Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2-Inch Blue Netbook - 6 Cell Battery Review

We recently replaced our Notebook PC with one purchased at a big box store. It crashed after one month of use. When it was returned to the store for warranty repairs, they kept it for four days and notified us that they could not/would not repair it since it was a software problem - our option was to pay them an excessive service fee or contact the manufacturer. The decision was made to end our purchases with the store. We decided on the Samsung NC10 for backup after the review in Consumer Reports (June,2009). The Amazon price and availability suited our situation. It does everything expected from a full notebook. The mouse control leaves a little to be desired. The original notebook was repaired by phone with the manufacturer's technician.Get more detail about Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2-Inch Blue Netbook - 6 Cell Battery.

Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2-Inch Blue Netbook - 6 Cell Battery Top Quality

The Samsung NC10 is an amazing netbook.

The first thing I noticed about it is its tiny size -- it is the size of a medium-sized hardback novel.

The system weighs less than 3lbs (and just a tad over 3lbs with the power supply), and thus is very light. It's lighter than many notebooks, and lighter than most (if not all) netbooks with a comparable battery life (i.e. 6+ hours).

The screen is bright, very sharp, and the matte finish does not provide reflections.

The keyboard is awesome. It's 93% regular size and the tactile feel of the keys is great. It also has a full-size right shift key. It is more comfortable and usable than most 10 inch netbook keyboards I tested. That said, the smaller keyboard takes a little getting used to for touch typists.

The wireless works amazingly well. It picks up networks quickly, it connects easily, and the bandwidth is terrific. For example, my wireless router is upstairs and I have a wireless bridge in my TV room downstairs with two walls in between the two nodes. While in the TV room, I can download a file at 340 kB/s, which is the max file speed that I can download wirelessly or wired with our 3mb/s DSL.

The Bluetooth works great too. I have a Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 that works perfectly with the netbook. Just boot the system up and the mouse will work. No installs and no fuss.

The 160GB hard drive is sufficient. It's a little slow (4200rpm) when transferring files, but it works fine. For example, the NC10 boots faster in Windows XP than my substantially more powerful desktop systems.

Movies play great on the NC10. I rip my DVDs via Cucusoft and Xilisoft programs to roughly 512x300 resolution at 1500mb/s data rate. The resulting movies look great when played fullscreen (and thus at double size) and there is absolutely no stutter. I have 73 movies/shows on my NC10, which takes up 82.3GB of drive space. Streaming via YouTube or equivalent is also seemless provided you have sufficient network bandwidth. I just played a 480p trailer from the Apple site and it looked and played flawlessly.

The sound quality of the speakers is so-so. The sound quality via headphones (or earbuds) is very good.

The battery lasts a long time. I've never tested its limits. That said, when I watched a movie for 2.5 hours, it still had ~60% battery life left. Thus, two movies on a long flight is possible without the battery dying on you.

The system is pretty much silent and doesn't get too warm. It's also surprisingly peppy in performance. The styling is pretty good, too. Like other 10 inch netbooks, it does not have a DVD drive, so you'll need to get an external USB DVD drive if you need that functionality.

Like others have mentioned, get a 2GB RAM stick and replace the 1GB RAM stick that comes with the system. It's not difficult to install. Go to Laptop Magazine's site for the video tutorial, or simply do a Google search for "add ram to nc10" for a link to that tutorial.

The pre-installed software is pretty good. The only bloatware is McAfee anti-virus software. Uninstall it and install something better. For example, AVG or Avast offer free anti-virus software. Samsung also installs its own utilities including "Samsung Recovery Solution III" which auto-launches and allows you to partition your drive and save an image of the boot partition to the backup partition. If you get the NC10, make sure you partition the drive (e.g., with the C: partition at 25GB and the D: partition to 135GB), and have the system create a backup image of the C: partition to the D: partition. The software uses a Wizard so this process is simple. Although the software is a little buggy, it works and is a nice addition.

If I could complain about anything, it is the screen size on webpages or larger documents like spreadsheets. This is a problem with 10 inch netbooks (which offer a standard 1024x600 resolution) and thus is not unique to the NC10. One simply has to adjust.

All in all, the NC10 is a great little system. It provides all that you need and little that you don't. I recommend it highly.Get more detail about Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2-Inch Blue Netbook - 6 Cell Battery.

Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2-Inch Blue Netbook - 6 Cell Battery This instant

I learned about the Samsung NC10 after buying an Acer Aspire One. While I really loved the Acer with it's 9" screen, the great reviews of the NC10 convinced me to buy the Samsung and I'm glad that I did.

How do they improve on perfection? For one, the Samsung has a matte screen; it's highly readable in bright lighting (eg, outdoors). The Acer has a glossy screen. The NC10 also has Bluetooth, which Acer left out. The pearlized white NC10 does not show fingerprints at all; the Acer, while georgeous, shows fingerprints readily. The NC10 has a 10.2" screen, while the Acer has an 8.9" screen. That 1.3" difference is dramatic.

Both netbooks are very nice to look at. The Acer has an 89% of full size keyboard; the NC10 93% of full size. A touch typist will have *no* trouble with the NC10. The Acer takes a little getting used to; I would not like to write a book on the smaller Acer keyboard. On the NC10, typing is no problem.

Most owners order the 2 GB RAM for the NC10. It's very easy to open the door on the bottom (1 screw) and replace (cost about $28). Nice capability, but not absolutely essential. This is not an easy proposition on the Acer . . .

Best of all, the Samsung NC10 has a wonderful recovery system. If a virus strikes, simply boot and press F4. The system will restore itself to original factory condition. Acer has a recovery capability, but it must be activated after booting into XP. When Google Desktop would not relinquish control of a friends Acer, it took several hours until we were able to initiate the restore process and *then* reboot. Yes, it worked, but the Samsung would have bypassed all that hassle. BTW, I highly recommend removing both Google Desktop and McAfee Antivirus (very slow). AVG Free Antivirus works well:
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Both netbooks come with XP Home Edition. That is a remarkable thing, as it's the only way one can buy a new computer with XP today. While some people are happy with Vista, most of industry is waiting for Windows 7.

Finally, the Samsung netbook forum is a terrific support group:

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Folks there have installed both Linux (various flavors) and Windows 7 on the NC10 and found it a very flexible platform. [...] It's well worth the extra. The look is classic and . . . no fingerprints!Get more detail about Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2-Inch Blue Netbook - 6 Cell Battery.