Samsung NC10 - 10.2in Netbook

what's with the single mouse button, though?

Reading this review makes me feel very stupid for buying an eee 701 for £250 when they came out last year :( I wish that they had enough of a resale value that i could sell it and get one of these now...

It has two trackpad buttons, its the same button, but it tilts in either direction. One point to note - unlike the white model, the black and blue models do have the glossy fingerprint style lid.

"a firm punch in the back" ? Samsung may not be sending you guys any more review gears! :-)

Andy... Can you clarify the earlier comment here about the finish of the black and blue models? Based on the earlier 'TrustedReviews' image - http://www.trustedreviews.com/images/article/inline/8789-samsungnc10large2.jpg - some sort of sheen would appear apparent, but not so sure about gloss. I agree, this aspect is a particular irritant with all types of notebooks. I favour black or blue for imminent purchase, but will elect the white 'matte' finish if this is an issue. Have you seen all three colours?

This netbook will be bought by me imminently and looks so much better, in my opinion, in black. I do agree with BST though, the matte finish would have preferable with the darker colours, but I will forgive the glossy lid of the black model due to its colour.

yaaaaay! hurray for matte. mate FTW!

Thanks Andy for clarification. Just wondering if to order now, or have the patience to wait a few weeks to compare with the HP Compaq Mini 700; its attraction being the alleged internal HSDPA modem. Now that would be the icing on the Samsung NC10 cake. I hope you will be taking an early look at the '700 (?).

Hi Andy, how does it compare to the dell 9?

The Blue and Black are matte inside but the lids have a gloss finish

Hi Andy, any chance for a video review?

This is the first netbook I've been seriously considering and thanks for making the decision easier :) Looks like the best deal for me, as I'm particularly drawn to the large hard drive as I plan on using this to store video.

All that stands between me and the NC10 is a review of the HP mini 700/1000 - I guess the feature difference for me is the HP's better keyboard vs. better battery on the Samsung!
Thanks for the excellent coverage.

any news on the toshiba netbook? Also, is there any Linux versions planned of the NC10?

Funny how every netbook offered for sale has a flaw. This one seems fabulous, but the keyboard keys are coated with an anti-bacterial compound based on nano-silver. Odd that wasn't mentioned in the review - maybe the ones bound for the EU aren't coated?. Not nearly enough research has been done on the long-term consequences of nano-silver to individuals and the environment. Regardless, consumer products are now popping up with nano-silver coatings: socks, keyboards; I just saw plastic FOOD containers touting their nano-silver coating! I'm not saying nano-silver is the second coming of asbestos or Thalidomide, but anti-bacterials have the potential of just selectively breeding Superbugs. (further info at http://www.hazards.org/nanotech/)

I recently bought an Acr Aspire One, really wish I'd waited now!

Geoff/Andy, any word on whether the UK will see the HP mini-700 before Xmas? Looks like the US already has them.

Does this support Aero Glass if I were to install Vista or 7?

Yes the lid is glossy (on my black one anyway), but the screen is matte.

Thanks Geoff but I wouldn't feel so bad if wireless worked with ease on Ubuntu! Hopefully Fedora 10 will solve my problems.

@Wilson: I wouldn't try it!

Can this machine take 2Gb RAM?

I asked that rather obvious question about the RAM, because the manual I downloaded from Samsung site, said it can take a max of 1Gb RAM, but the review says can take 2Gb?

I asked that rather obvious question about the RAM, because the manual I downloaded from Samsung site, said it can take a max of 1Gb RAM, but the review says can take 2Gb?

It can. In fact a German website is offering the white version with 2Gb for an extra €50 (~£42).

'Alessandro'...
P.S. to previous: http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=NC10-14G

argh can't decide between the eee 901 vs nc10. Samsung looks slick in the matte, but is the slickness worth the extra dimension and weight? I'm not fussed about SSD vs HDD (or 20gb vs 160gb), and the keyboard size doesn't bother me (small hands). Side by side the extra inch looks like a big difference, but 200g extra and another inch to lug to work everyday, is it really significant?
Thoughts?

