Samsung Series 7 Gamer 700G7C-S01 Review With Benchmarks

Let me just come right out and say that this is the fastest gaming laptop I’ve ever tested and played on. The system is a monster and I like to think of it more like a portable desktop than a laptop. The system has a full sized keyboard, including the number pad, which makes it ideal for gaming as well as work (unless you are used to a funky sized keyboard).

This review took place in August 2012 with version S01 with a review sample that was manufactured in May 2012.

Let’s look at the specifications of the Samsung Series 7 Gamer 700G7C-S01:

Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

CPU
CPU/Processor: Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor
CPU Clock Speed: (Max.) 2.30 GHz
CPU Cache: 6MB L3

Screen
Display Screen Size 17.3″
Resolution 1920 x 1080
Brightness 400 nit

Memory
Standard System Memory 16GB
Memory Type DDR3

Storage
Hard Drive Capacity: 1.5TB with ExpressCache™ Technology, 8GB

Graphics
Graphics Chip: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M Graphics

ODD: Blu-Ray

Speakers: 4 W Stereo Speaker (2 W x 2) sub-Woofer

Web Camera: 2.0 MP

Connectivity
Wireless LAN: 802.11 abg/n
Bluetooth: Bluetooth v4.0
WiDi: Yes
Wired Ethernet LAN: Gigabit LAN

I/O Ports
VGA: Yes
HDMI: Yes
USB Ports: 2 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0 (1 Sleep-n-Charge)
Headphone Out: Yes
Microphone In: Yes
Multi Card Slot: 7-in-1 (MS, MS Pro, SD, SDHC, MMC, MMC plus, xD)
RJ45 (LAN): Yes

Input Devices
Keyboard:101 Key Backlit
Touch Pad: Yes

Security
Kensington Lock Slot: Yes

Power
AC Adapter: 200 Watt
Number of Cells / Cell Type: 8 cell / Li-Ion

Design
Color: Black

Compliancy
ENERGY STAR Rated: Yes

Dimensions (W x D x H): 16.1″ x 11.2″ x 1.29″ ~ 1.96″
Weight 8.39 lbs.
Warranty 1 Year Standard Parts and Labor

Since most of our readers are gamers, let’s look at gaming performance!

Benchmark tests (performance review for gaming):

I only use benchmarks that are actual games (no Futuremark or games running with FRAPS). First off, I only use free benchmarks that everybody has access to. Also, I don’t believe in testing with games that don’t have a built in benchmark feature because that tests hard drive limits and you are rarely going to be playing your games recording it every single time you play them.

If you would like to know further why I picked these benchmarks read my old benchmark guide here.

Battleforge test settings:

Shadow Quality: Very High
Resolution: 1280×1024
Texture Quality: High
Fullscreen: On
Shader Quality: High
Anti-Aliasing: 8x
SSAO: Off
MultiThread Rendering: Auto-Detect
FX Quality: Very High
VSynch: Off
Cloud Shadows: Off
Glow: Off

The tests gave us an 69.7 average fps result, a minimum 5.9 fps result, and a 232.8 maximum fps result.

DiRT 3 test settings:

Resolution: 1280×1028
Refresh Rate: 60
Multisampling: 8 x MSAA
VSync: Off
Aspect Ratio: Auto
Gamma: 1.0
Night Lightning: High
Shadows: Ultra
Particles: High
Mirrors: Ultra
Characters: Ultra
Ground Cover: High
Distant Vehicles: High
Objects: Ultra
Trees: Ultra
Vehicle Reflections: Ultra
Water: High
Post Process: Medium (again this loves to set itself to this over and over so just leave it like that)
Skidmarks: On
Ambient Occlusion: Ultra
Cloth: High

Test results were that the laptop got 48.66 fps average and 40.14 fps minimum running the Dirt 3 with the previously listed settings.

Tom Clancy’s HAWX test settings:

Game version: DirectX 9 for legacy compatibility purposes
Screen Resolution: 1280×1024
Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
Antialiasing: 8x
VSync: Off
Full Screen: On
View Distance: High
Forest: High
Environment: High
Texture Quality: High
HDR: On
Engine Heat: On
DOF: On

On this test we got an average of 181 fps and a maximum 353 fps.

