Software provision is mainly support apps, with Samsung’s own battery management, network diagnostic and update and recovery software. There’s no application software as such, so you’ll be wanting something open source to start with, but McAfee AV and CyberLink YouCam, for video recording, do come pre-installed.
Available in a set of student-friendly colours
That N270 means the results of the PCMark05's CPU benchmark will be similar to most of those we’d seen recently. And so it is, as is the Memory score. The hard drive test shows nothing here to make the N310 stand out from the crowd.
The N310 has a four-cell, 29Wh battery, so you might expect an increase in battery life over the three-cell packs fitted to, for example, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v or Acer’s Aspire One D250. Under our heavyweight looping-video-on-full-brightness battery life test, though, it gave just 163 minutes, putting it well toward the bottom of our chart.
While you can expect to get maybe another hour or so out of a charge under less strenuous use - and further by adjusting XP's power settings - you’re going to need to carry the power supply around with you on most trips. And all these adjustments can be made to all other netbooks too.
Blah
So what you have here is a neatly-styled netbook with good ergonomics, but nothing in performance terms that cries ‘buy me’ any louder than half a dozen others, and a lot less quietly than machines from Asus, Toshiba and - it has to be said - Samsung itself. If you feel the looks of this machine are worth an extra £50 or more, over a rival offering, there’s little else to hold against your choice.
Verdict
The N310 is a machine you buy for its looks. The keyboard’s above average, the touchpad’s fine and the screen is bright and sharp. Its student-friendly design, while nice, just doesn't compensate for the chunky feel, undistinguished spec, poor battery life and ridiculous 'premium' price. ®
More Netbook Reviews...
Toshiba NB200 |
Dell Inspiron Mini 10v |
Samsung N120 |
Acer Aspire One D250 |
Samsung N310 netbook
COMMENTS
Samsung has serious Apple envy...
...they even went for a one-button trackpad! (In appearance, at least.)
Just got an A150 for £149.99 inc VAT +delivery
I had been pining over a Dell Mini 10v, mostly for the 1366x768 screen, but then I added the better CPU, bluetooth, and before I new it I was close to Samsung money.
Then an email arrived from eBuyer for an Aspire A150 for under £150 all in. I installed my MSDN XP Pro on it and I've not looked back. As others have mentioned the spec is completely adequate (1.6Ghz/1Gb/120Gb).
I needed the harddrive to install the apps I use and also to card music + video about. I completely accept the battery hit. I just wish it could boot off of one of the SD slots so I could fall back to Linux to squeeze that life back. Oh and built in 3G would be nice...
@ Jason Bloomberg - Sub £150 NetBook
Granted it is the previous model with the 8.9" screen, but Expansys have the Aspire One A150 on at the moment for one of your new pennies under that £150 mark. OK it is another 6 quid for delivery but still...
@Jason Bloomberg
Absolutely - my eee701 does'nt run Vista, or paintshop, and it won't edit videos.
It is, however, cheap, rugged, very portable, surfs beautifully and handles gentle office tasks.
The netbook must be one of the best, shortest lived niches in history - its gone from a brand new concept to boring notebook alsoran in what? 18 months? :(
Too many £££££££££££££££
I have an NC10 which cost £300 that really is the limit on price for a netbook anything more and you're into notebook territory. Granted you won't be running a great hulking celeron with poor battery life but it's still too much.
