Having had my netbook for about three weeks now, I wanted to write a review to cover the points other reviews I read prior to purchasing the N110 didn't all necessarily go over. If you're considering getting one (or an NC10 on a good deal) maybe you'll find this useful. Some of these points are relevant to most netbooks too, given their similarities.
Happy bunny
Let me say straight away then, I'm very happy overall with my purchase. It does everything I hoped for based on my expectations of the Atom CPU and Intel chipset. It can browse the internet and Flash-based sites with no trouble, including streaming video and audio, such as BBC's iPlayer. Most importantly, I can run my usual applications too. When I say that, I mean they work fine, they just load up a little slower than my fancy desktop PC and take longer when doing process-intensive real time operations, such as applying a filter to an image. But a lot of the time using these programs in practice, it's quite speedy enough. And when you think about it, your PC of six years ago, which probably had the same juice or was even slower, was quite able to browse the internet (and that was before Flash was bloody everywhere), as well as use Office, burn CDs, play music and even fiddle with some music sequencing programs.
Where the Samsung N110 has exceeded my expectations is playing a full DVD from my desktop PC over my home wifi network (802.11g, WPA2 encryption) - I didn't think wifi and a netbook were that capable.
I also like how putting the netbook into standby appears to completely shut it off. There's no noise from it at all: fan off, harddrive off, just one little flashing LED, and of course a trickle of power for the RAM. After over one hour, this had used less than 1% of the battery. Think about it: use standby instead of hibernate if you’re using your netbook again the same day, and resume where you left off in literally four seconds. Resuming from hibernation (which of course uses no battery at all, disconnect the darn thing if you want) takes me all of sixteen seconds to continue where I was, including rejoining my wifi network. Consequently, if you regularly shut down your N110 instead you don't know what experience you're missing.
Maybe I'm not asking for much, but playing a Playstation (PS1 emulator ePSXE) game on my N110, with graphics smoothing to boot, gave me a buzz as I shot some bazookas up the behinds of some loser craft in Wipeout 3 SE. Of course, when my girlfriend came home I immediately felt guilty for reliving my youth and quickly brought up a spreadsheet - where's the 'boss' button when you need it...
In use
For the record, I use MS Office 2007, iTunes 8, Nero 8, a Vodafone mobile broadband dongle, Propellerhead Reason 3, Photoshop Elements 5, Adobe Audition 3 (I haven’t been able to stop upgrading from the days of Cool Edit) and even MS Virtual PC 2007 SP1 (it came in useful when I wanted to 'sandbox' a suspect file). Naturally I don’t run all this at the same time, but I have tried playing a tune (a 320Kbs AAC file if you're interested) and running iPlayer streaming video simultaneously. It works fine, with Task Manager showing 55-65% CPU usage. That's using a resource-light media player though - I can't run both smoothly at the same time using iTunes. BBC's iPlayer downloads don't run smoothly unless you specifically choose the Windows Media versions.
If you're into computer music making like me, you might like to know the N110 just managed to run a couple of Reason Drum Kits hypersampled refill demo songs, only starting to splutter if I tried reducing the latency or upping the sample rate. I wonder if Record will work when Propellerhead release it.
I was impressed I was able to watch a DVD in Corel's WinDVD 9 Plus using WinDVD's pseudo high-definition option, including the clever feature to make the video look like it was recorded at 60fps (it generates, or interpolates, transitional frames between each of the actual ones so the video looks ultra-smooth). I thought that required a dual core CPU, so maybe this reviewer isn't too smart. I am disappointed that Notepad barely runs though. Hey just kidding. I also have absolutely no problems with the wifi, unlike some others on this forum; it connects in a couple of seconds and stays connected fine.
Although I haven't done it myself, the internet is alive with people happy that Quake Live runs fine on their netbook, so I may try that. I wonder what the flashiest game people can run smoothly on their machine is?
Size a problem?
Compared to the CPU speed, the small 1024x600 resolution screen is the real issue using the applications mentioned. Make no mistake, this will somewhat hamper your browsing experience and could make using a music sequencer a bit of a chore (the vertical 600 pixels more than anything). I'm not criticising the N110 or netbooks, because of course the small form factor is kinda the point. But if you want a portable PC to use applications that need decent screen space, and you're deciding between this and a laptop with a higher resolution, I suggest you think carefully. The way I see it, a netbook is a great way to work on your files between using your desktop PC, e.g. when you're travelling, or lounging comfortably on your bed. I definitely wouldn't only have a netbook, but I don't think many who can afford both would, either. Or they'd settle for a laptop. Having said that, I could word process for a long time comfortably enough on this size screen and keyboard. (I might use Office's option of hiding its bulky ribbon interface, though.)
