Toshiba NB205 Review
Introduction:
Although a late-comer to the U.S. netbook market, Toshiba quickly raised the bar for what a 10 inch netbook should deliver with the over-the-summer introduction of the NB205 netbook.
With the NB205, Toshiba addresses several key shortcomings of current 10 inch netbooks by delivering a full-sized keyboard, a large comfortable touchpad, and a day-long running Lithium-Ion battery.
Factor in a full complement of standard netbook features and a $399 price tag, and it’s clear Toshiba has a winner with the NB205.
Join us as we take a tour of the NB205 (which we’ve been using for several months now) and hopefully by the end of this review, you’ll understand why we think so highly of this 10 inch netbook wonder.
Specifications:
First things first, let’s go over the specs to the NB205 (the system we’re specifically reviewing is the NB205-N310).
- Intel Atom Processor N280 clocked at 1.66GHz
- Windows XP Home Edition SP3
- 1GB DDR2 533MHz RAM
- 10.1 inch WSVGA (1024 x 600) TruBrite LED Backlit widescreen display
- Intel Graphics Media Acceleration GMA950
- 160GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive
- Atheros Wireless LAN/802.11b/g
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
- Built-in 0.3 megapixel webcam
- 85 key U.S. keyboard
- Touchpad
- Security Cable Lock Slot
- 10/100 Ethernet
- Headphone jack, microphone jack (mono), Built-in monaural speaker
- 5800mAh 6-cell Lithium-Ion battery for up to 9.08 hours of power
- 2 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 2.0 with Sleep and Charge support
- Bridge Media Adapter
- 2.93 pounds
- Available in Royal Blue, Frost White, Sable Brown, and Posh Pink
- Energy Star Qualified, RoHS Compliant, EPEAT Gold
Toshiba offers two other less expensive NB205 models – the NB205-N211 model for $329.99 and the NB205-N210 model for $349.99. Both models come with a plastic keyboard instead of the island-keyboard design on the N310 with the N211 featuring a 3 cell battery and the N210 a 6 cell battery.
Unboxing:
Here are still shots of the Toshiba NB205 packaging for your viewing pleasure:
Opening up the box..
A Look Around:
The Toshiba NB205 utilizes a two-tone color scheme with the lid available in four colors – Royal Blue, Frost White, Sable Brown, and Posh Pink – and the lower half in a silver/metallic color. Our favorite color (and the one reviewed here) is Sable Brown which in our opinion provides a nice contrast to the silver lower-half.
Toshiba apparently loves the diagonal hatch pattern as you’ll see it on the outer shell, the surround glossy bezel and on the touchpad surface. The hatch pattern on the upper shell are actually thin grooves cut into the shell itself – yielding a classy and distinctive look to the NB205 (look below).
You can find the netbook’s power button right in the middle of the hinge – offering a cool white glow when the system is on (although it’s not exactly obvious in the pictures below).
Here’s what the netbook looks like once you open up the display.
Here’s the left side of the NB205:
From left to right, you’ll find the VGA port, a cooling vent, a microphone jack, a headphone jack, Ethernet port, a the Sleep and Charge-enabled USB 2.0 port.
Here’s the right side of the NB205:
From left to right, you’ll find two USB 2.0 ports, the DC-in port, and a security lock slot.
The front of the NB205 has a Bridge Media Adapter slot on the left hand side and system indicator lights on the right hand side.
Here’s the underside of the NB205.
The mono-speaker resides towards the front of the netbook underneath the front indicator lights (on the lower left in the above picture)
The internal SO-DIMM memory slot can be accessed through a removable cover.
Unfortunately there’s only one SO-DIMM slot occupied by the standard 1GB SO-DIMM stick which means if you want 2GB of RAM, you’ll need to pick up a 2GB SO-DIMM stick and replace the current 1GB stick.
Keyboard and Touchpad:
Now on to reason number 1 why you’ll fall in love with the NB205 – the excellent island-styled full-sized keyboard.
This is definitely one of THE best (if not THE BEST) netbook keyboards out there and it proves to the world that you can have both a 10 inch form factor as well as a full-sized keyboard. A close runner-up to this keyboard would be the Samsung NC10 which employs a 93 percent keyboard.
Really now – there’s no reason you should accept anything less out of a netbook keyboard now.
The keys offer just the right amount of resistance and tactile response resulting in a very comfortable typing experience. About the only complaint we have is the small row of function keys (luckily we don’t use function keys often enough to notice) at the top.
Reason number 2 why you’ll fall in love with the NB205 – the gi-normous (ok.. a.k.a large) touchpad.
Gone is the lame super-small touchpad. With the NB205’s touchpad, netbooks have officially graduated to the big-leagues! Seriously – this netbook’s touchpad is large enough to be compared against standard notebook system touchpads!
Moving the cursor is an utter joy with this touchpad. Oh and guess what? The left and right mouse buttons are BELOW the touchpad and they’re large and responsive. Yep – the best touchpad yet on a netbook system.
