Samsung N220
Will this 2G Atom netbook give the Eee a hiding?
Review Ever since Samsung released its first netbook in 2008 - it was the NC10 - it’s been churning out new models like there’s no tomorrow. And with the recent arrival of Intel’s second-gen Atom 'Pine Trail' platform, it’s no surprise Samsung has taken the opportunity to get some new netbooks to market.
Matte screen fans, rejoice! It's Samsung's N220
As far as first impressions go, the N220 doesn’t disappoint. The glossy black lid features a deep red glow that changes in intensity depending on the angle it’s viewed at. If red doesn’t rock your boat, there’s a rather funky green alternative. Being glossy, it’s a magnet for fingerprints.
The six-cell battery props the netbook up by roughly one centimetre at the rear, taking the total thickness to 36mm, but it sits flush with the rear edge.
The N220 is part of a new series from Samsung, including the slightly-lower specced N150 - 160GB HDD, 4400mAh battery - and the ruggedised NB30. There’s also the N210, which is outrageously similar to the N220 but is 20 quid cheaper. Instead of a two-toned chassis, the N210 is only available in a slightly less attractive all-black or all-white colour scheme, while the sub-woofer - we’ll get to this in a moment - also gets the boot.
Not a finger-friendly power key
Samsung has opted not to go for a standard power button and instead uses a slider switch situated on the front lip of the N220. Not only is this fiddly and awkward to use, but the small ridges on the slider scrape along your finger each time you use it.
COMMENTS
Agree
I have used the power button on my Lenove s10e about 10 times since I bought it last april. It is always suspended to RAM. Eats about 1.5W in that state and is fully on and ready to use in under 2secs.
The power button on a netbook is an irrelevance. It might have as well been a whole here you have to plug a toothpick like those force-eject holes on a laptop. It would not have reduced from its usability.
price != netbook
huh? some would say if its over 300 quid it aint a netbook?
no...netbook is all about the formfactor/weight... not the price. my old libretto was anetbook but cost near 800 quid. my current netbook was a cheapy thing - 180 quid... but is the same size.
now, a 250 quid 15" laptop is not a netbook...its a laptop.
N120 owner
I have the older N120 and I would gladly swap it for a matt screen. However why still 1024x600? That's REALLY annoying! Up it to true x768 at least!
Also I bet the secondary PCIe slot is missing like on UK N120's (It's not on US models I believe so you can add a HD decoder card for £25. Otherwise it means soldering the slot on yourself and invalidating your warranty).
How does it handle HD BTW? I can play 720P (Just) with CoreAVC and in overlay mode with no fancy Win7 GUI on the N120. 1080P is a no go though.
That was my reaction when I first used a Macbook
But I'm surprised Apple hasn't patented that silly keyboard design!
Unimpressive and bad value for the money
Windows 7 "we are like the iPad no-multitasking joke edition", wifi card unusable under Linux (NDIS wrapper is not the answer, NDIS wrapper is the question and the answer is NO), battery performance wholly unimpressive, video performance not impressive either. All of that for 320 quid? No thanks, I'd rather pay 100 less and get a proper netbook or 100 more and get a proper laptop which has Broadcom or Intel WiFi in it.
Pine trail was supposed to be "quantum leap" as per the marketing literature. It looks like it is not a quantum leap, but a cheap "move bits around to lock Nvidia out of the market" ploy as most of us have suspected. The video performance, memory performance and power consumption improvements have quite clearly failed to materialise.
It looks like I will be keeping my S10-e with Debian and refurbishing my old faithful NC4000 also with Debian for the foreseable future (I had to replace another hinge on it on Wed).
Definite thumbs down.
