Samsung NC10 - with 7 hour battery (Netbook) Reviews: Windows XP Home 10.2" Screen Laptop computer

+ I read a lot of reviews and tried out some alternatives from Acer and Asus and this came out on top in many ways, but particularly its overall specification.. It connects very easily to the internet and I have loaded MS Office via an external DVD and it copes fine with basic Word and Excel files. The Integral SD slot allows me to easily view my photos. I have used both iTunes and LastFM and quality of the sound and volume control perfectly adequate. Great Keyboard compared to some alternatives.

- None. If you know you definately want a Netbook this is the one to go for. Just be aware of the limitations between a Netbook and a Laptop.

+ Would recommend the Samsung NC10 to everyone. It's light, compact and easy to use. I can't believe how long I have muddled along with my "large" laptop for, when these little beauties are on the market.

- I have only found two bad points-the bag that comes ith the laptop is a bit flimsy and doesn't fasten and the keyboard comes set for the American market-so make sure you change this setting before trying to use.

+ Very light and compact with normal-size keyboard keys (most keys are in the expected position but the left shift button is absent which can be problematic). Sleek and stylish look - this has one of the best, if not the best appearance in comparison to other netbooks on the market. The thin metallic strips that runs around the circumference of the netbook is really a great touch. Good battery life - I have used this for 3-5 hours intensively before without charging. Without intensive use I imagine the battery could sustain itself for up to 8 hours as the manufacturer indicates (so no lies on their behalf).

- The Intel Atom is not a strong processor in comparison to normal laptops. To get an idea you could probably run Internet Explorer/Mozilla Firefox with 6 or 7 tabs/windows open and loading up to which point the processor would struggle to let you run any other serious application like an office application or mp3 player. However if you're buying a netbook then this is to be expected I guess. Another major negative is some of the keyboard glitches and the finger pad design. There are a couple of keyboard glitches for instance if you hold Shift or Ctrl and touch the mouse pad it will zoom in/out as there is an in-built mouse scroller (a stupid idea). This can be frustrating when typing an email for instance as the zooming in/out actually requires quite a bit of memory and can take a while to correct. However there may be a way to disable this annoying feature I haven't yet checked. This problem is enhanced by having such a sensitive finger pad. The finger pad is also quite poorly sized, my main concern is that it is too short. The width of the pad is fine but most people who have used a normal laptop will struggle to adjust to the new shape (widescreen shape). Overall I have been satisified with the Samsung NC-10 and have not encountered any major faults or design errors. I would recommend this netbook to someone who is looking for a stylish, highly portable computer and only wants to surf the net or use very basic applications (i.e. Microsoft Office).

+ It is well worth spending that little bit extra on the most expensive option as the whole netbook feels and looks very classy and well made. Performance is fab, and the battery life is phanominal, even when I first got the laptop out of the box i was running it on battery whilst installing, Norton security, microsoft office, scanning for viruses everything that usaully sucks the power out of a battery but it still lasted 5 hours!!! This is a great netbook and I highly reccommend it to anyone.

- The cooling fan can get a little bit annoying as although its not loud, when I am working late at night and there are no other sounds, the fan comes on for a few seconds then goes off, comes on for a few seconds then goes off, and it can get annoying eventually but nothing to worry about as i'd rather it doing that than overheating! Apart from that no bad points at all.

+ An impressive amount of memory, and both keyboard and screen are great quality. I wouldn't believe the battery time though; presumably you can get that time if you don't so much as breathe on the laptop, but the moment you want to actually want to use it, it eats power. If you're also hoping to run a usb DVD drive off it, you might get the length of a movie out of it. Still the best on the market though - it just bothers me that they feel the need to exaggerate. To date, it seems the best netbook out there by far, though like all its peers, it seems to suffer from rather cheap plastic interior bezels once you've opened that wonderful shiny lid. Aside from that, build quality seem great to date; to give a comparison, I've previously had the ultra-compact Vaio and a neat little Compaq tablet. This one stands head and shoulders above its present competitors.

- No bundled software at all, which considering the price is unforgivable. Having had a white keyboard before, I also wouldn't recommend one, unless you like having that attractive ground-in dirt line to the edges of all your nice white keys which you have t get out cotton wool buds and alcohol to clean (yes I do wash my hands - you still get it!). Also if, like me, you take and use your laptop everywhere, you'll soon find that you blind yourself on a sunny day if you look at the white keyboard a lot when you type! I chose the blue, which I haven't regretted yet, though as I said, the bezels once you open it up ar a little cheap and tacky, but then that's a common feature of the new batch of netbooks for some reason. All in all, there's nowhere near enough bad points on this little beauty to let 'em dissuade you from buying it.

