Toshiba NB205 Hands On Impressions

[Chris]

Toshiba was kind enough to ship me out their new netbook the Toshiba NB205 to play around with and the results were in line with what I expected - pure beauty. I'm still running a battery eater test, but so far I've been very impressed with the battery life and believe it has a chance [...]

More...

Thanks Chris.

Not as flashy as previous Toshes. Focus a little too on the the bottom about how easy/difficult it is to add RAM or to upgrade the HDD.

You need a light tent and a tripod.

[ThisIsNot]

I know I am a week late but I just got done watching your hands-on video of this Toshiba netbook. First off, you didn't look like what I was expecting. I don't know what I was expecting but I don't think it was someone wearing an NES controller t-shirt. It is so hard to picture people on these forums that I never know what to expect when picturing them in my mind. Nice shirt by the way, I have a black t-shirt that has an NES cartridge and says "bl** me" at the bottom. Not really family friendly but older NES gamers know what it means.

Toshiba's netbooks are actually pretty stylish. The NB205 may not come off like the 1008HA or 1005HA but it has an impressive battery life. There are a bunch of netbooks out there that keep tempting me. This one, the Eee PC 1005HA, and a few others simply because they pull in 6+ hours on a single charge. Kind of makes me regret going with an HP Mini 110XP since it is getting about 5 hours of real world usage on a single charge. At least that is better than the Gateway I had. The processor and GPU came at a cost and that was the battery, 4-4.5 hours of real world usage is a lot when compared to notebooks but is kind of on the bottom end when compared to netbooks.

What are your opinions regarding non-removable batteries (like the one in the Eee PC 10008HA)? Personally, I wish that more companies would go that route. It allows them to create custom shaped batteries thus giving the notebook/netbook a longer lasting battery. The Eee PC 1008HA would not be able to last 5 hours if the 3-cell battery was a standard square or rectangle. I would prefer having a built-in battery for some cases. That would have benefited both Gateway and HP with their netbooks. Acer/Gateway could have made a high capacity, custom battery for their AMD Athlon64 netbook that could have pushed the unit to the 6-7 hour mark.

[netkid]

lol I actually pictured him as this old guy with a beer belly...not this handsome young man. lol

My first laptop was a Toshiba (Sattelite L115) and I am not inclined to try another.

However it is my view that this netbook doesn't really set itself apart from the (1gb ram, 160gb hard drive, Atom N280/166GHz) netbook crowd.

The only difference is that maddening huge Toshiba logo that I will quickly cover up with tape.

Sighs. I wish they would trim that thick bezel and increase the screen size without increasing the size of the netbook. I wish they would have tried innovating and come up with a different form factor instead of simply copying every other netbook. Look at the touch book from always innovating, COPY THAT and I'll bite!

[wblynch]

I was ready to buy a Toshiba NB205 until I went and tried it out. I couldn't stand the silver keyboard and the bright chrome tube with the lid hinge. It was too distracting to my eyes. Plus I can only imagine the cut fingers when that cheap chrome starts peeling off.

The all black one loses the chiclet keys and Toshiba's advantage along with them.

The HP5101 would be a sale if it weren't so ridiculous to order one with the 1366x768 video.

It looks like I'm narrowing it down to the Asus 1005 or 1002.

But the shopping is always the best part.

[ThisIsNot]

Originally Posted by netkid

However it is my view that this netbook doesn't really set itself apart from the (1gb ram, 160gb hard drive, Atom N280/166GHz) netbook crowd.

That is my main problem with netbooks out now. They pack 1GB of RAM, either an Atom N270 or N280 processor, 160GB hard drive, GMA 950 IGP, 802.11b/g wi-fi, and so on. There aren't very many netbooks that stand out from the crowd in terms of hardware.

Toshiba's kind of stands out due to the excellent battery life but it still packs the generic hardware. There are other options as well. Gateway/Acer uses a single-core AMD Athlon64 processor, HP has a not-a-netbook netbook that uses an AMD Neo processor (both single-core and dual-core options), HP also has a Broadcom Crystal HD chip that can be added to their Atom powered Mini netbook, and so on.

The next generation should be pretty good in terms of hardware choices. The sad thing is that both Asus and Acer have shut down netbook development until 2010. This means that we won't see new netbooks, from them, for a while. Everyone seems content with the Atom N270/N280 processor, 1GB of RAM, and GMA 950 IGP.

Originally Posted by ThisIsNot

The sad thing is that both Asus and Acer have shut down netbook development until 2010.

Give you points for being on top of the news.

Lots of standard netbooks offered right now. The Toshiba NB205 is one.

With the ASUS netbooks out right now and a slew of options offered in Asia, I'm still picking the 1000HE as the pick of the litter. It has the inside space for mods, access for RAM and HDD swaps, a desirable matte screen and UGLY only a netbooker could appreciate.

Next year's new lower power demanding Intel chip will be nice (if they pull it off on schedule) but, obviously, the development everyone wants is graphics power. New hardware will put pressure on the definition of netbook as user graphic capability grows and new graphic netbooks are needed to match the user. I don't see myself looking until 2Q and buying until 3Q next year. Of course, I'm reality based. I won't believe it until I see it.

[ThisIsNot]

With the way things are looking, that is a big "if" on the whole Intel, AMD, and Nvidia schedules for their netbook technology. It looks like manufacturers are going to be content with the N270/N280-GMA 950 combination for a while.

That is what makes me think that the next generation of netbook technology won't be around for a while. The Ion platform is already available in net-top devices but it looks like netbooks are in for a long wait.

[wblynch]

For those of us out shopping, and without a current netbook, this is kind of good news in that it helps the decision knowing there are no imminent breakthroughs, "waiting in the wings".

Originally Posted by ThisIsNot

With the way things are looking, that is a big "if" on the whole Intel, AMD, and Nvidia schedules for their netbook technology. It looks like manufacturers are going to be content with the N270/N280-GMA 950 combination for a while.

That is what makes me think that the next generation of netbook technology won't be around for a while. The Ion platform is already available in net-top devices but it looks like netbooks are in for a long wait.

[netkid]

To think I had such high hopes for the eee tablet t91...sighs the 1000he is really the best netbook out there