Samsung N120
Samsung N120 is yet another netbook is Samsung’s lineup to offer excellent performance, interesting design and good keyboard for a reasonable price.
Samsung N120 pros:
+ Very good resolution and overall screen quality
+ Excellent battery life
+ Comfortable and responsive, full size keyboard
+ Windows XP
Samsung N120 cons:
- Smallish touchpad
- Poor viewing angles
- no optical drive
Design:
Samsung N120 measures 10.7 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches and weighs 2.8 pounds. The netbook is available in black or white and its body resembles some older Samsung netbooks. However, in order to accommodate a larger keyboard it is a bit larger than its predecessors. As the netbook is still very small and comfortable to hold and carry around I don’t think it is a big issue. This also affected the bezel around the screen which now accommodates speakers making the sound quality commendable.
The Samsung N120 features the standard set of ports sufficient for the normal, day to day work. And so it has to USB ports and an Ethernet port on the left, whereas the right side features the VGA-out, Kensington lock, audio in/out, and a third USB port. You can also find the 3-in-1 memory card reader hidden under the front lip.
Samsung claims that the N120’s keyboard is full size, yet it is not quite so. All the key are slightly smaller than on a standard, full size keyboards, but you can hardly notice it and for suet it does not have a negative impact on writing. All the keys in the Samsung N120 are well placed and provide nice feedback. The trackpad is a bit smallish, but very responsive and pleasant to use also its buttons are responsive and behave as expected.
The Samsung netbook’s 10.1-inch screen works in 1024 x 600 resolution and shows bright colors. However, the viewing angles are quite poor not only horizontally, but also vertically. The Samsung N120 also comes with a built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam which works pretty well.
Performance:
Samsung N120 features 1.6-GHz Intel processor which achieved a good result in PCMark05 test (1,515) so the overall performance is commendable. The Samsung netbook features the Intel 945GSE graphics chip which also does its job quite well and although you will most probably not be able to play the latest 3D games you can seamlessly watch a 720P HD video. Samsung N120 has a 160 GB working at 5,400 rpm so you can’t expect it will save and open files as fast as the latest MacBook Pro, but it will should be okay for browsing the net and for basic work with multimedia.
The wireless performance of Samsung N120 is in line with the netbook average, yet its battery life test performance might be surprising. The Samsung N120 has strong enough battery to allow you to browse the Internet wirelessly of up to 7 hours.
Conclusion:
All in all the Samsung N120 is a very powerful netbook for a reasonable price (about $420) which will not disappoint. With its very good battery it is prefect for long travels and as it can run HD movies effortlessly it is also very good for fun.
Selected Samsung N120 features and specifications:
- CPU
1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270
- RAM Included
1GB
- RAM Upgradable
2GB
- Hard Drive Size
160GB
- Hard Drive Speed
5,400rpm
- Hard Drive Type
SATA Hard Drive
- Display Size
10.1
- Native Resolution
1024×600
- Graphics Card
Intel 945GSE
- Video Memory
128MB
- Wi-Fi
802.11b/g
- Bluetooth
Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
Mobile Broadband
- Operating System
MS Windows XP (SP3)
- Ports (excluding USB)
Ethernet; Headphone; Kensington Lock; Microphone; VGA
- USB Ports
3
- Card Slots / Readers
3-1 card reader
- Warranty/Support
One-year standard parts and labor/24/7 toll-free phone
Other recently reviewed laptops:
SONY VAIO VGN-SZ71XN, MacBook Pro