Home > Consumer Reviews > Toshiba Mini NB205-N312/BL 10.1-Inch Royal Blue Netbook - 9 Hour Battery Life

(A updated version of this review has been posted over at [...] for anyone that is interested. A number of pictures have also been added to the review. The direct link is: http://www.expertlaptopreview.com/?p=38 )

I've really grown to appreciate this little netbook since I bought it a few days ago. I think it's just the right size for a mini-laptop who's primary purpose is word processing, internet browsing, and an occasional movie watching (maybe even the occasional video game).

I went out and bought a 2gb stick of memory because I knew I was going to be upgrading to windows 7 and figured I needed it. I originally installed Win 7 with only the 1 gb of memory that it came with, but the thing that surprised me was that it ran flawlessly with only 1 gb of RAM. I then installed the 2nd of ram and I noticed no difference in performance. If I were you, I wouldn't worry about upgrading to 2 GB of ram unless you plan on installing Vista (because Vista definitely benefits from 2 GB's).

I am a writer and college student and I already have a 15.4" HP DV5. So why did I buy this netbook if I already had a notebook? Because I wanted to have something light and small that I could carry around with me everywhere I went (you never know when you're going to feel the spark to write!), plus I wanted to have something lighter that I could take to class and take notes on. This laptop fits the bill perfectly, especially with its long battery life.

I still use my Dv5 for virtually all of my non-writing needs such as playing video games, watching HD movies, and most of my internet surfing. I use this netbook for all my writing needs. It has all of my most up to date documents on it. It can be kind of tricky having two computers because sometimes you're not sure which file you put the most up to date file on... etc. I solved this problem by making the netbook the only computer I keep my writing up to date on. Otherwise it'll be a pain trying to figure out which file is most up to date and suffering the chance that you could lose some of your work.

The speaker really is the worst I've ever seen on any laptop. Period. Okay. It's not THAT bad. You can hear it in a quiet room, but realistically, you have to expect to use headphones or external speakers when you're dealing with a netbook anyway. The keyboard on this netbook is the best one on the market in my opinion, which was the reason I decided to go with the Toshiba - otherwise I would have gone with a netbook with a higher resolution. The trackpad is okay. I find that when the computer is working hard the pointer gets laggy and skips. I noticed that the pointer works a lot smoother in Win7 than in XP. One thing I miss having in Win 7 is the side scroll feature. Apparently there isn't a driver for Win 7 yet, or at least I haven't found it yet.

I also tried gaming on this little guy. It can play the original Counter-Strike 1.6 well with around 25 FPS. It also played Max Payne really well 30+ FPS constant. I tried Guild Wars, but it was too choppy to be playable even at the lowest resolution and lowest settings. It got maybe 10 FPS in GW. It might even be able to play KOTOR or some other great classics from a few years ago. :)

As far as Windows 7, everything runs outstanding. Programs load just about the same speed. When I close the lid, it goes to sleep flawlessly and wakes up instantly when I go turn it back on. Aero is smooth, even Flip 3D. I'm pretty sure I can still get the 9 hours of battery life if I turned the brightness down to the lowest possible and turn off Wifi and bluetooth. I get closer to 6.5-7 hours with the brightness up and wifi on.

I've been able to play all of the youtube videos without a problem, even HQ vids. You can't play HD videos though. Netflix videos play smooth when ran in Mozilla but not in I.E. 8. Some hulu videos play smoooth some don't. I believe Mozilla is also the best browser for Hulu as well. I also managed to get Amazon videos to play perfectly smooth. If a video isn't playing smooth, I noticed it helped if you made the video window a little smaller so the video taxed the processor less since it is rendered over less pixels.

Anyway... here's how I rate the NB205:

Design - 9/10 - Nice looking, barely more than 1" thick, just the right size for the ultimate travel netbook
Features - 8/10 - Pretty average internal components
Performance - 7/10 - I appreciated the 1000HE's ability to overclock the cpu
Ease of use 10/10 - Best keyboard, great battery life, decent track pad

Overall 9/10 - Great value, highly recommended as secondary laptop or primary laptop if you don't have high end multimedia needs.

