Toshiba Mini NB300 Review

Pros:

Huge touchpad, Low price, 9 hour battery life (tested)

Cons:

Windows XP

Bottom Line:

The Toshiba NB305 is a fantastic netbook available for $323.54. The keyboard is excellent and the touchpad is the largest I've seen on any netbook (save the Toshiba NB205) and I believe both of these features are crucial on a netbook. The NB305-310 also offers a strong battery life. I got 9 hours under normal use (web browsing, a little Hulu video watching, blogging etc.). The only downside I can say about the netbook is the fact that it uses Windows XP home. Some people won't consider this a downside and in fact that's partly why it has a lower price. There is another model, the NB305-N410, available with Windows 7 starter available for a little higher price at $372.54 if you prefer the newer operating system. Beyond that the Toshiba NB305 netbook is a solid machine and one worth of the title I gave it back in January - best netbook of CES.

See all Toshiba NB305 netbook models

Full review continued after the break

Full Review:

Quick Product Specs:

Intel Atom N450 1.66 GHz Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, Windows 7 Starter (see full specs)

Design:

The netbook is less than 1 inch tall in the front (tapering) and in the back it is a little under 1.5 inches high after the battery bulge of the 6 cell battery, so it's a relatively thin netbook. There is a tapering around the outside of the netbook on both the top case and bottom case. The lid has a glossy black finish that is sadly a haven for finger prints. Inside the netbook the all black theme continues throughout the entire inside of the netbook. As was mentioned before, the touchpad is huge on this netbook at 3 inches wide and just over 1.5 inches high:

Usability:

I'm satisfied with the keyboard on the Toshiba NB305; however, I still believe the future for keyboard design is in island style keys with slightly raised edges (i.e. Lenovo S10-3). With that said the keyboard is still completely usable and it makes up for an area the Lenovo S10-3 falls well short of - touchpad size. Ever since the Toshiba NB205 the netbooks made by Toshiba have offered huge and roomy touchpads. Combine the touchpad with the keyboard and you have one of the most effective 10 inch netbooks around.

The screen resolution found in this model is 1024 x 600 and again as I've mentioned in past reviews I'd love to see netbook manufacturers move away from 1024 x 600 and to instead go with 1366 x 768 instead. If you need a higher resolution 10 inch netbook look at the Sony Vaio W or ASUS Eee PC 1005PR; however, both of these models are more expensive.

Battery Life:

The Toshiba NB305-310 has a 6 cell battery that provides a manufacturer rated 11 hours battery life; however, I found this number to be more close to 9 hours of battery life under normal usage. I rarely get the same target battery life a manufacturer gets, but the key point here is that even if the usage you see is somewhere between 9 and 11 hours that should be more than adequate.

Performance:

As expected you'll get typical performance from this netbook. You'll be able to play farmville, watch YouTube, use MS office suite, and just about any other tasks you can think of besides playing intense PC games and HD video viewing. I ran PC Mark 05 tests on this netbook and got 1389 which is typical of most netbooks (without Nvidia ION inside) so there weren't any surprises here.

Overall Performance:

Overall I believe the Toshiba NB305 is a worthy netbook in low $320's price range. The keyboard is sufficient, the touchpad is huge, and it has a great battery life. The only complaint some shoppers may find is the decision to go with Windows XP for the OS. This saves you some money by bringing the total cost down to $323.54, but if you really need Windows 7 there are three colors to choose from all priced around $370. The Toshiba NB305-N310 is only available in black though. I still believe the Toshiba Mini NB305 is one of the best netbooks around especially after spending an in depth amount of time with it for this review.

See all Toshiba NB305 netbook models here

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