[gui-talk] Fwd: Samsung N120 Netbook Computer: Initial Thoughts

[Steve Pattison]

Prices in this message are in US dollars.  -Steve.

 From:    Buddy Brannan buddy at brannan.name
 To:      gw-info at gwmicro.com

Hi all,

With some info posted on the Samsung NC10 and the general interest in  
netbooks, I thought some might find this of some interest.

Recently, Samsung has come out with new netbook models following on  
the success of the NC10. (The NC10, for anyone who hasn't read netbook  
reviews, always seems to get the best overall top of the heap  
reviews.) While the technical specs are nothing special in comparison  
to other netbooks (same Atom N270 processor, same 1 GB of RAM, same  
160 GB hard drive, same Intel chip set, same 10.something-inch LCD  
display), the devil, as they say, is in the details. And those details  
are what puts the N120, not only at the top of the heap as far as  
price, but also at the top of the heap in terms of quality; in other  
words, I think you really do get what you pay for in this case.

Bear in mind that I only received my N120 yesterday, so it's still  
new, but I thought some initial impressions might be useful.

First off, thanks, Samsung, for such nice packaging. Everything fits  
snugly in the box, but you won't be wrestling with getting things out  
of the packaging. The bags aren't heat sealed, so you won't destroy  
anything pulling stuff out of plastic bags. If anything at all is  
sealed, it's taped shut. What a relief!

The N120 is only slightly larger than my wife's Acer Aspire One;  
certainly not enough bigger to notice much. And with the six-cell  
battery, the weight is specified at just 2.8 pounds. I've seen college  
textbooks that weigh more. More importantly, it doesn't seem to be too  
heavy in the back as compared to the front of the machine, so I expect  
it should be comfortable enough to use on your lap.

Unfortunately, you may need sighted assistance setting it up. I'd  
actually like to redo mine. While of course you can do the Out Of Box  
Experience with Narrator, after it updates and reboots, you get a  
screen to partition your hard drive. This screen won't talk; it comes  
up before sound. The default is to have the drive split in two roughly  
equal parts of about 70 MB each. I think there is a hidden recovery  
partition in here.

The N120 appears to be well built and sturdy. No wobble in the hinges.  
It also seems to run fairly cool, even after several hours of use.

Now to the two points that are the big distinguishing features of this  
netbook: the speakers and the keyboard. The speakers claim to be a 2.1- 
channel set of speakers, 1.5 watts each. Yes, they claim to have  
included a subwoofer. Don't expect room shaking sound here, guys, but  
the sound is plenty loud enough, and it doesn't distort (that I can  
tell so far) at the higher volume setting. The speakers are to the  
left and right of the screen, not in the bottom of the machine. This  
is a much better placement. You can adjust the sound somewhat with the  
SRS control panel. Of course, when you make the sound wider, you lose  
some punch, but it does sound nice anyhow.

Now the keyboard is an interesting thing. They've somehow managed to  
put a full-sized keyboard into this notebook, and it really is very  
nice to type on. There are, however, a couple of oddities you should  
be aware of. First, the key to the left of the spacebar is the grave  
accent/tilde key. This key is not to the left of the 1 as God  
intended. Instead, there's just a small bit of plastic that could be a  
key, except it's a little narrow and doesn't press. The alt is to the  
left of the grave accent/tilde key. This keyboard also has a right alt  
and a right control, and the shift keys and all other keys (apart from  
the function keys) are full sized. Like the Aspire One, page up and  
page down are to the left and right of the up arrow, respectively,  
with home and end being accessed with FN and these keys. While the  
moved tilde key will be OK to get used to, a brain bending change that  
will definitely take some getting used to is the placement of the  
Windows and application keys. The application key is between the left  
alt and left control, while the Windows key is between the right alt  
and control. I know this is odd, but I think I understand the  
reasoning. The applications or context key doubles as the FN key.  
Obviously you couldn't have the Windows key double as the FN key  
because of the Windows key keyboard commands. The application key has  
no such conflict. So, while this is really a little strange, the  
keyboard is good enough that I can get used to it. It really is a joy  
to type on, and I've had no ill effects from it (not too many errors  
and my speed hasn't suffered).

I paid $459 from Newegg.com. Of course, after I bought, I saw that  
someone else got it on buy.com for somewhat less. Them's the breaks, I  
suppose. It's also available at Amazon with free shipping, which means  
you can still pay less than I did, even if it isn't much less.
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 746-4127 or 888-75-BUDDY
Create your own economic stimulus package:
http://www.powermall.info

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
MSN Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com
Skype:  steve1963