Review: Toshiba NB200 netbook

The Toshiba NB200 is the company's second generation of netbook, featuring a more stylish design and a larger display than last year's NB100. But, apart from one or two interesting features, there is little to make it stand out from the many other netbooks on the market.

Available now, the NB200 carries a bit more style than many rival netbook models - called 'mini notebooks' by Toshiba - and features an impressive 10.1in TruBrite display with an LED backlight. It also has a decent keyboard and borrows the accelerometer hard disk protection system from Toshiba's larger laptops.

The NB200 is available in a number of configurations, some based on the 1.6GHz N270 version of Intel's Atom processor and some using the 1.66GHz N280. One model also ships with an optional 3G modem for go-anywhere wireless communication.

We looked at the NB200-110 model, which has the N280 processor, 1GB of memory (expandable to 2GB) and a 160GB 2.5in Sata hard drive. Its wireless capabilities include 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Battery life
This model also comes with a six-cell 63Whr (approximately 5800mAh) lithium-ion battery pack, which Toshiba quotes as delivering up to nine hours, while entry-level versions of the NB200 have a smaller three-cell pack. The six-cell pack projects out from the rear of the case and bumps the weight up to about 1.33kg.

In tests using the Battery Eater Pro 2.70 benchmark tool we found that the NB200 achieved just over six hours rather than the claimed nine, but this is still fairly impressive for such a small system.

We did not run benchmarks to test the NB200's performance, as we have previously found that one netbook produces pretty much the same test score as any other owing to them having nearly identical processor, memory and disk configurations.

Like other netbooks we've used, the NB200 is fine for surfing the web, email and editing documents, but not really suitable for demanding applications.

However, one minor irritation is the number of tools that launch at startup, which prevent you using the system properly until they have all finished loading. These include McAfee Security Centre, a Camera Assistant tool for use with the built-in VGA web camera, and a separate application launcher called ConfigFree.

Display
The 10.1in display has a native resolution of 1,024 x 600 pixels and we found it clear and sharp, and one of the better netbook displays we have experienced. The casing also feels reasonably sturdy.

Keyboard
Toshiba's keyboard is also better than most. It's a so-called 'chiclet' type, with flat rectangular key tops that stand slightly proud of the casing. We found it pleasant to type on, but sometimes misjudged the distance between keys because they are rectangular rather than square, and so ended up hitting the wrong one.

The trackpad of the NB200 is larger than on many netbooks, and a tool in the system notification area lets the user customise almost any aspect of its behaviour. But another minor irritation is that this is configured by default to use the bottom and right hand edges of the trackpad for scrolling inside applications, and consequently does not respond if your finger strays into these areas when on the Windows desktop, unless you disable the scroll feature.

One nice feature of the NB200 is Toshiba's hard disk protection, which uses a built-in accelerometer to detect sudden movements and temporarily park the disk heads to try and prevent damage. This is a common feature in Toshiba's laptop range, but is welcome in a netbook as these are likely to be picked up and moved around more than a weighty desktop replacement model, for example.

Input/output
The NB200 is fairly standard in I/O capabilities, with two USB ports on the right hand side of the case and a third on the left, along with the Ethernet port, audio jacks, and VGA external video connector. A 'Bridge Media' slot on the front of the case supports SD Card Flash storage up to 16GB and MMC cards up to 2GB.

Unusually, the third USB port can supply power to charge devices such as digital music players even if the laptop is in standby, hibernation or powered down. This must first be enabled using a utility pre-installed by Toshiba.

The NB200's memory is fitted in a single slot on the underside of the case, accessible by removing a cover secured by a single screw. The netbook's hard drive is located under a second cover secured by star head screws, which suggests that this is not meant to be upgraded by the user.

As is common on netbooks, the NB200 comes with Windows XP Home edition as the operating system. On the application side, our review unit came with McAfee Security Centre, a trial version of Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Works 9, plus a number of tools such as Google Toolbar and Google Picasa, Toshiba Recovery Disc Creator and others.