Laptop-Review.eu

The Samsung NC10 is yet another competitor in the ever-growing netbook market, but it still manages to stand out with its great design. The NC10 measures 10.2 inches, weighs 1.33kg and is available at a price that allows anyone to participate in the netbook revolution.

Specifications

Category
Students and the mobile user

Processor
Intel Atom N270 – 1600 MHz – 512 KB L2 cache

Chipset
Intel 945GSE (Calistoga-GSE) + ICH7-M/U
       
RAM
1x 1024 MB DDR2-SDRAM –PC2-6400 – 400 MHz

GPU
Intel GMA950 – 128 MB onboard

HDD
Hitachi 160 GB Serial-ATA150 HDD – 5400 RPM

Display
10.2 inches – TFT LED-backlit – 1024 x 600 px

Sound card
Intel 82901GB ICH7 – High Definition Audio

Optical drive
None

Battery
Samsung Lithium Ion 6-celled battery – 11.5V

Networking
Marvell Yukon 88E8040 – 100 Mbps LAN
Atheros AR5007EG – 54 Mbps WLAN

Inputs/Outputs
3x USB 2.0 ports
1x VGA port
1x card reader (SD, SDHC, MMC)
1x LAN
1x Audio-out jack
1x Audio-in jack
1x AC adapter

Operating system
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP3 build 2600

Price
About £300.00

Package contents

-    Power supply
-    Driver CD and operating system
-    Manuals and the like
-    Bag

The computer comes with a power supply that has a wire almost 4 meters long. It doesn't weight much either, so it's very practical. In addition a number of drivers and the operating system are included on recovery CD's. The included manuals come in a variety of languages and are relatively easy to navigate. A container in the form of a bag is included as well, though it isn't of the highest quality.

Build & Design

First impression









The computer's chassis is cast in a faded, white plastic, as well as aluminium around the sides and on the hinges, creating a sort of mirror effect. The computer seems quite durable for a number of reasons; for example, the display and keyboard do not bend at all. The edges are nicely rounded though the different ports look rather special as they extend outwards in a sort of square, as can be seen in the pictures. This creates a pretty cool effect which really benefits the design. The computer feels very comfortable, if a bit unergonomic as mentioned under "Keyboard and Touchpad". Otherwise, the computer is well-designed and good looking.

The lid



The lid is made in the same material and colours as the rest of the computer, which is a faded white. Samsung's logo is imprinted in the middle of the lid.

The front



The computer clamps up nicely and there are no sharp edges. However, there are no indentations or recesses to open it with, so you have to use both hands. 

The rear



At the rear you can see the battery sticking out. Otherwise there's nothing of interest.

The bottom



The green marks show where the speakers are located and the red marking shows the location of the RAM module. As can be seen, there's plenty of ventilation for the different components.

The right side



The left side

Hinges

The hinges appear to be made of metal, but it's not easy to discern how exactly the display is mounted to the rest of the computer. It's held up nice and tight though, and doesn't bend or anything.

Buttons/Diodes

There are no dedicated shortcut buttons on the computer, so you have to use the FN key which grants access to some basic functions like adjusting volume and brightness. It can also be seen on the picture under "Keyboard and Touchpad".



From left to right, the diodes indicate: Numlock, Capslock, Screenlock, HDD activity, WiFi activated/deactivated, power supply and the power status of the computer. All diodes are blue, except the diode showing whether the power supply is connected, which has an orange light. The overview is relevant and the light from the diodes is unobtrusive.

Keyboard and Touchpad



The keyboard works really well and doesn't bend at all. The keys are of an adequate size and their marking is very clear. The only disadvantage is that you cannot support your wrists on the computer when you write, which can be slightly stressful. Still, it's decent for writing small amounts of text now and then, but you cannot rest on it like on larger laptops.

 
 
The touchpad also works and reacts quite well. It is configured to be rather sensitive, but that can easily be adjusted. The buttons work well too, but are unfortunately one single button rather than two separate ones. This means you have to click on the very edges, which can be a bit of a hassle. Still, the buttons are quite responsive and seem pretty good.

Noise & Heat



The computer is absolutely silent when idle and it tends to be about room temperature. Due to the ample ventilation at the bottom, you won't feel any heat on the keyboard. After 10 minutes of testing in BunchBench (which makes the computer perform at 100%) the fan started going at it, but hardly enough to be annoying. The cooling system clearly works well here, which is a major plus.

The display

The display is of the TFT LED-backlit kind, with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. The display can be regulated to shine at 8 different levels of brightness via the FN shortcuts on the keyboard or using the included software.









The screen can be viewed from any angle, though the colours change if you view it from above or below. Additionally, brightness is reduced if you view it from the side, but that's logical. All in all, the display is quite sharp with a very good contrast. The backlight is homogeneous, meaning the brightness level is the same everywhere on the display.

Speakers


The speakers are exactly what you'd expect from a netbook. A lot of treble while the bass has been excluded to save money. The speakers are located at the bottom of the computer and are decent enough for movies and music as long as you aren't too picky about audio. They can't play too loud, but it's acceptable for speakers in this price range.

Special features

Webcam
The integrated webcam in the display is a 1.3 megapixel kind, but due to problems with the included software it was only tested with Windows' camera software, which doesn't allow for changing the settings of the picture.

Here is a picture taken with Windows in a pretty bad resolution; with the right software, the picture would most likely be much better.

Benchmark







Comparison
The computer is pitted against the ASUS Eee 1000H and the Acer Aspire One A150, two computers in much the same category as the Samsung NC10.

