It’s fair to say that when Toshiba launched their first attempt at a netbook, they didn’t exactly set the world on fire. Measuring up at 8.1″, the NB100 was a little on the small side and also suffered through being released when a lot of mini-laptops were upping their game. As a result, it seemed a little behind the times. However, with the release of the NB200 during the summer, Toshiba have attempted to redress the balance.
Available in 5 different styles, you can choose how much power you want – and as usual, the more you pay, the more you get. Prices start at around £250 for the cheapest and go up to around the £340 mark. We managed to get hold of the NB200-11H version, which is in the middle price bracket and gives you an Intel N280 processor running at 1.66 GHz, 1 GB of RAM, 160GB of storage space and comes with Windows XP Home Edition.
This could be one to look out for if you’re in the market for a netbook – when it was launched, a lot of sites praised the excellent performance (for a lower-end model) although the price was a little high. With the recent influx of newer, much more powerful netbooks, we could see the price of the NB200 drop even further – so keep your eyes peeled. Anyway, here’s how we found the Toshiba NB200-11H netbook…….
DESIGN & CONNECTIVITY
Available in black or white, the NB200′s design is much improved from the rather squat, unattractive little thing that was the NB100; but still could do with some work. The outer shell has a real plastic look to it, not helped at all by some ugly lines that actually made me feel queasy when I stared at them for too long – although I’ve learnt from experience that my design tastes can sometimes be off the mark.
It’s not all bad news though; the netbook feels solid and well-built and the curved edges and smooth shell feel slick and contemporary. Weighing in at 1.3kg and at only 25mm thick, the NB200 is definitely light and thin enough to be considered highly portable.
In terms of connectivity the NB200 falls in line with general netbook standards. You’ll find a 2-in-1 card reader, whilst at the sides you’ll find the power supply, 3 USB ports, Ethernet socket, VGA port for connecting an external monitor, a microphone jack and a headphone jack. No surprises expected, no surprises received!
PERFORMANCE
Reviewing netbooks over the past year has proved difficult, as they’ve all been so similar. There’s only so much power you can pack in that small frame without asking a lot more than a reasonable price, so when describing features as “good” or “better than…”, the margins from netbook to netbook are actually quite small.
Having said this, the Toshiba NB200 out-performs a lot of its rivals. It handles basic netbook-style tasks very well and whilst the system can be a little sluggish at times, we were able to watch content through BBC’s iPlayer and Youtube perfectly, without any judder. If you’re into games, you’ll be able to play older, less-CPU intensive titles, but you’ll have to forget about the latest 3-D efforts.
The Lithium-ion battery life is excellent: we had over 5 hours of high-intensive usage and you can expect somewhere in the region of 8-9 hours solid if you’re careful with the settings. Even when the netbook is switched off, you can still use one of the USB ports to charge up USB devices and this fact combined with the battery life makes for a highly portable mini-notebook.
KEYBOARD & AUDIO/VISUAL
When you open up the NB200 and you are greeted with a cool-looking silver keyboard and wrist-rest. The keyboard has well-spaced, raised keys which respond well to the touch. I have seen bigger keys, but there was no discomfort in long-term typing tasks and the SHIFT and ENTER keys were big enough to hit accurately and quickly without looking.
The touchpad is also well-designed. Toshiba have plumped for the “2 mouse-button” design as opposed to the recent trend of a roller button, which can only be a good thing in my eyes, and both work well with a good balance of resistance and response.
With a display of 1,024×600 pixels, the 10.1″ screen does a good job with both basic tasks and video. Colours are bold and blacks are nicely deep, whilst flesh tones were natural. The NB200 really gives good definition and contrasts when you’re watching video content and when you’re typing out documents, you’ll find text and graphics focused and sharp.
Audio is a completely different matter; the NB200 has only one speaker which has inexplicably been stuck underneath and is, quite frankly, pathetic. Of course, netbooks aren’t renowned for their high quality audio output, but at least most of them make a token effort – Toshiba may as well not have bothered, their speakers are so insipid and weak. However, this is nothing that a good set of headphones won’t sort out….
CONCLUSION
There are plenty of netbooks out there that do pretty similar things, but the Toshiba NB200 is certainly one of the best we’ve seen – at least until the very end of this year. The latest advances in netbook technology are starting to come to the fore, but you will pay a much higher price so if you’re after the best of the lower-end netbooks, it would be wise to keep an eye on the NB200.
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