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"The typing experience is arguably the NC20's most desirable feature, as the NC20 is the only 12-inch netbook that possesses a full-size keyboard."

"Accommodating the large screen gave Samsung room to include a full-size keyboard that's extremely comfortable for touch typing. The layout is very good overall, with a couple of minor oddities..."

"The Samsung NC20 has an almost-full-size keyboard that is comfortable to type on and very easy to transition to from larger notebooks. Compared to other netbooks the keyboard is very good, but notebooks still have an edge on it."

"As we expected, Samsung has capitalised on the extra space afforded by the larger chassis.... The extra width makes all the difference while typing, and though there's a little less travel to every key than we'd like there's still a nice positive action and a pleasant overall feel."

"The expanded chassis allows the NC20 to house a full-size keyboard.... The raised keys provide nice tactile feedback and were comfortable for long typing stints, and there are no spacing issues like those of many netbooks on the market..."

"The keyboard...is comfortable to use, and is well suited for typing longer texts. The F-keys and the cursor keys are, like in the older NC10, rather small, which means that the user has to aim properly to hit the desired key. [Overall], the typing feel is exceptional..."

"The netbook itself contains the “full-sized keyboard”, with physical dimensions of 292.4mm x 217mm x 30.7mm."

"There is one exception: The NC20 feels more sluggish than Atom-powered netbooks if you try to work while a background task is using 100 percent of your CPU power, because the Nano lacks the Hyper-Threading feature that helps the Atom remain responsive while multitasking."

"The NC20 looks and feels more like a traditional laptop, but still struggles, as all Netbooks do, with multitasking and video streaming."

"Working in the Web browser was a smooth experience; we were able to listen to streaming music over Pandora, refresh our Twitter feed, as well as visit sites and edit blog posts without any issues."

"Coupled with the Nano processor and just 1GB of memory, XP feels surprisingly nippy and responsive; programs leap into action with impressive eagerness and our subjective experience left us impressed."

"Compared to the last VIA-equipped netbook in our office the VIA Nano was a huge improvement. System performance of the NC20 was in-line with the Intel Atom platform, above in some areas and below in others."

"Once the initial problem (i.e., the slow performance which is probably due to a software problem of IE) is taken care of, the performance of the hardware used can be classified as sufficient to run most of the usual office programs."

"The NC20...booted Windows XP Home in a sluggish 1 minute and 10 seconds. That’s 15 seconds slower than the netbook average."

"The device...went to sleep well, recovered from sleep well, and was an all-around fabulous machine."

"The NC20's design lacks imagination: The black shiny top is as bland as the ones on the ASUS 1000HE and the Samsung N110, and it picks up just as many fingerprints and smudges."

It's not eye-wateringly ugly in the manner that can be only be remedied with a brown paper bag, but we can't help bemoaning the fact that some of the NC10's allure has been lost in the translation [between it's older model]."

"Samsung pays special attention to the design of their notebooks, as one can clearly see from the NC20. Colored a pearly white, the NC20 emanates an aura of elegance, and should be of special interest to the design-orientated buyers."

"It was (and still is) an exceptionally well-balanced netbook, especially so for a first attempt: good looks…"

"The design of the Samsung NC20 is very clean with a consistent color scheme inside and outside the netbook with a thin border of chrome around the edges."

"The standout feature of the NC20 is its bright 12.1-inch, 1,280x800 screen.... Video playback of standard-definition DVD video and high-quality YouTube clips is smooth, but the NC20 can't keep up with 720p video files."

"The 12.1” WXGA display on the Samsung NC20 is above average compared to most notebooks.... Image quality is excellent thanks to the glossy surface, with vibrant colors and nice contrast levels."

"Standard definition videos played smoothly without any hint of lag, but when you try to play HD movies the limits of the processor were noticed. Standard 720p x264 content played at 15-17FPS on scenes with little motion, but slowed down to 5-10FPS under panning or action."

