The NC10 is Samsung's entry into the netbook market. Its specs are nothing too surprising, 1.6GHz Intel Atom, 1GB ram, 10" screen at 1024x600. It does have a large hard drive of 160GB, which sets it apart from the usual low capacity SSD drives that adorn many of the other brands models. Its major difference is the "Nano Silver Coating" on the keyboard which is meant to kill bacteria.
The chassis is sturdy and well made. Little features add to the feeling of luxury, the silver band that runs around the case, the neat blue lit power button hidden on the side and the pearlescent paint. Connection-wise the NC10 comes well equipped, 3 USB ports, LAN, VGA, microphone and headphone sockets. On the front there is an SD card slot, however the card does stick out a little from the case, would have been nice to have seen it flush with an ejection mechanism. You also get wi-fi and bluetooth connections from mobile internet. The track pad is extremely small and has no real feedback as to when you have gone off of it, as it lies flush with the case. That said, after switching on some of the features of the Synatpics pad it isn't bad and you do get used to it. Where the NC10 excels is with its battery life. Just general use on the internet/word-processing can easily see 5 hours of computing. Maybe not up to the 7 hour claims from Samsung, but still very impressive. Actually the 7 hours may be achieved however I would think that you would need to run at the lowest brightness setting and switch the processor to its slower speed (silent mode).
In use the Atom performs well, it runs all the things that you would want from an internet browsing device. As the NC10 uses Windows XP it feels quite speedy. Its keyboard is of a very usable size, about 92% of normal. Also it has a double height enter key which makes typing much easier. The screen is fantastic, extremely bright (at full brightness) and goes to show you don't need to have a shiny screen to make a good screen. It is pleasant to look at and read from, although the limited vertical resolution means that you may have to scroll more then on a larger screen. Above the screen is the 1.3mp camera. The images are clear and the built in microphone does a good job at picking up my voice when talking to a friend using MSM Live.
For the price this is the best netbook yet. You get a great little machine that is set apart from the rest by its large hard drive and remarkable battery life. It is cheaper then the MSI Wind, its closest rival and while more expensive then some of the other models out there, is well worth the extra for its battery life alone. At 1.3kg it is light and portable, but with a big enough screen to be usable on a daily basis. The manufactures would like us to believe that these netbooks are a second machine to a larger computer/laptop. I disagree, the NC10 is all the laptop that I need and ideal for people on the move, for students or someone looking for a small (comparatively) powerful laptop computer.
**Good**
Large HDD
Bright screen
Connectivity
Battery life
Build quality
**Bad**
Tiny trackpad
SD card sticks out