by Charles P. Jefferies
The Samsung N120 is the company's latest entry into the 10-inch netbook market. The N120 has typical netbook specifications but sets itself apart with an eye-catching design, light weight, and long battery life. Read on for our take.
Our Samsung N120 review unit has the following specifications:
- Intel Atom N270 processor (1.60GHz)
- Windows XP Home Edition
- Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics
- 1GB RAM
- 10.1-inch widescreen display (1024x600) with LED backlighting
- 160GB 5400RPM hard drive (Samsung HM160HI)
- 6-cell Li-ion battery (11.1V, 57Wh (5200mAh)
- Atheros AR5007EG 802.11g wireless
- One-year limited warranty
- White color (also available in black)
- Dimensions: 10.71 x 7.4 x 1.17 inches (W x D x H)
- Weight: 2.8 lbs
- MSRP: $439.99.
Build and Design
All netbooks generally have the same specifications so the design is everything when it comes to selling a netbook. Samsung's designers did an excellent job with the N120 – it is one of the most visually attractive netbooks I have seen to date. The N120 manages to look great from every angle.
Our N120 is white all over and is constructed of strong plastic that has a high-quality feel. All of the N120's surfaces with the exception of the screen,lid hinges, and side trim have a matte surface with a slight texture. The N120 feels nice to hold; I always found myself taking it from room to room.
The N120's lid is thin yet strong. There is little side-to-side flex and no ripples appear on the screen when pressure is put on the back. The top of the lid has a slight curve to it and rounded edges which feel smooth; there are no rough edges where the seams come together. On either side of the display are the N120s stereo speakers, and a webcam is embedded in the top. The lid is attached to the base of the netbook via two chrome-finished hinges. The bottom of the display actually swivels under the battery when opened, which not only adds style but helps the N120 keep a low profile.
The base of the N120 is also sturdy and has a quality feel. It hardly flexes under pressure and seems to be quite durable (time will tell). The 97% full-size keyboard takes up most of the real estate as it should, and a touchpad spans most of the vertical space below the keyboard. There are no physical buttons on the N120 save for the power button, which is actually located on the side of the machine next to the right hinge.
The sides of the N120 look particularly attractive with a strip of chrome trim. The sides are chiseled inward leaving the ports exposed, which makes the netbook look smaller than it actually is. The front of the netbook has a slight curve to it which matches the lid; the lid and the base fit together nicely. Although the N120 uses a larger six-cell battery, Samsung managed to design the netbook so there is only a small bulge out the back; the larger battery does not jut out like it does on some netbooks such as the HP Minis.
Overall, the Samsung N120 has the most pleasing design of any netbook I have used to date; it achieves visual attractiveness without the use of any outlandish lid designs or colors.
Screen and Speakers
The N120 has a 10.1-inch widescreen display (16:9 aspect ratio) with a 1024x600 resolution and LED backlighting. Contrast and brightness are excellent; this is without doubt a pretty picture. I have seen better color depth, but the N120s display is not something I would complain about. The LEDs lighting the display provide an even brightness distribution. The N120 has eight levels of brightness; I found all of them to be usable, with 5 or 6 being the most comfortable and 3 being a good battery setting.
Viewing angles are average; side-to-side are generally good with some minor color shift, but from above it washes out and below it darkens very quickly. The N120s display has a glossy screen coating, so reflections will be a problem outdoors and under fluorescent lighting.
The 1024x600 resolution of this netbook makes it challenging to multitask and use programs where space matters. I found myself doing a lot of vertical scrolling, and even scrolling horizontally on many websites. Having only 600 pixels of vertical space limits what can be accomplished using this netbooks (and to be fair, most other netbooks as well).