Trackmania Nations test Settings:

Resolution: 1280×1024
Antialiasing: 16 samples
Shadows: Complex
Shader Quality: PC3 High
Texture Quality: High
Max Filtering: Anisotropic 16x
Geometry Details: Normal
PostProcess FXs: On
Force Dynamic Colors: On
Force Motion Blur: On
Force Bloom: On
Water Geometry: On
Stadium Water Geometry: On
Trees Always High Quality: On

The benchmark yielded a result of 79.6 fps.

X3 Terran Conflict benchmark test settings:

Resolution: 1280×1024 Fullscreen
Antialiasing: 8x
Ansitropic Texture Filtering: On
Anisotropic Texture Filtering: 16x
Glow enabled: On
Texture Quality: High
Shader Quality: High
More Dynamic Light Sources: On
Ship Colour Variations: On

The Samsung laptop got a score of 105.439 fps on the X3 Terran Conflict benchmark.

Hands-on Review:

The machine is very comfortable to work with. It does tend to get a bit hot and I recommend using it on a desk or tabletop.

The onboard sound of the laptop is amazing and comes with probably the best equalizer software I’ve ever used. It is made by Dolby Laboratories and includes many sound altering effects. The speaker setup is impressive and loud for a laptop. Using the software you can change the ambiance of what the speakers put out. Certain parts of the keyboard light up and will glow based on music being played on the computer based on your settings (it is on by default).

Since the system has a blue ray player, should you want to watch a high definition movie from a disc, you would be able to as well as enjoy it in HD with the high quality display that is extremely sharp in image quality.

The laptop has a physical knob that can be turned to adjust the different aspects of the performance regarding speed, fan noise, power saving modes, etc. When you switch into gaming mode the laptop does an animation showing a target lock-on cybernetic image that is an attention getter (this is on by default). I think having a laptop such as this one would want somebody to enforce their bragging rights and that cool animation is certainly a way to get people’s attention!

Running full power mode (no power-saving modes enabled) the laptop has a battery life of 2.5 hours for doing work (MS Office) level of applications. Longer battery life times are possible depending on using more power efficient power profiles. Since this is a gaming laptop, the battery life cannot be expected to be too long especially the more complicated a game is. With a system like this, I recommend using it plugged in via the AC adapter rather than running it off battery power.

The wireless card built into this laptop is so strong that it gets about 50% more wireless networks than my current laptop as well as stronger signals all throughout.

As far as the way the laptop looks on the outside, it looks like it’s a serious laptop that means business and I like that a lot. The machine looks sharp, sort of like what I would equate to the Aston Martin of modern gaming laptops.

Conclusion:

This laptop is ideal for a power gamer and user that needs to be able to take their desktop with them but cannot carry a tower, monitor, and speakers with them. The hard drive is massive (1.5 TB) allowing storage of many file libraries, which is rare on a notebook. The rest of the parts on the system make it a strong performer for nearly any computing need a power user will have, whether gaming, 3D rendering (strong video card), music editing/engineering, etc. The current price $1600-1900 as off 8/8/2012 is what I would expect a laptop like this to cost and is reasonable.

Run-down summary:

Pros:
-Can run every game that’s out there.
-Speakers sound amazing for a laptop.
-Enough hard drive space to install almost any game collection plus a huge file collection for almost everybody.
-Enough power to seriously game as well as run other operations such as 3D rendering and audio engineering programs.
-16 GB of RAM is more than enough memory for almost 99.99% of users out there to multitask like crazy.
-Super strong wireless card with support for all current wireless protocols.
-Has what I consider to be a real keyboard for a laptop rather than a tiny one that’s the usual punishment in most laptops, making it much better for a power user and gamer.
-Has external lights and knobs that let you manually change the features of what the laptop is doing as well as see hard drive operation activity, etc. This useful for when doing heavy applications.
-Easy to take apart (two simple covers with standard screws make life easier).

Cons:
-Can get hot temperature-wise. I didn’t have any stability problems even when gaming in a hot room.
-Too expensive for budget gamers, but then again they would probably most likely not be buying a gaming laptop.
-Can be bulky to move around (space and weight-wise), but then again I like to think as a really compact portable desktop.

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