Samsung N210 Plus 10.1 inch netbook (Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz, 1Gb, 250GB, WLAN, Webcam, Up to 10hrs battery life, Windows 7 Starter) - White

I bought this netbook along with the 2GB RAM upgrade that was recommended by Amazon. The netbook came very quickly, 2 days before the estimated delivery date, which I was very happy about. This gave me the chance to use it for a couple of days before upgrading the RAM, to give me a comparison.

The netbook looks lovely, very nice on the outside with a tiled effect on the lid. The hinges seem secure and the whole unit feel very well built. The keyboard is lovely, with the keys in the chiclet style, and all nicely spaced, the whole unit has a feeling of quality. There is also the nice touch of a chrome trim around the base of the unit, which matches the Samsung logo on the top cover, which gives it a bit of bling! The screen is very nice, unlike a lot of netbooks it has a matt effect, this eliminates the problem of glare and makes the screen easier to see outside, I think it looks fantastic and is very bright and clear. Overall I would give the appearance of the unit 5 stars.

It took me about an hour to get the computer set up for the first time, but I enjoy this bit and it was all very simple to do, I have never used windows 7 before but so far it is working well, and after reading advice on the internet I do not plan to upgrade the starter edition. The only downfall of not upgrading is that you can't change the backround of the computer, but I don't think it is worth £50 to do this.

So far I have only used the computer for internet use, and seem to be getting 6+ hrs out of it before I start to think about charging it, this is with the 1GB standard RAM, not sure if the RAM upgrade will effect this or not. It runs silently, and I mean SILENTLY!! It is so quiet that you have to hold it right next to your ear to be able to hear the very slight hum that it is making. Also I have used it sat on my bare legs for over 2 hours and it hasn't gotten more than slightly warm at any point.

I recieved my extra RAM this morning and it tok me less than 30 seconds to replace it, unscrew the cover (1 Screw), unclip the old RAM and slide out, clip in the new RAM and replace the cover, that's it, and the computer recognised the new RAM immediately with no need for me to go into the BIOS or anything more complicated.

So all in all I am very happy with this netbook, I spent quite a long time researching the N210 v the Toshiba NB305 and went for the N210 mainly because I wanted it in white and the NB305 seems to be quite hard to get hold of in that colour. But there are a few drawbacks that stop this from getting 5 stars.

The first is that I did all my research for this computer looking at reviews of the N210, the plus version appears to be quite new and as such information about it is limited. I assumed that the plus version would have all the same features as the original model PLUS some extra, but this is not true. Unlike the N210 the N210 plus does not have a memory card reader, it has bluetooth which is great for connecting to your mobile phone, and an SD slot, but nothing else so if you want to download items from other memory cards you will need a card reader. Only a minor issue, but a bit annoying as I expected there to be one.

The second is that while the N210 comes with a soft netbook case, the N210 plus does not. Again I only discovered this when I opened the box, and yes it is a very small point, but with the lack of info regarding the plus around, it is something worth pointing out.

Overall I am very happy with my purchase, and would recommend this netbook to a friend without hesitation, it is certainly something that I would happily buy again. I hope this review helps.

This is simply a very good netbook. If you firstly uninstall all the bloatware (do not Install Norton!) and replace the essential with good free programs - this may seem time consuming, but you will end up with a better faster netbook. I have used this netbook for working, which it copes fine, iTunes films/tv shows for which SD works fine and it cope perfectly with my franky massive iTunes library (80gb). I chose not to use the easy partition tool as this is permanent, and in the future cannot be removed. In the future you can partition it if you still want to, personally i don't see the point.

The screen is bright, sharp and clear, the keyboard (as i am discovering writing this review) is brilliant; well spaced island keys and nearly full size. The battery life isnt the quoted 10hrs battery life under usual usage, but it is around a still great 7-8hrs.

By far the most impressive thing is the machine and the heat it doesnt produce. It can sit on your lap for hours without the fan starting once, or it even producing anything more than skin temperature!

Personally i really like the design of the shell - it may be plastic but it feels really strong and classy. By the far the most shocking part of this netbook is how it copes when you want to relax. I downloaded the demo of the original Call of Duty, and it will play it fine and at a good Frames per Second! Im thinking i might try flight control sometime.