This is a very nice and very neat machine. At this time (July 2009)
it is clearly the most powerful Netbook I could locate. The battery life is
wonderful. They advertise 9 hour, and I think it is possible. I used mine nearly
all day from 7:30AM until 6:30PM, and still had 37% battery life left. The full
keyboard is a major plus.

It did not come with full instructions, and being an Apple Computer guy (Apple doesn't make a netbook or I would have purchased one), I found the entire setup
confusing. There was a simple set of instructions to get it going, and major books on warranty and safety, but no full instruction manual or even notice that one
existed. After, 2 days of frustration and one call to customer service, I found the instructions located deep in a folder on the hard drive. They could have at least
either printed them out, or told you where to find them on their little setup sheet. The machine came with the wireless turned off manually on the keyboard. I had to
call customer service to find out how to turn it on, and it was not easy to figure out all the triple function keys without instructions.

I had one major crash the first week I had it, and I'm not sure it was the computer's fault. I tried to erase various startup programs (it came with a lot of B.S. adds)
and during that effort, I erased the touch pad's control center. Bummer, I had to do a
complete system reinstall. But, the Toshiba customer service was great. They really worked with me to solve the problem. That is one of the best features of this machine is
Toshiba Customer Service. They are located in the Philippines,and speak English very well. They are almost as good as Apple Computer customer service.

I didn't buy the HP, because I saw several of their machines at Costco and they were poorly made. Also, to say HP has bad customer service is like telling
Custer there are just one or two indians over the hill. They are AWFUL!!!!!!! HP has the worse customer service on the planet! Never buy anthing from them
if you ever expect to have to call them. If you hate someone give them an HP computer, or anything else these bums make. Then stand back and watch the laughs.

Now that I have the Toshiba properly setup, it works great. I purchased Microsoft Office and updated Adobe Acrobat. I also installed Norton 360 and AOL: all
run with no problems. The Toshiba does not run Vista, but will run the new Windows 7 coming out later this year. The screen is very bright and the black
one looks like it's made of carbon fiber: it's also $50 cheaper than the other colors. I got the Samsung DVD portable drive Model SE-S084, and it works great.
It does use two USB ports to drive the thing, as it requires no other power source. A little hassel, but no real problem in order to eliminate power cords.

The touch pad works well (but no two finger scrolling like on a Mac), and it has many available options. The machine is a hit around my office and draws a crowd
when I pull it out.

I highly recommend this machine, at least until Apple releases a Netbook of their own: probably at the September Apple Convention where I expect to see
Steve Jobs show up and announce some new killer machines.

I bought this Netbook a couple weeks ago. I've been using it almost daily.

Pros:
Full Size Island Style (keys are raised up) Keyboard and touchpad
L-O-N-G battery life, the longest of any netbook
It's upgradable to 2GB Ram
160 GB hard drive
Toshiba Exclusive "Sleep & Charge" USB port 4 your iPod, phone, etc.

Cons
The internal speaker produces low and tinty audio
the web camera is very low res

First, please don't think these new "netbooks" are simply "inexpensive laptops" - they should be bought with specific purposes. The true selling feature of netbooks is their small size and portability. However, remember that there are many compromises/sacrifices you'll have to make with a netbook as opposed to a laptop. These use a slower processor than laptops, are comprised of more inexpensive components than laptops, have smaller screens, don't come with a CD/DVD drive, etc. So make sure a netbook will be powerful enough to do what you want to do with it.

I researched and compaired every available netbook before settling on this one. I bought it to serve three functions: To transfer my Flip Videos off the Flip while on long vacations, To store my Itunes library so I can download/sync my iPod on the go, and to travel with (light & easy to carry on the plane!)so I can watch movies on the plane.

The biggest feature I liked was the powerful 6 cell battery which lasts about 9 hours (yes, in real life it lasts too, not just in "review-land"). This will last longer than any other gadget I can bring on a plane. PLEASE NOTE: The size of the laptop in the pictures in the description is deceptive: It does not show it with the battery installed! The battery "butt" sticks out the back about 3/4 of an inch, and adds to the overall weight of the machine.

