Samsung GO N310-13GMB Netbook Review
December 2nd, 2009
Samsung GO N310-13GMB 10.1-Inch Mint Blue Netbook Review from Will Earnest Will. A solid performer, After quite a bit of looking around, ended up with the N310 for a variety of reasons. I have a three year old notebook but it’s a pain to lug around. Made sense when I first got it (big screen, plenty of power) because I was consulting (after retirement).Now smaller makes sense since the netbook will be used primarily as a communications device when we’re on vacations.
First, went to retail stores to see netbooks. In general, all available there (ASUS, Acer, HP) looked flimsy at best. Most of the demos had keys missing already. Keyboards (and I don’t have big hands) didn’t seem that good. Second, we have other Samsung products in the home – it’s a brand I’m likely to buy because our experience with it. Third – the N310 looked to be pretty solid (and it seems so now – much more of a solid feel than any I saw in retail) with a rubberized cover and a chiclet keyboard. Fourth, my wife – who is not too technology oriented – liked the look of this netbook (she suggested the mint blue). While she’s unlikely to use it, she’s into what technology looks like. I considered the Toshiba and the ASUS models, but in the end chose Samsung. I can’t say I was able to compare them side by side.
One question was whether it made sense to wait til Windows 7. It is likely that it might have. But then again these machines are matched to a pretty specific need – and it’s not necessarily high tech. For me it’s e-mail and occasional Office work. I put OpenOfficeo on and the VLC media player in addition to Firefox. Net there’s a lot you can do with XP and are likely to be able to do for quite a while. That and XP is familiar.
Had it running in no time (although 48 XP updates had to be applied). I did upgrade the memory – trivial. Don’t think I had to but it seemed to make sense given the life cycle. I ordered from Crucial rather than Amazon after using Crucial’s wizard – it’s recommendation didn’t match the Amazon Crucial part. So far (a week+) very happy. Really appreciate the solid feel. Doesn’t appear to have a lot of junk software that has to be removed. Battery looks to be impressive. No real problem with the keyboard. I guess it’s also fair to say that cost wasn’t a major factor – this is a bit more than alternatives but given the prices for netbooks, plus or minus 10% isn’t a issue factor for me. I know it is for others. I’d suggest durability may justify the extra cost and who knows what people will pay for “style”.
Click here
You may also want to read Acer Aspire Timeline AS1810T-8638 Laptop from l5creative.com site.
Related posts with Samsung GO N310-13GMB Netbook Review
Posted in Netbooks Reviews
