Netbooks are cheap, wee machines designed primarily - as their name suggests - to surf the net and let users hammer out the occasional missive on their rather elfin keyboards and screens. In the space of just a couple of years they've quickly become the computer of choice for mobile workers.
Thing is, they're generally a bit ugly. Or at least style-less. Samsung's primary aim with its new N310 Mini-Notebook seems to be to infuse a bit of panache into these petite portable PCs.
According to the press release, the N310's unique look was dreamt up by Naoto Fukasawa, an industrial designer renowned in Europe and Asia for his "iconic lightweight and minimalist forms." He certainly brought these qualities to Samsung's netbook, though it won't necessarily be to everyone's taste.
Available in a quartet of deep, muted colours with fancy names which, for simplicity's sake, I'll refer to as orange, black, navy, and blue, the N310's outer appearance is a strictly love-it-or-hate-it sort of thing. Some people will see its plain plastic clamshell, which has curved edges and wraps around both screen and chassis so as to appear almost seamless when shut, as being Spartan and elegant while it will make others think of a child's play computer. Regardless of which side of the fence you sit on, there's no denying its uniqueness.
The interior is just as eye-catching. The screen is a flat sheet of glossy glass that stretches from edge to edge. The base, meanwhile, is composed of matte black plastic with a power button residing in the top right corner and a row of seven activity indicator lights on the bottom left.
The keyboard is 93 per cent standard size and should be fairly comfortable for most users - assuming, that is, they can get used to the smallish keys, which are separated from one another by a three- or four-millimetre gap.
The touchpad and left/right click rocker just below the keyboard are also lustreless black. The pad features multi-touch functionality, which means you can do things like bring your thumb and forefinger together or move them apart to change the size of photos or swivel your fingers to rotate an image, just like you might on a touch screen phone.
Distinct design aside, the N310's other selling feature is running time. With a beefy six-cell battery (most netbooks come with three-cells) that creates only the slightest of bulges on the bottom back side, Samsung claims it will keep the machine running for up to 9.9 hours. I didn't start a stopwatch every time I powered up, but I can say that I eked out nearly a week's worth of casual use before needing to recharge. Suffice to say it will get you through a pan-Atlantic plane trip, and then some.
But while it's got a style all its own and goes like the Energizer bunny on steroids, its performance is disappointingly middling.
Loaded with Windows 7, a gigabyte of memory, and an Intel Atom N270 processor (which runs at 1.6 GHz), this thing chugs along just as slowly as any other mini-notebook when it comes to opening new applications and running programs simultaneously. Its 250 GB of hard disk storage is a bit above average, but it's an immaterial gain since most people won't use the N310 to store HD video or high-res photos (a 10.1-inch WSVGA screen isn't the primary means by which most people want to view family photos and films).
However, if the netbook category's rapid growth is any indication, these seem to be issues that people are willing to live with in order to get a cheap portable computer.
Problem is, the N310 isn't exactly cheap.
At $499, it's at the high end of the mini-notebook market. Impressive battery life and distinct design aside, it's no better or worse than its competitors; just more expensive.