- This topic has 11 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 9 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Been using the NC10 for about an hour now, installing all of my must have programs and what not…
So I thought I’d share my first impressions of this machine.
Out of the box, it’s small… the size I expected, yet seeing it first hand it seems smaller. I would account this to the fact I use a 17′ laptop and a 24′ desktop… so the smallness still takes you by surprise, depsite knowing how big it would be. However it is by no means a bad thing, I like the size very much, though I think any smaller would be rather unusable. I’m glad I didn’t go with a 8.9′ or 7′.
It’s pretty lightweight and most of the weight seems to come from the battery, though it’s a small exchange for such long battery life. Been using for about an hour now, as I said, and the battery is at around 6 hours.
The keyboard, though slightly smaller then your normal keyboard, was easy to adjust to. I’m a touch typest and have had very little problem, except for hitting the = key instead of the backspace, but I’m quickly adapting. I am of course, typing this on the NC10.
The screen, despite the size is actually very clear and I have the setting about halfway on the brightness scale, which is about as bright as my 17′ laptop. Also, the matte finish is wonderful, I certainly don’t miss the glare from my other screens. The only downside is that I’m affected by the ‘screen blotch’ problem. But it sounds as if Samsung has acknowledged this problem and is willing to fix it. I’ll hold onto my NC10 until a few forum members have received their repaired unit before I attempt to send mine in.
The touchpad… Of all of the reviews I read before purchasing, the touchpad was always listed as a con. Upon using it, I do see why. I do think with use though, I’ll grow used to it. Or if not, a wireless mouse isn’t a big deal.
The fan so far seems pretty quiet, unless you lean in close to hear it.
Now, onto the way it runs…
Startup is quick, as is shutting down and restarting. Opening programs, extracting small zip files, things of that nature, do seem to take awhile. I contribute that to it being much more underpowered then the machines I’m used to using though. I can’t honestly see any sort of game really running on this computer, but I didn’t buy it for that use anyway.
The wireless had me less then stunned. I transfered Firefox over via a external hard drive and upon trying to load any page, it came up unable to connect. A page here or there would eventually load, but it was certainly unsuable. I plugged into my net with an ethernet cable and the internet loaded perfectly. I then first switched to google chrome to see if that would help. It did a little, but barely noticably. Then I updated the drivers, this did nothing as well. Finally I found in the forums something about Atheros WLAN. I did that next and it appeared to not help. However after trying a few more pages, it finally began working. I’m not sure if I can thank the Atheros WLAN for that or not. However it now seems to be working pretty well, not as fast as my other computers, but again I didn’t expect the same preformance.
I’m going to instal Microsoft Word next. I have the 2007 version, but I think that might be asking a bit much of the NC10, so I’m going to go with 2003. I have a normal version, which I’ll attempt first, and a lite version made for portable devices if the full version is too demanding. I’ll let you all know how that goes later.
And those are my first iimpressions of the Samsung NC10.
In case anyone is wondering, I got the blue one. The color seems to vary between machines, mine leans more towards a purplish blue in the direct light and a navy blue in dim light.
—
Alright, upon trying several times to post this, I finally had to plug in via the ethernet cord, wireless just doesn’t seem to load pages, at all. My laptop isn’t having any problem. So the wireless, currently, is awful.
Sorry to hear about your wireless troubles. It shouldn’t be like that. I find pages load very quickly over wireless. The screen blotch problem is a drag too. Seems to be mostly with the blue ones.
yeah no problems here with the wireless.
FYI, I have a full version of office 07 on my NC10 and everything runs very well with no issues.
Yeah, my wireless is spotty, too. When I write a long reply in the forum, it sometimes doesn’t load (takes a few try). I just installed the most current driver from the Samsung website, but I still experience some disconnect. I may try to update my router’s firmware next.
In my experience – no problems with the wireless at all.
Office 2007 runs without any problems. Minimizing the bar at the top is a definate though – gives you so much more verticial space on the screen.
Well, after a lot of fiddling I seem to have the wireless running without a glitch. Though now that I’ve said that, I’ve probably jinxed myself…
Thanks for the suggestions… I’ll go ahead and give Office 2007 a go.
Also, to add to my original post… The NC10 is very sturdy, no creaks or bending, no matter where I lift it. The screen hinge could be a tad tighter, but its not bad.
In all, I’d recommend it, however probably not to someone who isn’t at least a little computer savvy.
Problem with wireless? Then try this:
Create a .bat file and put this in your startup-folder with the following lines:
net stop “Wireless Zero Configuration”
net start “Wireless Zero Configuration”[quote1229643399=mauwong]
Snook, please share what kind of “fiddling” you made to improve your wireless. Thanks in advance.
[/quote1229643399]I can’t say for sure what fixed it, but… I restored the NC10 to its original state, I uninstalled and reinstalled the driver, accessed my router and checked some of my settings, undid those settings, then redid them (opening/closing ports), refreshed my IP, reset my cable box (in the past I’ve had trouble getting computers to access the internet without resetting the box), I even hit my router (lol).
My internet also went down at some point that night, so clearly my provider was doing some sort of maintenance.
I’m not sure if any of that actually fixed it, someone else reported on another thread that their wireless just eventually started to work without doing anything to it.
But I’m happy to report no problems so far. And as long as I (try to) ignore those two glaring black blotches, it’s all around pretty good.
Hi Freddy, can you please elaborate on what the .bat file (created as you suggested) do? I’ve heard of Wireless Zero Configuration, but does not really know what it is for. I’ll google it when I get a chance.
Snook, I’ve not hit my router yet. I’ll try that next time 🙂
@mauwong: It turns of and start the Wireless service. This could help, try it out. It is also a good idea to upgrade your routers firmware.
I also had connection problems in the beginning and used the net stop/net start .bat file and the problem went away. After upgradrading my routers firmware the .bat file was not needed anymore.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.