I would suggest you go to Best Buy first and play around with the netbooks, paying close attention to the keyboard. Most other netbooks have really small and scrunched together kepboards with some of the keys (like the shift key) in "weird" spots on the keybord. This keyboard has all the keys where they are supposed to be. Most also have small trackpads - this one does not, it's the same size as the one on my laptop. There are special "hot zones" in the touchpad that cause things to happen, for example, if you run your finger along the top edge to the left, it's the same thing as pressing the "back" button of the internet.

Pick up the other netbooks - This one feels substantial - not cheap and flimsy like a lot of the other ones (of course, they are the less expensive ones). They keys are metal, not plastic.

I like the cover that doesn't show any fingerprints too!

All in all, this is the best netbook available -- As long as you're not going to be using the web camera for much, and plan on using headphones for any audio.

Although some other people said that they had trouble connecting this to their wireless network at home, I DID NOT. However, it's worth mentioning that the WIRELESS AND BLUETOOTH SETTINGS ARE SET TO OFF INITIALLY! YOU HAVE TO HIT FN-F8 to turn them on. Setup was a breeze and I was online in 10 min. I have a Linksys router.

I picked up the Toshiba NB205 over the weekend. I plan to use it primarily for Gmail, Facebook, blogging, and some light web design work.

This is the first netbook that I can actually type on and actually use the trackpad. Most netbook keyboards feel so cramped that I can't type, however that's not the case here.

As soon as I got the netbook home, I created a bootable USB flash drive to install the Windows 7 RC. Toshiba has drivers for Windows 7, so I was able to get the key components installed without any trouble. The only hiccup was they don't have a Windows 7 driver for the ALPS touchpad on the NB205. This was a MAJOR PROBLEM for me because without that driver, I couldn't disable the 'tap to click' feature of the touchpad. My palms frequently brush against the touchpad as I'm typing sending the cursor all over the place, so without a driver, I wasn't going to be able to run Windows 7 RC.

Realizing that most Windows Vista drivers work in Windows 7, I searched the Toshiba site for an ALPS driver from another laptop for Windows Vista. I checked a few of their other laptops, and quickly found a driver that I was able to successfully load on Windows 7. Once installed, all of the touchpad settings became available under the Advanced tab of the Mouse control panel, and I was able to disable tap to click.

The other Windows 7 related hiccup was that whenever I booted up the NB205, my Netgear N Wireless Router (WRN2000) would reset/reboot multiple times. Eventually the wireless router would stop rebooting and everything would work, but then eventually it would start rebooting again randomly. To fix this issue, I downloaded and installed Toshiba's Windows 7 Configfree driver. Using that utility to configure my wireless settings, instead of doing it manually though Windows 7's built in feature, everything works and the router no longer reboots. I have absolutely no idea what the difference is, but I'm just happy it's working.

Those issues were Windows 7 related, so don't let them scare you. I only share my experiences in case anyone else wants to try Windows 7 and needs to know how I resolved them. Also remember that Windows 7 hasn't "officially" been released yet. I'm hopeful that since Toshiba has beta Windows 7 drivers available already for the NB205, that they'll resolve these issues with better drivers once Windows 7 is officially released.

As for the netbook itself, here's my pros and cons:

PROS
* Usable keyboard!
* Usable trackpad!
* Bright/readable display (I run it at 30% brightness without any issues)
* Descent performance for a netbook. It runs Windows 7 just fine.
* The battery lasts forever. Even with installing several apps and rebooting a few times tonight, I'm still on pace for 8 hours before needing to charge!
* Extremely lightweight.
* Bluetooth works great connected to my Blackberry for mobile broadband internet access.

CONS
* It gets warm after awhile. Not the scalding 2nd degree burn you'll get from some laptop, but still it's warm.
* It's a netbook... performance isn't as good as similarly priced laptops. That's the trade-off getting a netbook vs. a regular laptop.
* Can't play HD video from Youtube. (Although regular video is completely fine.)
* The vertical resolution of 600 pixels cuts off some larger dialog boxes that can't be resized, so you can't easily see or click on the SAVE/OK/CANCEL buttons.
* No free upgrade to Windows 7, which really isn't Toshiba's fault because Microsoft's free upgrade program requires a $499 minimum purchase. Still, if you want Windows 7 when it's officially released later this fall, you'll have to pay for it if you buy the NB205.

