Samsung NC110 matte-screen netbook
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Review Tight spots don’t come much trickier than the one netbook makers find themselves in. Squeezed from above by prettier, more interesting tablets, netbooks such as Samsung’s £350 N350 are barely appealing alternatives to Apple’s glossy view of the future.
Samsung's NC110: more of the same, but with a gloss-less screen
And take the new NC110 out of the box and it looks, depressingly, like business as usual. There’s a 10.1in screen, a dual-core Atom processor and 1GB of RAM, all of which adds up to just enough to run Windows 7 Starter edition, assuming you’re brave enough to remove the processor-crushing irritation that is Norton Internet Security.
Its specifications are actually almost identical to those of the four-month-old N350, with the only significant difference a slight dip in price, from the N350’s nicely symmetrical £350, to £329. The price drop brings with it a larger battery: six cells to the N350’s three.
Build quality is good. Like Samsung’s previous netbooks, such as the NF210, the keyboard is solid, and while there's a degree of flex in the chassis it's nothing to suggest the NC110 won't survive a fairly hard travelling life.
The screen offers a little more wiggle, but doesn't show up bruising when the back is pressed. Speaking of which, the NC110’s lid is available in various different colours, with my review unit finished in a particularly repulsive dark purple. Go for the black one.
The port array is blocky - and basic
Powered by a dual-core 1.5GHz Atom N550, the Samsung should be capable of most tasks, but it's the 1GB of 533MHz Ram that holds things back. Alt-Tabbing between open applications is sluggish, and common applications such as Google Docs run appallingly slowly.
Next page: Thanks for the memory - not
COMMENTS
Non-Glossy
I welcome return to proper Matt screen. Like we had nearly 10 years ago. Shiny on a screen is stupid. For YEARS people researched how to make screens Matt.
I think Matte may refer to photographic and cinema Masking? Unless El Reg has relocated.
In film:
* Matte (filmmaking), film and video technology
* Matte painting, a process of creating sets used in film and video
* Matte box, a camera accessory for controlling lens glare
* Open matte, a filming technique that involves matting out the top and bottom of the film frame in the movie projector
Matt: In British English, of a surface: having a non-glossy finish
Matte: In American English, of a surface: having a non-glossy finish
Anyway a glossy screen gives headaches due to eye re-focusing automatically on any moving reflection. Alleviated by careful position of desk etc. A Matt screen may not look so pretty in showroom, but is less distracting and less tiring. I suspect the glossy screens came in because they are cheaper and look prettier. For a tablet a glossy screen also shows up fingerprints worse than Matt. Matt is superior in brightly lit environments and outdoors.
Anyone remember the high contrast ultra-matt Victor 9000 / Sirius1 screen (done by a very fine nylon matt black mesh probably) compared to Shiny Goldfish bowl screens on all other Monitors? It was nearly 15 years before CRT colour monitors caught up (can't use mesh as it's not fine enough and you get moire fringing with mask/slots)
Otherwise nothing special on this netbook?
I hope the Matt no-gloss screen sets a trend.
Can we go back to 1200 lines/pixels (or better) instead of 1080 or lower please for those of us that want to read PDFs and Word DOCs and DTP layout "page at a time". Maybe even option for 4:3 screen and not WS. Some people actually use Laptop for working, not watching Video.
1G RAM is plenty for a netbook with a decent OS. You didn't buy it to run 5 server images or play a high end game?
wrong direction
Maybe it's just me, but if there was an edge-to-edge 7" netbook, it would fit in a jacket pocket. Am I the only one who thinks that would be VERY convenient?
"...the price has gently declined..."
No it hasn't.
The range for a netbook has always been between £175 and £329. It hasn't changed a bit in two years or more.
Given you can get the Packard Bell DOT-SE-911 from John Lewis for £229, and as far as I can see it's the same spec, this is just a basic machine at a silly price.
I was honestly expecting a machine like this to be £150 by now. But no-one wants to sell machines that cheap - they'd rather price netbooks too high, then say "no-one wants them" - so they can concentrate on making bloody tablets that loads of people don't actually want.
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