Speaking of the keyboard, the NC10's and N110's have had great reviews. I didn't really give them a second thought after a minute, which is a good thing because it means the slightly smaller size wasn't noticeable. Only if you've got larger fingers than average would you have a problem. And then at least you could join the circus.
Build quality
Despite Microsoft deciding this is an 'Ultra Low Cost PC' (this is actually the licence designated to the Windows XP Home installed, labelled on the bottom of the machine), its build quality is as good as a mid-range laptop - it may be smaller, but that doesn't translate to the quality. And considering the N110 costs as much as a laptop with an Intel Dual Core CPU and large screen, I should think so. Its blue-lit power button is very good looking as well. For a power button, of course.
On the downside, the glossy screen sucks somewhat. Clearly this is done to make it look glass-like and expensive in a shop display. But it's quite annoying having to look at your reflection when you're trying to concentrate on working, especially if you look like me, and a non-reflective screen is unequivocally the better choice for a portable PC. Same goes for the smudge-magnet cover. Samsung, if I had a desire to see what my fingerprints looked like, I'd swear at a policeman. (Well really I'd just look at my hands, but that's not amusing.) Anyway, it gets grubby way too easily - and I'm a clean guy too, promise.
Continuing the downside, I'm disappointed the SD memory card slot leaves the card jutting out. Surely they could improve this so it's nearly flush with the casing, then I could just leave a card in there all the time. And I'm a bit worried the underside vents show the circuitry (RAM chips, capacitor etc.) so closely. If you spill your drink on the same table as the N110, the liquid could meet with the electronics:
Software
The N110 only comes with Windows pre-installed with no disc with the OS on, along with software to back this up to a recovery partition and/or external media. I know this is normal practice these days but it's still crap. If a virus or human error (okay pretty big human error) wipes my drive, officially I have to send it back to Samsung. Given that some people's NC10s included an actual Windows recovery CD there's no excuse. You still get a DVD, but this is just the software which you can download from samsung.com anyway. The recovery software is very good, allowing you to back up and restore your OS or/and documents easily enough for the inexperienced user, and it can boot when Windows can't, like Acronis True Image. (Personally I'll stick to True Image but I'm anal about backing up and I'm used to it anyway.) One thing, what’s with including optical discs for a disc drive-less machine. Well obviously it’s cheaper than giving you the files on a memory card, and you can network your desktop PC’s drive to run anything you need. But I think it would make great sense if a netbook maker showed some consideration by putting their recovery software on an SD card.
On the subject of recovery software, if you want your N110 to have mostly the same applications and configurations you’ve spent hours tweaking on your desktop PC, consider purchasing Acronis True Image’s Universal Restore option. I used this to load my desktop PC’s Windows XP image to my N110 (since this is a paid-for copy of XP, just like the one that comes with my netbook, I’m not doing anything wrong). Then I just needed to install the Samsung drivers and software. This is infinitely quicker than installing XP and all the programs from scratch, if you’re the sort of person that prefers to install the OS yourself so you know exactly what’s on your PC.
Other than the recovery software and drivers, there's an application to easily manage power profiles. You can select a profile to underclock the CPU and lower the brightness, making the battery last longer; or a profile to give it more oomph. Here you can also stop the screen automatically dimming after a certain time, or when certain programs are running. Unfortunately the application can't run under a Guest account. One other criticism: Windows battery indicator in the taskbar's system tray gives you the battery percent and estimated time remaining. The Samsung software only gives you the percent.
You need to install a program to get most of the keyboard Function keys to work (brightness, volume, etc.) but the program works perfectly, with an HUD-style pop up when you press a key. Bizarrely, you need a second program to run two of the keys (the one for changing the CPU speed between max, minimum and auto; and to launch a 'Samsung help' thing). Since the 'Samsung help' is a waste of space, and the Battery Manager described above can take care of CPU speed, I've not installed this second utility.