Overall, I'm very happy I purchased the Toshiba NB205. Hopefully I stay happy with it over time, and so far so good.

**********
UPDATE:
Turns out the issue with my wireless router rebooting wasn't caused by Windows 7 after all. Apparently it was a compatibility issue between the wireless card in the Toshiba and the Netgear router. Last week I picked up a Linksys WRT110 N Wireless router and no longer have any issues whatsoever.

I also installed the RTM version of Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit that came out last week. I don't see any major improvements in performance on the unit compared to the RC version of Windows 7, but I'm not seeing any new problems either, so that's good news.

Finally I noticed that some people are complaining about the ALPS trackpad in the NB205 not working well. I have experienced some slight hiccups or jitters in the cursor movement if the unit is under high CPU load. Although it's nothing that hinders my work. (I didn't buy a netbook for top-notch precision mousing.) Also my trackpad works fine all the way to all of its edges. No part of the trackpad is unresponsive, and scrolling works fine too. Perhaps loading the ALPS Vista driver has helped? Regardless, when I'm sitting at a desk or table, I pull out my Logitech VX Nano mouse. Even when I'm using my $2000 HP Elitebook laptop from work, I still pull out my Logitech mouse because it's better. So yes, an external mouse will work better. You might have an occassional stutter on the trackpad under heavy use, but unless you need to have 100% precision cursor control at all times, I don't see any major issues here. (My 2 cents anyways...)

I still like the unit. On a recent weekend trip out-of-state, it was awesome to pack a laptop so lightly, and have an ultra-portable unit to get Internet access in the van from the Blackberry!

I've been fooling with microcomputers for 25 years, and I am astounded by the value and power packed into these little Netbooks for $400 or less. These are real computers for the price of a gadget. The Toshiba NB 205 I bought will do everything I want -- including word processing, spreadsheets, Web Browsing, e-mail, even decent photo editing. And I've been getting 6 hours of battery life without tweaking any "low power" settings. These are really breakthrough machines in terms of usability and luggability.

I won't bother you with details you can find in other reviews. I bought the Toshiba for two reasons. The first was a keyboard I could actually use (I'm an editor and touch typist, so a keyboard that isn't big enough for my clumsy fingers is a non-starter). I'm not normally a fan of chiclet keyboards, but after trying this one, I realized that that it makes the most of the limited space with a design that encourages precision without cramping your fingers. It's hard to explain this precisely, but the bottom line is that after a few minutes with it, I found myself making fewer errors than I did with other machines in the class. Still, I realize that keyboards and screens are largely matters of personal preference.

Also, having spent some years supporting reporters on the road, I concluded that the laptops least likely to fail were IBMs (the original) and Toshibas.

That said, there are a couple of design and execution problems that keep me from awarding the NB 205 very top marks. One is that I use a mouse with a portable computer everywhere but on a plane (where I rarely use them anyway because there isn't much room for them in the back where I fly). The Toshiba's power supply cord plugs directly into a port on the right side of the computer at 2/3 of the way back. It sticks out a couple of inches, making it very difficult to use the mouse normally. From a design standpoint, there are two solutions to this. One is to have the power supply cord plug into the left side of the machine, elminating the problem for 90 percent of the world. Unfortunately, Toshiba couldn't plug the pwoer cord it into the back of the unit because it has an extra-large, heavy-duty hinge back there, a useful feature. The other possiblity is a power cord with an 90-degree adapter on the end, which I've seen on other PCs. That would free up a path for the mouse.

Another issue (and I was obviously unable to test all the competitiors) is the visibility of the screen outside. Even with the brightness turned up all the way, the image fades considerably outdoors, even in open shade.

Still, my wife and I love the little machine and keep it upstairs next to the TV, where until now we've been reading e-mail and settling arguments by Web browsing with an iPod Touch. The Netbook really ups the ante here.