mrk Reviews Posted January 20, 2009 Reviews Share Posted January 20, 2009 (edited) Got this a few days ago and after giving it a spin on the default XP SP3 install I decided to try out Windows 7 Beta 1. Firstly though the netbook itself is the balls. I went into PC World to play with the current popular netbooks on the market and none of them felt as great to hold and use as the Samsung. The keyboard alone lends itself extra points for being a proper sized keyboard as far as laptops go. The screen quality is very good and the brightness adjustments are also good. The LEDs and power button are out of direct view so not distracting or easily pressed but are stylishly situated. The black version has a glossy cover so fingerprints will quickly show on it like they do on PSP/iPods etc. Companies are out there making "skins" for the NC10 which look great but are quite pricey but probably worth it for the protection factor alone. (see here) I decided to install Windows 7 Beta1 and was pleasantly surprised at how fast and slick it was on the netbook, it was performing how I'd expect a desktop PC to. So far so good! I managed to get 5-6hrs of battery out of it but this is through observation of my usage and the battery meter rather than keeping a running timer of usage for complete accuracy. This was also with wifi being used 100% of the time and the screen brightness set to 25%. For ?322 I feel it was worth it for the multitude of uses it will serve over the next year until I decide if the 1024x600 resolution is too small and opt for the next one up. It takes DDR2 ram so I bought a 2GB stick from Novatech of 667Mhz speed which worked right away and the BIOS set the speed accordingly. The NC10 comes with SP3 XP and the latest BIOS which was nice. If you have one or are getting one and you wish to try Windows 7 then there are many links on Google on which drivers to use and links to them so I won't post them all here. I will however end with some pics:DD 7 Desktop (and sneaky inclusion of a photo of the power button side!): Next to my Dell Inspiron 1525: Glossy cover: LEDs: And a quick video: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PYPxYv2q2Dg Edited January 20, 2009 by mrk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsupersonic Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 The keyboard on that is not full size, not even close. The best keyboard on a netbook goes to the HP Mininote, bar none. It's 92% full sized. Other than that, great review, I can't wait for the NC20, with the dual core Nano processor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrk Reviews Posted January 20, 2009 Author Reviews Share Posted January 20, 2009 I don't mean as in dimension wise but in terms of layout and key size which it is! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanManIt Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 Great review! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin-uk Veteran Posted January 21, 2009 Veteran Share Posted January 21, 2009 The keyboard on that is not full size, not even close. The best keyboard on a netbook goes to the HP Mininote, bar none. It's 92% full sized. im pretty sure the nc10 is too. I have one my self, its a v nice netbook, i got the black version for ?311 from amazon:)) how did you get the aero/glass thing running on it though, i cant seem to get it to work so im just stuck with classic lol. also the scroll area on the track pad doesnt work after i reinstalled xp, oh well:pp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrk Reviews Posted January 21, 2009 Author Reviews Share Posted January 21, 2009 Aye yes, it is a proper keyboard so to speak. You can fix the touchpad (and enable multitouch zooming!) by using the latest Synaptics touchpad driver (version 11.1.3.0) :D Aero seemed to just work out of the box though using WDDM drivers built into Windows 7, I updated those drivers though with the proper INtel ones for the 945GM onboard gfx chipset. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ienhz Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 man that thing is a beauty. i'm afraid i'll find the size too small though... how are you finding the size? i'm on a 13.3" sony vaio right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrk Reviews Posted January 21, 2009 Author Reviews Share Posted January 21, 2009 Not too much trouble at all really! My main reason for it was web surfing /chatting whilst gaming on the wii with people and also whilst on the move and watching movies. The wider aspect ratio means movies look great on it with smaller (or no) letterboxes. Website browsing is also decent, of course 600pixels high isn't much but thankfully the majority of sites I visit are all coded to easily fit on a screen 1024 pixels wide so this is good as I can just scroll a bit more for vertical viewing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ienhz Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 Last question, does Windows 7 work perfectly on it? Like.. all the drivers, sound, hotkeys, power management (sleep/hibernate), and equal or better battery life (compared to XP)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikonizer Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 From my experience, both Samsung and Toshiba laptops are amazing. I love my Toshiba, it's been nothing but pure bliss form me. My only complaint is a lack of a firewire port for my external hard drive, but I plan on upgrading eSATA to fix the transfer speed issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrk Reviews Posted January 21, 2009 Author Reviews Share Posted January 21, 2009 Last question, does Windows 7 work perfectly on it? Like.. all the drivers, sound, hotkeys, power management (sleep/hibernate), and equal or better battery life (compared to XP)? Yup the drivers work fine, for LAN the Marvell Vista drivers worked fine for me and everything else worked out of the box but did update themw ith Vista ones anyway. Sound drivers needed to be updated to the latest Realtek HD ones as after sleep mode sound would be muted on the stock drivers. Hibernate/Sleep etc all work perfectly as does power management. I find it better than with XP on, power management seems more robust too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsupersonic Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 I don't mean as in dimension wise but in terms of layout and key size which it is! From your pictures you can tell it is not, look at the right shift key... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrk Reviews Posted January 21, 2009 Author Reviews Share Posted January 21, 2009 That doesn't matter, compared to other netbooks it is one of only a very few netbooks with a proper keyboard layout especially from a usability point of view. I would suggest you try one in store! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason S. Global Moderator Posted January 27, 2009 Global Moderator Share Posted January 27, 2009 tsupersonic - i'd say 92% keyboard size is pretty close... i wanted to buy this netbook, but got the MSI Wind for Christmas. I love mine! I also put Windows 7 on it and i love it as well. it installed in 30 mins flat and i havent really had any problems with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jamesyfx Subscriber² Posted January 27, 2009 Subscriber² Share Posted January 27, 2009 The NC10 is probably the best netbook in the UK at the moment. Great product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePokedPenguin Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 I bought my NC 10 a few days ago, loving it so far, fantastic battery life, I think I got around 7 hours or so on the first charge on XP. Windows 7 runs like an absolute dream and I find myself using that more than XP The only slight negative foor me is that the touchpad is pretty flush with the top so if your not careful You can lose track of where it is if you dont pay attention, but maybe thats just me coming from an old HP laptop :unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syanide Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Wow this looks really great. I was thinking of buying an Aspire One, but this just caught my attention... Well, since I'm not even close to getting enough money for AA1, I might wait even longer now :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandor Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 most reviews i've seen favour the nc10 over other competitors. it seems to have the best specs/design for the price point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jelli Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Girlfriend owns the NC10, picked it up for ?298 from Dixon's last week. Fantastic little system, battery life and size of keyboard amazed me. Made me want to get rid of my dell (15.4" with 9-Cell Battery and can only achieve about 4 1/2 hours) that I bought a year ago for the same price. I have nothing but praise for the little thing. It's a dream to use, it really is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azz0r_wugg Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 I had one. Sold it a month later. Nice laptop and all though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jelli Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 (edited) I had one. Sold it a month later. Nice laptop and all though. How come? Sorry just rather curious. Problems with it or just wasn't for you? Edited January 27, 2009 by jelli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToneKnee Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Can anyone tell me the maximum memory I can upgrade this to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePokedPenguin Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Can anyone tell me the maximum memory I can upgrade this to? A 2gb stick of 667mhz DDR2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToneKnee Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 A 2gb stick of 667mhz DDR2 Thank you! :) I see people have installed OS X on it.. :shiftyninja: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syanide Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Man I want one! And I just figured out there's no way I can buy it in my country, since it's... Well, a Samsung lol. Judging by the buzz this little thing's creating, it'll probably change in recent future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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