Last year, Samsung entered the netbook market with a strong contender in the NC10. This system impressed us with its sturdy and comfortable keyboard, good performance, and 6.5 hours of battery life. Now, the company is replacing the venerable NC10 with the $399 N140, an update that includes a more powerful Atom processor, Windows 7 Starter Edition, a larger 250GB hard drive, and a snazzier design. Are all of these improvements enough to keep up with the competition?
Design
The 10.3 x 7.3 x 1.2-inch N140 retains many of the design aspects we liked in the NC10. The glossy lid comes in two colors—an elegant Burgundy (as on our review unit) or Sapphire Blue—but it attracts fingerprints easily. Instead of the red stripe outlining the edge of the deck as on the N110, there’s now a silver strip; another thin silver strip border outlines the touchpad. Though the lid is glossy, the plastic surrounding the display, keyboard, and touchpad is (thankfully) matte.
One change from the N110 is the placement of the power button. Instead of the button being integrated into the hinge, Samsung opted to place it on the front lip of the system, which we think is harder to reach. It’s also not a button, but a sliding switch. Underneath, the six-cell battery lifts the unit up about a quarter of an inch, giving it a bit of an incline.
Samsung’s N130, which is $50 less, shares many of the N140’s features and build, including the keyboard, touchpad, and power switch. However, the chassis on the N130 lacks the more elegant lid and and silver detailing.
Heat
While writing this review and watching video with the N140, we never noticed excessive heat coming from the system. Upon leaving the netbook idle for five minutes, we measured temperatures on the touchpad and underside at 90.0 and 90.5 degrees Fahrenheit. After playing a Hulu video for 15 minutes, the touchpad reached only 93.0 degrees; the space between the G and H keys got to 90.0 degrees, and the underside notched 95.5, which was barely noticeable.
Keyboard and Touchpad
We’re happy to see that the N140’s keyboard is the same as the one found on the NC10 and N110, from key size and placement to spring and travel. At 93 percent of full size, it’s comfortable to type on, and we noticed no flex.
The 2.5 x 1.4-inch touchpad is slightly wider than the N110’s, and has just a touch of friction. It was large and responsive enough that we didn’t have to pick up our finger too often when moving the cursor across the screen. A single mouse bar sits underneath the touchpad; while it was responsive, we found it to be too narrow. (In general we prefer that a netbook or notebook have two distinct touchpad buttons.)
Display and Audio
We were pleased to see that the 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600-pixel WSVGA display is matte and not glossy like that of the N110. Colors were bright and blacks deep. We were able to watch the dark scenes from Torchwood: Children of Earth under bright fluorescent lighting without an issue. Both horizontal and vertical viewing angles are good; even when we tilted the display all the way back to 45 degrees, we didn’t encounter much distortion. Three people can sit together and watch video on the screen without trouble.
Audio quality was surprisingly good for a netbook thanks to the inclusion of SRS Sound software. The Realtek high definition speakers, located under the front of the unit, produced slightly tinny but satisfying audio. Even with the volume at 50 percent, we could still hear music clearly with a high-power fan running in a small room. The bass line in Superchick’s “One Girl Revolution” didn’t stand out as much as we’d like, but it was present.
Adjusting the equalizer via the SRS Sound settings resulted in richer audio that was good enough for watching Hulu and playing music while we wrote this review. Aside from the design, this is one of the greatest differences between the N140 and the N130, which lacks SRS as well as stereo speakers.
