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Upgrading the Samsung NC10 - memory

How to Upgarde the Samsung NC10 FAQ

 

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Review of the Samsung NC10 NetBook

So my Samsung NC10 netbook duly arrived over Christmas, and we have had a little time to get to know each other - so what do I think?

Well the answer is that I love it! It is a thing of beauty. Mine is the white or 'pearl' version, and looks great. I toyed with the idea of the black gloss edition, but the additional £30 didn’t seem worth it. And I was concerned that a few weeks in my handbag picking up fingerprints, makeup and scratches would wear away the beautiful black gloss finish so I went with the white.
 

Looks

The white matte version looks stylish with the chrome-effect strip running from hinge to hinge with little blue lights on the front which I thought were very stylish. I especially love the back lit blue power button in the hinge - it all adds to the very grown up appeal and feeling of quality and it is sturdy enough to not accidentally come on in your case!
  • 10″ LCD, 1024 x 600 pixels
  • 160GB Hard Drive
  • 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270
  • Intel GMA 950 Graphics
  • 128MB Shared Video Ram
  • Li-Ion 2200 mAh Battery
  • 26.1 x 18.55 x 3.03 cm
  • 1.29 KG (2.8lbs)
  • 802.11g/b WiFi
  • Bluetooth 2.0
  • 3x USB 2.0, VGA, Micrphone and Headphone Jacks
  • 3-in-1 Card Reader & SIM Card Slot
 Samsung NC10

The Samsung NC10 is a 10.2in netbook with a 10inch LED backlit screen which is adequate for most of your needs and can be optimised with some simple customisation. That means that it has a similar footprint to the Asus Eee PC 1000H and MSI Wind, and it weighs a very portable 2.8 pounds (with the six cell battery) making it ideal for carrying around in the old handbag!!

Measuring 260 x 170 x 30mm at its thinnest point the Samsung NC10 is slight; but the addition of a protruding 6-cell battery at the back does add 5mm to the overall depth. However, as this raises the NC10 up a little at the back when you are working on it, this looks like a bonus to me.

Ports comprise of three USB ports - one on the right hand side, two on the left - VGA-out, Ethernet port, microphone and headphone jacks. The addition of little icons down either side of the keyboard are a useful touch, so you don't need to pick the netbook up to locate the port you want. This is the kind of thing that you will come to expect of the NC10 - the little netbook that thinks of everything!!!

NC10 Specification

The standard spec (and the one I received) includes an Intel Atom N270 processor and 1024MB of memory and the 160GB hard drive is a welcome addition, ( which is handily partitioned into two equally sized portions). Using Windows XP the NC10 boots quickly and easily in less than 30 seconds which is faster than many of its rivals!

My NC10 runs everything I need - including Office tasks, surfing the net, and even playing World of Warcraft at a very acceptable 18 frames per second - though please note that the fps rate was measured AFTER I upgraded the 1GB of RAM to 2GB. An upgarde to the nc10 was exceptionally simple to do and instructions on upgrading the Samsung NC10 can be found here...

McAfee Internet Security has been bundled in to the NC10 which is a nice touch. However I prefer AVG which is a free download and therefore removed McAfee straight away.

  

Samsung NC10 Functionality

Much has been made of the Samsung NC10's keyboard because this netbook sports a seriously spacious keyboard (93 percent the size of a regular keyboard). This makes it ideal for those with slightly larger fingers though the compression of the backspace button takes some getting used to - many times I have '=' rather than removed! But this sacrifice means that the rest of the keys are well spaced and makes even long periods of typing comfortable so it is a sacrifice worth making.

The layout of the rest of the keys are perfect (unlike some of the competition) - with the right Shift key a sensible size and directly below the Enter key. The raised keys have tactile feedback which is pleasant to use.

However, the spacious keyboard doesn't leave much room for the track pad, which ends up wide and squat, but it's usable enough and I tend to use my NC10 with a small wireless mouse so it has very little impact on me. The tracker pad is not too sensitive either. My 'work' laptop has such a sensitive mouse pad that simple waving my 'flappy thumbs' over it whilst typing can cause the mouse to shoot off in an unexpected direction. There is a mouse 'rocker' which replaces the left and right mouse buttons for those who really love the tracker pad.

Battery life

I have tested the Samsung NC10 battery (it features a six-cell battery with a 5,200mAh capacity) and have achieved nearly 7 hours life with the battery management set to max battery life. This is more than adequate for my needs and will last through most train journeys!