Samsung Ativ Smart PC Tablet

[Ravynmagi]

I got a Samsung Ativ Smart PC 500T tablet with the keyboard on Christmas eve. And have played with it for just over a day now. Seems to be a good tablet/netbook, has some issues, but satisfied over all.

Very happy with the look of the screen. Resolution is a bit low at 1366x768, but since the desktop portion doesn't scale as well, I find the resolution to be ideal for working with desktop apps without the UI getting too small. Text looks reasonably good. Samsung also included 5 display modes you can toggle between, but I find the default to be ideal. The screen is nice and bright, I just leave mine at 40% brightness and that's plenty indoors. And it's bright enough to take outside too.

I love the keyboard, but unimpressed with the keyboard dock. I find typing on this to be quite easy. It's a relief since I had a 10.1 inch TF300 and that was a disaster to type on. The keys feel good and responsive, the spacing is nice. I don't find myself fumbling over keys, think I've only accidentally hit the track pad twice. For it's price, $130, and everyone else is including a battery, I'm disappointed Samsung didn't include a battery also. An HDMI and SD port on the keyboard would have been nice too (tablet has micro HDMI and micro SD).

I want to slap the Samsung employee that thought a glossy plastic back was a good choice for a tablet. I have zero complaints about the choice of plastic. But why couldn't they include some sort of texture like the Nexus tablets? After using the tablet a while, it starts to get really slippery.

It seems Samsung went really cheap on the wifi. 65Mbps maximum connection, so it's just single channel. Supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. I had a lot of problems connecting and staying connected to my 5GHz access point. I don't think it's the 5GHz but I have 40mhz bandwidth enabled on that band. It was a problem with my Nexus 4 and I suspect a problem with this tablet too. I switched to the 2.4GHz channel with 20mhz bandwidth and it seems to be doing fine there. Kinda disappointed my Kindle Fire HD has much better wifi than this much more expensive Windows 8 tablet. Seems like an odd corner to cut to save a buck.

Performance was pretty choppy the the first day. Had me a little worried. I wasn't expecting laptop performance from this little Atom. I realized I was making a sacrifice for all day battery life. But was still a bit concerned with what I saw the first hours of using it. Fortunately the second day it seems to have smoothed out. I had to install a lot of updates yesterday, including some Windows updates and I got more Windows updates this morning. Also I noticed the Microsoft malware scanner running in the background yesterday. So it seems like it needed about a day to get things up to date and settled in.

I installed Office 2010, runs smoothly. Also loaded Steam and installed Torchlight. Tried to play that without the keyboard, then realized it was a bad idea. But the game ran smooth, was able to move my character around without lag. Chrome unfortunately still seems a bit laggy. IE is very smooth though.

Battery life has been excellent so far. I read a complaint somewhere that the tablet wouldn't sleep well with the keyboard dock (this was about a month ago). So I unplugged the power and left it in the keyboard over night. Checked on it this morning and it lost only 5% power after 9 hours, so it seems to sleep just fine with the keyboard now.


I'm happy with the tablet. Though I think if I had more patience, I might have waited for the HP Envy X2. It's got an aluminum body (and so I hope would slip less) and a better looking dock with a battery.

Seems like many of the other tablets from Lenovo, HP, ASUS, and Dell are coming in late January. But I didn't really want to wait another month and then risk the possibility of another delay. So it was either this or the Acer W510. And that looked nice, but I wanted a tablet big enough that I could type comfortably on it's keyboard too.

I'll key the tablet (no choice, Amazon will charge me a 15% restocking fee if I return it). But I think I might try to sell this early after more Windows 8 tablets come out. I can live with the wifi, speakers, and no keyboard battery, But the slick plastic back is hard to live with.

PS.

Forgot to mention the speakers. Having front facing speakers is nice. However they are not very loud and sometimes hard to hear. Wish they were a bit louder. It kinda reminds me of the Nexus 7 speaker in the way both are pretty weak. With Android there's an app you can use to boost the speaker, I'm hoping there will be someway to do the same with the this Windows 8 tablet.

 

[dagamer34]

It's a good first generation tablet and proves that the concept is solid but I wish it had better execution. However like any new product category, I don't think it's worth owning until the 2nd or 3rd iteration once all of the bugs are ironed out.

Atom chips need to have a GPU that will smoothly support 1080p screens and CPU performance needs a bump but I think it will be portrait usable for the average person after that.

