Toshiba NB200-11M review

£268
Price when reviewed

If you’ve been wondering whether or not to buy a netbook, and you’re reading this before the end of October 2009, then there’s every reason to be tempted by the Toshiba NB200 range right now. Up to that point you can get £50 cashback with your purchase, which means the typical price of £329 inc VAT for this version (the Toshiba NB200-11M) drops down to £279 inc VAT (during the review, we saw it for a few pounds less at Laptops Direct). And at that price, it’s a bargain.

For this laptop is built for work. While machines like the Sony W-Series and Dell Mini 10v both have irritations when the time comes to take them from your bag, the Toshiba NB200 is a pleasure to use.

The keyboard is a particular highlight. While it might look like it’s been designed for style rather than substance, the keys have just enough travel and resistance to help typists race along at top speed. It’s still a shade away from the excellence of the keyboard you’ll find on the Samsung N110, but there’s very little to choose between the two.

Toshiba NB200-11N

Note the wide trackpad too. It’s a little deceptive as the right-hand side and the bottom are a scroll area rather than for controlling your cursor – so if you run your finger down the right of the trackpad, the page you’re looking at scrolls downwards – but once you realise this it becomes easy to jump around the screen.

And this is another highlight. The 10.1in display has a glossy finish, which means that in office conditions you may find yourself distracted by fluorescent strip lights when the desktop backround is dark. But it also helps make the display look vibrant, with photos and video both looking good. There’s no sign of the grain that afflicts lesser netbooks either: it’s clear, sharp and whites look white.

Another sign of this netbook’s usability is its battery life. You can buy the NB200 with a normal battery, which sits flush with the back of the netbook, or an extended one – which adds an extra 2cm to its rear. It also adds weight: with the normal battery in place, the NB200 weighs 1.18kg; with the extended battery it adds up to 1.31kg.

Despite this, we prefer the extended version, because in return you get excellent battery life: a massive 9hrs 42mins in our light-use tests. Toshiba claims the NB200 lasts for around three-and-a-half hours using the normal battery.

Bearing in mind there’s an Atom inside, it’s pretty speedy too. Thanks to a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, which isn’t dual-core but does support Hyper-Threading, it scored a respectable 0.39 in our benchmarks. That’s enough to ensure office applications run with ease, but more demanding tasks (think video encoding and the like) will take annoyingly long to complete.

Warranty

Warranty1 yr return to base

Physical specifications

Dimensions264 x 211 x 31mm (WDH)
Weight1.310kg
Travelling weight1.7kg
Weight with extended batteryN/A
Travelling weight with extended batteryN/A

Processor and memory

ProcessorIntel Atom N280
Motherboard chipsetIntel GM45 Express
RAM capacity1.00GB
Memory typeDDR2
SODIMM sockets free0
SODIMM sockets total1

Screen and video

Screen size10.1in
Resolution screen horizontal1,024
Resolution screen vertical600
Resolution1024 x 600
Graphics chipsetIntel GMA 950
Graphics card RAM128MB
VGA (D-SUB) outputs1
HDMI outputs0
S-Video outputs0
DVI-I outputs0
DVI-D outputs0
DisplayPort outputs0

Drives

Capacity160GB
Hard disk usable capacity149GB
Spindle speed5,400RPM
Internal disk interfaceSATA
Hard diskToshiba MK1655GSX
Optical disc technologyNone
Optical driveN/A
Battery capacity5,800mAh
Replacement battery price ex VAT£61
Replacement battery price inc VAT£70

Networking

Wired adapter speed100Mbits/sec
802.11a supportno
802.11b supportyes
802.11g supportyes
802.11 draft-n supportno
Integrated 3G adapterno
Bluetooth supportyes

Other Features

Wireless hardware on/off switchno
Wireless key-combination switchyes
Modemno
ExpressCard34 slots0
ExpressCard54 slots0
PC Card slots0
USB ports (downstream)3
PS/2 mouse portno
9-pin serial ports0
Parallel ports0
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports0
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports0
3.5mm audio jacks2
SD card readeryes
Memory Stick readerno
MMC (multimedia card) readeryes
Smart Media readerno
Compact Flash readerno
xD-card readerno
Pointing device typeTouchpad
Audio chipsetRealtek HD Audio
Speaker locationBottom
Hardware volume control?no
Integrated microphone?yes
Integrated webcam?yes
Camera megapixel rating1.3mp
TPMno
Fingerprint readerno
Smartcard readerno
Carry caseno

Battery and performance tests

Battery life, light use9hr 42min
Overall application benchmark score0.39
Office application benchmark score0.48
2D graphics application benchmark score0.32
Encoding application benchmark score0.38
Multitasking application benchmark score0.40
3D performance (crysis) low settingsFail
3D performance settingLow

Operating system and software

Operating systemWindow XP Home SP3
OS familyWindows XP
Software suppliedMicrosoft Works 9

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