Samsung NF310-A01 10.1-Inch Netbook (Titan Silver)
Originally, I bought an Acer Netbook from Costco because it looked like a cheap alternative to an tablet. Some issues immediately became clear. First, when playing music, Netflix video, or YouTube video, the sound was almost imperceptible even at full volume. I wear hearing aids, and with the hearing aids, my hearing is pretty good. With or without my hearing aids, I realized that I could never use the Acer netbook for entertainment without external speakers. Next, the video resolution was such that my view of web pages was so small that browsing required a lot of both horizontal and vertical scrolling. I returned the Aspire One to Costco. However, I now knew enough to have some real criteria for my search.
I wanted a netbook:
1. with sound good enough for basic, personal entertainment use -- without external speakers in a pinch.
2. with enough screen resolution to make browsing and basic apps more comfortable.
THE SEARCH
I began searching and it became clear that even with nVidia Ion Graphics offerings, few 10-inch netbooks offered resolutions better than 1024 x 768. Worse, hardly any even mentioned audio performance. The Samsung NF310 was clearly one of the only netbooks that gave audio performance any real emphasis.
Let me be clear here. By Audio Performance, I do not mean "audiophile" performance. I do not mean deep base and crystal clear high frequency response. I mean USABLE everyday performance -- decent sound without too much distortion and loud enough to watch a Netflix movie or listen to music without external speakers when I am in bed or outside on my deck grilling a steak.
I decided to give the Samsung NF310 a try. I also went ahead and bought an extra memory module so I could bump up the memory to 2GB from the start.
SETUP AND INITIAL EVALUATION
The netbook arrived and I booted it up and went through the normal Windows startup and Windows Update reboot cycles until I had the machine configured with all updates.
The first thing I noticed is how much more usable the 1366 x 768 resolution made web browsing. I got a nice view of pages without the need for any horizontal scrolling.
I played some music from Rhapsody and was very pleased. Even without my hearing aids, I could hear and enjoy the music. Again, this is basic quality -- loud enough to be heard with reasonable lows and highs. So far so good.
Next, I shut it down and installed the extra memory. On power on, nothing happened. Ouch! I opened the back panel up again and reseated the memory. You have to be really firm in getting the memory seated properly. Power on again, and the system booted perfectly.
Over time, I have used the system daily for email and browsing. All work perfectly. I watch movies and TV Shows on Netflix and Hulu without problems. I did notice some stuttering and buffering when the system was on battery power. I adjusted the Power Management settings to allow 100% CPU performance and tweaked some other power management settings to increase performance when running on battery. Now, streaming video performance is flawless and battery life when watching Movies is 3 to 4 hours. Still much better than any laptop I have owned.
Finally, I did chafe a bit at some of the restrictions in Windows Starter Edition. Consequently, I used the Windows Anytime Upgrade option to move to Windows Home Premium.
DISPLAY
The higher resolution is double-edged sword though. Web pages and apps have more screen real estate, but on a 10-inch screen, that means that the text is smaller. I am 50 years old and I do sometimes need reading glasses. I can read the text on most web pages without much trouble, but there are times when I either need to get my reading glasses or zoom in the web page (CTRL + and CTRL - are your friends). If you have young and sharp eyes, then this will not be an issue. For me, as an older, squintier person, I would rather have the better resolution and have the choice of when to put on my specs or zoom the pages.
I loaded up Tivo Deskptop Plus and transferred some movies from my Tivo to the netbook. It worked great and the high-quality video looks beautiful. Another cool, unexpected perk is that when I play a movie, up pops a notification that the system is going into "Color Enhanced Mode" -- neat!
I am VERY happy with the quality of the display.
PERFORMANCE
Day to day performance is excellent for web browsing, email, and basic Microsoft Office tasks. Plugged in video performance is excellent, and with some power management tweaks, performance on battery is just fine.
As I have noted, audio quality is way above average for this class of device. I am not sure how much the True2Sound and SRS processing help, but the overall result is quite good.
With Tivo movie downloads, the Samsung's hard drive size really showed its superiority to tablet computer storage. Try downloading a few 10 to 16 GB HD movies to a 32 GB tablet PC and see how much room is left for other things.
For CPU performance, I tried Tivo DeskTop Plus's video conversion feature that allows you to convert a video for playback on a portable device. This video transcoding stresses the system on my old Athlon X2 64-bit CPU, 4GB Mediacenter PC. The Samsung NF310's dual core, multi-threaded N550 CPU held up well with CPU usage running at about 70% and it completed the conversion with no problems. Video conversion is a real system drain, but I was still able to browse the internet and check email while the process ran.
BLUETOOTH!
Another GREAT feature is that the netbook has Bluetooth. I own the Soundmatters foxLv2 Bluetooth Pocket-sized Audiophile Loudspeaker System with Bluetooth and Hands-free Microphones (Black) and the Creative D100 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker (Black) and it is awesome that I can use them with this netbook. It is unexpected but wonderful convenience when I do want a bit more sound. I don't use a mouse or headset with this system, but bluetooth mouse and headset support is a great asset for those with bluetooth mice (meeses?) or Skype fans. I have used Skype on the system once or twice and the built-in camera and mic work pretty nicely. If I was more of a "Skyper," I would try a Bluetooth headset.
CONVENIENCE
The NF310 is not the lightest or thinnest netbook, but it is SO much more convenient to carry around the house or out to Starbucks than a notebook computer. I have been seen carrying the netbook in one hand and a tray of steaks in the other as I head from the kitchen to the deck at my house. Again, it is light and thin enough to carry around easily for what you get. To put this in perspective, the Acer Aspire One is 0.44 pounds lighter -- that is less than half a pound. Both are under 3 lbs.
CONCLUSION
All-in-all, I probably spent a bit more than $500 on this netbook, with memory and OS upgrades. However, I have an end-product that I am REALLY happy with. I meet people who bought cheaper netbooks who marvel at how well mine performs. What is the use of saving $100-$150 if you constantly chafe at the system's limitations? If you JUST want browsing and email, save the money and go with a cheaper system. But, if you want a netbook that allows you to enjoy the FULL internet experience including audio and video, then the Samsung NF310 is a great choice.
Posted in: Samsung NF310-A01 Very Usable Netbook
