan vents looks ugly, and the plastic scratched easily