| Some might argue that Samsung's NC20 isn't really a netbook, with its spacious 12.1-inch screen and full-size, notebook-style keyboard. But its VIA Nano processor, long battery life, lack of an optical drive, and basic selection of ports perfectly fit the netbook mold. Whatever you call it, the NC20 does an excellent job bridging the gap between traditional netbooks and notebooks, with the price, battery life, and most of the portability of a netbook, combined with the comfort and usability of a larger ultraportable laptop. At 1.2x11.5x8.5 inches and 3.3 pounds, the NC20 lacks some of the toss-in-a-shoulder-bag convenience of the 9- and 10-inch netbooks, but it’s still extremely portable. In fact, it's only 1.2 inches wider and deeper than Samsung's 10-inch NC10 and the same thickness. The chassis of the North American model is glossy black on the outside and flat black on the inside, with chrome trim around the edges. (Overseas, the NC20 is offered in white.) The standout feature of the NC20 is its bright 12.1-inch, 1,280x800 screen. Text is crisp and is rendered at about the same size as on a 1,024x600 netbook. The extra screen resolution makes a huge difference in usability, requiring less scrolling when viewing Web sites, offering more room for toolbars when using productivity applications, and providing better compatibility with games. The panel has a glossy finish, so glare and reflections might be an issue in some lighting conditions. With its 12.1-inch screen, the NC20 straddles the line between netbooks and notebooks. Accommodating the large screen gave Samsung room to include a full-size keyboard that's extremely comfortable for touch typing. The layout is very good overall, with a couple of minor oddities: The space bar is slightly truncated to make room for the tilde key, which is dropped to its left, and the Windows logo key sits on the right side of the space bar. The 3.1-inch (diagonal measurement) touch pad is much larger than what most netbooks offer, making for comfortable, accurate pointer control. A single rocker button allows you to press on the left or the right; it's comfortable to use, but we prefer distinct left and right buttons. The rest of the specs are typical netbook fare: Windows XP Home, 1GB of RAM (though it’s expandable to 2GB, which we appreciate), a 160GB hard drive, VGA output, 802.11b/g wireless and 10/100Mbps Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.0, a trio of USB 2.0 ports, and headphone and microphone jacks. There's also a 1.3-megapixel Webcam and an SD/MultiMediaCard memory slot. What's not typical is the processor. The NC20 is the first netbook to use VIA's new 1.3GHz Nano U2250 processor. This new CPU is much more competitive, performance-wise, with the Intel Atom than the anemic VIA C7-M used in the HP 2133 Mini-Note. On most of our tests, the Nano’s performance fell squarely between the Intel Atom N270 and the newer N280 model. For instance, on Cinebench 9.5, the NC20 scored 141, compared with 134 for the N270-equipped Acer Aspire One AOD150 and 148 for the N280-equipped Asus Eee PC 1000HE. The HP 2133, which uses the older VIA C7-M processor, by comparison, scored just 23 on this test. It managed a strong Cinebench 10 score of 882. The NC20 fell a bit behind the Atom crowd on our Windows Media Encoder test, however, taking 29 minutes and 16 seconds, compared with 28:21 for the Aspire One and 22:11 for the Eee PC 1000HE. On the other hand, it left the Atom netbooks in the dust on our iTunes encoding test, finishing in 13 minutes and 58 seconds, versus 21 minutes for the Aspire One and 17:37 for the Eee PC 1000HE. In fact, this iTunes score is the best we’ve ever seen for a netbook—period. Overall, the general performance feels about the same as on the Atom notebooks we've used. There is one exception: The NC20 feels more sluggish than Atom-powered netbooks if you try to work while a background task is using 100 percent of your CPU power, because the Nano lacks the Hyper-Threading feature that helps the Atom remain responsive while multitasking. The NC20's Chrome9 graphics proved slightly faster than the Intel 945 graphics found on most netbooks. The system scored 132 on our 3DMark06 test, compared with 92 for the Intel 945-equipped Eee PC 1000HE—the fastest score among netbooks with the exception of the Asus N10Jc, which had switchable discrete graphics. That said, the 3D capabilities are still very basic, suitable for older games only. Video playback of standard-definition DVD video and high-quality YouTube clips is smooth, but the NC20 can't keep up with 720p video files. Audio clarity is very good, though volume could be a bit louder. The keyboard features an 18.5mm key pitch, identical to full-size notebooks. On our Wi-Fi video streaming test, battery life was an impressive 4 hours and 50 minutes. While that's just over an hour shy of the record-holding Asus Eee PC 1000HE, it's almost an hour longer than the other 12-inch netbook we tested, the Dell Mini 12. The North American NC20 ships with a 5,900mAH six-cell battery, offering better runtime than the 5,200mAH battery found on the overseas model. Samsung includes a three-month trial version of McAfee Security Center, the Samsung Recovery Solution backup software, and a variety of utilities for managing power settings, hotkeys, and other system settings. At this particular moment in time, the choice is between the $549 NC20 and the $399 1000HE. While we loved the 1000HE for its long battery life, excellent performance, and comfortable keyboard, it’s still limited by its 10-inch screen with 1,024x600 resolution (although it does offer two other resolutions that cheat the system a bit). We like the NC20 for its larger screen, better resolution, and still impressive performance—especially with iTunes and graphics—and battery life. The price is a sticking point, however, at $150 more than the 1000HE. Overall, its VIA Nano processor proves a worthy challenger to Intel's Atom, competition that's likely to make the netbook playing field even more interesting as 2009 progresses. |
