As it couldn't have been expected differently from Samsung, the Duracase casing presents itself in a very high manufacturing quality with a high-quality surface. Insensitive, roughened and with elaborately positioned design elements in a chrome look, you can call the Samsung an optical eye-catcher. You have the choice of Sapphire White (test model) and Diamond Black as colors. With the antibacterial keyboard, which is based on a silver-ion coating, Samsung tries to also score in the aspect of hygiene and offers something special with that.

The base unit has a high stiffness and lets itself barely be pressed in, twisted or deformed in any other way. Unfortunately, this sturdiness isn't noticeable in the display lid, a strong deformation is possible. This doesn't have an effect on the image content or the protective functions, but does throw a shadow on the very positive first impression. In return, the display hinges do their job, keeping the lid in a closed as well as open position without any objections. There isn't an extra closure for lid and base unit.

The keyboard is embedded as hard as board, as already in the NC10, and no deflections or clattering can be elicited. The base has an opening under which the RAM slot is found filled with one gigabyte RAM system memory. The, as almost for the class common, battery accommodated on the back elevates the case slightly, but appears well-integrated and sits desirably tight.

The case has, in comparison to the NC10, gained a bit in its width and depth with 272 (B) x 188.5 (D) x 29.8 (H) mm, but has become about 1 mm slimmer. It was possible to reduce the weight by 200g despite the grown chassis and capacity enriched battery. However you now have to carry an 80g heavy adapter around as a drop of bitterness.

Although the case would allow a 12", there is merely a 10" derivate found in the N120. The Samsung made screen rather belongs to the conservative netbook division with a WSVGA resolution (1024x600 pixels) in a 16:10 aspect ratio. The most obvious innovation, without having to turn on the notebook, is the smooth, glossy display surface, which could already work as a mirror in this condition. This impression is reduced when it's activated, but calls for a very well-considered choice of location, even indoors. Bright clothes, adversely positioned light sources or dark image contents over layer the intrinsic program window and make it necessary to strenuously separate image and surrounding contents visually.

Old acquainted components are found in Samsung's N120 performance department. Aside from the Intel N270 CPU, based on the Intel Atom range, the usual GMA950 graphic chip set is built-in. These main components are supported by a 1GB DDR2 RAM and a 160GB hard disk from Samsung. The latter delivers good values with an average transfer rate of 52.1 MB/s and has, with the in the meantime standard capacity, sufficient space for documents, pictures and music.

The benchmark results present themselves fitting to the unspectacular configuration with 241 points in the 3DMark '05, 274 points in the Cinebench R10 OpenGL Shading and 541 respectively 828 points in the Cinebench R10 single and multi CPU rendering.

This results in a 4.8-fold iTune conversion of our 5 test songs and to a studder-free rendering of our iTune H.264 test film "Shooter" in the praxis. The system gets rather inert at simultaneous use of several programs or more demanding tasks such as image editing with filtering and/or larger files at the latest. The Samsung N120 wasn't able to play Full-HD videos, just as much as it wouldn't be suitable for contemporary games. The usual suspects, such as browser, office and Skype could be operated adequately fast and confirm the objectives of this device category.

We reached a maximum average transfer value of 25.2 MB/s at the USB port and the cardreader delivered with a Scandisk Extreme III SDHC 4GB memory card a good 17.2 MB/s

System Noise

The Samsung N120 moves in a very narrow and also very quiet noise corridor with a noise behavior of 30.7 dB(A) to 32.6 dB(A). Barely audible and even under full load just noticeable, but never disturbing, the Samsung can be described as a very quiet netbook. The noise character, which belongs to the soothing natures, is perceived as especially pleasant.

Temperature

It seems that the Samsung technicians have taken a higher case temperature into account for the low noise behavior. While an unpleasant feeling doesn't yet turn up at a maximum of 39.1°C in the keyboard area, it can get rather warm at the base's right front corner with 46.2°C. A comfortable working on the couch with the thighs as a desktop can therefore quickly lead to a premature end, depending on the load.

The Samsung N120 could boast with welcome detail innovations in a few areas, but allows itself to take a grave step backwards just exactly at the most important interface to the user - the display.

Especially pleasing are the good sound emissions, the higher battery life with, at the same time, a lower weight, the improved (because bigger) keyboard and the pleasant low noise level.

In return, Samsung's renunciation from the NC10's good display to an obviously poorer product is inconceivable. Aside from the now glossy display surface, which conjures up very restricting reflections, you also have to live with visibly lower brightness and contrast values. Depending on the scenario, the relatively high temperature development on the base - the downside of the low noise level - is also detrimental.

The port arrangement, which could lead to obstructions with connected periphery, shows itself as less restrictive, but worthy of improvement for some.

Basically, the Samsung N120 has lost some appeal in comparison to the NC10 and sees itself exposed to a very strong competitive pressure.