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

This netbook was a replacement from Acer Inspire One which came with an incorrect keyboard layout. Return to Amazon for refund. I'm glad I did, this Samsung is awesome. Just received my "Blue" Samsung NC10 today. Don't understand why the Blue netbook is $20 more than the White netbook. Initial setup took about 10 minutes to get to Start menu. The only fault I could find would be the speakers, they OK. Was not expecting 5:1 surround sound. The fan is absolutely quite and the netbook was almost cold. My HP notebook get way warmer. If your planning on removing McAfee, do this before connecting to the Net else it installs automatically. I replace this with AVG security. There is no MS office or Works 30 days trials, just some Samsung software like User Guide, Update Plus, Network manager. I decided to keep mine. Of all the reviews I have read there were only four minor consistent complaints:

1. Blue color not available. Available now.
2. Speakers not the greatest. No 5:1 surround, but OK.
3. Scroll pad to small. It's a netbook not notebook.
4. Single touch pad bar. Dislike at first, Tried it and now I like it.

The main things I love is the battery life, keyboard layout, matted finish, the overall look & design. I would say this is the most perfect Netbook on the market today.Get more detail about Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2-Inch Blue Netbook - 6 Cell Battery.

Where To Buy Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2-Inch Blue Netbook - 6 Cell Battery

I previously owned one of the 1st gen 7" Asus Eee machines, and an Acer Aspire One netbook, and I can definitely say that this is the best machine of the bunch !

I purchased the white one, since the blue one seems to be on backorder forever. The matte screen is nice and easy to read, the keyboard is AWESOME - I can touch type without any issues whatsoever. Battery life is incredible - I am easily getting 6 or 7 hours a charge, without paying attention to conserving power at all. Also, one of the things I like the most is that the balance is right - there is enough weight below the keyboard that it wants to sit like a regular notebook. On the Acer Aspire One, the screen weighs about as much as the keyboard, so it always wants to tip back... Another minor positive is that the slip case is better than the Acer Aspire one - it's sort of a fake-suede bag with a flip cover. Finally, it came with very little bloatware on it - I uninstalled the trial of McCafee and installed the free AVG antivirus software, and that's about it...

This is a very slick little machine. If you can handle the extra weight vs. the 9" models like the Acer Aspire One, this seems to be about as good as it gets !Get more detail about Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2-Inch Blue Netbook - 6 Cell Battery.

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

OVERVIEW
Let me start by saying I wanted the blue one because I felt like white would be too cheap looking. White isn't my first choice for a laptop color, but i think this is passable. I decided to take the white one rather than wait around for whenever the blue one is released.

I love this machine. The day-to-day tasks are peppy and it behaves like a normal Windows XP machine. I have purchased a RAM upgrade and am waiting for my 2GB stick to arrive, but I have been using it with the 1GB installed and haven't had any issues. The main uses for this machine I see are internet, office, and other such basic tasks. However, I also maintain a couple websites and was able to install Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 and noticed no difference in performance on this machine from my powerful desktop.

The fit and finish are excellent. Keyboard keys are sturdy and snappy. The USB ports are tight, in a good way, and provide a sense of quality when you plug things in. The screen is bright, bright enough that I often dim it a notch or two due to eye fatigue (which is normally not a problem for me).

CONS
Trying to find faults in this machine is like trying to find faults in a BMW 7 series, sure there are nit-picky things you can point out, but come on, it's a 7 series! Having said that...

Screen size. This being my first netbook the size of the screen takes a little getting used to. My problem with the screen is that it is slightly too short in height. To combat this I simply made my taskbar autohide, what I normally do not do, but without this, the main window pane seemed pinched what with the menu bars, tool bars, and task bar taking up roughly 1 inch of screen real estate.

Touch pad. The touch pad is pretty short (up and down) so some adjustments needed to be made to the pointer speed and momentum to get it up and down without retreading over and over. Ultimately I find it much easier to just use a wireless mouse (I'd recommend the Logitech VX Nano). What I wish is that Samsung had used the extra space above and below the touchpad to simply increase its size. If it were 1/4" taller the touchpad would be just fine.

Weight. It is light, but because it's small it seems dense. This means for me that its weight/size ratio means that it feels heavy. By no means would I say it is heavy, but i think it is heavier than it may appear at first glance. It is still very light for a laptop, even lighter than the Macbook Air (albeit a smaller form factor).

PROS
Speed. Speedy laptop. It gets the job done.

Battery. I tested it out today. I teach high school and used this laptop to take attendance and record grades in each of my classes. I started it up around 7:50am and had it turned on most of the day. Periodically I would put it in sleep mode, or allow the power save mode to turn off the lcd. I also turned off the backlight when I got up to walk away from time-to-time. However, the NC10 made it from 8am all the way to 3pm without shutting down due to lack of power. And I had the backlight on 6 or 7 out of 8 the entire time and I had to connect to the internet on a regular basis so wifi was on the entire time. I am confident that if I took this on a plane with me I could play 2 or 3 movies before my battery dies. This was a huge selling point for me. Most other netbooks have similar features but many lack the 6-cell battery.

Hard drive. The response time is peppy. No noticible lag when accessing the hard drive or save large files. Having 160GB hard drive is important to me. I also plan on adding 32GB via a SD card for additional storage. With all the windows updates, office 2003, macromedia suite 8, and various other applications, along with 30 gb of music, I have about 100GB left over for data.

CUSTOMIZING IT
As with all laptops, this one comes preinstalled with a bunch of stuff you may or may not want. I like more control than some of these applications offer. Also, the computer starts out by partitioning the hard drive to split it in half. You can control how much you want to assign to each partition, and it says you can even set it to eliminate the partitioning, but I was unable to figure this out. When I went through the process I couldn't get mine to leave it as one big drive. So it ended up splitting it in half. After I did this I decided I didn't like it that way and wanted to fix it.

Here's what I did:
1. With the help of an external DVD drive, I put the recovery disk in (while logged in to windows) and gave it the option to reinstall windows
2. It started the process and then rebooted and then I had the option to boot from a disk. I did that and the computer stopped at the typical Windows XP installation interface.
3. From there I was able to delete the D partition and the small, hidden recovery partition (about 6 gb) to allow the C partition to take over all 160gb of the hard drive
4. I deleted the C partition and then reformatted it as one drive
5. Then it installed windows to the new C drive
6. Followed setup process and voila! New clean Windows XP machine
7. Once i was back in windows I put in the software disk that has all the samsung programs and installed those which I wanted. It's important to install the video and audio drivers so the function keys work with the speaker volume and backlight controls.
8. Finished by installing whatever applications I wanted and updating windows and office

enjoy.Get more detail about Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2-Inch Blue Netbook - 6 Cell Battery.