The review is right on the money, except in regard to its drastic understatement of how dreadful the speakers are: "for watching the occasional video clip on the Internet (or our wonderful video reviews) they're absolutely fine." Uh, no they absolutely are not. The Asus machines, not just the Windows models, are much better (meaning, they're at least usable in a pinch." The NC10's speakers are as much a perfunctory joke as the silly slip case. They only approach usability if you use VLC to pump up the sound; otherwise, they're nearly inaudible most of the time. Sound output to a home stereo is quite decent, however.

Yeah, I know, computer speakers don't really matter. So save us some money and stop including the damn things, if you're not going to make any effort to make them minimally usable.

Great machine, otherwise.

An interesting review.

Can anyone, possibly Andy, comment on how well the NC10 copes with MS Office 2007 applications and in particular Outlook 2007 with large pst files ?

Thanks in advance

Well I have had my black one for a week now, and I think its fantastic. I immediately stuck a 2GB Ram module in it and it flies. The speed it comes back from standby is great. It handles video very nicely. TBH, speedwise, I notice little difference between this and my core 2 duo (E6400) desktop. Very happy.

Readers at SammyNetbook.com have been reporting that Office 2007 runs on the NC10 OK! Im not sure about the latter part of your question though. Im going to have a go at installing Office soon but still pondering whether to try an older version? More discussion on that over at that site.

Can someone please help me! Its my husbands 30th birthday in January and I know that he has been eyeing up these note books – so I was just about to order the MSI Wind U100 for him, until I came across this website and started reading about the Samsung NC10 and now I am completely confused.

We do a lot of travelling and he would mainly use it to download the hundreds of pictures that he takes while we are away.

Which one would be better for this? the MSI Wind U100 or the Samsung NC10? I’m not that keen on the white as it think that it might get dirty very quickly (that’s a woman thing) but then don’t want it all covered in fingerprints or scratches.

I'm not very technical minded, so would be grateful if you kept your response simple for me.

Thanks for your help. Bee

Thanks that's a great help and I am going to order the NV10 - just one last question, as I don't need it until end of Jan should I wait until after Christmas to purchase in the hope that the price will come down or do you think that there will not be many available then? I know its a difficult one to answer but I thought that I would ask the question.

By the way its a Great website.

Bee

Bee,

I would personally hold onto your money until nearer your Hubbies B'Day, just keep checking prices with the major retailers an a regular basis, especially around the New Year sales period as i'm pretty certain you will get one cheaper then.

Could I also add as a word of caution to the many people that have purchased a NC10 and have or are thinking of upgraded the internal ram from 1GB to 2GB, that through the grape vine this allegedly invalidates the warranty given by Samsung! I just thought you all should know and bear this in mind if you were thinking doing this (I was).

Andy,

Perhaps you could possibly don your deer stalker and pull a few strings by asking the right people in Samsungland to verify this.

Regards,

Serpico

Seems like the NC10 is just what I am looking for, problem is Samsung. I have an ongoing dispute with their customer services over a faulty camera that my daughter purchased a few months ago. I have never encountered such a bunch of ill mannered and insulting people in all my life. Because of their attitude I have decided, and encouraged my friends, to boycott their products. This is a great shame because they produce some excellent products, many of which I have recommended to others. It's a pity really but the only option available to me. Samsung Customer Service stinks.

With just one little screw to gain access to the Ram, no seals are broken in upgrading memory. So you can easily put the original 1gb stick back in should a warranty situation arise.

Hi Andy/Geoff. I'm considering getting one of these beasties for my travels. However, one thing that almost never gets a mention and would seem important where "size matters" is the size/bulkiness of the power adaptor. Could you give us an idea of the power adaptor size of the NC10 and perhaps in comparison, the MSI Wind (Advent 4211) and the EeePCs? Thanks!

Like many of you, I'm keen on getting myself one of these fabulous pieces of kit. I'm a bit confused though. As has been mentioned, there's a slot where HSPDA could sit, filled with a rubber bung. I've heard that Samsung plan to release a version in Europe with HSPDA included in January 2009, but I can only find one reference to this.

Anyone else know more on this subject, and if you had the choice would you wait? I'm quite impatient and would like my NC10 ASAP!!!

Hi Andy/Geoff many thanks for nice review
pls. Kindly clarify
1.the real weight of NC10 with 6 cell battery is it 1.25kg?
2.I guess the photos in the first page are with 3 cells battery ?
becauce 6 cell battery is bigger and must outstand
(to the back side or to the bottom) ?

