Netbook showdown: The top 10 mini laptops rated

By Derek Chesterfield on 30 October 2009, 12:48pm

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Toshiba NB200 £350

It's okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them. Toshiba certainly learned from the misfire that was the NB100, the company's first netbook. The NB200 is a vastly superior machine in every way. Not only does it look the business but it also packs in plenty of attractive features.

Design and usability

The NB100 was boxy and ugly. The NB200 is much slimmer, measuring a mere 25mm thick. It boasts an attractive copper-coloured finish, with a silver trim on the keyboard and wrist rest. The excellent keyboard uses isolated keys, similar to those found on Apple's MacBook range, while the trackpad is one of the largest you'll find on any netbook. The 10.1-inch screen is coated in a glossy finish, but it has a decent 1,024x600-pixel resolution. We also like the fact that Toshiba has used a shock-proof hard drive that adds an extra level of protection for your data should the NB200 slip from your hands and crash to the floor.

Connectivity

Toshiba has kitted the NB200 out with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, and there's also an Ethernet socket and a VGA output for connecting the netbook to an external monitor or flat-screen TV. As is now pretty standard on netbooks, this model has three USB ports. The one on the left-hand side can be set to remain powered when the netbook is switched off, so that you can use it to charge devices like phones and MP3 players.

Performance and battery life

The NB200 is built around an Atom N280 processor and, as usual, this is twinned with 1GB of RAM. It's certainly no slouch in the performance stakes and has no problem dealing with day-to-day tasks like Web surfing and emailing. It's also able to smoothly render full-screen iPlayer video, which is something that some lesser netbooks struggle with. Battery life is impressive too -- the NB200 kept running for an impressive 5 hours and 12 minutes in Battery Eater's Classic test.

Should I buy it?

The NB200 isn't the flashiest netbook around, but it offers good performance and packs in some really useful features, making it a great choice for those who want a real workhorse of a machine.

Read our full Toshiba NB200 review