There are actually three speakers on the N120 – one 1.5 watt speaker on either side of the display and a tiny subwoofer below the left palmrest. The machine has SRS TruSurround XT technology which is supposed to help produce a virtual surround sound experience. All of this may have you thinking this netbook sounds decent – that is not the case. The N120 succeeds only in sounding tinnier than a typical notebook and with no bass; if you expect nothing from these speakers you will be satisfied. The headphone jack is another story – it is free of any interference and the best way to enjoy audio on the N120.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The N120 has a nearly full-size keyboard; I needed to only make minor adjustments coming from a standard notebook keyboard and can type just as quickly. The keyboard has decent tactile feedback. The keys have good support and will not depress while letting your fingers rest on them. Key travel is shorter than normal which is part of the reason the N120s keyboard lacks the tactile feel of a larger keyboard, and the keys are also thinner. The keyboard exhibits no flex, which is always a good thing. It is also quiet and will not disturb neighbors.
The keyboard has some layout shortcomings – for example, the Windows key is on the right side of the machine whereas most keyboards have it on the left. Another weird aspect of this keyboard is the volume control. The right and left arrow keys can control the volume, but the mute button is all the way in the top row mapped to [F6]. It would be simpler if they were all in one place. Overall, the keyboard is very good and is extremely usable. As someone who is very picky about keyboards, I did not have any qualms using the N120s keyboard on a daily basis.
The touchpad is appropriately sized to match the N120s 10-inch display. It has a matte surface that is easy to track on with dry or damp fingers. The touchpad buttons are a single piece of plastic below the touchpad; it is quiet and has a good feel.
Ports and Features
There are a limited selection of ports on the N120, but the important ones are there. This calls for a picture tour; all descriptions are left to right.
Left side: Power jack, 10/100 Ethernet, exhaust vent, two USB
Right side: Headphone and microphone jacks, USB, VGA out, Kensington lock slot, power button
Front: SD card slot
Back: Battery
Again, there are not a whole lot of ports but on a machine like this, the selection should suffice. Note the lack of an ExpressCard slot; adding a mobile broadband card will need to be done via USB. One of the N120s other connection options that deserves a mention is the built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. This is not a standard feature on many netbooks and is nice to have for connecting to Bluetooth-enabled mice, headsets, and phones.
Performance
We ran a full suite of benchmarks on the N120 and before I give you the numbers, let us talk about what really matters – the usability factor. The best way to describe using a small netbook like the N120 is confining. The ten inch screen is small and takes getting used to – even though I have spent a lot of time with 12 inch notebooks, ten inches is in another league entirely. The 1024x600 screen resolution does not help the situation; the minimum on notebooks these days is 1366x768, which has over 70% more pixels than this display. As I noted earlier, a lot of scrolling will be necessary with this screen, and using two windows side-by-side will be near impossible. I moved the Windows taskbar to the side of the screen to regain some vertical space, but the fact is only so much can be done with 600 pixels. That said, surfing the Internet in full screen mode (press [F11] in Firefox/Internet Explorer) helps alleviate the lack of space.
Performance is adequate for most everyday tasks, including Internet browsing, listening to music, and using word processors. The Intel Atom processor is weak compared to even budget processors in full-size notebooks, but is much smaller and uses far less power. It is perfect for use in a machine like this. That said, performance is somewhat sluggish, especially when opening programs and alt-tabbing between them. Internet surfing performance is fine with the occasional stutter; standard YouTube videos play without issue though HD lags too much to watch.
In the end, the N120 does what a netbook is designed to do – act as a compliment to a main computer. It is not designed to be and should not be used as a primary computer. I found the N120 to be a great take-along companion since it is so thin and light.
wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):
| Notebook / CPU | wPrime 32M time |
HP Pavilion dv2 (AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 @ 1.60GHz)
| 103.521 seconds
|
| ASUS Eee PC 1000HE (Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66GHz) | 114.749 seconds |
| Toshiba mini NB205 (Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66GHz) | 115.891 seconds |
| ASUS Eee PC 1008HA (Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66GHz) | 116.030 seconds |
| ASUS Eee PC 1005HA (Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66GHz) | 116.421 seconds |
| HP Mini 2140 with HD screen (Intel Atom N270 @ 1.60GHz) | 123.281 seconds |
| Samsung N110 (Intel Atom N270 @ 1.60GHz) | 123.422 seconds |
Dell Latitude 2100 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)
| 124.062 seconds
|
| Samsung N120 (Intel Atom N270 @ 1.60GHz) | 124.203 seconds |
| Acer Aspire One (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz) | 125.812 seconds
|
| Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (2009) (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz) | 126.406 seconds |
| ASUS Eee PC T91 (Intel Atom Z520 @ 1.33GHz) | 141.031 seconds |
| Samsung NC20 (VIA Nano ULV U2250 @ 1.30GHz) | 173.968 seconds |
PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):
| Notebook | PCMark05 Score |
| HP Pavilion dv2 (1.60GHz AMD Athlon Neo, ATI Radeon HD 3410 512MB) | 2,191 PCMarks |
| ASUS N10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, NVIDIA 9300M 256MB) | 1,851 PCMarks |
| Toshiba Portege R500 (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950) | 1,839 PCMarks |
| ASUS Eee PC 1005HA (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950) | 1,637 PCMarks |
| Dell Latitude 2100 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950) | 1,588 PCMarks |
| ASUS Eee PC 1008HA (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950) | 1,564 PCMarks |
| Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950) | 1,555 PCMarks |
| Toshiba mini NB205 (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950) | 1,538 PCMarks |
| ASUS Eee PC 1000HE (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950) | 1,535 PCMarks |
| Samsung N120 (1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, Intel GMA 950) | 1,533 PCMarks |
| Samsung N110 (1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, Intel GMA 950) | 1,511 PCMarks |
| Samsung NC20 (1.30GHz VIA Nano ULV U2250, VIA Chrome9 HC3) | 1,441 PCMarks |
| HP Mini 2140 with HD screen (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950) | 1,437 PCMarks |
| ASUS Eee PC T91 (1.33GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950) | 1,292 PCMarks |
We selected a family-friendly movie trailer and downloaded three different versions in 480p, 720p, and 1080p resolutions. We used the CCCP Codec Pack for decoding and Media Player Classic Homecinema (version 1.1.796.0) for playing all of the video files.
Video Playback Performance:
| Video Resolution | CPU Usage | Playback Comments |
| 480p | 20%-25% (hyperthreading)
| Plays flawlessly |
| 720p | 35%-45% (hyperthreading) | Plays flawlessly
|
| 1080p | 50%-65% (hyperthreading) | Severe audio and video stutter
|
HDTune for the hard drive performance:
Heat and Noise
The N120 stayed relatively cool and quiet even while running benchmarks. The keyboard area and bottom of the netbook get lukewarm at most and are never uncomfortable. The internal components do not produce much heat, and what little is produced is pushed out the left side by the N120s small cooling fan. For all intents and purposes the fan is silent.
Battery Life
At 3/8 brightness using the "Normal" power management profile, I managed an amazing eight hours and twenty minutes of battery life while surfing the Internet and word processing. By lowering the brightness further and using a more aggressive power saving profile, more is possible. Keep in mind that the N120 uses a traditional hard disk and not a Solid State Drive (SSD); with an SSD the N120 could go even longer. The system tray battery icon consistently estimated over nine hours of battery life remaining with a 90% charge.
Although the N120 does not match the battery life of the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE, it is almost one half-pound lighter which is significant.
Conclusion
The Samsung N120 should be high on the list for anyone in the 10-inch netbook market. At less than three pounds and with over eight hours of battery life, the N120 makes for a superb traveling companion. A stylish design, great screen, keyboard, and touchpad sweeten the deal.
Pros:
- Attractive design
- High quality construction
- Nice screen
- Great keyboard and touchpad
- Excellent battery life (over eight hours)
- Light (2.8 pounds)
- Nearly silent operation
- Built-in Bluetooth
Cons:
- Weak speakers (normally not a con but the N120 is marketed to have better sound and it fails to impress)
- Odd keyboard layout choices
- No ExpressCard slot
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Samsung N120 Review