Display:
The NB205 has a solid 10.1 inch 1024 x 600 resolution widescreen display. The TruBrite LED backlit display was a joy to use for prolonged periods of time (which really is the norm for the NB205), delivering uniform brightness across the entire screen.
It’s important to note that the NB205 employs a glossy display which might be a small annoyance to some of you out there. Although we weren’t annoyed by the glossy panel, we did find the surrounding glossy bezel a bit annoying with some glare occurring as a result of ambient light sources.
Ports and Features
The NB205 comes with your usual assortment of ports and features that you would expect from modern netbooks – everything from a built-in webcam to a built-in microphone to a mono-speaker system (it’s a shame the system doesn’t come with stereo speakers tho). On the USB front, the netbook features three USB 2.0 ports – one of which is “Sleep-and-Charge” enabled which means you’ll be able to power a USB device even if the netbook is turned off.
Internally, the NB205 features a spacious 160GB 5400 RPM hard drive, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity (although curiously enough, we had to install the Bluetooth 2.1 drivers in order to enable the feature), 1GB of RAM, and a multi-format media card reader.
Battery:
OK.. Reason Number 3 this netbook utterly rocks – the Lithium-Ion battery. Toshiba bundles a 5800mAh, 6 cell Lithium-Ion battery which yields up to an incredible 9+ hours of battery life.
In informal tests, we easily got nearly 9 hours of power while watching standard definition videos non-stop on a 14 hour flight from Munich, Germany to Los Angeles, CA. Let me tell you something – the NB205 is a godsend for these super long airplane flights!
The large capacity battery does have one downside to it – the battery juts out in the rear of the netbook. While it isn’t necessarily an eye sore, this could pose an issue for some 10 inch netbook cases. The NB205 would not fit inside a Golla 10 inch netbook case which easily stored other 10 inch netbooks from Lenovo, and Samsung. However Toshiba did at least angle the battery downward which props up the NB205 for a more comfortable typing experience.
Performance and Benchmarks:
Processor Performance
The NB205 uses the latest Atom N280 processor clocked at 1.66GHz and as such the system performs slightly faster than comparable N270-based netbooks. Here are a couple of benchmarks comparing the NB205 vs the first generation 8.9 inch Acer Aspire One AOD150 netbook.
Sandra Benchmarks
POV-Ray
Graphics/Video Performance
As expected, there’s not much to write home about with the NB205’s graphics performance. You’re dealing with the same Intel GMA950 graphics chipset which means you’re going to see pretty pitiful graphics and video performance. As with other comparable netbooks, don’t expect smooth HD playback – especially with Adobe Flash-based video clips. Here are some of the graphics related benchmarks we ran compared against the Acer Aspire One AOD 150 netbook. The only oddity was in the 3D Mark 2006 benchmark where the NB205 underperformed compared to the Acer Aspire One netbook. Of course when the numbers are this low, one will probably not notice the difference.
FutureMark 3D Mark 2006
Cinebench R10
System Performance:
At the system level, there’s nothing extraordinarily remarkable with the NB205. The NB205 performs just slightly better than the Acer Aspire One.
Sandra Benchmarks
FutureMark PC Mark 2005 Benchmark
Geekbench
FutureMark Peacekeeper
Comparisons:
Finally for those of you curious how the NB205 stacks up physically against other 10 inch netbooks, here are comparison pictures of the NB205 with the Samsung NC10 and the Lenovo S10.
Here are all three systems stacked on top of one another. Yeah the S10 is the smallest by far.
Now the Toshiba NB205 and the Lenovo S10. Below, the S10 is stacked on top of the NB205. Notice how the battery sticks out with the NB205.
Now side by side with the S10 on the left and the NB205 on the right.
And now the Samsung NC10 (left) with the NB205 (right). First, the NC10 on top of the NB205 – notice again how the battery juts out in the rear.
And now the two systems side by side.
Summary:
Despite being a late comer to the U.S. netbook market, the Toshiba NB205 is easily the standards bearer for the 10 inch netbook market. The NB205 features everything you’ve come to expect from 10 inch netbooks while setting new standards with its full-sized keyboard, spacious touch-pad, and all-day battery life. Clearly Toshiba did their research when designing the NB205. They took the best of what was out there and solved the remaining issues plaguing the competitors.
Is the NB205 absolutely perfect? Of course not. The system could still feature better graphics performance, a secondary memory slot, and of course a larger display (especially since there’s a fair amount of real estate space reserved for the bezel).
Yet if your needs or requirements include:
- All day performance
- Full-sized keyboard
- Large touchpad
- Basic PC application needs (word processing, email, web surfing, etc)
then it’s absolutely hard to beat the NB205 – especially with a $399 price point.
Pros:
- Long battery life
- Full sized keyboard
- Large touchpad
- Latest Atom processor
- Inexpensive
Cons:
- Battery juts out in the rear
- Large bezel
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