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!
March 3rd, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Matt, of course I am sure. But just to make you happy….
Device Manager/N220/Sound, video and game controllers/Broadcom CrystalHD Video Decoder
If you need info on Driver/Details/Resources I’ll gladly post them, but a bit boring really. Info is now available on other forums too, seems it isn’t well publicised.
Suffice to say IT IS THERE ! And having downloaded some 1080p today it plays fine.
March 3rd, 2010 at 8:11 pm
@Scallywag, nice!
So strange how I can’t find this written anywhere! Bad move on Samsung’s part, not mentioning a great feature lol.
Real shame there is no HDMI output now. Thanks for the info Scallway! Enjoy the 1080p goodness!
March 4th, 2010 at 11:29 am
I’m now wondering if the UK version is different from the European version still.
As your N220 comes with the Crystal HD card, but the German N220 does not (as shown by the disassembly photos).
I just took apart my N210 to see if there was a PCI-e port. And… well there IS a space for it and the motherboard connections, but not port / slot for it. Anyone fancy some fine soldering? lol
March 4th, 2010 at 11:48 am
I just purchased the N210.
Would increasing the RAM from 1GB to 2Gb make a significant difference in performance? I viewed the links above (amazon) and the price seems right. Just unsure whether to upgrade or not.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Ash, it’s highly recommended.
Windows runs a whole lot better with 2GB. Less waiting around, faster loading, can run more applications without slow down etc.
March 4th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Damn it, I purchased the N210 in white from ebuyer, but if the N220 has all the extras I may have to return it and upgrade!
Thanks for posting Scally, I’ve looked everywhere and cannot find any reference to the N220 Broadcom CrystalHD. Can you let me know which online store you purchased it from and was it the red top or green top version?
March 5th, 2010 at 3:55 am
Hi Ian, I sent Matt some photos which he’s kindly posted on his site. You can get it at Comet, PC World, Dixons, Currys (last 3 are same group I know). With voucher it’s about £313. It’s worth a look in store as the red or green has very attractive dark finish.
Scally
March 5th, 2010 at 8:19 am
@ Ian, very annoying huh? I can’t believe Samsung hasn’t mentioned this anywhere! I’m sure they would sell even more if they did.
Like Scallywag said, I made a post about it here: http://www.netbookreviews.net/news/uk-samsung-n220-crystalhd/
Thanks again for sending the photos Scallywag.
March 5th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Having seen the difference with the US N210 and the UK N220 version, I am inclined to pay the extra and buy the UK version instead!! I like the fact that it plays back HD, longer battery life and have bluetooth on it!
Then again for the price of the UK N220 of £315 or $475..Add just a little bit more and i can buy the Samsung N510-13P which has similar specs but it also has Bluetooth 2.1, HDMI input, 11.6″HD 1366×768 screen, Nvidia ION LE graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium, and 6-cell 5900mAh..
hmmmm what to do..!?!? I DO love my Samsung US N210.. just wished it had bluetooth and the 5900 mAh 12hr battery… i could prolly go without the HD playback…
@Matt, thanks for the info. on the battery! its available for $98. still debating if its worth the price. Probably if I could sell my current stock battery to offset the price.. then it’ll be worth it!
@Ash, I did notice a bit of improvement when I upgraded the memory from 1GB to 2GB.. definitely added more pep to it!! I love this netbook!
March 5th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
No problem DChicago, I love this netbook also, typing on it now
.
I have to point out that the N510 has much worse battery life, even though it has a large battery, because the orginal Ion is a power hog.
If HD isn’t a big deal to you, (it’s not for me, my main concern is battery life), I would grab a micro USB bluetooth and see if you can get the UK battery.
If you had the extra UK and the US one, that’s a lot of hours! lol
March 5th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Argh! I have recently purchased a HP pavilion laptop and I want to sell it and buy a netbook! The laptop I currently have is very very huge and bulky and I cannot take it with me to uni and it doesn’t look very nice either.
