Samsung N310 - 10.2in Netbook Comments

I think calling it exceeding durable might have been going a bit far, with a normal hard drive instead of an SSD and a glossy screen and plastic inside it's obviously more pretentious than practical in that respect and if you actually do start throwing it around it might not stand up much better than a normal netbook.

Still, I suppose it's a consolation prize for all those iBook users Apple has now rejected with the launch of Snow Leopard.

Interesting price creep

NC10 = £299.99 ( all inc VAT BTW)
N110 = £349.99
N120 = £356.97
N310 = £376.17

Now there's added value! (25%+ increase in price) for how much real benefit. Seems more design over substance here, I'm sticking with the NC10

good going. now, make a 13 inch laptop version, with hdmi and a geforce 9400m. that might just be the laptop of the year :)

With Microsoft limiting the spec of what can be allowed in a netbook I guess manufacturers have to resort to tarting up the same old stuff in order to attempt to add value.

The main attraction of the original netbooks was that they were small and CHEAP. Whilst they are aimed at different segments of the market when you can get a normal laptop with a Core2 duo, 2GB memory, 160GB hdd, DVDRW, Vista (alas) Home Premium etc for less its hard to see the value in a netbook costing £376.

£200 is the sweet spot; less than that is a bonus. Paying north of £350 is just ridiculous. Don't they know there's a recession?

Shame about the battery life, and the odd inclusion of the N270 rather than the N280 (although I imagine this makes a marginal difference to performance, if anything). I'd rather have the Asus 1008 I think.

True, although it's always nicer to have the newer one when possible! I too would like to find a nicely designed sub-£300 netbook with good battery life. I don't even particularly want one with Windows, I quite like playing with the various Linux distributions (and Moblin-based versions look very promising) and they all come with HDDs whereas I'd prefer a small-but-quick SSD. Doesn't seem to actually be one that caters for that though; the closest thing is the Dell Mini 10v but the screen resolution is less than the norm, which is disappointing.

Seems like the netbook manufacturers are focusing so much on the higher-end models that they've lost site of the lower end of the market. Shame really.

I bought the NC10 because of how highly you guys rated it and I love the thing, but I'm confused by what Samsung has done since then. They got it right the first time and since have screwed it up. Switching to glossy screens is a huge mistake in my opinion. I HATE glossy screens with a passion, I want a screen I can look at in various levels of lighting. And the battery life on this model seems awfully low for a netbook. I mean my NC10 gets 6-8 hours easily with the brightness turned down a little (still highly usable). Until I see a dual core netbook with an anti-glare screen and good battery life I'll just stick with my NC10.

The N310 only has a 4cell battery which is why the battery life is not a long as the NC10 which has a 6 cell.

The N310 was designed by a famous designer in Korea: Nato Fukasawa.. so it's a good for him that TR gave the design a 9 out of 10 ;)

Got an orange (more red actually) "refreshed" version of the N310 today here in Hong Kong for approx £370...refreshed features include a 6 cell battery (8+ hours usage), wireless b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 and an Atom N280 1.66Ghz processor...included in the price was an upgrade to 2G RAM.

BTW, the designer Naoto Fukasawa is Japanese, not Korean.

confusing mish mash of model numbers

What is a 'refreshed' version, Jose? Is it available in the UK? I like the look of this, but its short battery life is a little offputting. Does anyone know how much a spare battery costs, or is it possible to buy a 6-cell battery separately? Thanks.