Samsung NC20 NetBook

SAMSUNG NC20

12.1″ UltraBrite WXGA (1280×800) Display, 1.3+ GHz VIA Nano U2250 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 5400 Rpm SATA 160 GB Hard Drive, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth, 6 Cell Battery,

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition with SP3

Black (NC20-21GBK) – from $549 (or less online)

SAMSUNG NC20 is the new full size Netbook which balances  mobility and convenience. It has a 12.1″ WXGA (1280 x 800) wide screen display like normal 12.1″ notebooks and a larger keyboard.

Shop online, surf the web and chat. Weighing only 3.3 lbs. and with 1 GB of DDR2 RAM (single slot, but easily upgradable to 2 GB), the NC20 Netbook gives you the freedom to accomplish more on the go. Enjoy images filled with bold, vibrant colors on a glossy LCD screen. Yet the NC20 Netbook is an affordable solution for all your online needs.

What will really make this system sing (or virtually ANY Netbook) is to replace Windows XP with Windows 7! Netbooks come with XP installed because they don’t have the “UMPH!” for Vista. Windows 7 is leaner and meaner (in many ways), having significantly lower Hardware requirements than the “bloated” Vista version of Windows. I’ve been using Windows 7 for a couple of weeks now and I LOVE IT!!

PROs:

A 97% full size 102key keyboard is larger than many Netbooks. Better than usual Netbook RAM and 800Mhz FSB (Front Side Bus) with 1MB CPU L2 Cache, make it faster then a typical Atom (Intel) setup. Then there’s the great screen with a very nice resolution for its size.

Battery life is better than modest and more than what’s expected with just over 7 hours with everything on max brightness settings.

Built in 1.3 Megapixel Camera and Microphone.

Built in 10/100Mbps LAN and Wireless 802.11b/g (NO “n” folks!).

3 USB 2.0 Ports

VGA Port

1 mic & 1 Headphone mini-jacks

3-in-1 Multi-memory Card Slot (SD, SDHC, MMC)

Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

Front & Side air vents for better than most cooling

CONs:

Lacks the latest N wireless that everyone is updating to.

The speakers sound fine but don’t really get loud at all.

NO eSATA or HDMI ports

The Samsung NC20′s pros out-weigh its cons by a long shot and is a very nice choice for a classy yet very functional Netbook.

Building on the market-leading energy efficiency of the VIA C7® processor incorporating 65 nanometer process technology, the VIA Nano processor offers up to four times the performance over previous generations, within the same power range, for the ideal blend of powerful performance and energy efficiency for a longer battery life.

Product Released on:  04/30/2009

Samsung’s NC20 stands out from the crowd in two very important ways. First, it’s one of only a handful of 12-inch Netbooks. Secondly, it’s the first Netbook tested with Via’s Nano CPU, intended as an alternative to Intel’s very  popular Atom processor.

The Atom is found in virtually every other Netbook, so it’s always good to see some competition, and the new Nano managed to tie with Intel, and even beating it in some benchmark tests. Keep in mind though that the Nano was powering a larger screen with a higher resolution.

I’m concerned that the NC20′s 12-inch size, which blurs the line between typical Netbooks (and I’m even hesitant to use that term because of its 12-inch display!) and more full-featured ultraportable laptops. The key to Netbook satisfaction is keeping one’s expectations realistic, and with a larger screen and keyboard, the NC20 looks and feels more like a traditional Laptop. Even so, as all Netbooks do, it labors somewhat with multitasking and video streaming.

As most 12-inch Laptops are high-end ultraportables built around expensive ultralow voltage processors, you may be expecting a slim, highly designed system. But instead you get a thicker, heavier system with a plastic chassis that looks and feels like a larger version of the Samsung NC10 (10.2″ Display with a 1.6Ghz Atom processor).

This low-frills chassis has a comfortable keyboard with a slightly shortened space bar. The large touch pad is a big improvement over the ones I’ve seen on smaller 10-inch Netbooks. There are no media-control or quick-launch buttons, which, while I wouldn’t expect them on a Netbook, are common on more traditional 12-inch Laptops.

The 12.1-inch wide-screen LCD display offers a 1,280×800 native resolution, which is the same as you’d typically find only on a 13- or 15-inch Laptop! That lets you view more of a Web page than the 1,024×600 resolution I’ve seen on most 10-inch Netbooks. Even though it’s the right resolution for watching 720p HD video content, the system showed typical Netbook-style stuttering when trying to stream HD content.

More important is the 1.3GHz Via Nano CPU, which is this system’s main selling point. Nano is based on the x86 architecture, meaning it can run the same software as chips from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices…Nano may deliver better performance than Atom in some cases.”

The Via Nano holds its own against the Intel Atom. Only in multitasking tests–which has never been kind to single-core CPU powered Netbooks–did the Atom perform notably faster than the Nano.

In pratical use there isn’t any real difference between using an Atom-powered Netbook and the Nano-powered NC20, which indicates that this new CPU could easily find acceptance as an alternative to the widely used Intel CPU.

Alternative Systems worth taking a look at:

HP 2133 Mini-Note
Windows Vista Business Edition; 1.6GHz VIA C7-M Ultra Low Voltage; 2048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB VIA/SG3 UniChrome Pro II IGP; 120GB Seagate 7,200rpm

Acer Aspire One AOD150
Windows XP Home SP2; 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 224MB Mobile Intel GMA 950; 160GB Hitachi 5400rpm

Asus Eee PC 1000HE
Windows XP Home SP3; 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel GMA 950; 160GB Seagate 5400rpm

Consider also the Samsung NC120
Windows XP Home SP3; 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 160 GB – Serial ATA-150 – 5400 rpm;10.1 in TFT active matrix 1024 x 600 ( WSVGA ); 2.8 lbs aprox $100 less than the NC20; Part of Samsung’s second generation of Netbooks, the N120 offers a generous keyboard and some unexpected audio power.

© 2010, Dennis Dearborne. All rights reserved.