Samsung NC10 vs EEEPC vs MSI WIND vs etc...

[Detosx]

Guys, I don't want to take away from Mysticus C*'s excellent choice, I would definely defer to him because he da man! He da Santa with a plan!

 

First thing to say, though I have a cheerful but solid Acer Extensa business model, I am prejudiced in favour of Samsung and IBM laptops. You wouldn't necessarily go for those brands based on specification and often they are not the most compatible for OS X86 developer projects but, in terms of build quailty and keyboards, you are usually on to a workhorse king. I was excited when I heard Samsung had bought out a netbook.

 

Nothing about the NC10 in the flesh appeared exceptional, just another cheesy and clunky netbook, you know? but then I read the paper spec and was impressed, re value for money. I have read a hell of a lot of netbook reviews and the Samsung NC10 reviews consistantly well, and it has great battery, which if you are installing juice hungry OS X on it is a deal breaker. The NC10, like the other netbooks on display, was running XP and all of the netbooks had the same wallpaper background. To be clear, I noticed using some of the programs that though the screen was bright and sharp and with a broader color gamut than many, it was 'grainer' than some of the other models on display, enough that it bothered me a lot. The Acer Aspire One, for instance, looks great with movies because of the added contrast range and richness from that gloss screen, but, side-by-side with other models, it doesn't look perfectly pin sharp as the NC10, a faint milkiness there and colours aren't fantastically vivid. Again, very usable, though, unless you want to upgrade the memory, which is a youtube nightmare. The Toshiba, which I was suprised to read bad reviews of, due to its cut down spec and admittedly the keyboard wasn't the best, looked gorgeous with a movie clip. One review I read, though, said the Tosh's glossy screen was just above average. Hmm. Fire up wordpad or, if in Linux, Writer. Especially if you are used to CRT screens or newer glossy TFT ones, you might feel a little glum about the screen granularity in some netbook models, something rarely present in matt full Desktop panels, for instance, and annoyingly rarely mentioned in skimpy netbook reviews, or it might not bother you at all, it is fairly slight, likable to a faint dirtiness or dust on a window. Also, see how comfortably you can type on all of the netbooks. Keep in mind something that I didn't; that a fast moving train or bus presents additional keyboard challanges that might rule out the very cute Asus eee 901, say. In photographs and in shop windows, the MSI and LG keyboards look great; in the flesh, you might find they feel spongy, like some budget Toshibas of yesteryear. The grain on the screen of Advent repackaged MSI Wind certainly bothers me a lot, though I otherwise find the cases attractive.

 

My disappointment at the slight granularity aside of what is otherwise a bright and pretty vivid matt screen, I am sorely tempted by the Samsung just for the drop dead dreamy battery life. It is a big WOW! And hey, it's a Samsung! Not to generalize but, as per my predjuces of old, build quality on the Samsung model felt a shade better than some, in terms of case flex. I don't like netbook keyboards but the Samsung is growing on me, a bit. Otherwise I would go for the Dell, I think; as I say, I have yet to see it in the flesh and a 16GB SSD isn't ideal for working with large file sizes... I am frustrated the Dell keyboard doesn't review better than average (I haven't liked a Dell's budget laptop's keyboard for a while, though; at least people can now try out Dell laptops in PCWorld stores in the UK) the battery life isn't as good as the Samsung but for, light graphics work and movies, it looks like the king. For now! It's also in short supply at the moment, I am told. Much like trying to find a 16GB iPod Touch! Arrrrgh!

[Wman]

I've seen a friend run OSX on an MSI Wind. It seems to be the best netbook for that, but I'd personally love to see it on an eee 701 or 901, as they're my favourite netbook, have great design, small, and really cheap. Only problem is thatg they don't run on Intel Atom. Note www.maceee.com I've seen them run Osx, BUT NOT AS GOOD AS MSI Wind.

 

do you know that sony's lcd panels are made by samsung as well?

as wel as powerbooks, some other mac laptops and I think the aluminum cinema displays too. They look really damn good.

