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There are a lot of things to like about the Samsung NC10 netbook. First and foremost, there’s the battery life. As mentioned above, the NC10 comes standard with a 6-cell battery. At the time of writing this article, Samsung’s NC10 product page did not make any claims as to the expected battery life of this 6-cell battery. However, Best Buy’s NC10 product page claimed I would get up to 8 hours of battery life. We all know that advertised battery life numbers are usually optimistic though; in my real-world testing (mostly web browsing over a wireless connection), I’m getting about 6 hours of life. Nevertheless, I’m very pleased with the battery life, especially since most 3-cell netbooks only give you 2 to 3 hours of real-world battery life.
Another thing I like about the NC10 is the apparent build quality. It feels very solid for a netbook. For example, if you press your finger firmly on the plastic next to the touch pad, there is not much flex. Futhermore, the display’s hinges have a nice solid feel when you open and close the display.
For the most part, I like the keyboard. The buttons have a nice semi-firm “springyness” instead of the “sloshyness” of some netbook keyboards. Furthermore, the keyboard and keys seem to be slightly larger than on most netbooks, making it easier to transition between the netbook keyboard and the full size keyboards on my various desktop computers.
Unlike many of today’s netbooks, the NC10 does not come with any junkware (a.k.a. trialware), unless you want to count McAfee antivirus, which many users would install anyway.
The LED-backlit display is nice and bright with good color. The viewing angle is good considering the typical usage (i.e. decent for one person but don’t expect that your whole family can sit around the netbook to watch movies).
The wireless reception seems to be excellent wherever I have tried it, including my home, the office, Starbucks and my local library. In places where my wife’s notebook gets 3 or 4 bars, the NC10 usually gets 5 bars. I have had no dropped connections either.
The performance is excellent relative to other netbooks and older notebooks. I have been able to run multiple apps with no problem, including image editing software such as GIMP. And what about movies? No problems so far. The other day I installed the xvid codec and watched a movie in Windows Media Player with no stuttering or other noticeable anomalies.
The NC10 runs very quiet. Sitting in front of it, you would be hard pressed to hear anything. Even if you put your ear right next to the vent on the left hand side, you can hear only a faint whirring. I’m not sure if that’s the hard drive or the fan. Come to think of it, I don’t know if this thing even has a fan. Yes, it’s that quiet!
You would think that the lack of fan noise might translate into heat problems but you would be wrong. The NC10 runs very cool. Under typical usage, I’ve not been able to get it much warmer than “luke warm”.
Alas, not everything is perfect with the NC10, as you are about to read.
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