The new range contains the following colours:

• Electric green
• Miso Red
• Aquatic
• Clockwork orange
• Snow camoflage

It’s hardly suprising that Samsung would make some strange coloured NC20′s as it’s smaller brother the Samsung Nc10 was also available in some pretty weird colours.

These new colors, which complement the existing white and black versions will be on sale shortly in UK, Europe and will be coming to the US at the end of the month.

Personally the ‘Snow Camo’ is my new favourite!

Whilst the review is for the Korean version, the article does have a few interesting points in there:

The battery
The Korean version comes with the 5200-mAh battery, which lasted a respectable 4 hours 17.  The USA NC20 will have an even larger capacity battery at 5200-mAh.  Our guesses put this just under 6 hours.

The price
The price will be somewhere between $500 – $600.  As we’ve seen so far prices of the NC20 have been slightly higher than the NC10, so we’d expect the price to be closer to the $600.

The review conconcludes with fantastic praise for the NC20….

“The Samsung NC20 blurs the line between netbooks and low-cost ultraportables. While the VIA Nano processor isn’t as powerful as a mainstream Core 2 Duo CPU, it provides similar if not slightly better performance than Intel’s current Atom offerings. And the NC20 offers better performance than the Dell Inspiron Mini 12″

In fact all reveiws  so far have praised the NC20 over the rest of the competition and with the laptop expected to be released in the US next monday (16th March) we expect the NC20 to be a bigger sales hit than the NC10.

As always we’ll keep updating our suppliers page with stockist updates in the US and around the world.

1. The Bigger Screen

The NC20 packs in a lovely glossy 12.1″ display, with a relatively big 1280 x 800 resolution. Samsung lead the world with the quality of their screens and, in this case, they have made no exception. This is a slick LED panel with vibrant colours.

BUT… should we really be celebrating a BIGGER netbook screen? We think yes: While most netbooks come in at 10″ and below, the NC20′s 12.1″ screen means you actually have enough space to play around with photos, put together a spreadsheet, or play games at a decent resolution.

It DOES takes extra space in your bag, and some will prefer to stick with the smaller screen of the older Samsung NC10. But if you want something to do anything other than surf the web or watch movies, a couple of extra inches goes a long way. If you’re worried about size, the actual dimensions of the NC20 are 292mm x 217mm x 31mm.

2. The Weight

When was the last time you saw a 12″ laptop at 1.5kg? There are some Toshiba Portégé models that match that, but they cost at least twice as much. The NC20 may take up a couple of extra inches over a 9″ or 10″ netbook, but it doesn’t add any extra pounds.

3. The Battery

OK, so the battery lasts less than the NC10 battery did, but: 5.7 hours! That’s almost as long as an iphone battery! (well, maybe not, but it’s great anyway). The NC20′s closest equivalent is the Dell Mini 12, which ‘boasts’ a measly 3 hours.

On the NC20: Yes, the screen might be bigger, but No this doesn’t mean the stunningly good battery life of the NC10 has been thrown out of the window. Early tests show the NC20 gives 5.7 hours battery life in average conditions (average brightness with a web browser running, a document open, and wi-fi running).

4. Microsoft XP Home

It sounds silly to be happy about a 7-year old operating system, but we’re REALLY glad Samsung decided to stick with XP after its success in the NC10.

Vista just doesn’t work in a netbook. HP gave it a try with some of their Mini-notes.

Ubuntu & other Linux operating systems are great in terms of speed and simplicity – but they lack the compatibility and “office friendly” standards of a Microsoft OS.

XP is tried and tested, performs well even with low memory, and is compatible with the vast majority of software on planet earth.

5. The Processor

Yay! When we heard that Samsung were moving away from the Intel dynasty, we were slightly worried. However, when we heard this was a shift UP to the mighty VIA Nano U2250 we LITERALLY croaked with delight in the manner of an 18th century dickensian chambermaid.

