Toshiba Mini NB205

Processor: 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280
Memory: 1GB RAM
Storage: 160GB hard drive
Optical Drive: None (optional)
Screen: 10.1 inches (1,024x600 native resolution)
Graphics: Integrated Intel GMA 950
Weight: 2.9 pounds
Dimensions (HWD): 1.3x10.4x8.6 inches
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition


Hang back, plan carefully, and do it right the first time. That seems to be the idea at Toshiba, which has finally entered the netbook market with the $399.99 Mini NB205. Its debut effort is solid but lacks the kind of breakthrough features that make tech writers get up and cheer (and make a netbook stand out in a competitive field). However, with its attractive design, full-size keyboard, strong battery life, and Sleep-and-Charge USB port, this model is a well-rounded choice for a broad swath of users, who will be willing to overlook its few negatives, such as its poor audio.

We love the Toshiba Mini NB205's smudge-resistant cover.

Toshiba aims to win you over first on design. The NB205 comes in five shades, dubbed Onyx Black, Frost White, Posh Pink, Royal Blue, and Sable Brown. Toshiba sent us the brown model, which is actually a lot darker than it looks on the Toshiba Web site. Overall, the textured lid looks very finished, without attracting fingerprints, and the brown in particular offers a polished aesthetic, as though it were built to match your shoes and belt. (For women, it might go with their purses or handbags.)
While the NB205 is attractively compact, measuring 1.3x10.4x8.6 inches, the designers at Toshiba apparently couldn't find a way to blend the six-cell battery in with the rest of the case. It protrudes oddly out of the back edge of the netbook, and at first we mistook it for a handle. The whole package weighs 2.9 pounds, which puts it in the middle of the netbook field weight-wise and makes it a hair heavier than most. We hate feeling cramped by a reduced-size keyboard, which is why we loved this netbook's full-size keyboard. It's one reason why the NB205 doesn't feel like a compromise. Even better, the keys aren't flush with the frame but raised. Typing was comfortable, even though the keys had a tiny bit of stiffness to them.

The NB205 has a full-size keyboard and large track pad.

Below the keyboard sits a touch pad that, at just over 3 inches, is large for a netbook. That should make it easier for people used to a laptop to transition to their first netbook. The screen measures 10.1 inches diagonally, the typical size for most netbooks currently on the market. It's surrounded by a large bezel that makes us wonder if the screen could be a little larger. A 0.3-megapixel (VGA-resolution) Webcam sits above the screen. The sole speaker is on the bottom, and it produced weak and tinny sound, even at maximum volume.

The right side of the NB205 has two USB ports, a power jack, and a Kensington Lock slot.

Like many newer models on the market, this netbook is built around the Intel Atom N280 processor, which was designed for low power consumption. It runs Windows XP Home Edition and comes with 1GB of DDR memory, which is upgradable to 2GB. The hard drive is roomy enough at 160GB (the typical netbook standard) and spins at 5,400rpm. One of the few negatives here is that the included Wi-Fi connectivity only supports the 802.11b/g specifications. People who demand 802.11n speeds will have to look elsewhere. You'll also get Bluetooth V2.1+EDR. It took us a few minutes to figure out how to turn on the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity; the answer is to hold down the F8 key (marked with a Wi-Fi icon) to call up the wireless options, then repeatedly tap the Fn key until it lands on the option you want.
One perk you won't find in other netbooks is Sleep-and-Charge USB: One of the NB205's three USB ports will continue to charge your USB devices even when the netbook is off or sleeping. (Look closely: It's the one on the left that's marked with a tiny lightning bolt.) You'll also get an SD-card reader, an Ethernet port, and headphone and microphone jacks. As you'd expect, there's no CD or DVD drive (a standard omission for netbooks), but Toshiba will sell you a matching external drive in case not everything you need can be downloaded from the Internet or loaded via a USB key. Finally, an included hard drive impact sensor protects your data in the event you drop the unit, which is more likely to happen with a highly portable computer.

The left side of the NB205 has a sleep-and-charge USB port.

Graphics aren't the NB205's strong suit, as it scored only a 564 on our Cinebench 10 rendering test, which measures the performance of both the CPU and graphics card. That score is well behind those of the same-price Asus Eee PC 1000HE's score of 922 and the Eee PC Seashell 1005HA's 862. Likewise, the NB205 showed poor 3D performance: Its 3DMark06 benchmark-test score of 89 (compared with the Seashell's score of 126) shows that its graphics engine is weak even among scaled-down netbooks that aren't meant for their graphics performance. Take that with a grain of salt, though: Like with any netbook, you wouldn’t be playing any truly demanding 3D games on the NB205 even if the scores were five times what we saw. We weren't able to complete our PCMark05 test, since the Toshiba's native resolution of 1,024x600 was too low for the test. (It demands a minimum 1,024x720 resolution.)
The NB205 scored in the middle of the pack on our iTunes encoding test, with a time of 19 minutes and 34 seconds, showing off its processing power. And it did better than average on our Windows Media Encoder test (which measures CPU performance by crunching a sample video), with a score of 23 minutes and 3 seconds. Likewise, the NB205 proved it can multitask, at least adequately. It took only 2.5 extra minutes to complete the same test with a virus scan running in the background. Finally, its battery was able to stream online video for 5 hours and 40 minutes on our battery rundown test, which is well behind the $380 MSI Wind U123 (7 hours and 18 minutes) but more than an hour and a half ahead of the $369 HP Mini 110 (the model without WWAN built in). Its battery endurance was also much better than the 4-hour netbook average.
The Toshiba Mini NB205 doesn't offer the kind of knockout features that business buyers tend to look for, but its handsome look, solid all-around performance, and good battery life should endear it to home buyers looking for a reasonably capable netbook (within the limitations of the genre) at a great price.
Price (at time of review): $399 (list)