[Detosx]

I went back to Dixons/Currys during a break to check out their Netbooks and check out the Samsung screen, again, in case I saw a rogue model. This time they had both the black and the white models, and that granularity, as I am calling it, is still there. It's there in all of the matt models that Dixons/Currys have on display. Annoyingly, as it's Christmas, the store has got its act together and all of the laptops are locked into a Currys demo video. If you want to make a direct comparison with the gloss screens, though, press the escape key and that will take you to a control/password protected screen. In the password field, which is white, you can see the granularity of the matt screens where it is absent from the gloss screen models. As I say, this might not matter a jot to you, it's just one of my bug bears. One thing about LED implemented screens is they are good at displaying shadow detail and I think that would apply to the Sumsung, so that's another consideration. The Dell's screen adds to that with the gloss coating, adding a richness and vibrancy to multimedia. Does anyone know if PCWorld world are stocking the Dell? If I can get them side by side and break out of the dumb demonstration video I will report back.

[ Mysticus C*]

I went back to Dixons/Currys during a break to check out their Netbooks and check out the Samsung screen, again, in case I saw a rogue model. This time they had both the black and the white models, and that granularity, as I am calling it, is still there. It's there in all of the matt models that Dixons/Currys have on display. Annoyingly, as it's Christmas, the store has got its act together and all of the laptops are locked into a Currys demo video. If you want to make a direct comparison with the gloss screens, though, press the escape key and that will take you to a control/password protected screen. In the password field, which is white, you can see the granularity of the matt screens where it is absent from the gloss screen models. As I say, this might not matter a jot to you, it's just one of my bug bears. One thing about LED implemented screens is they are good at displaying shadow detail and I think that would apply to the Sumsung, so that's another consideration. The Dell's screen adds to that with the gloss coating, adding a richness and vibrancy to multimedia. Does anyone know if PCWorld world are stocking the Dell? If I can get them side by side and break out of the dumb demonstration video I will report back.

 

i m not sure what you mean reaaly by grainy, i made the full background white to check, and nothing grainy there, the only thing i can think of that would make the screen grainy is that they may have installed windows later by themselves and didnt install gfx drivers? or resolution is working in 16 bit mode or stg? matt screen is better than glossy ones in my taste, bcoz you can see what comes from the display, in glossy (i have a glossy finish laptop as well-toshiba qosmio series), you have too much light reflection that disturbs the view... glossy makes colors more saturated and brighter which makes it good for movies but bear in mind that glossy screen has bad effects on your eyes in the long run you will emit more light

 

glossy or matt is a personal choice for purpose, if you like glossy get a glossy at the end you will be the one using it...

[Detosx]

i m not sure what you mean reaaly by grainy, i made the full background white to check, and nothing grainy there, the only thing i can think of that would make the screen grainy is that they may have installed windows later by themselves and didnt install gfx drivers? or resolution is working in 16 bit mode or stg? matt screen is better than glossy ones in my taste, bcoz you can see what comes from the display, in glossy (i have a glossy finish laptop as well-toshiba qosmio series), you have too much light reflection that disturbs the view... glossy makes colors more saturated and brighter which makes it good for movies but bear in mind that glossy screen has bad effects on your eyes in the long run you will emit more light :censored2:

 

glossy or matt is a personal choice for purpose, if you like glossy get a glossy :censored2: at the end you will be the one using it...

Happy holidays, Mysticus C*! I agree. :censored2: How can I put this? With a good gloss screen it's like looking through clean glass onto whiteness; with a netbook's matt screen, depending on the brightness, you are seeing the matt finish, as though a (faint-ish) dustiness or grain. The topic rages on in the MSI threads and EEE threads, the screens on both of which are much 'worse' than the Samsung, which has that great LED implementation, from what I have seen, even now with Currys stupid demonstration video. I suggest everyone put battery and keyboard above minor screen distractions. I mean, if you're going to watch movies a lot of the time, why even bother using OS X when the battery is going to last less long than on XP? I read one ridiculous review of my marginally favored Dell where a reviewer said reflections from the Dell's gloss screen aren't a problem - because he wears black when outside and sits in the shade! Hahaha! Um! Let's hear it for summer!

