Flip open the lid and one of the first things to leap out is the display. Its size and resolution - 10.1in, 1024 x 600 - are standard, but unlike the vast majority of netbook screens, this one has a matte finish. Movies don’t look quite as vibrant, but reflections are almost non-existent.
Does my batt look big in this?
That said, it didn’t perform too well in bright sunlight. The display also has a thin and totally unnecessary glossy rim around it – if there’s a light source behind you, this serves only to create small but distracting reflections at the edge of the screen.
Samsung has mustered up some stunning netbook keyboards in the past. Here, it has ditched the standard laptop-style design and gone for a calculator style. It looks better, but keyboards are for typing on, not gawping at. That’s not to say it’s a bad keyboard, and some may well prefer this isolated key design, but having been so impressed with its previous keyboard designs, we feel Samsung should have kept faith with the version that featured on the N140.
The N220’s touchpad measures 63 x 40mm, accepts multi-touch gestures and benefits from a smooth texture. We’d prefer individual left and right buttons instead of the rocker-bar found here.
Samsung has gone for a calculator-style keyboard this time
Note this is the US layout
The speaker system is a cut above what we’re used to seeing on netbooks. Two speakers at the front combine with a sub-woofer to produce impressively loud and ear-pleasing audio. The miniature sub isn’t exactly what you’d call thumping, but it does reduce the nasty tinny effect that plagues most netbooks. Check out Asus' Eee PC 1005PE if you're looking for another netbook with a beefy sound.
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.
