The Samsung N210 is one of the latest 10.1-inch netbooks announced by Samsung at the start of this year. Like the majority of the new netbooks this year it uses the new Intel Atom N450 processor, which while it doesn’t offer any performance boosts, it has a lower power consumption, offering longer battery life.
The N210 model comes above the N150 / NB30 models, and features a longer 11.2 hours of run time. It is identical to the slightly more expensive N220 models, with the N220 models having a colored lid (Red / Black, or Green / Black), as opposed to a black / white only.
Samsung N210 open right
Samsung N210 Specifications
- 10.1-Inch 1024 x 600 Display (Non Glossy / matte)
- Intel Atom N450 / 1.66 GHz CPU
- 250 GB SATA Hard Drive
- Intel GMA 3150 Graphics
- 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM – 800 MHz (Upgradeable to 2GB)
- 3 in 1 Card Reader
- 0.3 Megapixel Webcam
- Bluetooth 2.1 EDR
- 802.11b/g/n/ WiFi, Ethernet
- Multitouch Touchpad
- 3x USB 2.0
- 11.2 Hour Battery Life
- 26.5 cm x 18.9 cm x 2.9 cm, 1.34 kg
- Windows 7 Starter Edition (32-Bit)
Design / Build Quality
Unlike a number of manufacturers who have just updated their previous netbooks with the latest Pine Trail processors, Samsung have a completely new design for the N210, and I love it. I thought it looked great from the press photos, and when I first got my hands on it, I was even more impressed.
Samsung N210
I feel that the N210 has a more professional, stylish look than most netbooks on the market. The inside of the netbook is all matte, including the display which is great to see. A small chrome trim runs around the outside of the netbook and can be seen when the netbooks is closed and open.
While the inside of the netbook is all matte, the lid isn’t, and has a glossy finish. But rather than a plain black gloss finish, it has a smooth gloss finish over a subtle textured pattern which looks great, but unfortunately attracts fingerprints, but not as much as a simple plain gloss finish.
Samsung N210 Lid
As far as build quality goes, I have to say the Samsung N210 has nailed it. It feels very sturdy, and strong, with no give or weakness anywhere, even the keyboard, which I will speak more about later. This combined with the great styling makes the N210 my favorite netbook design.
Ports / Layout
The front of the N210 has a 3-in-1 multicard reader (SD Memory Card, MultiMediaCard, SDHC Memory Card), and two speakers. You can also see the LED status lights.
On the sides you can see a nice chrome finish. The left side has the power, Ethernet, air vent, 1x USB 2.0 port, microphone and headphone connections.
Samsung N210 Left
On the right side it has 2x USB 2.0 ports (bringing the total to three), VGA connection and a Kensington lock.
Samsung N210 Right
There is nothing at the back, just the battery. Under the battery there is a SIM card slot, but we expect this is just a dummy port.
At the bottom you will find just a single access port for the RAM. This allows very easy assess to the RAM for upgrading via one screw, but this means you won’t be able to assess the other components very easily, although this is a common feature of the latest netbooks.
Samsung N210 Bottom
Keyboard
The keyboard on Samsung N210 is a real winner. It’s of a chiclet type which makes for easier typing. It runs the full width of the netbook maximizing the over all size of the keyboard. The chiclet keys are well sized but also have a wide space between them meaning you’re less likely to hit the wrong key while typing.
The N210′s keyboard is quiet, offers great feedback and is rock solid. There is seriously no sign of keyboard flex what so ever! I also have the Asus Eee PC 1005PE here which as some keyboard flex, and smaller spaces between the keys.
Samsung N210 Keyboard
The only small negative is the smallish backspace and right shift key, which takes a little getting used to.
Samsung N210 Keyboard 2
Trackpad
The Samsung N210′s trackpad is very well sized, and supports multi touch gestures. This allows you to pinch zoom with two fingers, swipe with three to go forward and back while browsing, and scroll vertically and horizontally with two fingers. I have found it to work well and be sensitive enough. The trackpad is very slightly indented, which I like as you can tell if your finger has moved right up to the border of the pad, which allows for easy scrolling using the edge of the pad.
The touchpad uses a single rocker type button, while it’s a little slim it works very well, and to be honest, at first I didn’t realize it was of a rocker type (which is a good thing).
N210 Trackpad
Performance
Although the N210 features the latest generation Atom N450 1.66GHz processor, it doesn’t significantly (if at all) boost performance over the previous generation N270 / N280 models, but instead lowers power consumption and provides longer run time.
You can expect the Samsung N210 to perform very similar to other Atom N450 netbook as they will have almost identical hardware, but each model does vary somewhat slightly.
I have run the CrystalMark 2004R3 benchmarking software on the Samsung N210, and have compared it to the Asus Eee PC 1005PE, which also has the N450 CPU, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive.