 

Currys seem to have stock of the Samsung, black and white models. I found the 16GB Dell is on offer at Dell UK for £250 - seems to come with 1.3mp camera rather than 0.3 and 3G modem, though double check - but unlike Dell in the US there are no customisation offers available on the Mini. I am tempted to get one instead of an iPod Touch (though what I want is for someone to bring out an external foldaway keyboard for the iPod Touch and a breakout recording box with i/o. If they bolted on an HD movie camera with optical zoom, I would be in heaven!

 

One thing mentioned in OSX86 Dell Minis forums is the non standard screen size. Is that a problem with the Samsung and other netbooks, also?

[ Mysticus C*]

Happy holidays, Mysticus C*! I agree. How can I put this? With a good gloss screen it's like looking through clean glass onto whiteness; with a netbook's matt screen, depending on the brightness, you are seeing the matt finish, as though a (faint-ish) dustiness or grain. The topic rages on in the MSI threads and EEE threads, the screens on both of which are much 'worse' than the Samsung, which has that great LED implementation, from what I have seen, even now with Currys stupid demonstration video. I suggest everyone put battery and keyboard above minor screen distractions. I mean, if you're going to watch movies a lot of the time, why even bother using OS X when the battery is going to last less long than on XP? I read one ridiculous review of my marginally favored Dell where a reviewer said reflections from the Dell's gloss screen aren't a problem - because he wears black when outside and sits in the shade! Hahaha! Um! Let's hear it for summer!

 

Currys seem to have stock of the Samsung, black and white models. I found the 16GB Dell is on offer at Dell UK for £250 - seems to come with 1.3mp camera rather than 0.3 and 3G modem, though double check - but unlike Dell in the US there are no customisation offers available on the Mini. I am tempted to get one instead of an iPod Touch (though what I want is for someone to bring out an external foldaway keyboard for the iPod Touch and a breakout recording box with i/o. If they bolted on an HD movie camera with optical zoom, I would be in heaven!

 

One thing mentioned in OSX86 Dell Minis forums is the non standard screen size. Is that a problem with the Samsung and other netbooks, also?

 

i mentioned the to check and see what you like in any netbook for your own purpose

 

having said that, that graininess is really minor and easily ignorable considering that you will not look at the screen from 1 inc distance all the time it really doesnt bother me at all... i saw msi models and samsung side by side, and samsung really rocks compared to them, well this is my opinion so it favors nc10 of course choice is really yours, go to a pcworld or john lewis or currys to see models side by side...

[Detosx]

i mentioned the to check and see what you like in any netbook for your own purpose

 

having said that, that graininess is really minor and easily ignorable considering that you will not look at the screen from 1 inc distance all the time it really doesnt bother me at all... i saw msi models and samsung side by side, and samsung really rocks compared to them, well this is my opinion so it favors nc10 of course choice is really yours, go to a pcworld or john lewis or currys to see models side by side...

The NC10 is better than anything else I have seen, I think I have seen them all, now, side-by-side, with the exception of the Dell Mini 9. I really want to try its keyboard. Very frustrating.

 

Mysticus, how about Netbooks non standard screen dimensions, is it a problem when using OS X and, if so, is it live-able with?

[SL3]

Mysticus, how about Netbooks non standard screen dimensions, is it a problem when using OS X and, if so, is it live-able with?

 

Most apps fit on a 1024x600 screen, with the exception of some. As for OS X specific problems, I've heard Photo Booth doesn't fit on the screen entirely, but I have no need for it.

[ Mysticus C*]

as sl3 said: + this would not be a problem if apple let screen resizing from sides like in windows... all sides and corners able to resize... osx has this trouble of not letting it so there you have the problem there is temp solution for reaaly needing to see the additional option in the oversized area... it is a terminal command to make a fake resolution change as if zoom (like in cameras you can fake resolution hardware zoom vs digital zoom...) you get the idea? you can have bigger resolution as a digital zoom, but it creates its own problems really... messing up the individual programs' menus fonts etc..

[Detosx]

Thanks SL3 Thanks Mysticus C* Good to know. Happy Chrismas!

 

Is it just me or are technology reviews not as extensive as they used to be? Over the past two months almost every computer magazine that I have poured over has had reviews of netbooks and they put the Samsung and the Dell comfortably ahead of the competition. One of the more extensive reviews is in current edition of PC Pro, which makes the odd assertion that the NC10's panel isn't a quality one, while an extensive review in another magazine put the Samsung screen at the top, while giving a Toshiba that impressed me with its screen poor marks for its screen. It would help if the magazines told you what criteria they were using for testing. Some reviewers review the Dell at length but don't mention its screen at all, the same with the Samsung. A few express preferences for gloss screens and then - and actually only then - the Dell seems to be the favoured netbook.

