Netbook Review | Samsung NC10 In-Depth Review

Samsung NC10 In-Depth Review

This week we have taken an in-depth look at the 10.1-inch Samsung NC10. Samsung has joined the netbook party a little late, so some may expect their products to be under-developed. This is not the case at all, and they seem to have put a lot of effort and thought into the NC10.

We were suitably impressed.

What we liked about the Samsung NC10

When it comes to the NC10, it would just be easier to write what we didn’t like, and let you assume the rest was good, but we won’t cop out so easily!

Starting with the all-important looks, we found the Samsung NC10 well proportioned and feeling robust, the NC10 has a certain stylish and less ‘plasticy’ feeling that some of the other vendors seem to have ignored in their focus on size and cost. For us this is one of the (if not THE) best looking netbook around. The keyboard is almost full size which made it much easier for typing than some of the competition. The USB and video output ports are sensibly located, as is the SD card slot.

Start-up time was very quick, even on the first start. The initial start-up was easy – no problem here for someone who is not an IT geek! The Samsung NC10 comes with Windows XP Home, Internet Explorer, Media Player and a PDF viewer pre-installed. Also a 3 month license for McAfee anti-virus, but not so much else. We were pleased not to find too much additional bloatware installed and were happy that we didn’t have to spend the first 20 minutes uninstalling junk. Thanks Samsung! The full manual for the NC10 can be found on the desktop, and is very informative for those who want to read it.

Immediately after the set-up, there is an option to do a full backup of the initial setup. This is a great idea, as you can subsequently always get back to this clean starting point if the worst comes to the worst and things go wrong with the installation.

The first things that struck us at this point we how quiet the NC10 is, and how sharp and bright the screen is. Already we were getting to know and love this little machine.

Connecting the Samsung NC10 to our Wireless LAN was simple and our download test showed fast transfer speeds. For web-browsing it seemed quick and Netbook Review looked great on the bright screen!

We plugged in a mobile broadband USB stick and this was detected and worked without problems. Web browsing was still quick via HDSPA. We also tried the same test via Bluetooth, connecting to the internet via a mobile phone and we happy with the results.

One of the most amazing things we saw on the NC10 was how well the integrated webcam worked for video chat. Even in low light the picture quality was clear, and in good light it was excellent. The built in microphone and speakers worked very well for the video chat. When playing music through the speakers the quality was acceptable (considering how small they are) but with headphones sound was more crisp and more enjoyable.

Next we tried the different power options. Three presets are available, Max-power, Normal and Power-save. Each of them made the expected noticeable differences to both the speed and the screen brightness. Even on the Power-save setting, the machine remained adequately responsive and the screen was still bright enough to read in normal light conditions. When we later did a battery life test, the battery went from fully charged to empty in a good 4 hours 53 mins (with general use for web browsing and video playing for most of the time).

What we didn’t like about the Samsung NC10

As we hinted at above, there wasn’t really very much that we didn’t like about the Samsung NC10.

We did find the right shift key a little hard to find sometimes while typing, as it’s in what seems to be a slightly illogical place (although the same is true of other notebook, and is part of what it takes to keep the keyboard compact enough).

The NC10’s touch-pad isn’t great and we ended up plugging an external mouse in. Anywhere where this is a option it makes for more comfortable use. Also when we tried the low-light test for the webcam, we found it quite hard to see the touch-pad and buttons, as they blended in so well with the background. Assuming we could find it, it worked well and was responsive. Also it’s quite small – presumably Samsung favoured a bigger keyboard, and we probably agree that it is the right decision.

We’d like to have seen an option to have mobile broadband built-in to the case (with the SIM card inside, rather than having to depend on a USB mobile broadband stick sticking out of the side. Maybe this will be added to the range later on.

Talking of sticking out, we could not see any real reason why an SD card did not go all the way in the case, but rather stuck out a few millimetres. Flush fitting SD cards are not so likely to get damaged and are much convenient to leave in the netbook all the time.

Samsung NC10 – Summary

Overall we were really impressed with this, and we didn’t want to have to give it back. For someone looking for a first netbook purchase we could highly recommend the Samsung NC10. It offers great value for money, so many good points and really not many bad ones.