Samsung Notebook 9 Pro 15" and 13.3" at EOL at Best Buy ($950 for 15")

So Samsung Notebook 9 Pro EMRs have finally reached End Of Life, about to be replaced by Galaxy Flex 13.3 and 15.6.

I picked up the 15" for about $1030 after tax (CA). I'm betting that the Flex will be priced at least $1600. If it's less than $1400, I might return the Notebook 9 Pro and upgrade...

 

which CPU does your model have? Cause I’m pretty certain Best Buy was only carrying the 7th gen models. The Notebook 9 Pen did have a 15-inch successor with 8th gen Intel, Thunderbolt 3, and a significant bottom bezel reduction. And I’m pretty sure the 8th gen pen model only came in blue, the 7th gen came in grey.

 

My 15" has 8550u and RX540 combo with 16GB RAM. It's gray. It came with 256GB SATA which I ditched and shoved in a 1TB PCIe instead.

There was a refresh of Notebook 9 Pro 15" called Notebook 9 Pen, which is indeed blue. It's still 8550u or maybe 8565u. And instead of RX540, I think it has GTX150 or 250.

 

I thought I would clear up some of the confusion around the model no/specs:

Samsung did several stealth refreshes of the 15" 2017 Notebook 9 Pro. It originally shipped with an i7-7500U (NP940X5M-X01US and X02US) later upgraded to an i7-8550U (NP940X5N-X01US), which is the one currently listed on BestBuy.

In early 2018, they announced the successor 15" model, the Notebook 9 Pen under 2 SKUs: NP950SBE-K01US (i7-8565U integrated UHD 620) and NP950SBE-X01US (i7-8565U discrete MX150). Both these are on sale at Samsung's site too.

Although it may not seem like it, there is actually a logic to Samsung's numbering scheme.

 

Damn! My go-to computer is getting to that age, is it?

Mine's still in great shape, without even a scratch! (Though, I somehow managed to ding the screen or something, I have one of those little opposite-bruises, a little splotch where it's brighter than it's supposed to be. Don't know how that happened. Probably from being dropped while in my bag. I just noticed it a few weeks ago.)

The battery still holds about 85% of the original charge level, with daily use.

Drawing on it is great, I prefer it for its accuracy and fluid touch over my Dell Canvas. Grr. That should be the other way around, but WHATEVER... (still annoyed by all that.)

But I'll tell you... That extra .6" on the Galaxy Book Flex is appealing. I remember pulling out my old Dell Inspirion for comparison, to see if it would still fire up through its cracked screen (it did!) and found myself blinking at the larger screen. I still find the straight 15" good to draw on, but that extra little bit sure jumped out. 15.6" is a very nice size.

I notice that there's no traditional USB 3.0 slot on the Flex. SanDisk hasn't updated its "Extreme" line to USB C yet, (though I'm sure there are either USB C sticks out there worth using, or are in the pipeline. Last time I explored was about a six months ago. Things were pretty dry at the time, but I can't imagine this will be the case forever.) I tend to use a USB C dongle for my traditional USB plug-in needs; everything I own is old style USB, so it would still be nice to have at least one USB 3.o slot on the Flex.

Otherwise... That Galaxy Book Flex looks awesome!

Though, I can't see myself upgrading any time soon. There's a lot of life left still in my Notebook 9 Pro. It's been a really excellent machine this whole time and is still going strong.

It's great to see it finally coming down in price! I wonder if there will be a slew of used ones popping up on eBay when the Flex is released?

 

I'm compensating for lack of Feel driver for the Samsung with Wacom Expresskey Remote I had laying around. So I guess I need USB-A slot. No Flex for me lol. I'm pretty happy with Notebook 9 Pro and how much I paid so no Flex for me.

 

Finally got everything set up including Clip Studio Paint and Wacom Expresskey Remote. F me this thing is so damn good.... EMR at 15" with decent processor is bliss... Noticeably better CSP experience than my friend's Lenovo Thinpad X1 Extreme with 45W i7 and AES 2.0.

 

Impressive, especially coming from you, @Shogmaster .

 

I don't want to make it sound like AES is terrible. It's plenty good for most ppl. I'm just a super sensitive delicate flower is all... Also AES does some stuff better like eliminating cursor drift from center.

