The Samsung NC20 laptop may look a lot like the company’s popular Samsung NC10 netbook. But it’s a lot bigger. I suppose that should be expected when you’re comparing a computer with a 12 inch screen to one with a 10 inch display. But just case you needed any proof, the folks at Netbook News.de have done a little photoshoot comparing the two laptops. They even threw in a Dell Inspiron Mini 12 (with a 12 inch screen) for good measure.
For what it’s worth, the Samsung NC20 looks a little smaller than the Dell laptop. And both machines are probably a lot smaller and lighter than whatever 15.4 inch beast you’ve been lugging around for the last few years. But they’re certainly no netbooks
The thing is, while the Dell laptop offers performance that’s on par with what you’d expect from a low power netbook, the Samsung offers more than just a larger display and keyboard. It also has a VIA Nano CPU which offers a bit more processing power than the Intel Atom CPU used in most netbooks. So while the machine costs more, weighs more, and takes up more space in your bag than a 10 inch model, you also get a bit more bang for your buck.
What do you think? Would you buy a 12 inch laptop for the screen size alone? Or does performance make a difference, even in ultraportables?
The NC10 is pretty good, I bought it because it was a lot cheaper than a typical 13 in laptop, and far more economical, I can get 4 hours off a single charge, and now I am contemplating buying a 9cell battery to get 6 hours out of it (on full brightness settings btw).
I do quite a bit of surfing on facebook, twitter etc, a lot of blogging and the occasional video playing.
I find that the chip isn’t great at multitasking, if you run more than two application the thing can get pretty slow. And even playing video streams off websites can slow the computer down. Where as playing a downloaded video off your media player reasonably effective.
You will need to make sure you use “lite” applications that are not too much of a drain on system resources.
utorrent, google chrome, vlc media player, avast antivirus, etc are all good choices because they aren;t too heavy on system resources.
I’ve had this for a couple of months now, and can say for sure that sometimes the slowless can be a bit limiting. I would say don’t have this as your primary machine, I have a very powerful desktop machine.
I am SO glad I waited to buy the NC10… the NC20 is PERFECT! I want a portable netbook, but yikes, 10″ is pretty small! I’ve been wishing for the perfect hybrid between netbook & user friendly. I think I’ve found it!
I’d consider the NC20 because of the better parts, but not the Mini 12. I have an NC10 myself and consider it the perfect laptop size though.
There is likely a sweet spot possible between 10″ and 12″ screens…err 11″. I’d almost say that extra inch bigger combined with some smart weight savings could make a perfect netbook.
I love me Samsung NC10, but it is a bit tight maybe having a bigger screen with a slightly bigger case to accommodate a bigger touch pad slightly bigger shift, enter ctrl, and backspace keys. Yet, since such a unit would not be quite as big as a 12″, you could save 4-6 oz. conservatively.
Bigger screen, bigger keys, bigger touch pad, may seem minor and the change might not seem that much smaller then the 12”, but just a few 10ths of an inch and a few ounces can make a big difference.
I would not buy it. The keyboards are close to the same size. All it does is add weight. I have my 17″ laptop for the big screen needs.
I would have probably bought it had it come 2-3 months earlier when I bought my NC10 exactly for the screen size and the larger touchpad. However, having used my NC10 for couple of months now I think I am fine with it and will not upgrade for a very long time.
I am doing a research and for my keyboard, battery life and screen size were the major factors, especially considering the most parameters are identical in the netbook market. After 5-6 hours in front of the 10′ screen my eyes are really tired. The 12” screen would have been perfect. I was considering the Dell mini12 but that was only available in the US at the time and I reside in Denmark. Also the Dell came with lower parameters when shipped with Ubuntu, and I would have prefered, if possible, not to pay for windows. Thsa NC10 was the better choice at the time. I think I would have compromised the portability of the netbook to gain in size of the screen and touchpad.
its too late now 🙂
I think one market is probably business men. I think the Dell especially is light and thin enough to make it pretty easy to slip into a briefcase. Also there’s possibly the fear of getting snickers from people if they were to sit down at a high powered meeting and put a netbook on the table–the peer pressure and clout factor
From my point of view, I wouldn’t mind having one for shlepping from one room to another at home–it would be pretty stable to use actually on your lap with no lapboard or table–but only after I get my 3 favorite netbooks!!
Like summer (above) says, the battery life would make them good for this. You wouldn’t have to juice it up every couple of hours.
As for power, I think the 12 inch ones have to be at least as powerful as netbooks, which may not be true of the Dell Mini 12 running Vista.
Buying NC20 instead of traditional laptops is better because of the superior battery life.
Traditional laptops use power hungry processors and won’t last more than 3 hours. I don’t think that can qualify for ‘portable’.
Definitely weight.
I’ve wanted a 12″ netbook, but these days I am finding that 10″ is a very good size… or maybe the vaio p. ~half the width of my 1000h…
I’m surprised that they use the same keyboard.
The keyboard on the NC10 is fine even for someone with large hands like me.
Well, at a little more than 3 pounds, it’s probably lighter than most typical 13″ laptops, and perhaps cheaper and with better battery life too? Or perhaps the more likely market is people who like the light weight and long battery life of some recent netbooks, but would prefer a 12″ 1280×800 screen to a 10″ 1024×600 screen. It’s a lot more space and 66% more pixels (1,024,000 vs 614,400). It might be a little unfortunate that they don’t seem to have expanded the keyboard to fill the full 12″ width; it looks like it’s the same size as the one on the NC10, but maybe that’s not too small.
I guess weight would do it. Price is debatable. There are some pretty affordable thirteen inch models out there, these days.
I don’t understand why anyone would buy something like this over a thirteen inch notebook.
As a NC10 owner I can say it is about as big as you can go and still be a netbook (others think it is too big). The NC20 is a beast and I would have no use for it. If I was going to go into that range I would buy a traditional laptop. What is the market for this thing?
Wow. That thing is huge.