 

From what I saw, with my own unpaid eyes, the Samsung has a impressively bright image with accurate colours and very good shadow detail; it was hands down the best matt screen that I saw of all those sitting side-by-side in Curry's (which included EEE and MSI rebadge). The Toshiba's (at John Lewis) gloss screen was less milky/more vibrant/sharper than the Acer Aspire One's gloss panel. I confirmed it with a second Acer model. I have still to see the Dell... which is VERY frustrating, but one comparison between the Dell and Samsung that I read had battery life at twice as long for the Samsung! Twice! Also, the Samsung's keyboard is marginally my favourite. A reviewer in yet another magazine suggested buying an Acer Aspire One with a second battery but even though that's a fair comment (if that second battery is cheap?) if you were to upgrade the One's memory, you would have nightmares; it looks like fiddly hell. My vote is squarely for the Samsung, now, unless I was going on a world cruise and wanted to watch movies with a power socket nearby, in which case possibly the Dell. Not exactly a winning argument for the Dell, I'm as likely to go on a cruise as win the lottery. I'm told you have to enter the lottery to win the lottery, though.

[ Mysticus C*]

Thanks SL3 Thanks Mysticus C* Good to know. Happy Chrismas!

 

Is it just me or are technology reviews not as extensive as they used to be? Over the past two months almost every computer magazine that I have poured over has had reviews of netbooks and they put the Samsung and the Dell comfortably ahead of the competition. One of the more extensive reviews is in current edition of PC Pro, which makes the odd assertion that the NC10's panel isn't a quality one, while an extensive review in another magazine put the Samsung screen at the top, while giving a Toshiba that impressed me with its screen poor marks for its screen. It would help if the magazines told you what criteria they were using for testing. Some reviewers review the Dell at length but don't mention its screen at all, the same with the Samsung. A few express preferences for gloss screens and then - and actually only then - the Dell seems to be the favoured netbook.

 

From what I saw, with my own unpaid eyes, the Samsung has a impressively bright image with accurate colours and very good shadow detail; it was hands down the best matt screen that I saw of all those sitting side-by-side in Curry's (which included EEE and MSI rebadge). The Toshiba's (at John Lewis) gloss screen was less milky/more vibrant/sharper than the Acer Aspire One's gloss panel. I confirmed it with a second Acer model. I have still to see the Dell... which is VERY frustrating, but one comparison between the Dell and Samsung that I read had battery life at twice as long for the Samsung! Twice! Also, the Samsung's keyboard is marginally my favourite. A reviewer in yet another magazine suggested buying an Acer Aspire One with a second battery but even though that's a fair comment (if that second battery is cheap?) if you were to upgrade the One's memory, you would have nightmares; it looks like fiddly hell. My vote is squarely for the Samsung, now, unless I was going on a world cruise and wanted to watch movies with a power socket nearby, in which case possibly the Dell. Not exactly a winning argument for the Dell, I'm as likely to go on a cruise as win the lottery. I'm told you have to enter the lottery to win the lottery, though.

 

most fair commenting review websites (u cant really say all fair but to some degree) will tell you samsung's build quality is fairly above average given the components and finish... the screen like i said was far better than anything i have seen (note: i didnt see dell's monitor but i dont think dell really makes monitors!, either getting panels from LG or Samsung or Panasonic partnership (toshiba, sanyo, hitachi)...) also like i said, gloss is not everything... samsung's lcd will satisfy most people already, brightness contrast saturation.... even though it is matt screen!

 

if you have seen them side by side, you already know what i mean...

[Moonshine]

Well, for those after a "glossy" NC10 screen, I'll be installing one of these on my partner's NC10 once it arrives in a week or so:

 

http://www.pdair.com/catalog/product_info....oducts_id=13685

 

Then I can compare it to my stock matte NC10.