The Samsung N210 achieved a CrystalMark score of 28400, where as the Asus 1005PE scored 27775.
- CrystalMark : 28400
- ALU: 6458
- FPU: 3920
- MEM: 6368 | (Read: 1975.82 MB/s (1975), Write: 1481.85 MB/s (1481))
- HDD: 8209 | (Read: 67.72 MB/s (2708), Write: 59.90 MB/s (2396))
- GDI: 1895
- D2D: 1092
- OGL: 458
Tests were run on High performance / Speed modes. I noticed the Samsung N210 scored higher in the RAM test, I believe this might be because it features 800 MHz RAM, where as many use the 666MHz speed.
The N210 can handle 720p video downloads without a problem, but it’s not powerful enough to playback 1080p HD videos.
Battery Life
The N210 has a 6-cell 5900 mAh battery which has a claimed battery life of 11.2 hours. While I haven’t run a “Battery eater” type test, as these give unrealistic results, I have been using the Samsung N210 for quite some time now and the battery sure doesn’t like to die.
I feel that the quoted 11 hour battery life is a fair estimation, and hasn’t been over exaggerated, as Windows seems to following and reporting the same results. Battery life decreased when the screen brightness is increased, and you will probably only get the full 11 hours with the brightness at about 40-50%.
Display
The 10.1-inch LCD has a standard 1024 x 600 pixel (WSVGA) resolution, but unlike many netbook, it features a non-gloss, matte finish! Matte finishes are usually preferred on a netbook, as it’s a mobile device and taken around, you don’t have to worry about annoying reflections.
The clarity also remains very high. Screen brightness is easily selectable on eight different levels. To extend battery life, the brightness can be set at about 50% and easily used in normal lighting conditions.
Samsung have also included a tool called “Easy Resolution Manager” which allows you easily select a higher 1024 x 700 resolution. In Windows you can set it to 1152 x 864 for extra screen space, but you will loose detail and clarity as it’s not the LCD’s native resolution.
Noise / Heat
The N210 runs very quietly (piratically silent), with very little noise from the hard drive or fan. The fan seems to be off for the most part, and only turning on whisper quietly very occasionally. Even during the benchmarking the fan never ramped up to a high speed. This is no doubt helped by the ultra efficient Pine Trail CPU.
The top of the netbook, including the trackpad keeps very cool, while the bottom only get very slightly warm after hours of usage, but it’s nothing to worry about.
Audio
While it looks like a speaker grill might be located at the back of the keyboard by the LCD, they are in fact at the front edge of the netbook. The volume / quality is quite good for small speakers, and easily loud enough to fill a room. As with all small speakers the bass is somewhat lacking, but you can enable the SRS TruSurround XT technology which improves the quality by making it sound less “tinny” and adding more bass. You can configure a number of SRS settings and a “TruBass” setting.
Software
The Samsung N210 runs Windows 7 Starter Edition (32-bit) and comes with a number of Samsung utilities. When you first start the system you can choose how to partition the 250GB hard drive in two drives, or a single drive. The second partition can be used with a Samsung backup utility.
The Easy Resolution Manager allows you to easily change the resolution, as described above.
Samsung Easy Resolution Manager
Samsung Update Plus finds the latest hardware drivers and BIOS, keeping your system up to date. A speed profile changing utility allows you to easily select from a silent mode, normal and a speed mode.
Samsung Speed Mode
Two other useful bits of software are the Chargeable USB function, which allows you to select whether or not to power a specific USB port to charge a device through it while the netbook is in sleep mode or even off.
Finally the Battery life extender options allows you to set the netbook to charge the battery to only 80%. This should extend the life of the battery by reducing it’s wear. It’s an all too common problem when a battery that one lasted many hours can only hold less than half of it’s charge a year or so later.
Conclusion
Samsung N210 Case
The Samsung N210 has very quickly become my favorite netbook. I very much like its stylish design and very high build quality. This paired with the best netbook keyboard I have seen, a large multi touch trackpad, and matte display make it very hard to beat.
When you also throw in the long battery life to the equation it’s very easy to see why the N210 is quickly becoming a best seller. I can very highly recommend the Samsung N210.
Update: It looks like the N210 has been replaced by the new Samsung N210 Plus. This new model is exactly the same, but now comes with Bluetooth 3.0, rather than 2.1, and features a new fast boot feature. The good news is, it is priced £20 cheaper at just £299!
It is currently available for just £299 from Amazon UK. The white model is also available on offer for £278
In the US it’s a little harder to find, but the white model is available from BestBuy.com for $379.99!
July 12th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Hi there, Great review Matt. This sure seems a great netbook and i really like the “Battery life extender” option, that will definitely prolong the life of the battery, also like the “powered USB option”
I will be putting my order in for one soon…
Thanks again Matt,
regards,
Andy.
