Great device for netbook-class hardware

By Mike Talon "Kindler" (NY, NY)

This review is for: Toshiba NB205 mini-N230 (NB200 series)

I've had the NB204-N230 for about a week now, and thought to write it at the time, until a short review.

First, the device itself is very well designed. It feels solid and well built, although the screen when closed, have a tendency to not click the mouse buttons. This is a bit disturbing, but not terrible.

The screen, when opened and is on, visually stunning. The graphics are sharp and clear, text is very readable and easy to use. Note that this is a netbook and not a full laptop, so you have a much smaller screen (1024x600), you need to get used.

Battery performance is good so far. With WiFi and apps running can go I will go for at least 4 hours. My guess is that the nine hours with WiFi quote from (that's been standard in the supplier's battery testing rather is).

The hardware is adequate to run Windows 7 Aero (the new interface) on, including the Aero Peek task bar previews and effects. iTunes, Thunderbird, Word 2007 and other applications running smoothly, even though video playback will stutter when other applications are running.

All-in-all, this is a well-developed system that surpasses other netbooks in terms of performance and function. Note that you are not getting a laptop here, so try to important applications such as PhotoShop will run not be a pleasant experience for you. The same is true apps for games and other high processor utilization. However, the NB205-N230 remarkably adept at dealing with e-mail and Office applications, remote access to other computers and browsing most web sites.