There is news of a ’special’ edition of the NC10. From what we’ve found out this ’special’ version has a larger touchpad and a 6-cell battery that will last 9.5 hours or so beating the standard NC10 by around 2.5-3 hours! Below are the features:

• 5900mAh 6 cell high capacity battery giving up to 9.5 hours of continuous run-time
• Touch pad larger than other NC10 models
• 10.2-inch Wide, 1024 x 600 WSVGA
• Intel Atom processor N270, 1.6 GHz, 533 MHz Front Side Bus, 512 KB Level 2 Cache
• 160 GB, 2.5-inch HD
• 1 GB DDR2 800 MHz
• Intel 945GSE shared
• 802.11 b/g WiFi
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• 10/100 BaseTX LAN

Unfortunately the special version of the NC10 is only available in the US right now. You can check details here.

Looking at the picture above one can see that the Samsung NC10 features 84 (don’t go and count them!) almost-full-sized keys. No other Netbook of this size has managed to put in such a ‘large’ keyboard which makes typing very natural.

An almost full-size keyboard might not sound like a big deal, but it really improves the feel of the Netbook and allows you to type comfortably after some usage (it may be a little strange at first depending on what type of keyboard you usually use, nothing to worry about.)

It is also worth mentioning that the touch pad is quite comfortable to use. Some people claim that adjustments need to be made within Windows to the sensitivity and other options but so far I’ve not found this to be neccesssary and I say this as I’m typing away on my NC10 right at this moment

1. The Battery Life

This is the point that had me sold. The acclaimed battery life really can be 8 hours (with normal use, you can get just under 7 hours). Check out the Samsung NC 10 Battery Life post for more specifics.

2. The Screen

We all know that Samsung make fantastic screens and in the case of the NC10 this is no different. This 10.2” wide display has a 1024×600 WSVGA resolution. I found that the screen has really good viewing angles which may not be so important for a netbook but still goes to show the quality of the screen. All images and movies are vibrant and rich in colour compared to some other netbook screens I’ve seen.
3. The Startup Time

From hitting the on switch to running windows you wait about 30 seconds. While that’s slower than a machine with a solid-state-drive, it’s faster than any other Netbook out there.

4. The Keyboard

The biggest downside of most Netbooks are the awkward little keyboards. This is OK if you just want to surf the web. But it’s not optimal if you want to type anything quickly. The Samsung NC10 keyboard is in a league of its’ own. It is as close to a full-sized keyboard as you’ll get on a machine this small (93% the size of a full-size keyboard).

5. The Storage

Some people complain about the fact that the Samsung NC10 doesn’t have a SSD HD (solid state drive). While a SSD drive does offer faster loading and access times they tend to be far smaller in terms of capacity and also, notoriously expensive! The 160GB HD 5,400RPM that comes with the NC10 as standard not only provides vast amounts of space it is also relatively quick to access.

Had an SSD HD been put in place of the standard HD, the price of the NC10 would probably be around 2 times higher which leads us straight to the next point!

6. The Price!

The price of this unit is staggering. I purchased two for around 320GBP each; I’m considering getting another one for the special sub 300 pound offer for my mum!

7. WiFi

The WiFi card on the NC10 is very good picking up any signal instantly without a problem within a large range. By the time you turn it on and load up IE or Firefox, the wireless will already have automatically connected.

8. The Ports

The NC10 has 3 USB ports and a VGA-out (for plugging in an external monitor). This allows you to plug in a regular keyboard if you like, a mouse and a printer! Also if the 10′2″ screen is not big enough you can easily plug it up to any monitor. Upgrade is to 2GB of RAM and who knows, maybe it’s suitable for you as a desktop replacement

9. The Camera & Speakers

The camera is ideal for video conferencing creating good quality stills and movies. Although the speakers are really quite small they create a great sound and are surprisingly loud. Most of the time you’ll be using headphones if watching a movie, but just incase you want to watch a movie with someone else, or listen to some music, the speakers are ready to rock!

10. The Sound

Moving on to the sound of the machine itself. There is nothing worse than a noisy laptop.. you’ll be pleased to know that the NC10 is virtually silent. The new Intel Atom CPU is to thank here as it is extremely power efficient and produces very little heat.

Summary

If you want an affordable, mobile, durable, aesthetically pleasing and pleasing all around Netbook then you can’t go wrong with the NC10. If this got you excited and you want one before Christmas check out this page to see where you can buy one whereever you may be

It has a built in HSPA modem (HSDPA speeds of up to 7,2 Mb/s, HSUPA speeds of up to 2,0 Mb/s) I doesn’t say about the impact the modem has on the NC10 battery life, perhaps it isn’t significant.

Anyway, this means that it’s only a matter of time before 3G enabled versions arrive in the UK & US; perhaps even before christmas, that is.. if the supply shortage ends!

Polish commercial for the 3G NC10:

According to MicroScope.co.uk, the guys at Samsung claim that they will not be able to fulfill all orders for christmas!

They also said that although they have increased production it won’t be until early 2009 that supply may meet demand. It seems as though only Black NC10’s are available in the UK and White and Blue ones in the US. Maybe someone in Korea messed up the distribution

The graph below shows that the 8 hour claim is not far from the truth:

You better Beleive it! – at around 37.5% level brightness (fine if you are out of sunlight) the NC10 goes for almost 7 hours!