July 13th, 2010 at 8:03 am
Hi Andy, many thanks for the comment, I’m glad you liked it. It sure is a great netbook!
July 12th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Nice review.
- Does the N210 case shown in the last photo come with it?
- Would this be able to support Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit?
July 13th, 2010 at 8:04 am
Thanks Henry,
Yes it comes with the case as shown in the last photo, well, it did with my UK version.
Yes it will be able to support Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit.
July 24th, 2010 at 8:55 am
hey can u please let me know is this netbook comes along with windows 7 installation disc & other utilities software disc ? or do we need to purchase this separately? are they not included with netbook?
July 25th, 2010 at 6:10 am
Thanks for the detailed review. I’ve been dithering for days over different netbooks, not being overly technical minded it was becoming a dreaded task.
Simple straightforward explanations of each detail has made your reviews easy for me to understand most of the technical data and i’ve been able to select as well as understand exactly what i need in a netbook.
I’ve just ordered the Samsung N210 from Amazon without the worrying niggle that i’ve selected the right machine for my needs.
Thankyou.
July 26th, 2010 at 11:05 am
No problem Jan, many thanks for the kind words, I’m glad it was helpful for you! Also thanks for buying through Amazon, it helps to support the site
July 25th, 2010 at 7:11 am
Thanks 4 such a usefull review. I have a 13.5 Inch lappy and I need a lighter and smaller one for my outdoor works. Can u please tell is it
3G compatible ??? Can I use a 3G sim in it which will make it more a netbook. Please do reply me fast. Bye
Biju
July 26th, 2010 at 11:09 am
Thanks Biju. As standard the N210 does not support 3G, as it doesn’t feature a 3G card. But you can use it with a 3G USB dongle.
July 25th, 2010 at 11:13 am
Hey Matt,
First of all thanks for the great review. Could you please let me know does this netbook comes along with Windows 7 Installation disc & other software utilities? Like we have in Dell, please let me know as this would help me in taking a decision.
Thanks for your help in advance.
Cheers
Vikas
July 26th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Hey Vikas,
No problem and thanks. As far as I remember it doesn’t come with a Window 7 disc. It has pre-installed utilities which can also be downloaded. If you wanted to re-install windows 7, it can be done via USB or external drive and using the Windows 7 serial key at the bottom of the netbook.
July 26th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Great review matt. i just got my self this notebook yesterday n i love itn the most betifullthing is the keayboard..just like u said…so practical to use…:-)
July 27th, 2010 at 7:15 pm
Was stuck as to which netbook to buy, I wrote a comment a few hours back about the Dell 1012, now that I’ve done my research and heard it from ‘Netbooked’ that the Samsung is a solid machine, I’m sold. Good job!
July 28th, 2010 at 11:09 am
great review…I’ve had mine for about 2 months now and I do love it…the non-gloss screen narrowed my search to samsung and sony…but the long battery life was the clincher…the right shift button is a little wierd though..(I’ve hit the \ many times by accident). Do you know which of the USBs are “high speed”?
thanks again.
Dan
August 2nd, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Thanks Dan, glad you love it.
I think all three are “high speed” aka, USB 2.0.
July 30th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Thanks for the useful review! Can you specify how this model differs from N220 and N230? Other than the color..?
August 2nd, 2010 at 12:10 pm
No problem Chris, and thanks.
The N220 has the two different colours, a small “sub woofer”, and the UK models seem to come with the Crystal HD card for HD playback.
The new N230 has a brushed metal finish, and Bluetooth V3.0, with subwoofer, not sure about the HD card just yet.
August 2nd, 2010 at 11:41 am
Thanks for a really comprehensible review that a non-geek can understand. I had almost settled on this netbook but you confirmed my choice. Amazon has it at a great price and also the 2gb of extra RAM available.
August 2nd, 2010 at 12:14 pm
No problem Julia, I’m glad the review was helpful to you, and easy to understand.
Thanks for buying through Amazon, it helps to support the site!
August 3rd, 2010 at 6:29 pm
Is the graphics chip integrated?
August 4th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Yes, all Atom powered netbooks do. This has the Intel GMA 3150 graphics.
August 4th, 2010 at 12:32 am
Great review! My hubby has ordered one of these for my birthday (in 2 days time – Yay!!!) Any recommendations for how to size the partitions for the hard drive when you boot it for the first time? I’ll back my data files onto an external drive and I have CDs for programs other than Windows 7 Starter but I will need to be able to restore the netbook back to factory condition if necessary and thus have all the correct drivers. Does the unit provide a way to make a functioning Restore CD (I have an exernal DVD/CD drive) and will I have to do this as soon as I boot it for the first time, at the same time as I do the partitions or can that be left for a bit?
August 4th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Many thanks Evelyn, I hope you will enjoy the netbook!
