Samsung N230 review

Like almost all other modern netbooks, the N230 comes with Windows 7 Starter installed. It's good enough for the basic tasks we'd expect a netbook to be used for, but it does have its limitations that you should still be aware of. It doesn't have any of the more advanced, business features of Windows 7 Professional such as encryption or the Windows XP Virtualisation Mode. When a second display is connected to the VGA port you can only mirror the contents of the N230's 10.1in screen onto the external display, not show more windows. The resolution of the second display is also artificially limited to 1,440x1,050 pixels no matter what its physical resolution actually is.

The 10.1in display isn't quite as bright as we'd hoped, especially when brightness is reduced to help conserve battery life. It's still bright enough to be legible though. It has a matte finish, so it doesn't reflect lots of light from overhead lighting strips. These reflections can cause glare, which looks very distracting, on netbooks with glossy instead of matte screens. However, due to the matte finish on-screen images look a little grainy but this isn't likely to be a problem for the basic tasks a netbook is likely to be used for.

We liked the firm and responsive feel of the keyboard. Although we wish the keys were a little bigger and gave a touch more feedback when pressed, it's still comfortable to type on unless you have especially large fingers. Only the cursor, page navigation and some punctuation keys are smaller than the others, although this does include the frequently-used @ key which is a little annoying. The touchpad is small, but accurate. The touchpad buttons aren't as big as we'd like, but they feel reasonably responsive when pressed.

The N230 is the first computer we've seen equipped with Bluetooth 3.0. This is supposed to be much faster at transferring data than previous versions of the close-range wireless technology, but it's currently of little practical use since there aren't any Bluetooth 3.0-capable peripherals that we know of. More useful are the three USB2 ports, which can also be set to charge devices such as smartphones, even when the N230 is sleeping.