Bundled as well are SRS Premium, a background application that will improve audio quality no matter which player you're using, and Samsung's Movie Color Enhancer, a background app that adds richness to video.

A half hour spent removing the unnecessary software and tweaking the startup items using msconfig.exe had a far more noticeable effect than using Easy Start-Up Manager. Most laptops and netbooks benefit from this kind of pruning, but the NC110 does so more than others; 720p video, for instance, was unwatchable before and smooth afterward. The netbook will never manage 1080p, but that's well beyond the screen's 1024 by 600 resolution anyway. Alas, the Webcam is limited to 320 by 240 video.

The Samsung NC110 is a notch above the pack in both looks and stamina. Otherwise, it's just a standard --and unless you are willing to spend the time tuning the unit's software installation, you won't get decent performance out of it.