 

[dagamer34]

Also, does the Smart PC (not the Pro) come with a Wacom digitizer + stylus?

 

[Ravynmagi]

Also, does the Smart PC (not the Pro) come with a Wacom digitizer + stylus?

Yes, mine has the Wacom digitizer and the S-Pen. Though I've read Canadians and the AT&T version doesn't for some odd reason.

 

[dagamer34]

Hmm... I might return the Wacom Inuous I bought then and get this instead (or just buy the Surface Pro).

 

[podspi]

Typing this response on a 500t...

My advice for anybody buying one of these would be to take the time and make sure you install ALL updates. Unfortunately Samsung's website doesn't actually have the latest set of everything, so you have to use the Samsung update utility. The latest firmware is leaps and bounds above the one it shipped with (performance and stability go way up).

Also, AT&T sells a great folio case for this tablet, makes it much nicer to use. They must have some exclusivity agreement or just purchased all of Belkin's stock, because it does have a cutout for the s-pen even though the AT&T version doesn't include it.

Overall a great tablet once you update the drivers and firmware. Performance on general apps is much better than I expected, and battery life is fantastic. My only complaints are no battery in the dock (more is always better and it isn't cheap) and Clover Trail could really use a more powerful GPU.

 

[Ravynmagi]

How can you tell which firmware you have installed? Is the firmware update included as part of the Samsung SW Updates?

 

[podspi]

How can you tell which firmware you have installed? Is the firmware update included as part of the Samsung SW Updates?

It should state it in the update utility, although you can also find it on the BIOS. The Samsung update utility can, believe it or not, update the firmware.

Unfortunately, Samsung's stand alone firmware update utility did not work for me.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Toys for my Samsung 500T...

Microsoft Bluetooth 5000 mouse.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005058B56

Samsung Ultraportable USB DVD drive. Most required two USB ports for power, but this one only needs one.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008AJLPYS

Plugable USB 2.0 to Gigabit Ethernet adapter. For those times I might need to plug into a wired network.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VSTDFG

Corsair Vengeance 2000 wireless 7.1 gaming headset. Didn't buy this for the tablet, but recently picked one up for my desktop computer. And found it works great on the tablet too.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007ZZ6OW6

 

[Ravynmagi]

I've had my Samsung 500T for almost two weeks. And the more I use it the less I like it. In fact today I needed to restrain myself from throwing this thing against a wall. The short of it, this was a mistake and I'm getting a refund. Where to begin...

Let's start with the wireless. Back on day one with this, I was a little disappointed that this was only a 65Mbps 802.11n wireless and it didn't play well at all with my 5GHz access point. But unfortunately it got even worse. After waking up the tablet it would often not automatically reconnect and I'd have to manually connect it again. If I had bluetooth enabled it seemed to cause even more problems with the wireless. And when I did connect I'd sometimes see "Limited" status and need to reboot the tablet to fix this.

Sleep mode is a mess with the keyboard. The tablet has no problem going to sleep with the tablet by itself or if it's in the open position in the keyboard dock. However if I close the tablet in the keyboard dock, it will often wake up from sleep mode or not go to sleep at all. I'll close the tablet, put it in my bag, go to work, and find a hot tablet and a good chunk of battery life missing because it has been running, even the screen stays on the entire time. Also apps will sometimes open by themselves when I close the tablet in the keyboard dock. I'm still puzzled as to how that is happening, my only guess is maybe the keyboard is touching the screen. I can set Windows 8 to use hibernation instead of sleep, but that is much slower and disappointing to have to use.

With an x86 Windows tablet, I expected to be able to boot from USB with whatever I wanted too. However it seems boot to USB is very restrictive. I can't even boot from a Windows 8 DVD from a USB DVD drive. About the only thing it would let me boot from is a USB flash drive with Windows 8 Recovery on it. Not sure who's idea it was to restrict USB booting so much, but it isn't what I was expecting and I'm not happy it's locked down like this.

And I'm still bothered by the glossy plastic back of this tablet that likes to slip around. And speaking of cosmetics, I'm not particularly fond of the stupid color either.


