Customer Reviews

Samsung NC10 10.2-inch Netbook (Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Windows XP Home, Black)

5 star:		(133)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I got this a couple of days ago, and set it up yesterday. Set up was very easy, even for a non-technohead. It leads you through the setup clearly. Don't expect a hardcopy manual though - there's a brief leaflet that pretty much just tells you how to connect the power cord and switch it on. The system then leads you through basic setup on screen (N.B. when it asks you what type of keyboard you have, choose UK - it suggests US as default, but then you'll never find your "@" symbol). There's an electronic manual on the desktop which is worth a look at some stage, although isn't required to get started. Attaching to my home wireless internet was easy (once I'd remembered where I'd stored the network settings).

Comes with Windows XP, Internet Exporer, Media Player and PDF viewer pre-installed. Also a 3 month license for McAfee anti-virus (if you want to install other anti-virus such as Kaspersky, make sure you uninstall McAfee first to avoid conflicts). So you're ready to roll with the internet, playing music/movies, reading PDFs. However, if you want to do Word, Excel etc you'll need to buy MS Office (if you don't have it already).

Once set up, it does a backup of the initial setup so that you can always (if worst comes to worst) roll back to its original state. It also had to download some updates for Windows and it recommended I download Internet Explorer 7, which I did. I guess it's a shame that wasn't the pre-installed version but updating it was easy enough.

While it may not be up to the power of the high spec laptops out there, so far it seems to more than keep pace with my 3 year old Acer laptop - and in a much smaller package.

So long as you're not looking to do lots processor-hungry applications (e.g. serious gaming or video editing may struggle) this should fit the bill nicely. I got this primarily as a very portable laptop for doing a quick bit of web browsing and also for reading PDFs and taking notes, all of which it handles well. Highly recommended!

This computer is fantastic, I own a desktop with a 2.4Ghz quadcore processor and 3Gb ram so I am used to fast high performance computing and I wanted a new portable to take with me when I go away but I was worried the intel atom and 1gb ram wouldn't offer enough power for my needs but rest assured it is plenty for the standard computer user. First of all I ordered this together with the kingston 2gb ram module to upgrade which was £15 of well spent money but the first few times I used my NC10 was before I made the upgrade (which is very very easy to do) and it was still flawless. XP works brilliantly on these little netbooks, its nice and fast about 30 second total boot up time (after 2gb ram upgrade, about 50 seconds before the upgrade), The wireless network connection is very fast and reliable, bluetooth is great, Samsung software for system back-up and battery management are superb, very clean and easy to use, and the 1.3 Mpixel cam is great for skype msn etc. I have my entire music collection on it I have plenty of movies saved on here and play back is great but I have only watched movies after I had done the 2Gb ram upgraded. The screen is fantastic, very bright and clear matte screen so not so much eye strain and no annoying glare and reflections, also it can be turned way down to save on battery life which is good. I have MS office ultimate which runs perfectly smooth even with very large files open. I do bits of c++ programming on it using dev c++ which is no problem.
Battery life can be up to around 8 hrs but I am getting 6 hrs usually which is perfectly aceptable and it only takes around an hour to charge back up which is better than my mobile phone.
Multitasking is good, I have an internet window with a few tabs loading, windows live messenger, windows media player playing a movie, a MS word document open for editing and an old sega game of Earth Worm Jim all running smoothly at the same time, I cant imagine why anyone would want to be running anymore than that at anyone time (I normally don't).

The only minor complaint is that the speakers aren't very good but then on a computer this size they were never going to be, they produce a clear sound but there is litle in the way of bass and max volume is pretty poor but then thats what you get with small speakers. There is a headphone port so yo can plug in good headphones or even a full audio system, I plugged in my logitech 2.1 sound system with sub woofer etc and it was great, so again even though the speakers arent great they are the best you can get for this size and isnt really an issue.

I bought this when it was £302 on amazon.co.uk and I am very happy with the buy, I would strongly recommend getting the black version as its very pretty and shiney, I was going to get the white version because it wasn't glossy and so wouldnt collect finger prints but then it looked very plasticy, the black one does look better just becareful not to touch the lid with greasy hands.

The keyboard is great, a nice action on the keys and a good size, I can touch type quickly on it so thats good enough for me.
Mouse buttons and track pad likewise are well made with just the right level of sensitivity.

I havent tested the built in microphone but its not something Im ever likely to use, I will assume it works fine but thats just because Im impressed with the whole machine.

There are numorous ports around the edge, 3 usb2, ethernet, VGA, mic-in, headphones-out, the standard netbook set up really.

