When I started looking for a new laptop, I considered following point
Portability
Usability
Budget
Feature.
As you can see portability was my first concern, I was looking for laptops which are less than 1.7kg. 3 options I had - 1. Sony S series, 2. Samsung NP350, 3. Any other Atom based netbooks.
Sony was out as my budget was only rs35000 max. Only options left was Samsung NP350 series or Atom based netbook. Now Atom based notebooks are less powerful and limited in functionality. So only logical choice was Samsung NP350 with 2nd Gen Core i3 processor. One version is available with Core i5 too. Core i3 model retails around rs33000 to rs34000 in India.
I use my laptop mainly for Browsing, casual photoshop, some raw conversion of my DSLR photos. So a core i3 was sufficient for me. Now some features of this laptop are
Light weight @ 1.4 kg only (my previous one was 1.95kg)
Very good 12.5" LED screen, and readable under bright light too
Very silent and cool Intel i3 processor (my previous one was AMD and used to burn my lap)
Comes with 4GB DDR3 RAM and 500GB Hitachi HDD
Intel HD3000 graphics is fine to play HD movies without lag, and it has HDMI out port
Comes with Bluetooth 3.0
Touch pad is gesture supported. So you can use two finger scroll or two finger tap for right click, pinch zoom etc
Island style keyboard in like my old mac, it is fun to use.
Some cool features
Hybrid sleep - in this mode every component will be shut down. Little power goes to RAM to maintain the memory. So when you switch it on it is ready to use in 3 - 5 seconds only. Yes if the battery is fully down it goes to regular Hibernation.
Silent mode - in this case the CPU fan switches off and CPU runs underpower. So it becomes quite but little slow.
Battery life extended - there is a option where the battery of the laptop will be charged only 80%. Samsung claims that this will increase the battery life 3 times than normal.
Some of the things I would be happy to see in this laptop. Being a latest laptop, it lacks a USB 3.0 port. And it has only two USB on both side. So in case you are using a device which needs 2 USB for power (some external HDD/Optical drive) you cannot use them. No accessories at all, not even a sleeve.
I was little skeptical buying Samsung laptop as they are major home appliance brand. But then thought it is the leader in LED screen and most of the part in laptop is from other brands only. Now I am using this laptop for over a month and I am happy to recommend this to all who want performance, usability and portability.