I was wondering if you guys or anyone can help me give me some advice on which netbook to buy? These were some of the netbooks I had in mind:
Samsung N210 (What’s the difference between this one and 220?)
Samsung NC10
Samsung N150 = Battery life is exceptional, 1.3 pixel cam
Samsung N510 = 11.6 inch, 1.3 pixel cam, better performance
Compaq mini 311c = like the equivalent of the N510
Vaio W series = I was advised not to get this by my mate becuase samsungs netbooks are way better apparently.
If anyone could help it would be much appreciated, thanks.
March 6th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Well cancelled my order for the N210 and got a refund, then went to comet and bought the N220 and what can I say? I’m glad I followed this thread as the “little” extras on the N220 are definitely worth while. The extra speaker actually makes the netbook usable as mini music player whilst on holiday, or allows watching of movies with much greater enjoyment. When comparing the speakers with my previous MSI U100 there’s jus no comparison – well done Samsung! Haven’t tried the HD yet or the battery as I’m waiting to fully charge it before use, but looks promising!
March 7th, 2010 at 4:17 am
hi! i just bought my N210 today.i was very excited to use it and i like the cool design but when i started to browse thru the internet i noticed that it was very slow,i can even play any type of game because the system seems to hang.im not sure if they sold me a new or used netbook or what im experiencing is normal for netbooks.its actually my first time to use one,ive always just used regular laptops.thanks
March 7th, 2010 at 8:11 am
Hi! I was just about to purchase the N210 from ebuyer at £297 when I came across this website and now am unsure whether to get the N220 for £315? Is the only difference the Broadcom that allows the playback of 1080p video? What would you advise?
I was also thinking ahead and looking at RAM prices, and then I noticed that you bought a 2GB stick of RAM. How come you bought a 2GB stick rather than 1GB, when the netbook already has 1GB, and can only handle a maximum of 2GB? I was thinking of getting http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164766
Also, I’m guessing it’s not possible to get the N220 in white? I don’t think I’m that keen on the red/black look
Thanks! Looking forward to your response.
March 7th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Hi all,
I am going to buy a netbook soon and that was going to be Samsung N210, but I am still not sure. What would you advise as an option to N210.
thanks…
March 7th, 2010 at 11:52 am
Hi Muhammed. Not sure if this really helps but i’ve been looking at netbooks for aaages trying to buy one and I’ve finally decided on the N210. I think it’s build quality, battery life, extra features, and price, put it slightly ahead of every other netbook within the same kinda spec/price.
March 8th, 2010 at 10:12 am
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“Ali Says: March 5th, 2010 at 10:00 pm”
Hi Ali, cannot advise you but for 210 vs 220 simply read through this thread.
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“dhazel Says: March 7th, 2010 at 4:17 am”
Hi Dhazel, well I have been comparing my old MSI U100 against my new Samsung N220, and the build quality is very good on the Samsung. After erasing the hard drive and upgrading to 2 GB ram, I’m currently running a legitimate version of Windows 7 Ultimate on my Samsung N220 and getting a good response, it’s got the full Aero and seems to run without problems, however there’s a bit of lag when using multitouch, and when trying to watch BBC Iplayer it just stutters (even in low def!). That’s a bit disappointing that I cannot watch BBC Iplayer on the new N220 with broadcom, when my old MSI U100 on windows XP did it no problem. Perhaps it’s a case of going back to XP?! Although the N220 runs VLC and Media Player with no problems, just seems to be BBC Iplayer so far.
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“Mike Says: March 7th, 2010 at 8:11 am”
Hi Mike, I also originally placed my order with Ebuyer, and I though, well If I’m going to spend nearly £300 an extra £30 for the long term from Comet is not really going to make that much difference. I’m fairly pleased so far, although quite frankly wondering when will I ever actually use the broadcom chip and watch anything HD on the 10″ Notebook. When I first started the N220 with the default Windows 7 Starter pre-installed I was getting 11.20 Hours battery reading at 100% charge, and after putting a bunch of software and windows 7 Ultimate, my battery is now reading around 6 Hours at 100% charge, so maybe time to go back to a more cutdown version of 7 or even back to XP.
