Notebook Samsung - NF110 |

10.1in netbooks have enjoyed an increase in popularity over the last couple of months, mostly due to their size, price and improving performance. Last week, we took a look at the Acer Aspire One D255. Now it's Samsung's turn in the spotlight, after the company has joined the bandwagon with no fewer than nine 10.1in machines, including the new NF210 and NF110 - the latter of which we're putting to the test.
The NF110 comes in a simple two-tone design - black lid, white interior - with a thin burgundy strip running around the dividing edge to add an extra level of sophistication. Despite its slim dimensions (265x189x29mm) and ultra-portable weight (just 1.28kg), it feels sturdily built. Those who like a bit of style in their PC will appreciate the wave pattern that rises in a smooth crescendo to either side of the keyboard.
The ‘island' keyboard itself lies in its own sunken bay within the base, and is the familiar 93% chiclet model with large separated keys that are firm and smooth to operate. The touch pad is similarly ‘sunken' - thus kicking one common trend that likes to make touchpad boundaries invisible - and responds well to two-finger Windows 7 controls. Although the mouse bar is made in a single piece, it has a groove in the middle to demarcate between left and right buttons, and the rocker feels comfortable when working.

Most of the NF110's other exterior features are standard for this class of netbook: 3 USB ports, VGA and Ethernet connections, headphone and mic sockets, plus a 4-in-1 memory card slot for SD, SDHC, SDXC and MMC formats. The resolution of the 10.1in display is also the current favourite of 1024x600, with an energy-efficient LED backlight that's more than sufficient for most users' needs.
In many respects the NF110 is indistinguishable from its big sister the NF210, apart from the power of the CPU - the NF110 carries an Intel Atom N455 clocked at 1.66GHz, while the NF210 has the more punchy dual-core N550 clocked at 1.50GHz. Both models share the same Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 graphics card, 250GB S-ATA hard disk and rather limited allocation of 1GB RAM.
Given these relatively meagre resources, though, the NF110's overall performance is surprisingly impressive. Multitasking with documents, internet and Windows Media Player running simultaneously provided no problems at all, and watching movies on BBC iPlayer revealed good colour contrast and sharpness with barely a hint of juddering. The quality of the NF110's surround sound was also beefier than usual for a netbook, and the demo racing games that came with the machine created a respectably frenzied atmosphere.
The other area in which the NF110 scores heavily over the rival Acer Aspire One D255 is in its battery life - we managed a minimum of six hours at heavy usage, compared to only four hours on the Acer.

Samsung - NF110 features - Verdict

The Samsung NF110 is a stylish, sturdy netbook with an admirable keyboard and especially good multitasking performance. Although it would benefit from double the RAM, its sound and picture quality and battery longevity make it preferable to some of its more powerful rivals.

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Notebook Samsung - RF710 |

The phrase 'desktop replacement' is often used to describe any large and heavy laptop computer that's unlikely to be stuffed into a backpack - but in the case of Samsung's RF710, a definite attempt has been made to provide many of the attributes of a tower-based PC.
What desktop features?
For a start, the Samsung comes with a 17.3in, 16:9 widescreen LCD display that's designed with both practical work-related activities and entertainment in mind.
Some might be critical of the display's native resolution maxing out at 1600x900, rather than going for the Full HD resolution of 1920x1080 - but on the other hand, you do get both a built-in Blu-ray player and an HDMI port to feed Blu-ray movies directly into your Full HD-enabled TV.
Understated appeal
At a time when so many other notebooks are going for funky stylised covers and curves to make an immediate impact, the RF710 by contrast is remarkably understated. It has a simple glossy black lid bearing the Samsung logo.

Inside are black keys mounted in a silver surround, alongside a grey workspace. Apart from a small smattering of indicator lights towards the front and a slim row of volume, Internet and power buttons above the keyboard, this is a machine that is determined to avoid being ostentatious.
A tour of the laptop's outside reveals four USB ports - two of which are the latest USB 3.0 type - as well as VGA, Ethernet, the two usual sound inputs plus a very discreet SD memory card slot tucked under the front edge.
The keyboard layout is especially impressive, using the large chiclet style that is much favoured these days, with plenty of spacing between the keys and a full size number pad on the right. It's a dream to type on, and the touch pad and mouse keys are equally firm and responsive.
Powerful performance
Samsung have ensured that you have plenty of power under the bonnet by using a quad-core Intel Core i7-720QM CPU clocked at 1.6GHz, allied to an Nvidia GeForce GT 330M graphics card with 1GB of DDR3 memory. As a result, Blu-ray movies are sharp with vivid colours and gamers can enjoy stutter-free frame rates in everything from relatively low-demand action games like Tomb Raider Underworld and F.E.A.R. through to heavy-duty actioners like Call of Duty (Crysis, as you'd expect, is a little too punishing though).
If you're planning on doing lots of CAD creativity or video editing, then you'll be pleased to know that the Samsung contains not one but two hard drives of 500GB each, which should be more than sufficient for most needs.
On the downside, battery life should not be a principal reason for buying this machine - you'll be lucky to squeeze more than two hours out of this machine - though that's not unusual for a laptop of this type, which is meant to stay grounded most of the time.
Also, we're hoping to see a bit of bargain discounting, on the Samsung's £1,100 RRP might just prove a little too restrictive for those dithering between buying a full-on desktop PC or a 'desktop substitute' like the RF710...

Samsung - RF710 features - Verdict

Beneath its unassuming exterior, Samsung's RF710 has a tiger of a processor, a more-than-capable graphics card, and an impressive set of features that should have broad appeal - as long as you're willing to pay the hefty £1,100 price tag.

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