I think I have covered everything.... Oh yeah if you do buy it and I do recommend this one over all other netbooks I have tried out in stores, buy the Sweex neoprene case Sweex Sa141 10"neoprene Netbook Sleeve F/styleon amazon for around £10, the Samsung fits in snug and it has a little zip pocket on the front for usb flash drive sticks and other extras you want, very useful.
I think thats it
Happy shopping

Oh yeah, one last thing, the new Nvidia Ion technology is coming out very soon and the netbooks with this technology will be far, far superior to all previous netbooks (if the hype is to be believed, which I do) including the samsung NC10. I imagine when the Nvidia ion netbooks come out all of the old netbooks (including this one) will drop sharply in price (I assume) and so you may want to hold off and buy one of these when they are alot cheaper or pay a bit more for one of the new Ion enhanced machines. I would probably stick with the NC10 as it is still plenty capable of doing everything you would ever want, no point in paying extra for unnecessary power.

This netbook is just a great travel companion. The 10" screen is great (personally I find 9" and 8" too small) and the almost full keyboard is a must. The most problematic key is the right shift key, but after using it for about 2 hours I got used to it and to use the fn key (needed to press home, end, and other keys).
The battery life is amazing, I used it for a bit more than 2 hours and the battery had more then 50% of charge.

One weak point is the size of the touch pad, it's not very big, but this is because the keyboard uses most of the space. Another issue is that it has a single rocker button, so you can't press both buttons at the same time.

Other positive points are:
- The built in camera is quite good.
- Very silent.
- Speakers (they are very good considering the size)

Negative points
- Touchpad and rocker buttons
- The default wifi driver doesn't work very well (it doesn't have a large range)

This is an excellent netbook which in terms of features has it all plus the usual spec of 1Gb RAM, an Intel Atom 270 processor but with a slightly larger hard drive than one might expect at 160Gb. The only additional thing I could think of is that it lacks a SIM card slot for integrated mobile broadband - you still have to have a USB dongle sticking out of it. Otherwise it is well proportioned with an excellent keyboard/screen(10.2" widescreen) and built in Bluetooth. The integrated camera offers amazing quality even in low light and battery life is exceptionally good at around 4-5 hours. Overall, hard to criticise and a worthy entry to the netbook arena from Samsung.

Lovely netbook, amazing battery life, and that keyboard is gorgeous.

However, there's a fairly common fault with the screen, where there are 2 large dark patches towards the lower left of centre (easily seen on a plain background, especially white - someone on a forum said they look like 2 eyes!). Mine's gone back to Samsung today as once you notice it (it took me 3 days) it becomes unusable as you see it all the time, so hopefully they'll replace it with one that doesn't suffer.

Apart from that, a brilliant netbook and has everything I want from one...

Everyone who's reviewed this netbook has pretty much said what needs to be said. I'll just quickly list my likes and dislikes:

Likes:
1. Physically, the casing is sturdy and well-made. Looks professional.
2. Keys are well spaced for a laptop and respond well. Track pad generally reponsive as well (although there is a dislike side to that- see below)
3. Screen is crisp and bright and decent size to view most things
4. Battery life is great. I've never had it run out of power on me
5. Power control options are simple and easy to use. Power-save means your netbook will run slower and at the lowest screen-brightness setting. Normal is half and half and Max power is full processing and screen brightness.
6. Handles normal res vids and most media well (which is my main use for it)
7. Surprisingly didn't come with too much "bloatware" when I started it up initially, so didn't have to uninstall/delete much.

Dislikes:
1. Tad bit on the thick and heavy side (granted, this means it feels more solid, which I do like). Probably a combination of the 6 cell battery and the solid casing. I consider it borderline too heavy to carry on my person (I prefer to carry it in my trolley bag), unless I definately intend to use it during my journey. Definately not light enough for me to consider carrying around everyday to and from work in case I feel the need to "whip it out"...
2. Lack of multimedia control buttons - I personally like to have seperate volume control and even play/pause/skip buttons rather than having to use the "Fn" control keys
3. Track pad "zoom" - I discovered this by accident. The track pad is actually "multi-touch"... sort of... if you pinch and unpinch your fingers on the pad it zooms in and out in Firefox (i.e. increases, decreases font sizes). I'm not sure if this works on other programs. The "zoom" doesn't work perfectly and I've got a tendency to zoom in/out by accident.
4. Wifi - for some reason I had some issues with the Wifi connection at my parent's home. The type of encryption (I believe it was 128bit WEP) we were using wasn't supported by the NC10's Wifi card, so we had to change the encryption to something slightly less "secure" for me to gain access.

Overall I'm happy with my purchase. I've always wanted a mobile computing device that was small, light and affordable and the NC10 certainly fits all those categories.

I bought this after reading magazine reviews of netbooks, and personal reviews on here. I also tried various other netbooks that friends have bought. I have to agree this is one awesome piece of gear!

The power in this tiny little box is amazing, and it performs brilliantly. It is so easy to set up and to use, you will be up and running in just a few minutes. The build quality is excellent, the screen is fantastically clear and sharp, and it is so small and lightweight. It runs on Windows XP so is instantly familiar to most people, and is easily networked to your home PC so you can transfer your files back and forth. I have experienced no significant speed problems, slowdowns or stalling. The large 160GB memory has enabled me to copy across all my photos and movie files and still have plenty spare. The screen is great for watching movies on, crystal clear with natural colours.