The reason you have to order 2GB of ram is because there’s only one slot. So if you order 1GB of ram there’s no place to put is as it is already taken by Samsung’s 1GB of Ram. Therefore order 2GB and replace Samsung’s 1GB.
No the N220 is not available in white (I was originally going to buy the N210 in white). The Red/Black one is not too bad, but yes I would have preferred it in white for finger prints etc.. The only issue with white is resale value in a year’s time fr example. I don’t if you have seen any old whit Macs from last year, but they get yellow very fast.
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March 8th, 2010 at 10:19 am
@Ali, the N220 has 1080p playback and an extra subwoofer, read more here: http://www.netbookreviews.net/news/uk-samsung-n220-crystalhd/
NC10, is last years generation.
N150, is lower spec model from N210, better not as good as the N210/N220..
N510, 11.6 inch, Ion graphics, worse battery life.
311C very similar to N510.
@ Ian, glad you’re happy with your purchase!
@ dhazel, netbooks aren’t as fast at laptops. If you’re running on battery the default “Samsung Optimized” profile runs the CPU at 1/2 speed, you can change this by changing profile to balanced or High performance. Balanced will change the CPU’s speed dynamically.
@ Mike, looks like Ian just answered it for you. Cheers Ian!
March 8th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Update: After Matt’s advice changed mode from ‘Standard Mode’ to ‘Speed Mode’ and watching TV programme ‘In the Loop’ on IPlayer streaming mode is now a lot better, but still the odd jitter! If you want to watch anything on Iplayer in HD you have to download it first, streaming is too jittery.
By the way Matt, the other reason I opted for the N220 was the extra mini sub. I got so annoyed with my MSI U100′s piercing speakers, and never being able to listen to music or watch a movie without headphones, well the N220 although not perfect does allow to comfortably listen to any audio at quite a reasonable volume.
March 8th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Hi there!
I want to buy one of these, but as I´ve always used big screens (I´m very used to my 17″ laptop) I´m afraid those 10.1″ could be felt like a bit small. I mean, can someone “older” use it without any problems? I need big icons, big letter size. I like resolution like 800×600…
I would love to hear your thoughts and recommendations on this
Thanks!
Ana
March 8th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
@ Ian, glad the Speed mode is working better for you.
Yeah if you plan on using your netbook for music the extra speaker will be a great thing to have, a portable joke box!
@ Ana, while the netbook screen will of course be a lot smaller, you should be okay. If it had a HD resolution the fonts would be even smaller.
In Windows 7 you can make the fonts and graphics bigger if things are too small, or use the zoom tool in Internet Explorer or Firefox.
March 9th, 2010 at 8:30 am
Thank you very much Matt! I think I´ll buy it!
Ana
Buenos Aires
March 9th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Going to get one of these for my son. I will want to put microsoft office on it for him and a photo editing programme. Basically he will want to use the internet, access his e-mails, do some homework – hence office – and upload & edit his photos. Is there a trial of Office on the samsung ? – I have a product key anyway and also what included software should I remove to free up space that is just unecessary. ( He is 11 if that helps).
March 9th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Really great site and very helpful.
Thanks a lot Matt and others.. going to try the speakers on both and make my decision that way. From the sounds of it, it’s gonna be the N220!
March 10th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Toby, the speakers are fairly impressive for the size of the netbook, let us know what you think.
You may find this interesting, I have been trying to squeeze every ounce of juice out of my battery, and windows has been reading about 7.3 hours. I decided to downgrade my Ram back to the official 1GB Ram from Samsung originally installed in the netbook, and now windows reads 11.3 Hours at 100% but admittedly it goes straight back to 7.3Hours at 95%. I’m wondering if Jolicloud may provide with longer battery…?
March 15th, 2010 at 11:19 am
@ Ian. Interesting RAM observation.
The biggest single impact on battery life I have seen is the display brightness. Decreasing this can provide a much longer time. Also the CPU speed to a degree.
I’m not sure if Jolicloud would make any difference or not.