Lowest Price Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2-Inch Blue Netbook - 6 Cell Battery

My Sammy NC10 from Amazon arrived on December 24, 2008. I purchased an external optical DVD-R, CD-R drive also from Amazon for $95. I used the external drive to install MS Office 2000, Microsoft Money 2004, Publisher, and many others. I love the Windows XP operating system, bright screen, fast response times, and WONDERFUL KEYPAD. I'm a touch typist and prone to verbosity so I need a keypad I can type like a maniac on, and this one fits the bill. I used it with 1 GB RAM for awhile. The computer was totally zippy with 1 GB RAM for what I was using it for (Excel spreadsheets, internet, MS Money, etc).

I wanted to install Adobe CS4, and one of the minimum system requirements listed for CS4 is 2 GB RAM. (Another of the minimum requirements is 2.0 Ghz processor, which the NC10 does not have, but whatchagonnado.) I purchased 2 GB RAM from crucial.com for about $20. After sticking the 2.0 GHZ RAM in (that was totally easy), I installed the Adobe CS4 Design Premium (including Dreamweaver, InDesign, Illustrator, etc!) Suite using my external hard drive. I got an error because the NC10's screen resolution is not enough for it. But I went head and continued with the installation anyway. And it was successful! I was able to use the CS4 applications without any problems in terms of speed and processing. However, in some screens, you can't really see the whole thing that you're supposed to see, and there's not a way to scroll up or down to see the whole thing, because Adobe CS4 really expects you to have more vertical than what the NC10 has got.

I also noticed the height limitations on some web sites. For example, when I'm using gmail, I use labels to organize the various types of messages coming in for the different sections of a newsletter that I edit. Well, sometimes I can't see the entire drop-down list showing the various labels. And there's no scroll bar because apparently gmail has a setting that if the list is X number of items or shorter, no scroll bar is needed. Another web site where I encountered this is smugmug (photo galleries). Sometimes I get frustrated because the I can't see enough of the drop-down list.

Another thing about the height of the laptop. When you hook it up to a VGA monitor for giving presentations, the height-stunted dimensions are noticeable. For example, if you want to show the web pages that you're browsing .... well, the presentation will just show a portion of those web pages (same as on your NC10 screen), you won't get to see as much of them as you would if you were using a computer with regular-height screen (or more specifically, if you were using a computer with a higher vertical vs. horizontal resolution). When I noticed that, it made me wish this computer had an option of a resolution with the more traditional height to width ratio.

I wonder why they couldn't add the 1280 x 800 resolution to the NC10?

Oh, and some people complain about the track pad. I LOVE THE TRACK PAD. The little scrolly part on the right side is very helpful. And you can even use gestures like pinching to zoom in or zoom out of the pages. If you don't like the track pad, try looking up Samsung's gestures and see if that makes it better.

I have the white version and I love the way it looks. No fingerprints for me, although ... I left the thin plastic covering on the screen as well as the outside of the computer! (Weird, I know ... like plastic slip-covers in an old lady's house! I figured I'd just leave them there until they fell off, but after 4+ months, they are still firmly attached. Fine, I guess it protects the computer and wards off fingerprints anyway.) Actually, the inside of the computer has a matte finish, which I found very nice. So if there are any glossy fingerprints-attracting surfaces, they might be on the outside.

Although the NC10 generally runs cool, I HAVE noticed it being hot .... but in those instances, I remembered ... hey, I HAVE been using this thing for like 12 hours non-stop! (I admit, sometimes I stay in bed for 12 hours straight, working with the Sammy NC10 on my lap, my head supported by pillows. Decadent, I know! What a life!)

One thing I didn't like about the NC10 was that it feels very dense. Like a rock. Even though it's lightweight compared to other laptops, and it fits in a larger size purse ... it will make that purse feel very heavy if you carry it around for awhile.

One GREAT THING about the NC10 is the wireless connectivity. I can go to places in my house where my other laptop gets a "weak" signal, and instead my samsung picks up a strong signal. Thank goodness! It is a netbook after all.

I have really enjoyed my NC10. It feels very well-made. Whenever people see me with it, they are very impressed. It is very sturdy, compact, and useful. Oh, and the battery life ... yeah, I tend to get maybe 4 or 5 hours, but I am using wireless internet all the time, and I like to keep the screen brighter. I'm not down with the super-dimmed screen!

That being said .... I actually have now given my computer away for my mom to use. I purchased the Samsung X460-44G 14.1-Inch Laptop (2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 Centrino 2 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Business) when it was on sale here at Amazon ($899 after $300 mail-in rebate). The 2.0 GHZ processor is faster, which is good, but my main reasons to change were the larger screen and the higher resolution of 1280 x 800. I did a lot of desktop publishing on the NC10 in the first 4 months I had it, but with all the zooming in and out and scrolling required for laying out newsletter sheets, etc, I finally admitted I needed something a little bigger. I'm bummed that the x460's resolution is only 1280 x 800 (same as the NC20 which only has a 12.1-inch screen! WTF), but at least it's better than what I had with the NC10. And I'm hoping the 2.0 GHz processor and built-in optical drive will make things better as well .... although the NC10 was actually plenty fast enough, and I didn't mind using the external drive. Really it was such a screen size issue.

And now ... whenever Amazon starts carrying the new NC20 with 12.1-inch screen and 1280 x 800 resolution, things will really start to get interesting around here! (Newegg.com has it already!)



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