On the downside, the internal speakers are rubbish, but then I never expected them to be any good anyway due to the size. There is a headphone jack socket which I tend to listen through instead, or you could get some external speakers too (thinking about doing this myself). The mousepad is very small and if you have big fingers (like me) then it can be fiddly and you keep having to brush it a couple of times to move across the screen. But you quickly get used to it and find ways of working around it with shortcuts etc, and the scroll function on it works pretty well.

I've only had mine 5 days so far, but am very impressed. There's so many features to shout about: 3 USB ports, SD Card port, Ethernet port, external monitor port, long battery life, fast charge time, decent size keys for fat fingers, a high resolution camera built in for video phonecalls, very very quiet, small, lightweight, quality build...

It comes pre-loaded with McAfee security for a free period (60 or 90 days, can't remember which). Also Samsung's own software updater which checks for updates for drivers and the like. You will want to run this as soon as you get set up. You will also want to do a Windows Update to get all the latest patches for XP, get the latest versions of Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player etc. I've also installed Quicktime and VLC Media Player to play my movie files, and the free OpenOffice.org software suite (to view/edit word documents, powerpoint slideshows etc.)

In a word...Excellent!

Sorry Amazon I did not purchase this from your good selves, but from a well known TV shopping channel Q*C.
I have written a few reviews on this type of netbook prior to purchasing this magnificent piece of hardware. Two in fact, the first my beloved Asus 701 EeePc, which now has been handed down to my youngest daughter, and the second being an Acer Aspire One (this in my eyes was a mistake even though it has had good reviews, I am not a follower due to the tied down OS), both use Linux OS, but are completely different in the way they operate. Please read all my reviews if you are interested with these type of micro laptops? But if you are thinking of purchasing a netbook then in my eyes don't look no further than this Samsung NC10, you won't be disappointed.

On opening and setting it up for the very first time it was a breeze. You have the option to partition the 160 gig drive and allocate size of the drives, this sounds technical but I opted for a small drive space to install my software programmes and a larger one for your precious data, it really your choice. The first thing you see is the excellent 10.2 inch screen which is pin sharp as per the AA1 but better than the Asus 701. Speaker and key board size and lay out are again superb it's just like using my old HP laptop but more compact. In fact for surfing the net, word processing and all the other office type duties it performs faultlessly. The start up and shut down speeds are again quick, just marginally slower than my other netbooks running Linux , but to be honest these OS are not really comparable, but I am not going to drawn into the argument. I do like the Linux version on my EeePc but well I don't like the AA1 version.
All other connections are pretty much the same; however the NC10 has the added benefit of Bluetooth, which is just great for sharing the photos etc from your mobile phone. This netbook is just a pleasure to use, with an excellent battery life and yes you do get what is published in terms of battery life. I would also suggest that you do make a Samsung recover / restore disc it worth it.
I did all purchase an external lightscribe DVD drive which allowed me to add other software such as MS Office, Nero, McAfee, etc, or you can import software direct from one of the three USB ports / card drive, or if you are a bite of a techy from your network. It is just a flexible machine.
I can only sum this up with two words smashing, fantastic, which is pretty much what everybody are saying about this little beauty. It gets my vote.
Oh yes I would suggest that you also purchase nice leather case to protect it from knocks and bumps and also 2 gigs of ram which was simple to install (Corsair) as I have.

You must rememeber that it is a netbook and not a state of the art games machine but it Copes admirably

Cheers

gadgetman

I've only had this device for a couple of days so it's pretty early to review it, but first impressions are very good. This one is very much a second generation netbook. The early ones were very small (typically 8"), very cramped (I found the keyboard almost unusable and I have small fingers) and bad battery life (< 2 hours).

The Samsung seems to address all of these issues. Ideal size (10"), great screen (incredibly bright and clear), fantastic battery (I'm getting between 4-5 hours with normal i.e. pretty intense use)... and it looks lovely. It's miles away the best-looking netbook available. The keyboard is also very good... and I am very picky when it comes to this. My only complaint is the mousepad which is very small, very black and very hard to see except in very good light.

Software wise, it runs everything I've tried... including Office 2007, which it runs perfectly. Firefox is also great on it (I run it in full-screen mode). It comes with Windows XP and SP 3 pre-installed. Skype is stunning on it. It really makes video calling a pleasure (using its built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam).

This is the kind of device that makes the people who bought the "first version" regret their choice. Truly outstanding product.

I bought this Net book last week and have so far been very impressed. Amazon delivered it to me in 5 days on free standard delivery!. Loaded up my usual software. Skype works really well. I am going to upgrade to an extra 2gb and order and external usb cd/dvd.

Advantages ++

* Incredible battery life (used 3 days on an off without charging with still 65% free!)

* Clear screen

* Wifi good

* Solid build quality

* Very good value for money

Disadvantages --

* Track Pad small (sometime activates scroll)

* Keyboard shift key awakward position

* XP looks dated now