Asus Eee 1000H specifications:
-    Intel Atom, N270, 1.6GHz, 512KB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB
-    Intel i945GME, 82801GHM ICH7-M/U Southbridge
-    1.024MB DDR2, PC5300 RAM, 667MHz, ASint Technology module
-    Intel i945GME, with 8MB DDR2 RAM
-    160GB HDD, 2.5" SATA, 8MB cache, 5400RPM
-    10", WSGA TFT, resolution of 1024x600
-    Realtek High Definition chipset, 24Bit stereo compatible
-    6 Cells, 6600mAh
-    Windows XP Home Edition

The price of this is about £270 and you can read more about it here:
http://www.laptop-review.eu/

Acer Aspire One A150 specifications:
-    Intel® Atom N280 1.6Ghz
-    Intel® GM45 Express-chipset
-    1x1GB DDR2
-    160GB 5400rpm
-    10.1" LED CrystalBrite
-    GMA 959 – shared
-    6 cell Li-Ion
-    Windows® XP Home

The price starts at around £170 for the Linux edition. You can read more about it here:
http://www.laptop-review.eu/

Boot & out of standby times

Boot and out of standby times are measured from when the power button is pressed and the Windows desktop appears.

As shown by the graph, the Samsung NC10 starts up in about 25 seconds, which is very fast indeed. The ASUS Eee keeps up well with 26 seconds, but the Acer Aspire One takes a whopping 37/38 seconds.

When it comes to getting out of standby, the NC10 takes only 3-4 seconds where the competitors take 8-9 and 14-16 seconds, which is quite a long time.

Battery life



Battery-eater Pro 2,70 is used to measure the battery life.

Idle test settings: fixed clock frequency of 800 MHz, brightness 1/8, HDD standby after 10 minutes and WiFi on.
Classic test settings: varying clock frequency between 800 MHz and 1600 MHz, brightness 8/8, HDD standby after 10 minutes and WiFi on.

In order to adjust performance with respect to the battery life, a program called "Samsung Battery Manager 2.0" is included, which works a bit like Window Vista's power profiles. This function has been employed for these benchmarks.

As shown by the graph, the Samsung NC10 can last for up to 6 hours and 36 minutes, the ASUS Eee slightly less, and the Aspire One about 40 minutes more than the competition.

Processor

SuperPi



Super Pi calculates the number PI with 1 million decimals. The result is a time in seconds, meaning that the lower the number, the better. The number can be used for direct comparison with other laptops that have run the same test.

As can be seen, the Aspire One wins by 4-5 seconds. This is because the Aspire One is equipped with the Intel Atom 280 processor whereas the others only have the Atom 270, which runs with a slightly lower FSB.

Sisoft Sandra CPU Arithmetic

SiSoft Sandras Whetstone and Drystone benchmark tests the processor’s ability to do pure number crunching, which occurs during gaming or different forms of picture editing. The measure is in Mflops (Millions Floating Point Operations Per Second) – the higher, the better.

In the Whetstone benchmark we can clearly see the Aspire One taking off again, whereas the Eee and NC10 score slightly lower.

Sisoft Sandra CPU Multimedia





The multimedia test in SiSoft Sandra is calculated on a 2D figure. The output (it/s) is Mandelbrot iterations per second, i.e. the bigger the better.

Again we see the Aspire taking off, and the difference is quite large as shown by the graph. Again the Eee and NC10 fall behind.

RAM – Sisoft Sandra Memory Bandwidth





Sisoft Sandras Memory Bandwidth benchmark is used to measure the speed of the RAM – the higher the value, the better.

Again the Aspire One takes the lead. The Aspire One seems to have faster RAM, though which kind of RAM it has is unspecified.

HD Tach



Here we can see the speed of the HDD, which is not particularly impressive. This is because they're only 5400 RPM discs, which positively affects price but adversely affects performance

GPU – 3DMark







The 3D Mark tests cannot be compared directly as they are very different depending on which graphics system is used. 3Dmark 2003, 2005, 2006 are all based on DirectX 9 and show the performance during contemporary games and 3D programs.

None of these computers were made for gaming and graphics, so the low scores are no surprise.

Overall performance

We usually employ PCMark to test the computer's overall strength, but since the program doesn't support computers running resolutions less than 1024 x 768, the NC10 cannot run the test (having a resolution of 1024 x 600). However, the three computers would likely score about the same as much of the hardware perform evenly. The Aspire One might take the lead though, given its faster processor.

Gaming

As the computer is aimed at a mobile market with focus on portability and battery life, it's not made to perform well in more demanding games. It can probably play most 2D games though.

Conclusion

The Samsung NC10 is a fine, sturdy computer which can be used for many things but probably excels for students due to its practical size. The computer can easily handle office programs and is good work on and with. Webcam, VGA port, and card reader also makes it useful on the go when you want to view photos and the like.

However, it may be somewhat unergonomic due to its size which is usually the case for the netbook category, making them rather tough to write extended amounts of text on. Software was also problematic in terms of installation, but it might just have been a coincidence. In terms of benchmark, performance is not exactly admirable, but it keeps up with the rest of the netbook market.

At a price of £300 you get a decent, good looking computer which is very practical on the go, not just due to its size but also its battery life. The quality is top notch, and the performance is satisfying considering the price. A fine product!

Pros:
Good looking and practical
Good battery
Good display
Good cooling system

Cons:
Unergonomic
Rather problematic software

Battery: 4 / 5Graphics: 1 / 5Construction: 4 / 5Mobility: 5 / 5Software: 2,5 / 5Overall: 3,5 / 5