Hands on: Samsung N310 and N110 netbooks

As we're over in Vienna at Samsung's European Forum, we got chance to get our paws on the company's new netbooks. And my, they're good.

Top of the new tree is the clamshell N310. Aimed at fashionistas, it's not a manly netbook, but it is fantastically lightweight and the keyboard is the finest nebook sample we've yet seen, with nice spacing similar to many Sony models.

The outer shell is really soft and tactile, while the 10.1-inch screen is plenty big enough for most needs. We're not so keen on the Orange finish, but the mint, blue and black will appeal. And it weighs a mere 1.2kg. Great work Samsung, you'll sell these by the bucketload.

Next up is the N110. It's less impressive, but even so, the keyboard is the real deal and we can tell this will be a real favourite of ours over the summer months - the keyboard is virtually indistinguishable from a real-sized model.

Samsung also says this notebook has its Duracase technology for strength, so we can see this being the notebook of choice for those who think netbooks as they know them are just too flimsy.

The NC10 and NC20 up the ante with a 12.1-inch screen on the NC20, though we suspect that by the time it's all costed out, we'll be looking at near-laptop pricing. The NC20 also eschews the now-standard Intel Atom netbook chip for the VIA Nano ultra-low voltage model.

Samsung will have the kit on the shelves by June. All have 1GB of memory as standard with 80-160GB hard drive variants available.

Contributor

Dan (Twitter, Google+) is TechRadar's Former Deputy Editor and is now in charge at our sister site T3.com. Covering all things computing, internet and mobile he's a seasoned regular at major tech shows such as CES, IFA and Mobile World Congress. Dan has also been a tech expert for many outlets including BBC Radio 4, 5Live and the World Service, The Sun and ITV News.