 

Just want to chime in with Shog on this. I was lucky to find a refurb of this on eBay a few months back, imported to UK for £750 along with a HP ZBook x2 pen, and it's an beast. I found the HP Elitebook I side-graded from was uninspiring due to the pen tech just being not quite there and the screen was frustrating due to HP Sureview screen giving wonky viewing angles.

It's done me proud on an emergency project in After Effects, didn't get bogged down with a complex comp and rendered quickly for speedy delivery. My dailer runners, Sketchbook and Animate are buttery and it's just a joy to use with this X2 pen, can't recommend this setup enough for animators. I sometimes use Photoshop and we all know that story, it runs fine, not amazingly, but haven't invested too much time there. I think this is me for a while, finally happy. Will probably grab a tablet for super light travels and doodles, but apart from that I love this lappy.

Anyway, will close this with an Autohotkey script that I botched together as there was no ideal all in one solution for me, but hope this helps someone (and I also hope someone can help). You'll need AHKHID in the same folder as the script. Basically, once you've uninstalled/quit Samsung's BS pen launcher, you can use the barrel button of any pen as a right click (click only, not able to press and hold button), without affecting the eraser functionality (super handy for the X2 pen) whilst also passing modifier keys if pressed (like right clicking and pressing ctrl or shift etc). I've left in, but commented out, the press+hold barrel button functionality, but this triggers right clicks using the eraser and I can't be arsed to figure it out as it just works fine as is! If someone figures it out without killing the eraser, please do share <3

Code:

SendMode Input
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%

global PEN_NOT_HOVERING := 0x0 ; Pen away from screen.
global sPen_Thread := 0
;global sPen_Timer := 0 ;OFF Timer to figure out right button hold
global sPen_RBtn := 0 ; Store right button click

; Send Alt, Ctrl and Shift keys along with the right-click if necessary
SendModifierKeys() {
    static lastAlt := 0
    static lastCtrl := 0
    static lastShift := 0
    AltState := GetKeyState("Alt")
    CtrlState := GetKeyState("Ctrl")
    ShiftState := GetKeyState("Shift")
    
    if (AltState <> lastAlt) {
        if (AltState) {
            Send {Alt Down}
        } else {
            Send {Alt Up}
        }
    lastAlt := AltState
    }

    if (CtrlState <> lastCtrl) {
        if (CtrlState) {
        Send {Ctrl Down}
        } else {
        Send {Ctrl Up}
        }
    lastCtrl := CtrlState
    }

    if (ShiftState <> lastShift) {
        if (ShiftState) {
            Send {Shift Down}
        } else {
        Send {Shift Up}
        }
    lastShift := ShiftState
    }
}

TimerThreadEnd() {
    SetTimer, TimerThreadEnd, Off
    sPen_Thread := 0
    
    if (sPen_RBtn <> 0){ ; Right button pressed
        SendModifierKeys() ;send modifier if pressed
        Send {RButton Up} ;button released
    }
}
TimerThreadOn(){
    sPen_Thread := 1 ;active
    SetTimer, TimerThreadEnd, 30 ; 30 milliseconds
}

#include AHKHID.ahk

WM_INPUT := 0xFF
USAGE_PAGE := 13
USAGE := 2

AHKHID_UseConstants()

AHKHID_AddRegister(1)
AHKHID_AddRegister(USAGE_PAGE, USAGE, A_ScriptHwnd, RIDEV_INPUTSINK)
AHKHID_Register()

OnMessage(WM_INPUT, "Work")

Work(wParam, lParam) {
    Local type, inputInfo, inputData, raw, proc
    static lastInput := PEN_NOT_HOVERING
    static penIn := 0

    Critical

    type := AHKHID_GetInputInfo(lParam, II_DEVTYPE)

    if (type = RIM_TYPEHID) {
        inputData := AHKHID_GetInputData(lParam, uData)
    ;TimerThreadOn() ;off this triggers unwanted right clicks using eraser
    raw := NumGet(uData, 0, "UInt")
        proc := (raw >> 0) & 0xFFFF

    if (proc <> lastInput) {
        
    if (proc == 10242) { ;need to figure out what this number does
        ;sPen_RBtn := 1 ;OFF
        ;SendModifierKeys() ;OFF
        ;Send {RButton Down} ;OFF
        if (lastInput = 8194) {
        SendModifierKeys()
        Click right
        ;Send {RButton Up}
        }
    ;sPen_RBtn := 0
        }
        lastInput := proc
    }
    }
}