"The NC20’s glossy 12-inch, 1280 x 800-pixel resolution screen makes quite a difference in everyday use; compared with 10-inch displays on any number of netbooks, the extra two inches allowed us to keep two Web pages open side by side and read them comfortably."

Firstly, there's the matter of its larger 12.1in display. With a 1,280 x 800 resolution, it's a breath of fresh air for the netbook user accustomed to scrolling up and down all day.... The reflectivity of the glossy finish might divide opinion, but image quality is superb"

"The screen was very bright (almost too bright), though the contrast seemed slightly weak. The 1280×800 12.1″ display made images quite crisp, though the default fonts used in Windows operating systems appeared rathersmall. It made it somewhat difficult to see text but switching to a slightly larger font resolved that issue."

"Unfortunately, we did not find the mirroring glare type surface of the display agreeable...Especially when the netbook is in mobile use, the user will have to change the angle at which he/she opens the display multiple times to get an optimal viewing angle."

"Audio clarity is very good, though volume could be a bit louder."

"The two loudspeakers, on the right and left side beneath the notebook, produce acceptable sound quality for a netbook. The sound seems a bit muffled, but that is due to the positioning of the loudspeakers beneath the notebook. The loudspeakers are good enough for playing music and watching videos on a laptop."

"The dual speakers located on the bottom front edge of the system produced loud and consistently good sound. On maximum volume, MGMT’s “Kids” filled a living room; we could make out the lyrics from more than 15 feet away."

"The NC20's speakers are a significant improvement on the NC10's fuzzy warbles: there's still no bass to speak of, and they lack the warmth of Asus' Eee PC 1000-series, but there's plenty of volume and enough clarity for general usage."

"The audio system was adequate and the controls were standard. It powered my regular desktop speakers with ease and was not distorted or heavy on bass or treble. The volume levels of its built-in speakers was also fine, and perhaps somewhat louder than my Toshiba Satellite notebook."

"Audio performance was limited by the small size of the drivers located on the bottom of the NC20. Bass and midrange were completely lacking and peak volume levels were under similarly sized notebooks. For viewing YouTube clips or watching streaming TV shows this might not be a problem, but I would still highly recommend a nice pair of headphones."

"Above the display is a 1.3-megapixel webcam, which provided clear images in a video chat over Skype. There was no motion blur when we waved to a caller in California."

"The laptop is also adorned by an integrated Webcam with a maximum resolution of 1.3 megapixels…. For video calls, video rendering at 320x240 pixels is available. The webcam is also good at displaying movements."

"Screen backlight brightness was good for viewing in a bright office setting, but you would be pushing the limits trying to use the NC20 outdoors on a sunny day.

"We were able to maintain a strong signal far from our access point; video clips streamed from YouTube and Hulu.com were void of any pauses."

"In addition, the built-in Atheros 802.11g Wi-Fi was excellent. It was able to pull in signal strengths that my other Wi-Fi products could not. In fact, in the neighborhood I live I was able to observe two or three additional Wi-Fi routers at various times."

"The standout feature of the NC20 is its bright 12.1-inch, 1,280x800 screen.... Video playback of standard-definition DVD video and high-quality YouTube clips is smooth…"

"Despite running at 1,280 x 800 rather than the NC10's 1,024 x 600 - and consequently having to push 60% more pixels - the VIA kept pace, managing smooth full-screen video playback from iPlayer and YouTube with only the very occasional hiccup."

"The NC20's Chrome9 graphics proved slightly faster than the Intel 945 graphics found on most netbooks.... That said, the 3D capabilities are still very basic, suitable for older games only."

"Entertainment use was limited to older games or less tasking modern games with the integrated graphics."

"The standout feature of the NC20 is its bright 12.1-inch, 1,280x800 screen.... The extra screen resolution makes a huge difference in...providing better compatibility with games."

"Battery life was good compared to most notebooks, but when compared to the latest netbooks like the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE, it was hindered by the larger screen…"

"Thanks to the choice of a capacious 6-cell battery, the NC20 doesn't let itself down when it comes to stamina either. Despite the larger display the NC20 lasted for an impressive 6hrs 46mins in our light-use test."

