The netbook is a Samsung NC10, with 1.6Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB of disk space and Windows XP installed. I decided on Windows because it seemed a much more flexible option to me than some custom form of linux; in case I decide to do any upgrades - drivers and such (if that's even possible, hehe), plus I'm used to Windows and would want to install and use my existing software. I decided on Samsung because they seem to make the best monitor screens at the present, and I read a good review on this product. This cost me over £300 on dabs.com, but I got a rebate of £200 from a deal at work.
I really like it!
The screen is nice and sharp. The colours seem a bit distorted if you view at an angle, but it's good for such a cheap machine. I usually use a Samsung XL20 (which is amazing) as my main monitor, and it's not a patch on that, but that monitor cost twice this whole machine, hehe. I'm not used to widescreen, I still consider it poor for computer monitors. Perhaps good for watching movies, but poor for working with; documents, web pages and code listings usually benefit from a longer screen rather than a wider screen, in my opinion. The only option for netbooks these days is widescreen, though - I think it's the current fashion, more than practicality. But that's an aside.
The keyboard is nearly 100% normal key size; just a little smaller, and there's a good bounce to the keys so it feels fairly natural to type on. One thing - the right shift key is a bit short and is next to the pipe \ backslash key, so I kept typing backslash / letter when I meant to type a capital, before I got used to it. Maybe it's just my quirk that I use the right shift so much. It's the first laptop I've owned so I'm still getting used to using a touchpad instead of a mouse too.
There are USB ports on both left and right of the machine, which is really handy; if you specifically want something connected on either the left or right (e.g. a mouse), then you're not restricted and don't need to trail cables round the machine. I think that's a pretty good practical feature.
Battery life is pretty good too. Normally when the machine is unplugged the screen will default to a dim screen display, and the estimated battery life at that level is over 7 hours or something; pretty good. I don't find the dim setting too bad if watching films in the dark (for example). If you turn the brightness up so you can see better, the battery life goes down to about 4 hours or something, but that's still not bad. I used it unplugged quite a lot as I had taken it to my parents' house over Christmas and the electrics were out in the living room, then returning home on the long train journey (delays / cancellations / replacement coaches). (Boo for the delays but yay for National Express free wifi access on trains! My netbook was eager to detect and use that!) Pretty handy, and ok in cramped conditions!
There's a camera and microphone built in to the machine too, but I haven't tried those. Nothing much I need a webcam or microphone for.
I don't think the speakers are particularly good, but I just plugged in headphones and everything is just great and crystal clear. :)
I like that it comes in black, white and blue; I opted for the blue one because I thought it's a nice colour and more interesting than either black or white. I still haven't taken off the film covering the screen yet; I'm not sure whether I'm paranoid enough to buy a screen protector or not, you see. My current desktop wallpaper is a picture of Professor Tomoe from Sailor Moon S. (Thanks to my brother). XD
Overall it's a good little machine. I thought it was really good value and I like it more than the other netbooks I've seen which my friends and colleagues own. :)