You also get quite a bit more:
- An application to manage the Bluetooth, which I've not needed much but is very detailed;
- Realtek sound driver control panel, which does the job fine;
- A simple application for letting you record images and sound with the webcam. (A way to turn the webcam completely off and on other than through device manager would be welcome though, for my paranoid piece of mind);
- The excellent Synaptics utility to manage how the Touchpad works. There are loads of settings, such as allowing the corners to do something different, e.g. replicate a middle mouse button or launch a program, to give two examples. There's not much in the way of 'multitouch' like an iPhone, and, browsing this forum, software that replicates this on the NC10 doesn't work for the N110.
Software I tried but uninstalled:
- A Samsung utility to 'enhance' the sound, called EDS, which didn't improve anything;
- Software to check for program updates and also to try and help make sure the PC is working smoothly (as an experienced user my knowledge beats this rudimentary thing);
- Utilities for managing different network profiles;
- And a program for allowing you to increase the resolution. Although this function is useful, e.g. for software that needs a bigger screen to be able to be installed, or for a large fixed graphic (you can see the rest of the pixels by moving your cursor to the edge of the screen, whereby the screen shifts), the Intel graphics driver allows you to do this already. How? Control Panel > Display > Settings > Advanced > Monitor > untick 'Hide modes that this monitor cannot display'.
- The N110 manual as a fancy Flash onscreen 'book', although no PDF option is a bit annoying.
Putting the record straight
I read someone report somewhere (yes that's bit vague sorry, I didn't make a note of the website address) that closing the N110's lid doesn't do anything. I'm glad to say this is not true. You can choose to have it put Windows on standby, shut down, hibernate or do nothing except turn off the display. In other words, all the normal power options. A nice touch is that the power button on the side of the machine doesn't do anything when the lid is closed. I don't know if this feature is normal, but it shows they've thought this netbook through quite well.
I've also read a lot of criticism of the sound quality. So considering that, I was actually impressed by the clarity and volume. It's fine for me for listening to streamed radio and music where I can't use dedicated speakers. Sure, it's doesn't blow you away, and there's not exactly much in the way of bass, but I've heard worse laptops. However, there's hiss if you use headphones, and this doesn't change even if you turn the volume right down, so I guess it's electronic interference. Actually if I do much audio work on this I'll have to get an external sound card. One dumb thing is that the speakers are at the front on the underside of the chassis, so actually the surface supporting your N110 will absorb some of the sound. I can understand not putting the speakers anywhere near the touchpad, so your hands don’t block the sound, but I’m sure Samsung would be able to fit them on the screen’s border.
Using an external disc drive
Being the kind of person who envisaged needing access to DVDs occasionally, I ordered Samsung's SE-S084B external optical drive too. I was a little disappointed with its size (those boffins surely could have shaved more than a centimetre from its length - it's a bit long) but it works a treat. For those people who ask whether you need to use the two USB ports on the cable or not - no, you don't. The extra one is only for cheating PCs which don't provide the power the USB spec demands. The N110 is no cheat in this respect.
Tips if you've bought it
This forum's a great place for advice on getting the most out of your netbook. For me, this all helped:
- Autohide the Windows taskbar. For years with my large desktop display I always thought this was silly, but when every bit of screen counts this is essential.
- Firefox extensions to save screen space: Compact Menu saves a toolbar line; and to save another, Hide Chrome. Hide Chrome is the equivalent of Hide Caption but doesn't break Tab Mix Plus. It does mean you can only have Firefox maximised or minimised and not keep half of the screen left for another window, but you shouldn't want to do that anyway since your screen estate is already at a premium.
- Of the software I kept installed, a lot auto starts when you load Windows without asking, when it's not necessary - like so many impolite applications. You can stop these starting from Run > msconfig > Startup. They are:
-- The Intel graphics driver:
igfxtray - control panel
igfxpers & hkcmd - hot key commands
Also you can run this Intel registry tweak to get rid of the bulky context menus Intel added when you right click your desktop.
- The wifi
By letting Windows own utility manage my connection I don't need the Atheros software's ‘ACU process’ or Atheros Service to start. And I don't need two icons in my taskbar to tell me the same thing.
- The sound
You don't need the control panel to be loaded in the background, or the function to auto detect when you plug an audio cable in, so you don't need RTHDCPL or ALCMTR from auto starting.
***
Any feedback or corrections are very welcome!
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