Samsung N140 Review
I received my Samsung N140 yesterday after paying GST and customs clearance - which added about 13% to the cost of the product but overall it is still cheaper than many of the older netbook models that are on the market here - thanks to the great exchange rate of the NZ dollar right now. The overall delivery has been very fast even though the shipping originated in UK and the package went through Germany, UAE, Singapore, Thailand before getting to me - total of 7 days from the point I placed my order to having it here in my hands.I couldn't really play much with it last night as I had an acting workshop for the movie [which incidentally went really well and the second story thread of the movie is so much more defined now] but have spent a good chunk of the day today with it and I am loving it. My first impressions are that the build quality is fantastic and it feels very solid and looks classy - the model I ordered is in white, so the outside cover doesn't pick up finger prints {or atleast you can't see them}. The display screen is non-glossy which is fantastic as I don't like screens that reflect so much to the point where it is hard looking into the screen, especially wherever there is any bright light source directly behind you.
The first couple of times the system seemed slightly sluggish - mainly because I was coming off a Precision M60 with 4GB RAM. But I soon started tweaking the netbook settings from information available across the internet and right now the system is very fast and responsive. Some of the key things I have done are: turn off bluetooth, turn off LAN, uninstall McAffee antivirus amongst other things and these things alone have speeded up the system heaps. Here is the main article I used to tweak behind the scenes settings on the OS - which is very helpful.
Battery life is pretty good, especially comparing it to the fact that my Precision lasts me 2-2.5 hours tops. I have used the system on and off through the entire day and I am currently typing this particular blog entry from the netbook and it still has another 4 hours of battery life remaining. The keyboard is comfortable to use and typing is a breeze. There are a couple of keys which are not to my liking - mainly because it is setup as a UK keyboard but the niggles I have about that are very very minor. And the system doesn't seem to generate a lot of heat and neither does the cooling fan kick in as often as my other notebook.
The technical specs are pretty standard for a netbook - Intel Atom N270 processor, 1 GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 10.1" screen with Windows XP Home. It does come with a 1 year free trial of MS-Office 2007, which is handy as I am using the same software on my other machine and it makes working on documents seamless. Samsung is planning on releasing this particular netbook in US later in Oct/Nov with Windows 7 installed but at this point in time this is the standard configuration. Don't know what the status of Windows 7 on Netbooks is in terms of what impact it has on battery life etc, so at this point I am pretty happy running a winXP machine.
The reason I bought this netbook was not to replace my grunty Precision M60 which I use to edit stuff as well but to use as a secondary laptop that I can carry with me - especially when traveling, so that I can still keep working and also be in touch with everyone. So overall I am pretty happy with the purchase and looking forward to carrying it around with me on my travels. I'll test my usual work flow - that I have of working with images from my digital camera, on this laptop and report back on my findings about it soon.
Till later,
Amit
UPDATED:
Here are a couple of pics of the N140 and needless to say the workflow is even more smoother than what I had before and that is because of the inbuilt SD/SDHC card reader on the machine. I used irfan view to adjust contrast and resize the image. Irfan view has a really small memory requirement [especially compared to GIMP] and does what I want it to do with minimum fuss + it is free.
Side view
Front viewI also installed Skype and everything with it is working fine - the webcam, the audio etc. That's one additional thing I can do on this netbook that I still can't do on my other laptop for some strange reason.
Labels: Netbooks, Samsung N140, The Moments In Between
posted by Amit @ 5:09 PM
13 Comments:
Hi! much time on full battery is displayed in the tray?
stand 11 o'clock or not?
you mean has it got the 11 hours battery life as samsung says it has? i didn't check it after the battery was fully charged up. i'll check that the next time i charge the netbook completely and see what the battery indicator says. right now i have set the samsung battery manager to 'normal' and i am sure that if you set it 'maximum battery life' you'll get more out of the battery.
Fully charged up - the battery says 11.15 hours @ 100%. I guess how quickly it gets used depends on what you use it for.
Hi Amit
Silly girl question: Do you like the look of the laptop?
It's very hard to get good pictures of the white version online. I think the black one looks kinda dated, which is unfortunate when you consider how awesome the N310 looks. I'm deciding between the N310 and the N140 (white) now. If the N310 came with a 6 cell battery (in Ireland), there'd be no competition. Even if the N140 has wireless N. ;)
Hey Mary
I love the look of the N140.:-) And people do look at it with envy/admiration. I had a quick look at N310 online and the design is different than the N140 so hard to say which one you would like.
White N140 is awesome because it doesn't pick up as many finger prints {easy to notice finger prints on black} and the screen is matte instead of gloss. With gloss - it is hard to work outdoors or in bright areas as you see your own reflection while matte is good for working anywhere. Plus battery life on N140 is heaps better. And those were the reasons I picked up the N140.
Follow your instinct is what I would say. Girls have better instinct anyway - no? ;-)
Haha! Wow, that was a fast reply!
I'm trying to be rational. I KNOW that the 140 has excellent specs, and since I can't get the battery I want on the 130, it really wins out. I'm just trying to convince myself that I can live without the pretty pebble design and rubberized cover on the 130!
(I know I can, I know I can, I know I can...)
Choices eh? Let me know which one you finally go for. :-)
Hi again Amit,
I went for the N140 in the end.
It's actually nicer in real life than in pictures, which is a relief after all the stressing out! :D
This setup is taking forever though. I believe in running all your updates and getting rid of the bloatware before doing anything else and it's TIME CONSUMING... Also had a moment of paranoia deciding on what to do with partitions, since the very term scares me...
I'll be using your link up there to tidy it up and stuff later. Thanks for providing it! It's a good resource.
Thanks again for the advice!
Hi Amit, I presume it came with a UK power plug and you need to use a universal adapter to plug it in? Or does the power pack allow you to just use something like this: http://www.techstufftrading.com.au/images/fig8pwr11.jpg
Cheers
Ben
Hey Ben,
Yeah it came with a UK power plug and I use a universal travel adapter. Not sure about the power pack thing.
Cheers
Amit
Hi Amit,
Thanks a lot for pointing out that you have installed skype on N140 and its working smoothly.
I am buying this by the end of Nov. with Windows 7 and 250 GB HDD.
I was little bit concerned the performance with Skype, but after reading that statement I am pretty satisfied with N140's performance. :)
Thanks a lot buddy.
Hi Amit
I want to buy the N140 here in South Africa, but they tell me it only has a 0.3MP camera. To me that's pretty much useless? Does the one you have have a 1.3MP camera, because you said that Skype etc works perfectly?
It's a 160GB with a 5200mAh 6 cell battery which probably won't give me the 11 hours they keep talking about?
Also, the Samsung technician said that because it has an Intel Atom Processor (N270 1.60GHz) it struggles to run more than one program at a time and lags alot.
There is so much conflicting information out there I don't really know what to believe and when reading customer reviews on the net I've only heard great things about the N140.
Any opinions or comments you have would be great.
Thanks,
Tessa
Hey Tessa,
Depends what you want to use the netbook for. It's my secondary computer that I use mainly for travel and skyping. The webcam is only 0.3MP but it still does the job for Skype.
Depends what programs you run - if you run something thats processor intensive then it is bound to lag a little but normal browsing and working on word documents etc the processor does the job.
As I said it depends on what you want to use the netbook for - if you are thinking graphic applications like photoshop etc then definitely not the right way to go and you'd be better off buying a proper laptop.
I used my netbook on my holiday and love the portability factor and ability to stay connected to the net.
Don't know if any of this helps.
Cheers
Amit
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