Samsung N510’s UK launch

Samsung, the South Korean manufacturer, has come up with Nvidia ION powered netbook, first in the industry. It was Samsung, who had earlier this year launched a netbook, NC20 with Via Nano processor, the first in US markets, instead of Intel Atom chip. Samsung will launch its latest ION powered netbook, N510 in UK and USA in the first week of September. NVIDIA’s Ion platform will be matched with Intel’s N280 processor and 1 GB of RAM. Most other specifications of this netbook will be the same as other netbooks.

The price that has been disclosed is £449, which matches with introductory price of $599 in US. Samsung’s N510 netbooks, which look like N20, will sport a generous 11.6 inch size, with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, LED backlight, glossy display. With a thin bezel, the screen size is quite big, though smaller than N20; and it makes this netbook almost the size of a laptop. N510 weighs 1.46 Kg. with a 6 cell battery.

As a first, Samsung N 510 netbook will be using NVIDIA ion platform, which combines a low power Intel Atom N280 processor (1.66GHz) and Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphic chipset, for good graphic performance required by video games and playbacks. The HDMI output and 9400M GPU will allow you to watch high definition (HD) and Blu ray content.

Earlier there was a buzz that N510 will be using ION LE and not NVIDIA ION. The ION LE platform is specifically designed for Windows XP and supports DirectX 9.  It does not support DirectX10 which is found only in windows Vista or windows 7. The only other netbook which plans to have NVIDIA ION platform is Lenovo’s IdeaPad S12, which has not been launched yet.

Samsung N510 will have 1GB RAM, 160 GB HDD for external storage, and pre loaded Windows XP home. Samsung has still managed to use windows XP and is not forced by Microsoft to use Vista.

There should not be any issues with the battery life as such, since it will be shipped with 6 cell lithium ion, 5900mAh batteries, which should last for more than 7 hours. All other components are standard ones; like 3 USB’s, 3 in 1 card reader, VGA output, HDMI connector, two speakers and 1.3 mega pixels camera. The netbook will feature WiFi 802.11b/g/b and Bluetooth 2.1 for better wireless connectivity. The price tag of Samsung N510 is towards higher side when compared to other 11″ netbooks but they do not have ION platform nor do they have HDMI out ports.