[ Mysticus C*]

Well, for those after a "glossy" NC10 screen, I'll be installing one of these on my partner's NC10 once it arrives in a week or so:

 

http://www.pdair.com/catalog/product_info....oducts_id=13685

 

Then I can compare it to my stock matte NC10.

 

i doubt it will have a glossy effect as the original glossy screens... that screen protector is applied on top of the filtered lcd, which i doubt will create any glossy effect apart from being a bit glossy if it really has glossy screen

[Moonshine]

i doubt it will have a glossy effect as the original glossy screens... that screen protector is applied on top of the filtered lcd, which i doubt will create any glossy effect apart from being a bit glossy if it really has glossy screen

 

Well she prefers leaving the gloss screen "protection" sheet on her NC10 that it ships with currently. (Which actually does a better job then you might think in making it look glossy ) But I think this should be a step up for her gloss lust. I've bought many PDA/HPC screen protectors from PDAir in the past, and their UltraClear series are very glossy, extremely clear and have a re-usable silicon based backing that allows them to seal to the screen amazingly well. It should be here next week, so we'll know soon enough. I'll definitely be the sure to report if it's {censored}.

[Moonshine]

Well I'm back to report on the PDAIR Ultraclear screen protector for the NC10... if you want a high gloss screen this is definitely the answer. With careful application it will goes edge to edge with no bubbles or visible texture below (very tight, no gaps) and provides a very nice high gloss screen. I'm a picky guy (ie. our NC10s use custom calibrated ICC profiles), but I have to say it worked much better then I would have imagined or her machine. So much so that I just ordered one for myself The screen on the NC10 is very nice considering the $, especially when calibrated.

[Detosx]

To date I still have not been able to try out the Dell. I read reviews in two of the magazines that I semi trust, that the keyboard is good and the screen excellent but battery life average (which defeats the purpose of buying a netbook in the first place) but I am very cynical and need a hands on. I apparently need to find a Vodophone dealer, beacuse the Dell comes 'free' with certain phone packages. I would never buy one that way but it would be good to finally see the damn thing! I feel destined to dislike it. A while ago I was set to buy a Dell 1525 but then finally got hands on at a PC World dealer. The keyboard and, in my opinion, the finish were both poor.

 

Well I'm back to report on the PDAIR Ultraclear screen protector for the NC10... if you want a high gloss screen this is definitely the answer. With careful application it will goes edge to edge with no bubbles or visible texture below (very tight, no gaps) and provides a very nice high gloss screen. I'm a picky guy (ie. our NC10s use custom calibrated ICC profiles), but I have to say it worked much better then I would have imagined or her machine. So much so that I just ordered one for myself :censored2: The screen on the NC10 is very nice considering the $, especially when calibrated.

Interesting, though for the many good reasons that some people prefer matt screens, some might not like it! Any reviews out there? I used to use PDAs and got protectors for them but rather than making watching movies a more vibrant experience, they added a very faint milky sheen, a quality that I am not fond of and something noticeable, also, with cheaper/older glossy laptop screens; blacks with that milkiness render horror scenes in the dark non horrifying, for me! Not that I watch many of the said movies!

[ Mysticus C*]

To date I still have not been able to try out the Dell. I read reviews in two of the magazines that I semi trust, that the keyboard is good and the screen excellent but battery life average (which defeats the purpose of buying a netbook in the first place) but I am very cynical and need a hands on. I apparently need to find a Vodophone dealer, beacuse the Dell comes 'free' with certain phone packages. I would never buy one that way but it would be good to finally see the damn thing! I feel destined to dislike it. A while ago I was set to buy a Dell 1525 but then finally got hands on at a PC World dealer. The keyboard and, in my opinion, the finish were both poor.

 

Interesting, though for the many good reasons that some people prefer matt screens, some might not like it! Any reviews out there? I used to use PDAs and got protectors for them but rather than making watching movies a more vibrant experience, they added a very faint milky sheen, a quality that I am not fond of and something noticeable, also, with cheaper/older glossy laptop screens; blacks with that milkiness render horror scenes in the dark non horrifying, for me! Not that I watch many of the said movies!

