Toshiba Mini NB205 Review: Large Keyboard, Long Battery Life
The Toshiba Mini NB205 is Toshiba’s first netbook in the United States. A low-power, highly portable netbook, with a nearly full-sized keyboard, and very good battery life, let’s take a look if it’s worth its price at $345.76 in black at Amazon. Other colors are available and are more expensive:
Frost White: $399.00
Sable Brown: $396.76
Posh Pink: $397.99
Rating: 
Features and Drawbacks
- Attractive Design and Chassis – for a first time netbook maker, Toshiba did a great job in the design of the NB205. The screen lid is made of textured plastic and the power button is unusually placed in the middle of the hinge of the screen, but is disabled if the screen is closed which rules out accidental powering. While it’s quite pretty, the quality of the chassis is a bit questionable. The plastic flexes and it makes suspicious noises when you hold the netbook and squeeze.
- Easily Upgradeable – There are access panels underneath the netbook for the HD and RAM. You just have to remove a few screws and you can easily upgrade the memory and storage.
- Full-sized Keyboard – Yes, it has a roomy, full-sized keyboard with nice, large keys. But! But you have to type really lightly because of the plastic chassis. It bends. Seriously. You have to be a light typist to be able to enjoy the keyboard, or maybe ask Toshiba to put something underneath it as a support… or maybe, use something else not so plastic-y on the chassis. The touchpad, though, is awesome. It’s about 3 inches by 2 inches (more or less) with standard-sized buttons. Talk about space maximization.
- Performance is A-OK – Very few netbooks have a few surprises up their sleeves, so the Toshiba Mini NB205 does not actually stand out. Which is more or less a good thing when it comes to netbooks. Performance are usually standard, especially with an Intel Atom-powered machine. This netbook is just right there with its contemporaries which means it’s great for web browsing, email, document editing, listening to music and moves. Let me note though, that the speakers aren’t the best in the netbook category, even compared to other netbooks. You might want to invest in some good headphones or external speakers.
- Battery Life – Toshiba promises on 9 hours of battery life. They didn’t quite deliver but the end result is pretty much awesome in itself at 7 and a half hours. Definitely not bad at all.
Rating – 6/7
Value for Money – 0.5
Speed and Performance – 1
Screen – 1
Keyboard – 0.5
Portability & Battery Life – 1
Looks and Design – 1
Extensibility & connectivity – 1
Technical Specifications of the Toshiba Mini NB205:
- 10.1″ WSVGA (1024 x 600) LED-backlit display Intel GMA 950 Graphics
- Intel Atom N280 (1.66GHz, 533MHz FSB)
- 160GB hard drive (5400rpm)
- 1GB (DDR2 533MHz)
- Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3
- 802.11b/g and Bluetooth V2.1
- Dimensions 10.4 x 8.3 x 1.0/1.27 inches (W x D x H)
- Weight 2.93lbs with 6-cell battery
- Battery: 6-cell Lithium-Ion
Bottomline
The Toshiba Mini NB205 is a very good netbook: Attractive, large keyboard and very good touchpad, easy upgrades with a great battery life at a reasonable price. It doesn’t have the best keyboard or speakers though, so you might want to look around before settling. The black Toshiba Mini NB205 is currently #6 on our Amazon Top 10 Netbooks List and the Sable Brow is at #9. For it’s $350 to $400 price range, there are a lot of other netbooks to choose from.
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Filed under: Toshiba Netbooks
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