Many thanks

thanks

".....I know several of you are holding off on your purchase until we can address some specific queries." You're right 'Geoff'. I for one will be a bit miffed if, as I had intended, purchase one before Christmas only to find - as 'Daisy Age' suggests above - a much preferred inclusive HSDPA version just around the corner in January.

Clarification would would be much appreciated on this when you come back with your proposed answers. At the same time could we nail once and for all the blue/black exterior matt/shiny debate; there still seems to be a fair amount of conflicting views (you would think with the amount of favourable coverage you are giving this, Samsung could provide you with a demo of all three colours!).

I have the white NC10, I've had it for almost a week now. The battery sticks out of the bottom a little bit. I don't have a measuring tape or ruler around right now, but the power brick is small, its a good deal smaller and lighter than a full size notebook's would be. Its actually not much larger than my mobile phone. If I had to guess I'd say its about 3.25" long, 1.5" wide, and 1.25" in height. Unfortunately this is the only netbook I own so I can't compare it to any of the others. Though out of all of my electronic devices it is by far the smallest power brick.

The performance of this thing is excellent, I was shocked by the quick boot time. I haven't clocked it but I'd swear its well under a minute for total boot time. I have MS Office 2007 installed and it works pretty well, Excel is a bit tough to use with the small resolution but its still manageable. I haven't installed too many programs on it yet, but thus far it has handled MS Office 2007, Zune 3.0, Firefox 3.0, etc... with relative ease.

Maybe I've just got bad ears but I don't think the sound is bad on the NC10 at all. It's perfectly fine for sitting with in bed and watching a movie. But then previously I had a IBM X61 and the speakers on it were atrocious and I could rarely hear anything, so actually having to turn down the volume to play things is a novelty for me! They are quite different beasts however.

I've put Windows 7 on it, runs like a charm. Probably won't even bother upgrading the RAM, it runs happily as is.

The price on these appears to be increasing sharply. Price on oyyy.co.uk has jumped from £299.99 to £319.99 overnight! Similar situation happening on web sites elsewhere. Is this just a scam by retailers so that when VAT drops next week, the prices fall back to £299.99 (roughly the equivalent of the VAT that we would've saved!?)

Thanks Geoff,

Having looked around a bit more, I now concur with your comments. The NC10 is already looking like a must-have contender for this Christmas, and as retailers are cottoning on to this fact, prices are steadily rising towards the £329.99 RRP.

For anyone else looking to buy at the mo, I've just ordered mine from PC World online (loathe as I am to buy anything from them) However, they offer free delivery and have already adjusted their systems for the lower VAT rate (applied as a discount at checkout) I paid a total of £293.60.

Thanks again for the insight. Trusted is such a valuable resource!

I am thinking of buying this super looking product for use on my boat to replace one that salt water has finally killed. I will need to load various programmes (navigation, weather, tides) onto it, so may I ask a couple of what may seem dopey questions?

All of this software is on CDs, so how will I load it, if it does not have an optical drive? Can I copy the CD onto a memory stick, and use that?

The second question concerns connecting to the boat systems – usually done through one of those little 9-pin connectors (is it sub-D?). Does the Samsung have such a connection port?

Any advice appreciated

This meet seem like sacrilege, but does anyone know if it's possible to get a 3-cell battery for the NC10? Sure the 6-cell is amazing, being able to go out without charge for 6/7 hours is great, but there's times 3 hours would be plenty for me and I'd prefer the weight benefit of having a 3-cell. It'd get it down (I reckon) to 1kg which would be sweet.

The only connection ports on the NC10 are 3x USB ports, 1 VGA out port, mic in, headphones, ethernet, and SD memory card reader. Unforunately there is no 9-pin connector. If you want an affordable laptop with a 9-pin D-sub port purchase a Dell Latitude D630. The base starting price is $759 (or around £588 provided the prices are the same across the pond). Its obviously more expensive than an NC10 but its more powerful, it has the port you are looking for, and its a high quality Dell business notebook. So if you have the money that would be the laptop you'd want. Unless your boat's systems can be hooked up through USB. I'd say check and see if your boat has any other means of connecting to a computer before you make a decision.

