Tech Review: Samsung NC10 Netbook

For the last few weeks I’ve been writing this blog, and doing lots of other stuff, on a Samsung NC10 Netbook. And it’s a great little piece of kit – ‘little’ obviously being the key word.

I needed something portable that I could take between home and the office, but as a writer I also needed a fully-useable keyboard. That had ruled netbooks out – until now. A quick recce to PC World confirmed that the NC10’s almost-full-size (93 percent according to Samsung) keyboard is cleverly-designed and easy to use, making fast, accurate typing a cinch. The touchpad, with combined finger scroll, takes a little getting used to, but once mastered it’s great. As for portability, the 10.2″ NC10 weighs just 1.33kg. It’s tiny-tastic.

For such a small unit, the widescreen display doesn’t feel compromised. With its 1024×600 resolution you really don’t notice a horizontal size reduction, and the vertical ‘crop’ just means sometimes having having to scroll down a little further in your browser window. It’s bright and clear, with a wide viewing angle, and I’ve yet to suffer the eye strain I often get from a standard 15″ TFT.

As for the specs, the NC10 offers a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Processor, 1GB of RAM (easily upgradeable to 2MB via a handy slot on the back of the unit for less than £20), and a 160GB HD. It has three USB ports, VGA port, and an SD card slot, and onboard Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and webcam. But perhaps most impressive is the battery. I’ve been careful to fully charge and discharge the 6 cell Li-ion each time, and I’ve had at least 6.5 hours use from each charge – one one occasion probably nearer 8 hours, which was beyond all expectations.

In use, the NC10 is quick to boot up and shut down, and copes perfectly with browsing, video playback, streaming, downloading, and anything else I’ve managed to throw at it. It runs XP, which feels a bit dated, but it’s at least quick and reliable. It is possible to install OSX on the NC10, although you lose some functionality, so I’m thinking Linux might be a better option. The website sammynetbook.com offers tips and a forum on using and tweaking your NC10.

Software-wise, the NC10 comes lightly-loaded with a suite of Samsung management software and refreshingly free of unwanted installations. I’ve gone ahead and installed the open source applications OpenOffice.org and Paint.NET, which combine to offer an excellent, and free, desktop software package.

The only minor grumble I have is that the onboard speakers are expectedly tinny, and you’ll need to use headphones and tweak Samsung’s EDS sound software to get decent audio. I’ve connected it to my TV and Hi-Fi amp, and happily streamed iPlayer content and Spotify with great results. Obviously there’s no room here for a DVD or CD drive. And the piano black finish on my version (it’s also available in white and blue) is obviously a fingerprint magnet, but it’s nothing that a quick rub with a glasses cleaning cloth can’t put right.

Overall, the Sammy NC10 offers fantastic laptop performance in a tiny netbook package, with great screen and keyboard, a remarkable battery life, and load of other useful features. As a piece of tech, it might not do anything new, but this tiny bit of kit does a hell of a lot brilliantly.

9/10

Paul Technology