Samsung NC20 - 12in Ultraportable Review

Keyboard and Trackpad

Samsung has capitalised on the extra space afforded by the 12.1in screen where the keyboard is concerned, but it's far from being perfect.

First of all, it's not as big as it could have been and we feel that's an opportunity missed as there's about a centimetre of space flanking either side of the keyboard, which could have been put to use - wider shift and tab keys would have been appreciated, that's for sure.

Secondly, there have been a number of strange layout choices made for no apparent reason - there was plenty of space for Samsung to get this part of the NC20 right, but alas, it hasn't. Take the Windows key for example - it's on the right hand side of the spacebar and the 'right click' button has teamed up with the Function key.


The tilde key is also in a bizarre position too - it's right next to the spacebar instead of being in between Esc and Tab. The extra space that Samsung hasn't used could have solved this placement in particular and would have given Samsung the opportunity to fix our other gripes. What makes this more disappointing is that the NC10 got the keyboard layout very right - everything was where you'd expect it to be. That just isn't the case with the NC20, though.

Layout problems aside, the NC20's keyboard is very good and affords the same positive clicky feel as the NC10. While key travel is a little shallow compared to what you'd expect from a more expensive laptop, it doesn't feel like you're typing on a piece of perspex like some of the other netbooks I've used and it's not soggy like the MSI X-Slim X340's or Dell Inspiron Mini 12's keyboards.


One of the NC10's biggest drawbacks was the size of its trackpad - the NC20 addresses this with a much larger touchable area. The trackpad supports vertical scrolling and there is also zoom capability built in as well, although we found this a little annoying at times when the zoom functionality voluntarily triggered itself unintentionally. The buttons are also spaced much more widely too, which makes them much less fiddly and sturdier. It's a much more positive experience than the NC10's, that's for sure.