Samsung N120

You're still talking about almost £400 for an underpowered machine

Which is far too much by any standard

Good product

1. Take components designed for a low spec, cheap system

2. Put them in a laptop case.

3. Sell for laptop prices

4. ...

5. Profit!

Anyone who buys this is a mug.

The USB powering feature is not unique

It is quite handy if you use a 3G modem. It may take it anything up to a minute to boot, pick up a 2G network and handover to 3G from cold. If it is powered however it can connect nearly instantaneously.

As a result having USB powered even when in sleep/standby/off is actually quite handy for a netbook. Oh an by the way, the Lenovo S10e does that too for standby mode.

Re Too expensive ?

I second that motion - these have moved so far from the original as not to be 'netbooks' anymore...

Start the mini-laptop reviews

XP???

El Reg says, "If you can live with the price, relatively fragile hard drive and Windows then the Samsung NC10 is, without doubt, one of the best netbooks currently available."

I've been running a full install of Ubuntu 8.04 on my terrific NC10 since I got it. And as I bought it - brand new - for £280, fully a 100 quid cheaper than the N120 price you cite, I don't think this over-priced, Windows-only offering from Samsung comes anywhere near the NC10, or the GNU/Linux-toting alternatives from Asus, etc.

Back to the drawing board, Samsung.

Not a netbook

I don't think netbooks are purely defined by size. Like others have said it's also the price.

To me a netbook is the best tech I can get with a 10" max screen for less than £200.

Anything more than £200 and I will consider a small notebook.

Still waiting to see what ION and ARM do to the netbook market when competitive products role out.

Fragile disc? + performance

Huh? What you talking about? Nothing wrong with the NC10 disc. Sure it's a disc and not an SSD, but unless you're going to be playing Frisbee with the thing it's perfectly fine.

Piro - Have you actually tried an Atom based PC?

Sure they're not gaming rigs, but hell, my NC10 is running Windows XP whilst playing 720p HD material, streamed over WiFi and upscaled to my 1080p telly perfectly smooth all with software codecs!! (and actually it does play many older games quite nicely). Hardly underpowered in performance terms for the job it's designed for, but it is low powered in wattage terms. This is why Atom processors are in my opinion going to be ideal for low powered, quiet HD HTPCs.

Sure £300 to £400 can get you a decent spec PC (as long as Apple's name isn't on it). Fine, in a netbook this size? Hmm, thought not.

Anyway, if your experience of Netbooks are those crappy "cut down linux" based budget EeePcs, then try these higher spec machines running XP, Win7 or even Ubuntu.

Depends on you expectations though. If you want top spec gaming rig in a netbook size device that's not a 300W heater and won't burn through the desk, then you're in for a disappointment. For everyone else who wants a highly portable, low powered, device for web, email, the odd document, taking to meetings, and watch a few vids on a flight, etc, these are ideal.

fragile

as someone who has dropped a running SSD Acer Aspire 1 down a flight of stairs I can see where El Reg is coming from. Netbooks are first and foremost portable, and portable means having to withstands knocks, bangs and drops. I wouldn't treat a £370 Samsung with the same disregard as a £200 AA1, and that's exactly why I bought the AA1. If I want to carry around something that I have to treat with kid gloves I'll my cart MacBook around with me. More reason I suspect to start calling machines like the NC10 and N120 "mini-laptops" and machines like the AA1 and Dell Mini 10v - btw, can we get a review of this soon? - "netbooks".