The Samsung NC10 is currently riding high. High in the UMPCPortal charts, the most searched-for laptop on a number European price comparison sites, number 2 on the Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de computer chart and rising quickly in many other countries. In my opinion, based on my hands-on and the numerous good reports out there, its one of the best consumer notebooks, yes, notebooks, there is and when I go to the UK in Dec, I’ll be keeping an eye out for a black NC10 with 160GB drive, BT and built-in 3G. If I find one (fingers crossed that this combination of specifications launches soon) then I’m swapping out my Gigabyte M912M and Medion Akoya. I’ll be sad to let the fast, touchscreen M912 go but battery life is more important for me and the NC10 has oodles of it.
Someone that has already bought one is Jez, a regular reader from the UK who I’ve been emailing with recently to find out about the status of the device in the UK. He bought it last week and immediately started to log his experiences on his ‘Unofficial Samsung NC10 blog.’ He’s also been kind enough to write an introduction just for us so before you pop over to the NC10 blog (and possibly never come back!) take a look at what Jez has to say about the NC10…
Way back in the early days of 2008 I read a blog post regarding the exploits of a database administrator who had connected to his place of work to perform an emergency maintenance operation whilst on his commute home. He used something called an "eee PC". He carefully explained how he got it all to work through some complicated hacks and custom configuration but the key point was the machine was capable of operating as a fully functional PC. This got me interested. Unfortunately the first netbooks were slightly underpowered, small, and difficult to work with – something that put me off ever making a purchase.
Fast forward almost a year and technology has, as always, moved on very quickly. I once again began searching for my ideal netbook, following news and updates closely on UMPCPortal.com and finally the Samsung NC10 seemed to meet my requirements exactly. And I wasn’t disappointed.
The Samsung NC10 is a smart, compact, attractive package that has impressed everyone I have shown it too. I purchased a black model and was lucky enough to be one of the first to receive it so I have already had a good week of use. The professional reviews have already covered the details of this netbook and so I won’t go over these again – I would rather concentrate on my everyday experience of using it. The first impressive feature is the performance, admittedly this is the first netbook I have owned, but everything I have wanted to do on the NC10 has worked perfectly. From running office applications to some light development tasks, this little machine can handle it all!
The second big draw is the much-discussed battery life. During my first week of use I have not put any thought into power conservation, running with reduced brightness or cut down processor power and it has just worked seamlessly. I have plugged it in at home from time to time, but during the day I haven’t even come close to running the battery down. As someone who regularly forgets to keep an eye on power consumption this is exactly what I wanted from a notebook.
The key thing that I wanted from a portable computer was a system that was actually usable as a normal day to day machine and that was capable of carrying out any reasonable computing request without having to worry about whether it worked or not. And this is exactly what I have found with the NC10. Typing on it is not a chore, running software works as expected, wireless networking works seamlessly and it doesn’t hurt that it looks good too!
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For more real-world usage of this netbook check out Jez’s Samsung NC10 blog and join in with the forum. Check out the specifications, images and links to other external resources through the Samsung NC10 information page.
Sweet temptation, for an collection order to germany, please rent a truck to bring the black bluetooth and 3g housed to germany :) we want the black NC10 too
I think you are infected at the M & G in Cologne :)
I still looking for an Aigo in black and a bit more roomy ssd. Hope you reports this in 2009…
As far i understood, the Amazon.co.uk doesn’t have a NC10 with 3G build-in, is that correct Chippy?
Correct at the moment, yes.
I would say you are correct A.K. There isn’t a 3G available here in the UK right now – but rumour has it one will be on the way. My guess is next year though.
Unless Chippy knows any more? I think I’ve accepted i’ll be signing up to a USB dongle sometime soon. Just looking for a one of the good deals that crop up every couple of months!
Hi-
Anyone know of any head-to-head comparisons of the NC10 with the Lenovo S10? I know the biggest differentiator right now is the battery, but I understand Lenovo will have a 6 cell at some point?
