Gosh, it must be almost four months since the NC10 landed here in Hong Kong and it’s now easily available the big electronic chain stores here like Broadway. I just had a quick glance from the branch near my office and the retail price was HK$3990. When it was first launched, it was initially available only in white, but now, its available in dark and light blue, pink as well as black.
A pity that SG still doesn’t have it. My wife’s sis got one here as a Xmas present and I had a good look at it – with my wife’s Asus Eee PC 1000H right next to it, and it immediately made my wife give up her loyalty for the Asus.
Physically, the Samsung is a little more svelt. It is a little thinner here and there, but in practical terms it’s almost the same size – except that when closed, the Asus is thicker round the back. Both these machines sport a 6 cell battery, and the Samsung clocks in lighter at 1.33kg, compared against the 1.45kg of the 1000H. My wife certainly prefers the look of the NC10 over the 1000H but too bad, there wasn’t the NC10 when she bought the 1000H.
One of the most important differences between the two machines comes down to their keyboards. The Samsung has a larger, more well spaced keyboard that feels almost like a full sized keyboard. The Asus takes a little getting used to as its smaller and its tiny right shift key will cause you some initial frustration. It’s not as small as the keyboards on the 8.9″ netbooks though.
The NC10 also has better trackpad buttons. The one on the Asus is rather loud, and the one on my wife’s 1000H has started to act a little unreliably for a while – sometimes you have to press it quite hard – but it’s somehow gone back to normal now.
The Samsung’s screen is also brighter and had a less bluish tinge. Not a huge difference here to most users but the Samsung has the upper hand here. But in the audio section, Asus certainly has a better set of speakers on the 1000H.
So if I had to get a 10.2 inch screen netbook now, it will probably be the Samsung NC10 – which if you’re in Singapore, you still can’t get your hands on. Unless you want me to lug one back from Hong Kong for you?
