Samsung NC10

If you’ve ever wondered why all netbooks are essentially the same, thank Microsoft. As part of the deal that allows OEMs to keep using the technically-obsolete Windows XP on their low-power portables, Microsoft stipulates that processors must stay single-core, and that screens and hard disks don’t exceed 10.2in and 80Gb, respectively (although it did recently relax those limits).

In fact the only areas where manufacturers can really add value is in design and battery life – Asus certainly scored here with its Eee PC S101, but its price was a bit too high for our liking. Not so the Samsung NC10 – it too is a long-lasting looker, but its price tag is far more in keeping with the original low-cost laptop idea.

We won’t dwell too much on the NC10’s specification, since it’s essentially the same as that of the MSI Wind U100, Asus Eee PC 901 and 1000, LG X110 and, well, just about all of the other Intel Atom-powered netbooks. Its 160Gb hard disk is the largest permitted by Microsoft’s current Windows XP T&Cs, but there’s no onboard 3G – one valuable feature that most netbook manufacturers are being slow to implement.

The Samsung NC10 is, however, one of the best-looking netbooks we’ve seen so far – not quite on a par with the Eee PC S101, but not far off. The matte case (available in black, white and blue) is rounded in all the right places and offset by a silver strip that runs around the netbooks sides. The overall effect is that the NC10 is a particularly compact (and suitably pricey) ultraportable rather than a netbook, and that’s an effect we like.

Samsung hasn’t done anything new with the NC10’s 10.2in, 1024 x 600 screen, other than make it extremely bright and vibrant – again, it’s one of the best we’ve seen on any netbook. It’s sits on a similar pair of hinges as the screens on the MSI Wind and LG X110, but they’re much stiffer and the NC10 doesn’t suffer from the same annoying screen wobble.

Samsung reckons that the NC10’s keyboard is 93% full-size, but at 247mm from side to side, it’s 7mm narrower than that on the Eee PC 1000. Not that we’re complaining – the keyboard is well-spaced with wide key-tops, and no keys in odd positions. It’s very comfortable to type on, even for prolonged spells, and the keys also have the same antibacterial ‘nano silver’ coating as Samsung’s other laptops (though we have no idea if this actually does anything other than sound cool).

We’re less than thrilled with the NC10’s touchpad, though. At 60 x 40mm, it’s smaller than most, but the real problem is its sensitivity. As on the HP 2133 Mini-Note, it takes far too many swipes to move the pointer from the top to the bottom of the screen – three or four, compared to one or two to move it from side to side. There are no options in the Synaptics touchpad driver to compensate for this and it’s a very frustrating foible.

Thankfully, our usual netbook complaint – battery life – isn’t an issue with the NC10, thanks to Samsung’s provision of a 5200mAh cell. This ran to just over five hours in our heavy use test, and almost six and a half for light use, and the screen auto-dimming function (backlight off after two minutes of idle time, leaving the display still visible) can stretch this further still.

Performance isn’t quite so perky and the NC10 was a little bit slower than various incarnations of the MSI Wind in our tests. “Slower” is a relative term down at this end of the performance scale, of course, and we doubt anyone would notice the speed difference in typical use.

We realise that compared to our other netbook reviews, we haven’t really said that much about the Samsung NC10, but that’s really because there really isn’t that much to say – it’s pretty much the same as every other netbook. It is one of the better-looking and longer-lasting models around though, and if not for its infuriating touchpad, we’d probably rank it as our favourite of the lot.