As for the software (if you do decide to go with an NC10), you can always just pick up an external optical drive, plug it in through the USB port and install the software that way. Thats what I did on my NC10 to install MS Office 2007. I got an external DVD burner (also made by samsung) for about $50 (£33).

Hope this helped answer your question.

Nice little netbook u have there. Price is good although I
think it falls through in comparison to the eeepc 1000h. Plastic
may be better but it lacks the battery capacity of the eeepc and
the touchpad. I find it difficult to understand how the increased
functionality of the eeepc touchpad is ignored in netbook reviews.
You obviously going for light travel when you invest on a netbook
so the multitouch comes real handy since scrolling with such small screens is a real breeze. And 6600mah is much better that the 5500mah.
Multitouch pads are a must for the new netbooks....

The touchpad on the NC10 is the only real flaw in my opinion but its certainly not a deal breaker, it is still functional. As for the battery life, on medium settings I was getting between 6 and a half to 7 hours. I don't own an Eee pc but I can't imagine that an Eee pc could get significantly better battery life while still being highly useable. I got that battery life with the screen at around 50% brightness and the CPU still at full speed. If I set it to cut the CPU clock speed and lowered the brightness even more I'm sure I would have gotten the factory listed 8 hours. And I have to say even on low brightness settings the NC10 is still very easy to read.

And even though the Eee pc does have a better touchpad, I would trade a better keyboard for a better touchpad any day (and quite frankly no other GOOD netbook has a better keyboard than the NC10). With the lower resolution on netbooks you don't need an overly big touchpad to still have it be usable.

And I just wanted to say thanks to Andy and Geoff, you guys have done a really great job covering this laptop. Keep up the good work guys.

Thanks for your very helpful comments. I appreciate it.

Why is it that you can no longer buy an NC10 for £299.00. (I thought £299 was the UK list price) A couple of days ago you could get a white one in Currys for about £285 .. now it is almost £310! ??? What's going on?

As PC World / Currys are "feeling the pinch" I am going to wait until they are being "pinched" even harder & wait for a "bargain!"

Shame Woolies arent seling them (or MFI???) LOL!

BTW guys .. great review & as always, brilliant site! ;)

I am thinking about getting the smasung NC10 for my son. Would he be able to play games off his favourite websites cbbc and jetix? Would I need to ugrade to 2 RAM?

Since those are web games and most likely flash based (or something similar) then yes he would be able to. The NC10 can handle almost any web based action including flash games, video/music streaming, etc... You shouldn't need to upgrade to 2GB of RAM because the NC10 runs Windows XP which does not require a large amount of RAM and thus leaves plenty of memory for other apps.

If those are the only types of games he plays then the NC10 would be fine. However you may want to see how he feels about the small size of the NC10 because netbooks are somewhat of an acquired taste.

Being in the forces, i travel a lot, and this type of thing looks ideal as another way of keeping in touch with people while im away, one question though? I kno these things aren't designed for it, and appreciate that, but at a push would they run any of the older, less graphic intensive games (think sim city etc) as that really would be the icing on the cake for me! Many thanks in advance

The battery failed on mine in less than one week. So much for Samsung quality.

Have been doing a bit of digging around since my last post, and have answered my own question more or less. It seems that these things will run a multitude of older games, and for anyone else interestwed in this aspect of netbook ownership/usage, the following thread gives a shed-load more info. Thanks for the swift reponse Andy, many thanks.
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2968985

Chuns said:

"The second question concerns connecting to the boat systems – usually done through one of those little 9-pin connectors (is it sub-D?). Does the Samsung have such a connection port?"

Buy a usb to RS-232 serial adapter. They are very inexpensive. Here is an example: http://www.usbgear.com/computer_cable_details.cfm?sku=CA-232-1MB&cats=199&catid=2345%2C199%2C461%2C106%2C1009%2C601

Bought my NC10 today - Staples. Black only available @ £293. In addition I got for free a leather-bound Journal and a 4gig USB flash drive on a leather key ring. In addition we will receive a free Christmas Hamper (to be delivered to the store in a couple of weeks for collection) worth £25.

Great deal - anyone do better?

I think I was lucky that I read the very comment by Beejay. The ticket price at Staples is actually at 330 pounds now but the sales person was able to give me their internet price at 255.31 exc VAT and comes with two premium quality gifts, I can't be any happier! NB. They only stock the one in black.

