About this Item
The Samsung Mini Notebook in Depth Another day, another Netbook. Though iPads, tablets, and other laptops keep forging on with technological innovations, the stalwart, cheap Netbook remains largely the same generation after generation. New longer-life Atomn processors notwithstanding, the real appeal of any competitor's Netbook now has to lie in areas of design or build as opposed to feature set, since they're all pretty much the same under the hood.The Samsung Notebook attempts to appeal strongly to the "rugged user," the person who might be very afraid of dropping or damaging their precious ultraportable under careless or accidental circumstances. With what Samsung calls a more rugged and scratch-resistant lid design, a hard-drive free-fall sensor, and a water-tight spill-resistant keyboard, the focus of the Notebook seems to be on durability. Yet its price, at 500,000 shillings is higher than most Netbooks, with a feature set that's decidedly average. The "rugged style" isn't really and truly all that rugged--and though the design on this Notebook is attractively Spartan At first glance, the Samsung Notebook is a very unassuming little laptop. Partly because of its "scratch-resistant" matte-black finish, its look is smooth and rounded but lacking in any gleam or eye-catching features. The unit looks very plastic, but it does feel sturdily built. The lid, when closed, has very little flex, and the wavy ribbed design across the back makes this Netbook a little easier to grip. The design reminds us mostly of the Samsung NP-N210, with hints of the curvy, art-house look of the Samsung Go N310. Ports line both sides of the Notebook, with the exception of the slightly hidden front-facing SD card slot and an odd sliding power button, also on the front-facing bottom lip. Both are easy to miss and annoying to use.The inside of the Notebook looks less striking than its outside: a plain, matte-black keyboard and surrounding area, an inset 10.1-inch screen in more matte-black plastic, and that's it. A small row of LED status lights just to the left of the track pad almost seem colorful in this sea of monochrome.That keyboard, which Samsung bills as splash-resistant when exposed to up to 2 ounces of fluid--provided that fluid is "removed within 10 seconds"--has a flat design. Keys are slightly less than full-size, but run edge-to-edge across the Netbook's width. The important keys have their proper proportions, including full Shift and Return keys, and the arrow keys are small but set in their own zone on the bottom right. It's a comfortable experience, with a slight softness to key presses, although we could easily sense the smaller keys. Two ounces of liquid isn't a lot, so we'd strongly advise against spilling a can of soda anywhere near this Netbook, regardless of Samsung's claims--"splash resistant" suggests it will survive a sudden spritz of rain or the drops that might fall out of a cup you thought was empty, but you'd better keep a towel handy.Though medium in size, the matte and ever-so-slightly inset track pad happens to be extremely responsive. The buttons below, discrete but narrow and flush with the rest of the palm rest, were a little hard to reach, but we tend to use touch-to-tap more often that not nowadays.