The Nano cruises where the old Intel Atom may have stumbled. It sits in the fast lane, cackling as its older half-cousin trundles along checking its mirrors. Lower heat consumption, faster performance and greater efficiency all help push up the battery life too.

6. The Storage Space

Do you remember we mentioned the Dell Mini 12 earlier? The Dell is about as close in spec as you get to the NC20. It’s a ‘direct competitor’. Yet the top of the range Dell offers only an 80GB hard drive while the Samsung plumps that up to a nice juicy 160GB.

A few years ago, you’d be lucky to get a 40GB hard drive in a laptop. Today you get 160 without compromising on weight or price. And, because this is a Samsung drive.

7. The Build Quality

We loved the quality of the NC10. Have you held one? They feel like an upmarket restaurant: So smooth you almost don’t notice how good the service is; so solid and satisfying you know you’ll return for more.

Well the Samsung NC20 is even better. There are lots of beautiful little touches: The hinges are now flush with the casing. The power button has switched to a lovely solid metal. The microphone & headphone slots have now been tucked alongside the monitor output, so they no longer get caught up in your mouse cable.

8. Perfect for the home or office

The NC20 is primarily designed for mobile use. BUT it works just as well at home or in the office.

Samsung have cleverly included exactly 3 USB slots, an Ethernet port and a VGA output. There’s little need for all of this while you’re on the train, or out and about. But when you’re at home or in the office this is perfect.

Plug in an external drive, a network cable, a mouse, keyboard and an external monitor and you have no need at all for a desktop.

9. The Boatload of Extras

• A. An SD card reader lets you stick your photos straight into the machine, or acts as extra storage.
• B. Built-in bluetooth is great – especially nice if you use a bluetooth mouse. This is bluetooth 2.0 too – meaning it’s around 4 times faster than bog-standard bluetooth.
• C. The webcam is only 1.3-megapixels, but the quality is fantastic. Perfect for skype and other videoconferencing tools.

10. The Groupies

Any more reasons to buy the NC20? Or even not to buy the NC20? Let us know in the comments!

What makes it more interesting that all of these chips are to be used in Samsung NC 20 laptops!  Samsung must be  expecting a high-demand on the machine after the huge success of their NC 10.

The article has a little comparison about the VIA processor verses the Atom:

The Nano U225 has a lower clock speed than its main competitor, the Atom N270/N280, at a.3GHz versus 1.6GHz/1.66GHz. However, the FSB (front side bus) is considerably faster on the Nano, with a speed of 1333MHz as compared to 533MHz/667MHz. Watt for watt, the Nano is expected to be more powerful than the Atom, but it is also expected to use more watts in the process. We can’t be sure to what degree, but the usual trade-off of battery life for performance will probably come into play here.

We have also done our own investigation into the nano processor, you can find the article here.

A few readers have asked why Samsung have chosen the Via Nano this time around, instead of the Intel Atom that featured in their Samsung NC10. We don’t know for sure, but here’s what we’ve heard!

Ever wonder why there are so few 12″ netbooks? The reason is: Intel! Their Atom processors are massively popular in netbooks because of their lower power needs.

The problem is, Intel didn’t want manufacturers to use Atoms instead of their usual laptop processors (core 2 duos, etc). Because of that, they came up with a plan: Intel designed the Atom processor so it would only work with screens up to 10″.

Why Via?

So, if you want to put out a netbook with a 12″ screen and a good amount of battery life, your only option is to switch to another processor.

Via previously used their ‘C7-M’ processors in HP mininote netbooks. The C7 provided ‘ok’ performance, but it a lot slower than the Intel Atom, and the mininote gained a bit of a reputation for being slow. Thankfully, Via recently released the Via Nano.

Via Nano processors share the low power consumption of Intel Atoms, BUT they also allow you to use screens above 10″ in size.

How does the NC20′s Via Nano Processor measure up to the NC10′s Intel Atom?

