The matte finish prevents the unsightly accumulation of fingerprints. The Chronos features a 12.6 centimeter (4.96 inch) wide matte touchpad that supports multi-finger gestures and has good gliding capabilities. The illumination can also be activated automatically by the brightness sensor located next to the HDD status LED if properly configured. The keyboard’s backlight can be adjusted to one of 8 different intensities or turned off completely and proves convenient for dark working environments.
The smaller, offset arrow keys are distinct and can be found by touch. This additional space also allows the built-in keyboard to feature a full-sized, four column numpad and full-sized Enter, Shift, and Backspace keys.
The 17 inch Chrono’s larger dimensions allow the wrist rest to offer plenty of space for even large hands. The keys have a medium key drop and the key stroke is firm but not hard. Dedicated and fast typing is no problem due to the clear pressure point, the light rubber coating, and a 3 millimeter gap between keys. The smaller F-Keys have no curvature and are completely flat. Pressed keys are further recessed into the aluminum base unit by about 1 millimeter (0.04 inches). The Chronos 700Z7C features a matte, visually appealing keyboard that is recessed into the base unit. The battery is built-in and cannot be replaced. Changing the hard drive would require the entire case bottom to be unscrewed and removed. An additional 4 GB of system memory is embedded directly into the notebook’s motherboard. Our unit came preinstalled with 4 GB of system memory in this slot. On the underside, a small maintenance hatch offers access to the system’s single memory bank. The distance between the display and the base unit is maintained by small rubber lips positioned at the top and bottom of the display. The display has a hard back lid which prevents denting from behind the screen. As this deflection is only minimal, this should not be major problem but it does exist. The hinge does keep the TFT display in position and deflects only slightly during movement but the screen can be pushed to the left and right. While the base unit gave us a good impression of the unit, the display lid provides quite the opposite. The optical drive can be pressed in slightly from underneath. The notebook’s chassis is quite stable compared to other notebooks and can only be minimally bent even when using both hands. While the Chronos’s base unit is not completely stiff, we were unable to cause the keyboard to bend or dent anywhere. The completely-flat wrist rest stays cools during operation. As opposed to some other notebooks, fingerprints are mostly invisible. The notebook’s main surface has a non-skid feel to it and offers a large amount of space, allowing even the largest hands to fit on the keyboard rest. The notebook has a fairly high weight which also furthers the case’s impression of stability. This illusion is strengthened by the case’s minimal clearance, a trait that owes to Samsung’s very precise and exact assembly of the unit. All surfaces with the exception of the underside are slightly brushed to give the illusion that the entire case is made from one continuous sheet of aluminum. The duraluminum finish for the chassis and lid are combined with other aluminum components to create a premium look and feel. The 17 inch Chronos 700Z7C retains both the material and overall appearance of the 15.6 Chronos. Will the 17 inch Chronos 17 suffer from the same display weakness as the smaller 15.6 inch Chronos 15 700Z5A or has Samsung improved its display for the larger desktop replacement? Our extensive review attempts to answer this and other questions about Samsung’s latest Series 7 notebook. In this review, we will examine the 700Z5A’s larger brother, the Samsung Series 7 Chronos 700Z7C. When we reviewed the Samsung Series 7 700Z5A, we found that the unit’s primary and perhaps critical weakness was an inferior display that was considerably behind expectation in the areas of black value, viewing angles, color quality, and contrast. By comparison, the Series 2, Series 3, and Series 5 families of computers are priced considerably less exclusively. The one commonality shared by all four models is their classification as premium devices.Ī user choosing the Series 7 family of computing devices ultimately spends a fairly large sum of money, currently starting at 1,462 Euro ($1830 USD), to receive a first-class notebook computer. While the model numbers may seem similar, the hardware and function of each model differ substantially and cover virtually the entire spectrum of notebook computers. We first tested the 15.6 inch 700Z5A and the 17.3 inch 700G7A in 2011 followed by the 14 inch 700Z3A and the 11.6 inch XE700T1A slate in the first quarter of 2012. At Notebookcheck, we are quite familiar with the Samsung Series 7 family of notebooks.