You probably won’t need more than 10-30 GB on the extra partition, personal preference. Yes it has to be done on the first boot. I don’t remember exactly the restore options, but I know it does support some kind of easy restore, which needs the second partition.
August 6th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Thanks Matt. It didn’t let me set the extra drive lower than 40GB so I let it have 45 but I’d have used their suggestion of dividing the drive in half, if you hadn’t told me that and I can see from the next screen that comes in the setup procedure that I really only needed 15GB at this point so I would have wasted a whole lot of my Hard Drive. Excellent advice.
August 4th, 2010 at 6:05 am
Thanks for the review. I am on the verge of buying and have been reading around on this and have found several comments about the amount of ‘bloatware’ you need to uninstall. I am fairly proficient with a PC generally but unsure as to what should be removed and how I would go about doing it. Do you have any advice, or could you point me to a good source of info on how to clean up bloatware? Thanks again.
August 4th, 2010 at 5:58 pm
No prob Lou, thanks.
There is some bloatware on the N210, but not much at all, less than on many of the new Asus’. I can’t remember what it was, but it’s very easy to uninstall via the windows uninstaller.
August 4th, 2010 at 6:59 am
Thanks for the review, it was very informative and easy to follow! I would like to ask whether you know the differences between the (now) original N210 and N220 vs the N210 Plus and N220 Plus? And whether the N210/220 Plus is better than N230? So many models!
August 4th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
Cheers Leon, I’m glad you found it helpful.
The Plus models add Bluetooth 3.0 (rather than 2.1), a fast boot feature, (bigger HDD in the U.S I think) and a new finish on the palm rest. The N230 seems to be the new top model.
August 13th, 2010 at 6:56 am
Heyy Matt,Thanks for the review
I was just wondering,isn’t 1GB of RAM not enough for a netbook? especially one supporting Windows 7.
August 19th, 2010 at 10:23 am
Many thanks Conor,
1GB is fine for Windows 7, and runs well, but 2GB can be useful if you want to run a number of programs at one time.
August 19th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Hey Matt, thanks for a great review.
I was curious, and would really appreciate if you are able to give a fast reply
, when you mentioned that it can’t play 1080p HD videos..
Now I am computer illiterate, but I mainly use my computer to watch streamed videos via megavideo/youtube etc
(no idea if they are 1080p? or HD though…have a normal wireless network now 12-25 mbit/s, but am changing to a “usb-broadband modem” that I don’t know what to call in english.. which will go to 6 mbit/s) and listen through spotify.
I also do a lot of office work, often with multiple windows and programs open at the same time. Such as my work mail and 1-2 internet pages, 1-3 word, excel, and maybe something more.
Would n210 handle that well do you think?
Your help in this would be precious.
/Livvey
August 19th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Hey Olivia, many thanks and no problem.
YouTube and megavideo videos will play without a problem, as long as you don’t click the HD button on Youtube
. They normally play at standard resolution by default.
The netbook and 6mbit/s will also be fine for spotify.
The N210 should be able to handle all of the applications you mention with out any problem. But if you notice it is slow changing between the programs when you have them running simultaneously, you will probably benefit from the 2GB RAM upgrade.
August 22nd, 2010 at 11:40 am
Hi Matt,
many thanks for that review i have done so much re-search into netbooks and agree with everything,one small question!!What is the difference between the n210 and the n210plus??
many thanks patrick
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:49 am
Thanks Patrick,
The Plus models add Bluetooth 3.0 (rather than 2.1), a fast boot feature, (along with a bigger HDD in the U.S I think) and a new finish on the palm rest.
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:57 am
cool! many thanks for your reply
August 24th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Hey really helpful review
just wondered whether it would be possible to upload apple mac software onto the N210 because i currently have a macbook pro and would love something a little smaller to use as well that would be compatible.
Many thanks
August 24th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
The old N210 is advertised in the UK with 11.2 hours battery life. The N210 PLUS is advertised at only 10 hours. The battery is smaller capacity at only 4400amh. (the old N210 was a 5900amh battery).
Also no case is supplied with the PLUS version. The old version came with a case included.
August 26th, 2010 at 4:05 am
Hi there,
Thanks so much for such a helpful review. I am going to get a 210 plus from the office and was wondering if it could run statistical softwares like SPSS and R?
I use these programs mainly for statistical analyses and occasional Amateur programming stuff.
Do you reckon 210 would handle this?
Your advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks so much.
A
August 26th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
hey….
The review was awesome.It was a great help. just wanted to know about the sim card.
Having a problem with the slot. Is it really a dummy?
August 31st, 2010 at 9:42 am
Cheers Vikas, yes unfortunately with most netbooks, it is just a dummy sim port.
September 1st, 2010 at 5:15 am
It is good to see a reviewer who actually listens to reader.Rock on man!
September 2nd, 2010 at 11:30 am
Thanks a lot Divine, I appreciate that!