+ Design, keyboard, display performance...it's just very good at it's job.
At home I use it with an external monitor, mouse, keyboard and stereo and it works a treat. I recently had it concurrently running I.T. examination software, MS Office, playing music and downloading a movie at the same time...no problems. Recommended.

- ...erm.

+ Compact design but with an almost full sized keyboard. Good battery life and large HDD.

- Wifi chipset not compatible with my router - apparently a known issue on some forums. Also the disk partitioning default setting left just 40GB of the 160GB available on for the C drive. Very poor - suggest you manually select the partition during setup. Beware you only have one opportunity to do this.

+ Works as expected, very small & light, excellent battery life, quick to boot-up and was great for our trip to abroad.

- Reviewer left no comment

+ In my opinion, this is easily the best value notebook/netbook on the market at present. Fantastic battery life and almost full size keyboard make the Samsung NC10 a pleasure to work with. I use for work and personal usage, I can pull over at the local services, grab a coffee and check up on my Ebay deals whilst connected to the numerous free wi-fi spots littered across the country.

- The only fault I could mention if I was really pushed is the shiny lid (I chose the blue colour which I personally thought was a bit different to the usual black or white) which is very easy to mark with fingerprints. This is only being very 'picky' as I couldn't think of any other faults!

+ long battery life, small, lightweight, almost full size keyboard, excellent wireless capability, user friendly, easy to set up

- shiny black cover shows every fingerprint - hard to keep clean

+ Excellent netbook. As an independent IT Consultant, I have to support lots of different systems and I have loaded my NC10 with a triple boot choice of operating systems: Original Windows XP
Evaluaton copy of Windows 7
Linux Ubuntu Works like a dream in all OSs

- None

+ Excellent netbook, by far the best on the market at the moment (Jan 2009). Does exactly what i want - a second really portable computer to read my emails anywhere in my house but i can also use it as a
work tool as a programmer/debugger PC, especially when not much desk space for a conventional lap-top.

- None really, but you really need to invest in a decent netbook bag because the slip case supplied is a joke - its only good for making sure all the broken bits of your netbook are keep together if you are unlucky enough to drop it!

+ This is the third I've bought for my small business. We've now replaced our unreliable Dell desktops and laptop with three of these Samsungs. They have more than enough memory/speed for all the normal desktop applications such as MS Word/Excel and also several payroll, book-keeping and accounting programs that we use every day in our business. Unlike the Dells where we've had to spend literally hours/days trying to get them linked to our office network these Samsungs have been literally "plug and play" with our network and have been fully linked and operational within 5 minutes.

- There are only two downsides, neither of which are deal-breakers. First is the cheap and nasty sleeve that they come with which is pretty useless as it's no good for carrying it around as it has no fastenings and is very weak - nothing more than a cloth version of a paper file - you'll need to buy a proper carrying case. The other is the lack of USB ports - 3 is just not enough but is easily solved with a cheap USB hub.

+ When I was researching the Netbooks on the market, I found they tended to fall into two groups; 1)Nice keyboard. Shame about the screen.
2) Nice screen, shame about the keyboard. I eventually realised that if I was going to live with the device for any period of time, I had better fork out the little bit extra for the Samsung NC10. For the size of netbook, the keyboard is superb. Unlike many of it's rivals, the NC10's 'RETURN' key is an inversed "L". This makes typing much easier. It was one of the main reasons for buying this unit.
The screen is also excellent. The brightness is lovely & punchy. The screen surface is slightly matt to reduce reflection. If you like your battery life long, let the supplied power-save programme controll the screen. It will run at full brightness when on mains power. But when on battery, it will dim the screen slightly and then dim it further after a period of non use. As a result, the already high powered battery gives excellent performance. The lid on the blue model has a lovely gloss finnish. Considdering it has a traditional hard drive, the NC10 is surprisingly quiet. The ram can be upgraded via a small access panel and the power pack is a nice size too. I have used it for about an hour every day and I can safely say I made the right decision.

- The battery (although a nice shape) adds weight. But you cannot change the laws of physics! A better battery is a heavier battery. My previous laptop was a desk-top emulating beast. So the NC10 does not really offend. Samsung have used a relatively proprietry power socket. This limits your choice of car chargers ect... At least on the high street anyway. It's lovely that Samsung has supplied a free case, but a little bit of padding, on the bottom at least would have made it perfect.

+ Excellent design, very sleek and contemporary. Windows XP (CANT STAND VISTA!). Does everything you need but in a pint sized design. Very easy to take everywhere, watch video / listen to music on trains etc

- Not a particularly good carry case. Flimsy. Doesnt close. Nowhere to secure it and carry it, have to hold it in your hand.
No CD / DVD drive (obviously that would ruin the design, but a little slide in DVD drive would have been a real bonus like on the dell 1300).