There are dozens of comparisons of the Via Nano & Intel Atom around. One with some very good objective tests comes from tweaktown. Here’s the summary:

1. The Via Nano has lower power consumption than Intel Atom (about 8% less consumption while in use, and 6% less when idle)
2. The Via Nano generates less heat (between 1/3 and 1/2 less heat generated)
3. The Via Nano doesn’t need to work as hard to generate the same results. Tweaktown ran a test using a standard MPEG4 video. Their Intel Atom test system ran at 61% CPU usage to play the video. Their VIA Nano test system ran at just 23% CPU usage.

Looking at the picture, the machine looks fantastic, the black casing looks like it’s made out of the same high quality shiny black plastic found in expensive laptops.  It’s going to be tough deciding whether to take the machine in black or white,  the black looks a little more professional while the white looks more creative.  Either way both machines have the same specification so it’s really down to preference.

If you’re looking for a place to buy the Samsung NC20, take a look at our Recommended Suppliers Page.

The first Samsung netbook (the Samsung NC10) made a very good impression; however it has still not reached the shops here in Ukraine, but already we have got her elder sister, The Samsung NC20.

Samsung NC20 has a 12“ glossy screen with a resolution 1280h800, a set of system logic speakers.  It uses a VIA Nano U2250 processor with a frequency of 1.6 GHz and is equipped with a graphics adapter VIA Chrome9.
With 1 gig of RAM and a 160-giga hard drive, it will cost about 670 dollars and comes with a 6-hour  5200 mAh battery.  The Samsung NC20 is positioned as an intermediate link between the now classic 10-inch netbooks with hard disks and ultra-portable laptops.
In our detailed review of Samsung NC10, we will elaborate on aspects that differ from the predecessor model.

Specifications Samsung NC20

Positioning
Buyers of this model are the company businessmen who needs a small laptop computer with a normal screen resolution, which does not require high performance; The main competitive advantage is the 12-inch display, increased battery life time (it actually may be greater than 6 hours), almost full-(97% of normal) keyboard and easy access to increase the RAM and hard drive capacity, a special thanks to unscrew the lid on the rear panel.
In the lineup, the Samsung model takes an intermediate position between the NC10 and Budget laptop Q210.

The NC20 is a netbook, that is, a laptop computer designed to solve simple problems and work primarily with the texts and, primarily, on the Internet.  Traditional laptops are intended for video editing, applications requiring resources and 3D-games and multitasking, this is said to be not true of a netbook.  In practice, we had 2-3 applications running comfortably and working with a variety of applications such as: documents, web browsers, HD-Video and simple (most online) games that do not require the production of three-dimensional graphics.

A direct competitor to Samsung NC20 is the Dell Mini 12, which also has 12-inch display and  a resolution 1280h800.

Package Contents

The set includes a standard battery capacity of 5200 mAh (the NC10 standard capacity was 2200 mAh).

There is a cover, which produces a poor first visual impression However, closer examination it turned out that inside like neoprene, but from the outside, something reminiscent of suede (and most likely, a good synthetic substitute).

The cover is not a simple snap button, but is Velcro and the design is  aesthetically pleasing.
The netbook can be quickly removed and inserted into the bag ready to be taken for a walk to the nearest park or a cafe with Wi-Fi under the arm.

Appearance
At first glance the shell does not differ from NC10 and is made from the same pleasant-to-touch plastic. There is no change of leaving nasty marks and finger prints on the lovely white finish. The interior surfaces is smooth, outer side of the lid feels rougher.

The camera in comparison with the NC10 not changed – 1.3 megapixels.

Similarly, There is no change in the LEDs and the SD-reader at the end of the front panel.

But the location of connectors on the sidebar has changed.

The power button is fully metal, but hinges on the lid have been changed: the NC10 were covered with chrome metal, and the NC20 steel fully in white.

Keyboard keys have not been changed, except the “windows” key had shifted right.  The key size is 18.5 millimeters. A traditional netbook typically ranges from 16 to 17.5 mm, and a full-fledged laptops – 19 mm.

On the rear panel a central compartment is visible, which is used to access the hard disk and memory, allowing for easy upgrades.

