The Toshiba NB205 is one of the more popular netbooks launched in the second half of 2009 thanks to its large touchpad, roomy keyboard, and stellar battery life. Toshiba recently launched an updated version of the NB205 that ships with Windows 7 Starter Edition and a larger hard drive than earlier models.
In some ways, the new model can be considered an upgrade, since it packs a newer operating system and extra storage space. But there are some down sides as well.
Windows 7 Starter Edition is a stripped down operating system in many ways compared to Windows XP (or Windows 7 Home Premium). And battery life seems to suffer under Windows 7. While the laptop still gets better battery life than most netbooks on the market, tests seem to confirm that the same laptop will run longer under Windows XP than Windows 7.
The model featured in this review is a Toshiba NB205-N330BL. It has a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, 1GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, 802.11b/g WiFi and Windows 7 Starter Edition. It’s available from Amazon for $420
