Introduction

After several months of using a netbook, I was pretty happy with my productivity levels. Surfing the internet, answering my emails, watching some movies, and typing the occasional word document were all possible without any problems. Then one day, our company gets an overdrive and the workload increased. I realised I might have to take some of my work home ... which includes lots of multi-window we browsing, emails, photo-editing, opening several Excel spreadsheets at a time, and managing all my other documents from PDF to Word. My needs have grown and so have my battery life ... but will my little netbook handle it? Sadly no ...

So what's the solution ... well, to be honest, there's only one. Donate your netbook to a loved one (such as your wife or girlfriend) and then get yourself a new "NOTEBOOK"  that's a little more powerful and has enough features, that will make your workload more easier to manage. If size and portability was the main deciding factor for your original netbook purchase ... then I would recommend you getting a ultra-mobile notebook powered by Intel's CULV processors. Ultra-mobile notebook tend to be slightly bigger than netbooks with screen sizes ranging from 10" to 13" inches, but offer more processing power, better features and similar size in weight. However with this in mind, there's also a price premium to pay ... and that's generally double the price of a netbook.

Samsung is an excellent brand that's well known for its consumer electronics, especially mobile phones, digital cameras and of course netbooks/notebooks. During the early days of 2008, Samsung were among the first to release a large screen netbook that competed directly with the Asus EeePC. With so many excellent award-winning products under their belt, it's only natural for them to push their new line of ultra-mobile notebooks, just as the market is starting to pick up.

In this review, we'll be taking a look at the Samsung X130 Notebook. Samsung's X-series has only been recently launched, and it's one of the thinnest CULV powered notebooks currently available on the market, measuring just 25.1mm thick. Remember, the Samsung X130 is a fully-fledged notebook and not an ATOM based netbook. In fact, you'll find the new Intel Core i3 - U330 (CULV - ultra low voltage) processor at the heart of the X130, which runs at a respectable 1.2Ghz. It features with a large 11.6" LED HD 16:9 Gloss screen that offers a sharp, crystal clear display with resolution of upto 1366x 768. Ultra low voltage means it uses less power and therefore you'll get increased battery life. With a 6 cell 8850mAh battey, the X130 can provide upto 8.2 hours of usage (depends on your applications). Furthermore, it also comes with Windows 7 Home Premium - 64bit, Intel GMA HD graphics, 2Gb of DDR3 ram, as well as a massive 500Gb hard drive ... now, you won't won't find all this on a netbook will you?

The exterior's carbon-style pattern and smooth curves, gives the X130 a sleek and modern look, which I really like. In terms of size, it's slightly larger than your average netbook, but that's due to the larger 11.6" inch LED gloss 16:9 HD screen. As far as connectivity is concerned ... the X130 is extemely well connected. These include the 15-pin VGA output, HDMI port, RJ45 LAN, speaker/headset out, mic-in, 3-in-1 card reader and a total of 3 USB (chargeable) ports.

Samsung also offer a lot of innovative solutions on their X-series of notebooks, such as the Samsung’s AllShare™, which lets you stream and play videos, music and photos on your mobile PC without installing time-consuming drivers. There's also a convenient super Silent Mode which is easily activated by pressing the Fn+ F8 keys ... offering three operating modes—silent, normal and speed. And finally, Samsung’s Recovery Solution, which automatically and regularly backs up your PC data to the hard drive.

Powered by Intel's new Core i3 - U330 CULV processor along with 2Gb of DDR3 ram, the X130 is definitely more powerful than your average netbook. The question is ... is it enough to satisfy my increased workload? Will my productivity increase, and if so, at what cost?

It will be interesting to see how well it will perform against my Fujitsu MH-330 netbook, but more importantly ... can these new CULV ultra-mobile notebooks strike a balance between performance, portability and price. OK, let's not waste anymore time and take a closer look at the specifications of the Samsung X130 Ultra-Mobile Notebook ...

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