Samsung NF310-A01
- Category: Notebook Computers
November 19, 2010
Editor's Rating
- High-resolution display
- Dual-core Intel Atom CPU
- Long battery life
- Competitive price
- Fingerprint magnet
- Only 1GB of RAM
- No HDMI port
Netbooks have become extremely popular among many groups of people, especially the always "on-the-go" folk. The Samsung NF310-A01 is a 10-inch netbook with a dual-core CPU from Intel and has a high-resolution display and extremely long battery life, which are all things that make a great netbook.
Samsung calls the silver color that this model comes in "Titan Silver", which describes the solid silver plastic body that's used to make it. It is a rather glossy notebook, meaning it's quite a fingerprint magnet. However, it feels quite good in the hands and relatively sturdy too, but not as sturdy as some of the aluminum netbooks out there.
It is extremely portable, which is also something really good. It weighs just short of 3 pounds and is small enough to fit into a small bag for easy carrying during a long work/school day.
The 10.1-inch LCD has a resolution of 1366 x 786, which is higher compared to other netbooks. With the higher resolution, you can view Web pages without additional scrolling that you'd have to do on a smaller screen. The screen looks fantastic and has excellent brightness and contrast levels. The keyboard is actually full sized on this model and the keys were adequately spaced to allow comfortable use. The mouse track pad is a little wider than most, so the extra finger room makes a big difference.
The connectivity options on the Samsung NF310-A01 are rather decent, but with a few shortcomings. You do, however, get three USB 2.0 ports, VGA out, Ethernet, and an SD card reader. Noticeably missing is an HDMI port for connecting to an HDTV and perhaps the absence of a TV tuner may also turn some off, but the latter is less important in a netbook in our eyes. This lack of HDMI is most likely to keep the cost down. Samsung also gives you a 250GB 5400RPM hard drive, which is about on average with other netbooks. Windows 7 Starter Edition is pre-installed on this netbook.
Specifications of the Samsung NF310-A01 include an Intel Atom N550 dual-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz and 1GB of RAM. There is also built-in 802.11b/g/n wireless networking and the graphics card is a basic Intel GMA 3150. Having the new dual-core Atom processor from Intel means you'll get an additional performance boost, which is especially notable when browsing multiple Websites or having several program open at once. The 1GB of RAM, however, is a little lower than we would've liked to see (2GB would've been perfect).
Battery life on this Samsung netbook is one of its strengths. The 48WH high-performance battery gives you about 7 hours of battery life on average, which beats out most other netbooks and even most dual-core ones too.
System performance is quite admirable, but the 1GB of RAM holds it back slightly. It is fairly easily upgradable yourself to 2GB if you wish to do it, which is probably worth it. Besides that, average computing tasks work very well and were very quick with this netbook. For a low price of around $400, this is a netbook that's definitely worth a good look.
