Samsung's ION-enriched N510 reviewed approvingly, still needs price trim

We dare say NVIDIA's ION platform hasn't been the quickest to go from announcement to market availability, but at long last we're seeing a number of pretty decent options cropping up. The Samsung N510 is a great test case for the prowess of the chipset, as it boasts the otherwise entirely unremarkable Atom N280, 1GB RAM and 160GB HDD spec, meaning that whatever performance gains it exhibits will be down to the ION infrastructure. Unsurprisingly, the 11.6-inch machine showed marked improvements over standard netbooks in the graphics department, with hardware-accelerated 1080p video decoding and mildly graphically-intensive games made possible. With six and a half hours of battery life and a matte 1366 x 768 screen, the N510 was well received by the PC Pro team, who could only bemoan the uncompetitive pricing of £382 (about $613). Hit the read link for their full impressions.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 30th 2009 6:47PM]

Tempting but I prefer the look of the other samsung netbook without bezel and the industrial casing.

[Sibuna Posted Sep 30th 2009 6:52PM]

Aww... I thought the case had racing stripes at first glance. That would have been total win.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 30th 2009 6:58PM]

Have you guys heard about the announced Nvidia GPU, it's called "Fermi" Hope you'll cover it up !
Thanks

[va jj Posted Sep 30th 2009 7:07PM]

dont think it can compete with the hp 311 which fully loaded is under 500.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 30th 2009 7:23PM]

The price conversions usually don't work well. usually when an item is released, the brit. pound price and the american price is alot closer, like £299 items are priced closer to $300-350, so this samsung should be around $400-450

[Cheesus Crust Posted Sep 30th 2009 10:24PM]

I know right! I've ordered a 311 for a week now, but they say its ships on Oct 8!! That's too far away :(

[CtrlBurn Posted Sep 30th 2009 7:07PM]

This is very close to what I've been waiting for. The battery life isn't quite where I'd want it. Baby steps...

[projectdecember Posted Sep 30th 2009 7:10PM]

Looks like a bigger N110, pretty.

On another note. Can someone tell me why I can't change my avatar? Iv'e tried countless time over the years and it doesn't seem to upload.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 30th 2009 7:12PM]

I read an article recently that basically indicated that Samsung computers suck like really hard. Anyone have any way to validate that statement, if true????

[projectdecember Posted Sep 30th 2009 7:52PM]

Well their netbooks are pretty much the same as other netbooks, save this one which is ION equiped.

[simbr Posted Sep 30th 2009 8:59PM]

I've seen the original NC10 come out top in Netbook roundups more than once.

[RKN Posted Sep 30th 2009 7:26PM]

Now if only we could get CULV and ION. : )

[nasserb Posted Sep 30th 2009 7:40PM]

aha...
can you tell me what is the difference between uncle sam and mr.sony w series?
all looks the same to me...

[simbr Posted Sep 30th 2009 9:00PM]

This has ION. You might have seen this fact mentioned once or twice if you'd read the article.

[Nblufire12 Posted Sep 30th 2009 7:43PM]

RATS!

I want this instead of the ASUS EEE PC 1005HA

Althought I put Win7 on the EEE PC and it's sooo sexy.

[JakeInDC Posted Sep 30th 2009 7:51PM]

UGLY!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 30th 2009 8:59PM]

Since there are other ION powered sub 12" netbooks hitting the market soon (Toshiba and Asus), I can only imagine the prices to get more competitive. Not to mention I believe the Asus and Toshiba will be coming with Windows 7 and the Asus reportedly has a much larger Hard Drive than this Samsung N510. I'll be waiting for the holidays and more options in ION netbooks before I buy one. However, I do like what I see with this Samsung.

[Kris Posted Sep 30th 2009 9:29PM]

I know a lot of these ion netbooks have ion LE is this the full blown ION or the light edition?

[Kris Posted Sep 30th 2009 9:42PM]

Nevermind it is ION LE... is there a full blown ION coming out for a netbook or is that even possible?

[Ma2T Posted Oct 1st 2009 9:25AM]

It has yet to be confirmed, but according to http://www.netbookreviews.net/samsung/n510-uk-availability/

there should be a Windows 7 version soon, with full Ion and a larger 250GB hard drive.

In the US it has been delayed for the release of Windows 7.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 30th 2009 10:15PM]

I would like to see how well this runs Fallout 3.

[Conceyted Posted Oct 1st 2009 11:24AM]

I'd be willing to bet it doesn't run Fallout 3 well. Go take a look at some video reviews of laptops with a 9400m or similar (same as Ion) and a faster C2D processor running Fallout 3. Even C2D / 9400m (ex. Macbook) laptops cannot run Fallout 3 all that well.

[Entoxica Posted Oct 1st 2009 3:00AM]

The ability for the user to easily upgrade the N510 to 2GB RAM and an SSD drive with the access panels on the bottom really set it apart from the other ION netbooks like the booklet or hp311.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 11th 2009 11:30PM]

I would buy N510 full retail but one thing is pulling me back.

It's the Ion LE. With this, it won't support Windows 7 because it doesn't support DirectX10... only 9.

I guess I'll have to wait a little longer. Geezzzz....