One last thing; for those who think that windows 7 starter will drive you nuts because you cannot change the desktop background. Rest assured, you can! I spent 5 minutes on google and found a tool which will change it (and only the background) to any picture you want.

All in all, this is a great netbook and i am very very very pleased with my purchase.

First off I like the machine. It is well made, solid feeling and has a great keyboard and has a reasonable spec. (though for the price they could have splurged another 50p and put in the full 2Gb - they make the RAM after all so it wouldn't cost them much). The white version does look quite stylish with a silver trim around the main body but it does feel a bit heavier than I expected (although with the range of what they said so it is my fault).

So why only 3 stars?

First: the hype. You look at the Samsung website and the blurb that came with it and you expect 10 hours of battery time. OK I know that all manufacturers exaggerate but I expected perhaps 8 hours ... forget. Between 4 and 5 hours is more realistic and that isn't doing much with it. Granted I changed the power mode settings because to achieve 'optimum' battery life Samsung had set the screen to such a dim level that you can't actually see very much (especially with the frosted screen) - but even so I doubt they would achieve 10 hours even if they left it in sleep mode!

Second: the hype. Stickers on the machine, blurb on the website - Samsung Fast Start. Well first off they don't ask do you want to use this abomination and after you reboot you have to wait about 20 minutes while it prepares 'fast start'. I'm not sure what this is actually supposed to achieve but after the 'optimization' it started slower than before and I then discovered I couldn't change any of the power settings relating to shutdown keys and buttons. At first I thought this was a bug with the windows set up and spent a couple of hours trying to find a solution but no it is a 'feature' of fast start. Basically Samsung's idea of fast start is to make it difficult to turn off your computer (and it is physically impossible to ask the computer to hibernate). What fast start means is that whatever you do your computer is likely to go to sleep. Hey presto when you use it next time it starts instantly - well whoopdy-do - that's assuming you use it every day and the battery hasn't died because you left on. Sorry Samsung Fast Start is not the same as don't turn it off. Disable this nonses and you can still use sleep if you must but the machine actually starts faster without it and you get some control back.

Third: The stupid Samsung Recovery Tool does not allow you to create a DVD of the system as it was supplied - ie. not a true recovery disk of the factory state. Instead you end up with an image backup of your C: drive post set up. If set up fails for some reason (perhaps a bad block on your hard disk - not uncommon) then there is no way to get a clean copy of the system and your only option would be to send it back. Personally I would be prepared to pay the extra 50p it would cost to include a factory produced DVD with the system.

Fourth: There is way to much rubbish preinstalled - so if you are like me be prepared to sped a couple of hours removing it all.

Fifth: Screen resolution is a bit small (600 pixels high is on the edge of being adequate). You can change the resolution but there are only 3 supported modes and both of the higher resolution modes don't maintain aspect ratio so the screen looks like someone has sat on it as all the icons are squashed. If you wanted to look at pictures they would all be vertically compressed (but not horizontally so they are deformed). Why these modes are offered is a mystery.

Sixth: Office 2010 is preinstalled but it doesn't say which version it is and it wouldn't take the serial number for the professional version - so I had to uninstall it and install the pro version from the disks.

Seventh: Windows 7 starter is a lemon - upgrade it (extra cost) - I have used the Anytime Upgrade process to bump it up to Windows 7 Pro and it works fine.

Eighth: The Wireless interface is supposed to support 802.11n standard. I have an 'n' router but the Samsung seems to be single channel and the speed is capped at 65Mbps, only marginally faster than 802.11g (which is already 54Mbs). There are no options to change this in the driver settings. Wireless 802.11n is supposed to support multichannel at 300Mbps - a bit of a difference! Having said that Samsung aren't the only company to lie about this - I have yet to see Wireless n on a Sony laptop that gets faster than 65Mbs. For browsing the internet this will not make any difference but if you need to sync files with a desktop computer over a network it is going to be slow.

OK I know I am being picky and I do like it. For me it will be ideal as I need to carry a computer with me along with loads of other stuff so I want a small light computer. What I hate is all the hype from manufacturers and the fact that sellers just accept these claims at face value.

Overall if you are happy with the limitations and you need something small and relatively light it is good value (but you do need to add a case, an external DVD drive and a memory upgrade to make it really useful).

If you don't need a small laptop then you are better off buying a bigger machine which is better value, has loads of RAM and a built in optical drive.