Samsung NC10 Review

When I finished my last job I handed back the company laptop which I used at home and within a day I was missing it as I had to keep going upstairs every time I wanted to check my email so decided to put my collection money and some of the redundancy cash to good use and I purchased a Samsung NC10 Netbook.

I have been using it for a month or so now and thought I'd write a quick review and post some photos.

It's an excellent little netbook and the battery life is fantastic. On a full charge I've been able to get well over 5 hours of usage. I thought that with only a 10.2" 1024x600 resolution screen it would be a little too small but it's actually fine for most tasks and is very portable at only 1.33kg.

The keyboard is a good size and great to type on and the mouse track pad is small but perfectly formed - scrolling functions work well as do the gestures for zooming etc. The only things I can say against the keyboard is that you have to press the Fn key to access the Home and End commands which can be a little annoying and the right shift key is pretty small but you soon get used to it.

Other features include a 1.3MP integrated webcam which seems to perform well even in poor light conditions and a SD memory card slot which is useful to have for instant reviewing or backing up of photos whilst on the move.

I upgraded the shipped 1GB of RAM up to 2GB which helps it along and the netbook is quick to start up and get online. Processor hungry operations such as editing hi resolution photos can be a little slow but for most day to day operations and surfing the web it performs well.

Pros

Very light and extremely mobile

Excellent battery life

Screen is bright and very clear

Speakers which are very good considering their size

Very quiet

Good build quality

Easy to setup with clear instructions

Cons

Screen can be a little small depending what you are doing you sometimes have to scroll quite a bit

No integrated SIM slot for mobile broadband

No optical drive

All in all I think this is a good little netbook and well worth the price of just over £300 which I paid on www.ebuyer.com

New Kit

Now that I've splashed out on the 450D I thought it was time to purchase some much needed accessories!

When it came to tripods I have generally gone for cheap and cheerful ones from places like eBay but have always wanted something a little more substantial. After trying out a few in the local camera shops I decided to opt for a Manfrotto Modo 785B at a cost of £50. It's a full height tripod which folds up to be reasonably compact (about 45cm) and fairly light but at the same time it's pretty study. I wasn't too sure about the hybrid joystick head but now I've used it a few times I really like it. It has a thumb lock and an option for video (panning up, down, left, right) then at the flick of a switch goes in to photo mode for full movement on the ball head. It also has 3 leg width settings for different applications which have already come in handy. All in all a nice piece of kit with excellent build quality.



I have also always wanted a shutter release remote (which I couldn't get for my old Powershot S2) as it avoids having to use the 2 second timer for low light shots to prevent camera shake. It's also great for self portrait shots which I've yet to try out! I found a Canon RC-1 in a local camera shop for the same price as they are on the Internet (around £15) so went for that. It's a tiny piece of kit but so far has worked very well. It has a slider switch to select either either 2 second or immediate shutter release and then the shutter release button to take the shot. Have found this very useful so far and can't imagine what I'd do without it now.