Samsung N510 Nvidia Ion-based netbook You don't have to dig too deep to see that the diversity of Samsung's netbook range is a case of flattering to deceive. Sure, there are plenty of them, but the differences are essentially peripheral and cosmetic with all bar the NC20 having 10.1in screens and the usual netbook-norm Intel Atom chippery. Samsung N510 Samsung's …
"As always, opinion will de divided on this issue - glossy screens are better for watching video while matte screens are less reflective."
I have never come across any divided opinions on this. Even if you are watching video, unless you are in a dark room, all you can see is what is behind you reflected on the screen. Even if you are in a dark room, you have to be careful where you look otherwise you see your own reflection. (I don't want to see my reflection, there's a reason why I am always on the other side of the camera!)
Anti-reflection screens only give a lower resolution and image quality if the anti-reflection finish is because of a rough finish that would make a cowboy builder blush.
Samsung get my vote for not going with the mirror screen.
I always see comments on here asking why don't we see more ION products. Well this is the reason: look at the bars, the EEE 100HA beats it in Battery Life and is on par with this in every else and costs £80-100 less, all because they packed it with the stupid ION so people (idiots in my opinion) can watch HD content on a really small screen. completely pointless IMO
Well... Not entirely unexpected.
In fact classic Intel GMA based netbooks will probably go on fire sale from Xmas. I suspect Intel knew this one coming when they brought forward Atom 2 in such a haste. The writing is on the wall, selling a good CPU supported by an ancient chipset does not quite work.
The review misses a few points.
Nvidia does not only HD playback (in fact in a netbook HD playback is pretty much irrelevant because of the screen size). What it does and where its greatest advantage lies is the nearly perfect scaling and interpolation. It can scale SD including bog-standard DVDs to nearly perfect "buttery" HD res image in hardware. When the choice of video was between GMA and GMA it did not really matter. However, now there is a valid reason to do some mean opinion score comparison of SD scale-up performance.
It can look very good indeed. Yes, its small, but anything over 720x576 is higher resolution than a TV broadcast of only a few years ago. Even a phone display of 800x600 looks fantastic playing back even 720p video. Go up to 720p/1080p on a netbook, at say 1024x768 still results in a better quality image than normal def. Not as good as the HD native rez of course, but still pretty impressive, and very watchable.
At the moment, it's easy to pick up the N130 for around £230 - one place is doing £20. Although the N120 is going more, it's fairly easy to get it for at least £100 cheaper. Given El Reg's review of the NC10, I'm a bit surprised to see this review conclude "significantly better value than the firm's previous netbook efforts."
1.5Kg is too heavy. I got an Acer 1810TZ which is about as large but 1.4Kg with 1366 screen, HDMI, Dual Core, 3 GB RAM, 8 hours battery and proper Windows 7 - none of this Starter Edition rubbish. This cost me under £450 with delivery.
Anything Atom should be 1.4Kg or lighter or much cheaper for it.
About glossy TV screens... New LED TVs have glossy backlit screens. I'm loving the screen on my Acer so much I want a similar type to replace my desktop's monitor too.
I have here a machine with dimensions of 290 x 238 x (26.6 to 30.5) mm, weighing 1.63kg. (Compared to 289 x 199 x 26.5-30.3mm and weighing 1.5kg for the Samsung). The Dell C400 was definitely an ultra-portable when it was released back in '01 or whatever - is it now a netbook?
"It's worth noting that the Ion LE chip only supports DirectX 9, so if you decide to upgrade from XP to Windows 7, you aren't going to see any improvement in graphics performance."
Why would DX11 support improve performance ? DX11 gives you extra effects in games and I doubt the 9400m & Atom are going to be running many DX11 effect in full res games.
I bought a N510 to replace my "ageing" but useful little NC10. I wanted ThinkPad build quality, matte screen, solid keyboard and - yes - XP. You can tell I'm over 25. The N510 does not disappoint. The LED screen is bright and pin sharp with significantly more real estate than its predecessor, plus a long haul battery with minimal weight penalty.
Business apps performance is fine and it's nice to be able to plug it into a big telly via HDMI and stream iPlayer.
The only downside was having to spend the first hour removing bloatware. Blimey, I'd hoped those days were over. Other than that, well done Samsung. 9/10.
OK, under some circumstances, reflections on glossy screens can be annoying*. However the colour saturation on the glossy screens I have used tends to be much better and that matters to me, particularly for viewing photographs.
I opted for the glossy screen on my MacBook Pro and I'm glad I did. It's the best laptop screen I have ever used.
The ideal situation would be for manufacturers to offer a choice as Apple does. Neither is better, it just depends what you use them for.
* I live in Yorkshire and the sun only shines for a few days each year so it is rarely a problem up here.
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