That aside, wondering how they compare otherwise? If I had my druthers, I think i’d prefer the Samsung, however the price for the S10 is markedly lower at $359 (discounted price I can get it for) vs. $488 (latter is US amazon price for NC10, maybe it’s less elsewhere?).
Is the additional $100 (give or take some $ for upgraded memory on Lenovo and better battery) for the Samsung justified?
Thanks for any info anyone can provide!
I first bought a Lenovo S10 to load Mac OS X operating system. Love the quality build, but hated a few things: short battery life, the keyboard was smaller and the shift key was in the wrong place. Loading the OSX was easy and the wireless worked with some hacking. It was also easier to upgrade the hard drive and memory, but after two days the system died on me and I went ahead to buy a Samsung. The battery life is superb. The only negative is the wireless card had to be swapped out to make it compatible with OSX. Overall, I think Samsung is much better value for the money.
Rich–
One obvious thing is the Lenovo has the stupid keyboard layout that a lot of netbooks use with the right shift key shrunk down to minuscule size. I don’t consider this acceptable myself.
Also the battery life. While the S10 will have a 6 cell at some point, it’ll presumably stick out like most of the other 6 cell batteries, while the Samsung is integrated into the body of the unit.
Sorry to say but none of the UK version will have built in 3G :( well not any time soon.
I’ve now got the black nc10 and I’m delighted with it, soo much better then any of the eee pc’x I’ve owned.
I just need to upgrade the ram.
I was a hair away from pulling the trigger on this, international order no less.. Until I read the NC10 Ubuntu blog. No Intel wireless. The included ‘Atheros’ wireless simply doesn’t work, no drivers, nothing.
I have Intel wireless on my current Ubuntu laptop and it was seamless, installed, booted, wireless worked just like that. I’ll never go through a nightmare just to get it set up.. And I’m not going back to XP.
Oh well, I thought I had nailed it – the search for a netbook I can use continues. Incredible that with all these alternatives none so far suit my needs. Shame the manufacturers are so afraid to do something different, they’re all EEE copies down to the plasticy white design apart from a few.
Great info.
It looks like people are really searching for the NC10 in Germany, the UK, and Italy.
I’ll be sure to pass this kind of informaiton with my visitors at http://www.netbookreports.com
The wireless works with Ubuntu 8.10 if you install the latest madwifi driver with the following command:
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-intrepid
which means it’ll work out of the box with the next version.
Note: Typed this on a NC10 with Ubuntu over wireless.
The wireless works with Ubuntu 8.10 if you install the latest madwifi driver with the following CORRECT command:
sudo apt-get install linux-backports2-modules
in the version 2
;)
further datails at http://thelaptopadvice.com ;)
Has anyone tried to fit a touch screen to their NC10 yet? Im thinking about getting one of these but not sure http://www.ultimate-netbook.co.uk/Samsung-NC10-Easy-Touch-Screen-Kit___560.htm
Samsung NC10 Netbook weigh approzimately 1.3 kg and that’s why I decide to choose NC10 to be my assistance in university.
Why do many people try to modify them?
I bought it at amazon.co.uk.
Here if you are interested in NC10.
See more detail and review
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001GZC8K8?ie=UTF8&tag=buy-samsung-nc10-netbook-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B001GZC8K8
You will like it, just as I do.
Hi all,
Hi all,
I just bought my Samsung NC10 from a company in the UK called http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk and I’m hugely impressed, it’s a little slow compared to my Acer Core2Duo monster but it’s to be expected!! Just need to find a decent slipcase protector for it, but wholeheartedly would recommend these to anyone. I did have the Acer One before and it wasn’t built quite as well as this Samsung.
All you need to do is take one glance at the Samsung NC10-14GB netbook to conjure the urge to buy one of these. Since it’s launch, it is by far one of the best-looking netbook in the market. There is something about its glossy blue casing and black keyboard that makes it very irresistible.
I think I will get a Samsung NC10, it looks really great and has good specs. Or does anybody know a notebook with similar specs?