1 out of 5 stars! Buyer be aware ... 2010-08-30I'm really surprised that none of the previous reviewers mention about the horrifying installation process of this netbook? Want to know? Here it goes including other identified issues: 1) I had two Asus eee's previously, and both came with Windows 7 and XP pre-installed and setup was a breeze... But this thing took 43 minutes to install Windows 7 from scratch. And for some reason, if you mess up, you're toast. (Good luck with Samsung tech support) The OS should have been pre-installed. 2) The second big surprise was that once you logged on to Windows, Samsung forces you to partition the drive for backup. What? An average user is not familiar with this process and can be very confusing. The given default is not a good choice. It divides the disk drive (small) in half. Are there other choices? Yes. But the screen does not tell you... You cannot get out of this partitioning crap. The backup takes about another 25 minutes, so that comes to 1 hr and 8 minutes if all went well. I prefer to do by backups on DVD so why is Samsung trying to force a backup on the small hard drive? The backup should have been pre-installed like all other companies (HP, Asus etc) do. So you'd say since I'm doing all the work, I should get a price break, right? But Samsung says nope. 3) The third surprise was that you are forced to install McCaffee. Again, no choices. My previous netbooks always asked; do you want it? yesno. Samsung is shoving stuff down the throats of buyers. I prefer using Microsoft Security Essentials at no cost. So why this McAffee install? 4) Lot of bloat-ware and half of it is from Samsung... I would not recommend Samsung UpdatePlus as I think it is legalizing access to your private data. I did not also install Phoenix FailSafe knowing that it comes from the same branding, collecting private data... One has to ask this question; Why are these programs given for free? Because the return comes from data mining and other marketing objectives. 5) The bloat-ware that you do not want to install keeps nagging you (Samsung UpdatePlus & FailSafe). Why? I guess they are really determined to get your data. Once installed, it's an automatic process that runs in the background without the user knowing... Throughout the life time of your netbook, you become a silent donor to these companies. 6) An annoying issue was the touch pad. The Tapping feature should be turned off by default. I think it is overly sensitive (despite of adjustments) and messes up the user. Once, I deleted a file unintentionally because of Tapping. The reason why we don't hear about tapping is that users get very annoyed and immediately buy a wireless mouse assuming problem is solved. But once you are mobile (i.e. on the plane) you are stuck with it. Regarding given issues, I decided to return Samsung N150. I am looking for something more user friendly. Not sure why Samsung is shooting itself in the foot, but buyers don't like it. Current I'm looking at HP, Lenovo and Asus' new models.
-- Haydar Emre