 

the screen on the nc10 is a really great one, and contrast/brightness ratios are great, and i find really no reason to get a glossy screen with this quality. taht being said, there is a little grainess (this is a bit subjective and level of it depends on your pickiness) there for obviously matt screen and small form factor... but most will not notice it, and also you will not be looking at the screen at 1 inc distance either

 

all in all, it should be more than sufficinet to 99% people with a gloss or non gloss factor... just go to a local store to compare them...

[Detosx]

the screen on the nc10 is a really great one, and contrast/brightness ratios are great, and i find really no reason to get a glossy screen with this quality. taht being said, there is a little grainess (this is a bit subjective and level of it depends on your pickiness) there for obviously matt screen and small form factor... but most will not notice it, and also you will not be looking at the screen at 1 inc distance either

 

all in all, it should be more than sufficinet to 99% people with a gloss or non gloss factor... just go to a local store to compare them...

You can't compare them, no store sells the Dell, or at least not that I have found. Possibly a larger PC World store? Certainly the Samsung is better than anything else out there. I read yet another group review of netbooks and the Samsung wins again. It wins every time. The Dell with its well rated screen came a close second but was let down by just above average battery life. The slight grain on the Samsung, and it is slighter than most matt screens that I have seen, though you don't have to be an inch away to notice it(!), was mentioned along with something that I haven't spotted at all - a slight blue cast?! Any time that I have seen the Samsung on display the whites lack even the slightest hint of a blue cast.

 

If you are someone who prefers watching movies on a gloss screen, you are presumably going to prefer the Dell - just as long as you don't mind the battery dying on you towards the end of a long movie! I suspect the build and the finish are better on the Samsung. The casings and keyboards on budget Dells look good in the magazines but much less so in the flesh, in my opinion. Also, the Dell comes with either and 8GB or 16GB SSD drive, so you won't be able to store many movies unless you use storeage cards. Also, Leopard is said to work best when it has 50GB of unused hard drive slack. Though the Dell is cheaper, the Samsung wins hands down.

[Swimming_Bird]

How's the OSX driver support for the Samsung.

 

It's really a shame I like that i can get ubuntu on the dell lowering the price.

 

The lenovo has the best design

 

And the samsung has the best battery and screen.

 

I guess the shame is that there's no best solution out there.

[Detosx]

How's the OSX driver support for the Samsung.

 

It's really a shame I like that i can get ubuntu on the dell lowering the price.

 

The lenovo has the best design

 

And the samsung has the best battery and screen.

 

I guess the shame is that there's no best solution out there.

The Ubuntu version of the Dell is a rip off, or at least in the UK where there isn't a customize option. The Ubuntu version comes with an 8GB Solid State Hard Drive and the crappy 0.3 megapixel camera, whereas the XP version comes with 16GB drive and the better 1.3megapixel camera, making the XP version better value. I'm not happy about that. How come on the American Dell site you can customise the Mini 9 but not on British site. Haven't seen the Lenovo in the flesh but was told the keyboard isn't up to their usual high standard.

 

Yikes, Dell have just upped their prices on the Mini 9 substantially after a series of special offers. At one point, with special offer, the 8GB model was £250. It's now £279. Shouldn't special offers last forever during a recession?

[Atomized]

I am currently considering the MSI Wind and Dell Mini 9. I am leaning towards the Wind as it seems to be cheaper than a Mini 9 when customized how I would want it. Anyone have any comments on which is easier to install OSX on?

[Detosx]

I am currently considering the MSI Wind and Dell Mini 9. I am leaning towards the Wind as it seems to be cheaper than a Mini 9 when customized how I would want it. Anyone have any comments on which is easier to install OSX on?

Have you seen the Samsung? Seriously, it's in a league of it's own. The Dell is a bit of a distraction.

 

I finally got to play with the Dell Mini 9 in Dixons today, who are at last stocking it. XP doesn't have any multimedia clips hidden away that I could find, so once the assistant broke out of the annoying demo that is playing on all of Dixons laptops, he had to find a clip. The Dell does look better on movies than the NC10, everything looks richer, lush. The NC10 looked perfectly good and if you have no problems watching movies on matt screens, it is the brightest, sharpest most vibrant matt screen I have seen. Again, I saw zero evidence of a blue cast in whites. Perhaps it's measureable but it wasn't visible.