And thanks Trusted Reviews team for the recommendation of this NC10. I've been indecisive which one to choose for a while. Thanks again.

Very interested in this notebook, would I be able to connect to internet with it, overseas.
Thanks

I am new to this - I have learned so much from just reading your reviews so thank you. Has anyone used this netbook for connecting to the internet abroad? and if so how did it perform?

Sorry to sound a bit dim but got the NC10 yesterday & very few instructions with the item. How long do you charge the battery for before use? Is there a website wher I can locate a manual - have starting charging the battery but little info as to useage???

Hi
Can someone help please? I am going to buy this Netbook but need to install MS Office. Do I buy an external CD/DVD writer or can I somehow use the one from my laptop via Network connection? If I need to buy one, how do I install it as most seem to come with an installation CD - pretty useless if I don't have a CD reader, that's why I'm trying to install the External one!

Hi
I'm doing an NVQ3, so need Office to take it to workshops, etc. I will usually do my work on my home laptop but will then e-mail myself the amended files onto my netbook and vice versa. I'm using Office 2000Pro and am a bit worried about converting some of the larger spreadsheets to/from Open Office. So, yes, I'd say I need proper Office but I'm not really sure what Open Office is. I may also consider watching DVDs on the netbook, i.e. on plane journeys, so don't mind buying an external drive as long as I don't need an installation CD for it. I guess the USB drives you're referring to do not need the inst.CD then? Can you give any suggestions as to which one to buy? I have ordered the white NC10, so a white one would be nice but it's not important. I tried to search your site for recommendations but can't find any.

Hi Andy,
I have been reading and watching your reviews for quite a while but this is the 1st time I am actually deciding over a purchase based on your reviews. The only thing that separates me from this Samsung machine is a full review of the Toshiba NB100. These are the only netbooks of recognized brands with the necessary feature of a large storage capacity. At least this is what my research have found. Dell have yet to launch the mini series here in Sweden but I dont know if they will have this feature. I have to add that I am somehow attached to this brand thing, I wouldnt trust the performance of MSI and Advent netbooks for instance, I reckon the japanese brands over the competitors. Eventhough Samsung is a great korean company I would like to hear from an expert about whether to buy a Toshiba NB100 or the Samsung NC10, mostly on the performance matter.
Thanks a lot in advance.

Ursula,
I got a Samsung external DVD burner for about $50 on newegg.com. Now I'm guessing you live in the UK so if that's the case than newegg wouldn't be an option because they only ship to the US and Canada. But here is the link anyways:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151163

You might be able to find the same model on another website. Hope this helped answer your question.

Hi all
Thanks for your help. I have now ordered a LiteOn USB DVD-writer and will see how I get on with it

Hi All
Been using the NC10 now for just over a month - fantastic.
recently was on a business trip to London ran the netbook for over 6 hours (on a mix of work ie word / excel and leisure - simple games and music) and battery meter still showed > 25% at end of journey!! good enough for me. I could even use it on those small drop down trays on the train.
I have got around the problem of no optical drive and installing software or running CDs / DVDs by using a USB stick or external hard drive to transfer copies of the software / DVDs etc as .ISO images. I then use Microsoft virtual CD ROM for Windows XP as a CD drive emulator. Works a treat.
link to download site for MS VCD is http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/xpvirtualcd.html

dabs.com Have the HSDPA version available for pre-order... rather pricey though -

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=5DS4&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=nc10&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0

Darren, you beat me to it!
I was about to let everyone know about that too.
I agree with you about the price. Tsk!

what can we expect in the NY from netbooks in the way of sigificant improvement? Is is worth holding out for a month or two? I'm ready to get this NC10 but am concerned that with new models coming out so frequently its going to be quickly behind the curve.

I must agree with Gordon, a little further up. Customer Service at Samsung is pretty much appalling if you do have the misfortune to have any dealings with them so beware... After the last time I had to contact the company I swore I would never buy another Samsung product but I must admit I am very very tempted after reading the reviews here.

What an amazing ammount of useful information in the NC10 reviews.
Now, can anybody tell me what the screen readability is in bright daylight, as I am looking for a machine that can perform outdoors. I understand screen brightness is adjustable (thus saving power). I also wish to use this machine on a boat but I will be buying a 12volt power adapter available on Ebay for less than £20.