I bought a brand new Samsung N210 Netbook about two weeks back – and have been using it almost non-stop since. I’ve been taking it to college every day, using it at every oportunity I get – on the college bus, on MTC buses, on the train, while waiting for the train, hell even during a rather very boring class!

The Great

  • The Screen! The matte screen is totally awesome. Viewable under all conditions – full on sunlight during a train commute or at a weird angle snuggled under the desk during class. It is sharp, and IMO has enough resolution (1024×600). The bezel is small and not very distracting.
  • The Keyboard. 94% of a full size keyboard, I’m told. It is extremely comfortable, and I don’t miss too many keys. I do find the right shift absolutely useless though. The chicklet keys look great too
  • The Looks. One guy asked me if I was carrying a white MacBook.

The Good

  • The Touchpad. It is large and the mouse buttons are not bad. I don’t know if it supports two button finger scroll on Linux – but it does work on Windows. My hands do accidentally touch it often while typing, moving my cursor unexpectedly – but I have been able to stop that by using my right thumb for space instead of my left.
  • The Battery. I seem to get around 8 hours of usage under varying circumstances and conditions – while nothing to laugh at, I was expecting more. Might be because I haven’t been able to figure out a way to turn off the wifi chip from Linux.

The Bad

  • The Heat. The fan isn’t very noisy, but the heat buildup is appreciable. I can’t really work with it directly on my lap.
  • The inbuilt webcam. 0.3 Megapixels. Bleh!
  • WiFi. Drops very often, and not very sensitive. Ubuntu Autodetected it though.
  • The SD Card Slot. It has a cover that comes right off, and I guarentee I’ll lose it in a while.
  • Many of the Function Key functions aren’t supported on Linux. Was able to make the Brightness keys work after a hack though.

The Awful

  • The ugly black sticker ad for “Phoenix Hyperspace(tm) Instant-on”. Ewww! Atleast there is only one big sticker spoiling this white beauty

Was it worth the 20k bucks I paid for it? I’m typing out this blog post while waiting at my Doctor’s, so I’d say it is well worth the 20k bucks paid :)