 

What I wasn't expecting, though, was how small the Dell is. Fond of eye strain on small fonts? Then the Dell is for you! The keyboard made me groan loadly when I saw it, I felt really depressed. It looks countersunk and a little cramped. When I fired up notepad, though, I found I could type without error, which was almost annoying! It's maybe a tiny bit cramped but I find it less so than the small Asus eee models. That said, though the keys had a relatively pleasing tactile feel when pressed, I prefer the wider NC10 keyboard. Also, the NC10 has a full sized Return key. The finish of Dell's case isn't as poor as I expected, a lot of netbooks look like poor cousins of notebooks in the looks department. It's pretty decent and feels fairly robust, didn't creak when I squeazed it. But the screen's frame is suprisingly reflective; I found it more distracting than the reflectance of the screen itself.

 

Though it wasn't what I was expceting, I like the Dell a lot and wish I had bought it in Dell's sale when I had the chance. The screen is perhaps impractically small but bigger and at least as vibrant as the iPod Touch; I don't think Apple will ever bring out a fold away keyboard for it... If it's a question of running Leopard, though, I would have to go with the NC10 because of the vastly better battery life, probably less tiring/broader keyboard - on a bumpy bus ride; I think that Dell could get exasperating - and that bigger screen. Seriously, unless MSI have a new model out that I am unaware of, the NC10's screen is brighter and the colours better than the Wind's. Also, Dixons had the Dell for sale for £349, I don't care how popular it is, that's absurd, and the Samsung for £322 in either black or white. With the greatest respect to the helpful sales assistant in Dixons, buy it online from Dell. Once you factor in postage, the £322 Samsung is a better take home prospect.

[Detosx]

Mysticus C*, do you have a second battery for your NC10? With a backup the NC10 would seem like a stellar deal for a writer on the road. Does the battery unclip or is it built in? I haven't dared check out battery prices.

 

A certain popular tech toys magazine, in a group review that included the NC10 (which won) said some very nice things about the glossy screen of the Toshiba. They liked the Dell's screen but thought it distractingly reflective next to the Toshiba, which they felt looked like a real mini laptop. A lot of people feel the Toshiba is underspecified but it was nice to see someone bigging it up a bit. The problem with the Toshiba, though it looks good in magazines and almost as good in the flesh, is that the keyboard feels cramped and, in my opinion, lacks the tactile feel of the Dell. Again, the Samsung is easily better than both. I tried an MSI today and, again, prefer the Samsung. To me it has more positive action.

 

Anyway, blah! As myself and Mysticus C* and others have said, get out there and try them. My vote, unless you watch nothing but movies while plugged into the mains, or need a very tiny netbook, is skip the Dell and the Toshiba... MSI, etc, and go with the NC10 and Mysticus C*'s excellent guide.

[Detosx]

Checking out the latest NC10 prices I saw that there is now a Samsung NC20 - which it seemed important to pass on ISN'T OS X/Leo compatible and never will be, unless Apple decide to bring out a netbook based on the VIA CPU/GPU. It has a 12" gloss screen version of the panel in the NC10 combined with the ability to smoothly play 1080HD video and apparently looks stunning. Battery life is 3 - 4 hours moderate usage, with six hours apparently achievable. It looks like the NC10's bigger brother but, apparently impatient with Intel, Samsung went with VIA on this one and it's not OS X compatible. There are a couple of reviews out there, currently, the one that I read was poorly translated from Russian.

[Simon42]

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/12/17/o...k-compatib.html

 

There's a good list of what seems to work. I guess the new netbooks (Inspiron 10, Eee 1000HE) won't be that compatible with the new GN40 chipset based on Intel's latest laptop platform with GMA4500 graphics. I can't wait to see the nVidia Ion/9400M netbooks...

 

I'm running OS X 10.5.7 (edited in advance so the auto updates don't bother me and to run iLife) on my Eee 1000HA on a day-to-day basis (I've not started Windows on it in 10 days) and I'm really happy with it. It does what I want from it with 2 Gbs of RAM and a Macbook Pro WLAN card. It's getting close to 5 hours on the battery and sleeps without sucking the battery's life since I last rebuilt it. It's only a little on the heavy side for a netbook (over 3lbs). Look for the ipis community for all the info needed to make the Eee work.