Not sure yet what I'm going to do after the refund. I was thinking about an HP Envy X2, but it sounds like that tablet has some issues too and it's even more expensive. I wanted a 11.6 inch tablet with a keyboard, but now I'm not really seeing any of these tablets worth the money. I'm thinking either just giving up on Windows 8 tablets for now and waiting for Cedar Trail+ (later this year) or Bay Trail (2014). Or maybe I'll take a chance on the ASUS VivoTab Smart, a 10.1 inch $500 tablet with no keyboard. I have a bit more confidence in ASUS fixing software issues than Samsung anyway.

Anyway, I better back this Samsung 500T in a box before it becomes a victim of nerd rage.

 

[dagamer34]

I had a similar experience after using the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro. I returned it after a day because it makes for a terrible tablet and a terrible laptop. Current CPU chips just aren't designed to be as thin as they need to be for an entire computer to be in the display.

Right now, I'd say the best thing to do is to just buy an Ultrabook with a touchscreen and wait 1-2 years for the tablet hybrid PC market to flesh itself out. Here's my recommendation on the one you should get: ASUS UX31A Touch.

 

[Crono]

I'm currently selling my Surface RT so I can get Pro later, but this is making me rethink my decision a bit. It seems to me that poor drivers might be an issue with these early full Windows 8 tablets. Like Anand, I haven't experienced much instability on my RT, but the Pro might be less predictable.

I'll hold off from making a purchase until i see a favorable Windows 8 tablet, but this doesn't bode well for already stagnant Windows 8 sales.

 

[IamDavid]

I bought mine on day one and have been blown away by the device. I've also impressed my friends and coworkers enough with it for them to purchase 5 more so far.

I've owned:
IPAD 1, 3(Retna)
Moto Xoom
Kindle Fire
Nexus
MS Surface RT

The 500 is hands down the greatest device I've ever owned. I can't begin to explain the lack of marketing the device has received. I wish it had come with Office like the Surface RT but oh well, I can't be too picky.

I can't wait to get the 700 version!

 

[996GT2]

I bought mine on day one and have been blown away by the device. I've also impressed my friends and coworkers enough with it for them to purchase 5 more so far.

I've owned:
IPAD 1, 3(Retna)
Moto Xoom
Kindle Fire
Nexus
MS Surface RT

The 500 is hands down the greatest device I've ever owned. I can't begin to explain the lack of marketing the device has received. I wish it had come with Office like the Surface RT but oh well, I can't be too picky.

I can't wait to get the 700 version!

Totally agree. Besides the more expensive Thinkpad Tablet 2, none of the other Atom-based tablets have a Wacom digitizer.

Battery life is excellent, and the speed is good enough for all everyday tasks like web browsing, youtube, and productivity tasks. Even light Photoshop is fine provided you aren't working with huge files.

 

[dlock13]

I have a question for you guys with Windows 8 Pro (Atom) tablets and if anyone has an RT device.

Do you know if you can program on either of these? I'm looking into starting some Android programming, and well, I don't truly need a full fledged PC. However, I'm assuming the JDK isn't supported on Windows RT and there probably isn't something out there that is a suitable replacement.

How about using RDP to do programming? Is that a good idea at all?

 

[podspi]

Atom tablets are x86, so everything is compatible. That being said, it will be slow.

Depending on your battery life requirements, you will probably be better off with a Surface Pro or the ATIV 700t.

WinRT is locked down. There are jailbreak for it, but I would not consider it a viable development environment until they support running 3rd party unsigned binaries.

 

[996GT2]

Atom tablets are x86, so everything is compatible. That being said, it will be slow.

Depending on your battery life requirements, you will probably be better off with a Surface Pro or the ATIV 700t.

WinRT is locked down. There are jailbreak for it, but I would not consider it a viable development environment until they support running 3rd party unsigned binaries.

Depends on the type of programming, but in certain cases it could be slow.

Think of the dual core Atom Z2760 as being roughly equivalent in speed to a low-voltage Core 2 Solo at say ~1-1.2 GHz. It's not a blazing fast chip by any means, but for most everyday tasks it is totally fine, especially since all of these tablets are using flash storage and not had drives.

The main benefit of the Atom platform vs. the Core i5s in the Surface Pro and ATIV 700T is size, power use, and heat. Atom tablets have no fans and draw ~3W under normal use. The i5 tablets are of course much faster, but the tradeoff is size, fans, heat, and worse battery life.

The ATIV 500T, for example, is capable of better battery life than the iPad 4 and many Android tablets, and it runs a full OS (not a stripped down mobile OS like WinRT, Android, or iOS).