The Toshiba Mini NB205 may be just a rebranded Toshiba Dynabook UX or Toshiba Mini NB200. But it’s also happens to be Toshiba’s first entry into the US netbook market. The company’s Satellite NB100 was never released in the United States. And that might not be such a bad thing. By all accounts, the new model has a better keyboard, a larger screen, and spectacular battery life.
Laptop Magazine’s Joanna Stern has published a detailed review of the NB205. And while on paper it looks a lot like other netbooks, with a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1GB of RAM (expandable to 2GB), and 160GB hard drive. But this 10.1 inch netbook delivers 8.5 hours of battery life on a single charge.
Stern was also impressed with the netbook’s design, praising the attractive lid and case.
The NB205 will set you back $399 if you want the version with the 6 cell, 8.5 hour battery. A 3 cell version will also be available for $349 soon, but that model will only come in black and will get approximately half the battery life.
how do i adjust the volume on the nb205?
how to i adjust the volume on the nb205?
One notable weakness in the NB205 series is that both the upper and lower end models only have a .3 MP webcam. I was particularly disappointed because Toshiba deliberately obscured this information by only discussing the presence of the webcam but they chose not to include the resolution. Sad, sleazy salesmanship blemishes what would otherwise be a stellar product.
Well, for the price and all else you get, are you really surprised?
Somehow all the other top-end competitors can get 1.3mp cams into their netbooks, so yes, I am surprised. And more surprised that Toshiba wasn’t honest enough to publish the spec. Instead all their literature simply refers to an “integrated webcam.”
So yeah, I’m surprised at the spin, and surprised they couldn’t stay ahead of the pack on this item when they were ahead of the pack on all the other components.
How could the battery life be called spectaculor when there are a few batteries that last longer. There really needs to be some consistency of adjectives, or maybe just reporting the facts without subtle editorializing.
I didn’t say unparalleled. I said spectacular.
The extra battery life is definitely worth the extra $50. Looks like a nice unit.