"Battery life is three hours, 40 minutes (22 percent longer than the S10)…"

"The NC20 lasted 4 hours and 17 minutes, which is respectable but almost 90 minutes shorter than average for netbooks with six-cell batteries."

"This gave my model an estimated 3.75 to 6.5 hours of normal use...though we only observed a little over 2.5 hours of full-throttle use, screen-on use. I did observe a huge increase in battery life under normal use when powering an external monitor."

"Equipped with a high performance 57 Wh Lithium-Ion battery, the NC20 can run for a decent amount of time... [401 minutes] "

"The worksmanship and the sturdiness of the compact subnotebook are very good, like those of it's 10 inch predecessor, the NC10. The robust magnesium chassis does not allow any major deformations of the screen or the case. This is especially important when the laptop is in intensive mobile use."

"The chrome-effect hinges on the chassis have been supplanted by thick white plastic, which means build quality is significantly sturdier than you might expect at this price."

"Flex is minimal on the lower half of the notebook, usually an added perk of having such a thin frame packed with components. Flex under the keyboard structure is non-existent which adds a level of quality that you notice while typing. The screen lid has some minor flex that when squeezed shows some distortion on the panel."

"[It's] a thicker, heavier system with a plastic chassis that looks and feels like a grown-up version of the Samsung NC10."

"The NC20 remained relatively cool when working with it on our lap. Unlike the VIA C7M processor (found in the HP Mini-Note 2133) that got extremely hot, the NC20’s keyboard stayed a cool 85 degrees."

"Thermal performance is normal compared to other small netbooks, where the body tends to warm up over time, and develop some hot spots under heavy use. Under light activity temperatures around the palmrest and bottom of the notebook were within reasonable levels and very lap friendly."

"As long as the Samsung NC20 does not have heavy CPU usage, it runs quietly, which is a great quality in a netbook. The cooler fan ran in this state but was almost inaudible. In energy-saving mode, with minimal CPU usage, the fan switched off automatically."

"Despite CPU and graphics chip usage for multiple hours, the surface and bottom temperatures of the laptop reached a maxium of only [96°F]. In the hand rest and touchpad regions, the temperature reached a maximum of [86°F].On the bottom of the laptop, the measured temperatures were even lower."

Samsung provides a 1 year limited parts and labor warranty on its netbooks. Samsung's website claims that "If the product is found to be defective as a result of manufacturing defects in materials and workmanship during the Limited Warranty Period, Samsung will, at its sole option, (1) repair or replace the product, at no charge as stipulated herein, with new or reconditioned parts or a functionally equivalent product, (2) for user-installable parts, require you to repair the product with new or reconditioned parts provided at no charge, or (3) provide a refund of the purchase price of the product, LESS THE PRODUCT’S DEPRECIATED VALUE, only if Samsung is unable to replace the product or repair it in accordance with applicable law."

"Samsung includes an industry-standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty with the system. Support is accessible through a 24-7 toll-free phone line, and the Samsung Web site offers an online knowledge base, driver downloads, troubleshooting, and live chat with a support rep."

"Based on BBB files, this business has a BBB Rating of A-… Reasons for this rating include: Length of time business has taken to resolve complaint(s).”

Samsung scored a 6.9 out of 10 on Greenpeace's September 2009 Guide to Greener Electronics, which ranks the top electronics manufacturers on their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change. Samsung was 2nd out of the 18 electronics companies in the guide.

Samsung received a B- on the Electronics Takeback Coalition's 2009 review of TV manufacturer recycling programs. Samsung was tied for 1st out of the 18 TV manufacturers scored for the review. The ETC says that “Samsung launched a nationwide, recycling program for TVs and other electronics on October 1, 2008. Samsung moves up from a C to a B- with this report.”

Samsung scored a 51 out of 100 on the 2008 Climate Counts survey, which measures companies across 22 criteria to determine their commitment to global warming. Higher scores are better, and Samsung was tied for 7th out of the 12 electronics companies measured in the survey.