Display
The screen is equipped with Samsung LED backlight using Technology TN .   Samsung seems to squeeze the maximum out of these technologies.  The glossy display comes with excess levels of brightness.

The viewing Angle Horizontal is great even from 150-160 degrees.  The average brightness is quite comfortable, even at very little light, watching movies is still possible and is displayed perfectly.

The glossy display doesn’t require cleaning after accidental touches with your fingers.

Productivity
The greatest interest in NC20 is the VIA Chrome9 HC3 graphics adapter. Miracles, of course, did not happen and Samsung and is not going to build graphical power in this model.  The machine however did score a very respectable 138 points in the 3D benchmarking tests shown below.

The following three measurements show the difference between the NC20 and a very top-of-the-range system.

Finally, the last illustration shows the number of frames rendered in two benchmarks. Playing a modern games on netbooks, to put it mildly, does not work. This should be expected.  (Editors note: We’ve seen some great gaming performance on the NC10, so can only expect better from the NC20)

At the request of our readers, I made measurements of the load on the processor in different situations, for example, the picture shows 80% CPU usage when doing HD-video playback using the flash player on video site ‘vimeo.com’. Naturally dealing with other running tasks is extremely difficult with this processor, so Samsung never said that nc20 is a great performer as a multi-tasking netbook.

Viewing HD-Video (1080h720) using Windows Media Player offers a quiet load ranging from 30 to 50 percent.

And the movie in Full HD (1980h1080) and is presented a surprise – the processor easily coped with it, giving a peak load of 80% only on the dynamic elements in the frame.

During the webcam via the wired Internet connection, the load varies in line with activity in the frame.

And if using a wireless Wi-Fi connection in offline mode, the load on the processor can and does reach the maximum level.

Webcam
Despite only the 1.3-megapixel the camera lived up to expectations.  However don’t expect the photography and video to be much higher than other machines (or phones) with a similar camera. For entertainment, the Youcam software is included with the machine which allows you to record photos and videos and super impose special effects, it is very entertaining.

A video showing the performace of the webcam be downloaded direct from the gagadget website here.

Battery and work time
To test the performance of the battery, six tests we’re performed under different conditions.

Four of them are synthetic and are made with the help of Battery Eater’ 95 version 2.7.

126 minutes – The maximum load on the processor using the full level of brightness.

255 minutes – Watching the movie “The carrier 3″ a 1.37 GB avi file at full screen.

343 minutes – Energy saving mode, the average level of brightness, includes Wi-FI, running a web browser working in a document.

251 minutes – Standard test mode, Reading a document with an average level of brightness.

374 minutes – The maximum possible result in the highest energy savings at the lowest level of brightness.

186 minutes – Perhaps the most interesting practical result. Wi-Fi. Mode – normal, average brightness mode, surfing the Internet via Wi-Fi. This is continuously working webcam in the video, viewed in a browser page with an integrated in flash videos (YouTube, LiveJournal, gagadget.com)

It’s worth noting that under the maximum load, the Samsung NC20 warmed a little on the left side of the machine, however this heat isn’t out of the ordinary.  The fan noise was not noticeable at all times of operation.

Conclusion
In the global economic crisis in which we live, Samsung has created a balanced model, which on the one hand isn’t like all those other Atom processor clones, and on the other builds a bridge traditional and netbook laptops.  The machine occupies an intermediate niche in the lineup of laptop computers. The Samsung NC20 is able to provide the buyer a very decent resolution and a good time working with the standard battery (eg, 2 film lasting 2 hours in high resolution).

Achieving the declared company target of 6.5 hours will be very difficult, but the usual 3-4 hours using the internet and writing documents are to be expected.

A nice moment was the ability of this computer to comfortably play videos in FullHD, including HD-video on over the Internet.

To release the Samsung NC20 in the market will be interesting, will the buyer choose: the netbook for for a little more the NC20 with laptop like performance and dimensions.

Thankyou to the hard working team at gagadget for creating such an indepth review of the system.