Well I have been doing research and playing with netbooks for several months now. I had to replace my aging 5 year old HP that was recently stolen. I wanted something with a long battery life and was extremely small and portable.
I rolled down to my local best buy on July 4th and I was hell bent on getting the ASUS 1000HE. I found out that the model they sold only had the Atom 270, but I wanted the Black Tie warranty so I was going to live with that. However, when I got there, they did not have any in stock. In fact, the only netbook that had the Atom 280 was the Toshiba NB 205. I never even heard of it. I found out that they were out of stock so I ran home and called until I found a best buy that had one in stock. I read some reviews but they were dismal at best.
After playing with it non stop for 3 days, here is what I like about it.
1. The Case is much better looking than any other netbook out there. It even looks nicer than the Mac Books. It is much nicer than the ASUS 1000HE.
2. The screen is very crisp and bright. It also has 8 levels of brightness.
3. The Keys are very nice to type on and are spaced out well.
4. The touchpad is responsive and the left and right keys are placed like a normal laptop.
5. Although it took some time to get the wireless working, it hooks up faster than my other 2 laptops.
6. It runs XP so with some minor tweaks, it ran just as fast as my other laptops.
7. It plays MP4 movies/videos very well.
8. It handles office applications like Excel and Access very well.
9. I was able to watch 3 full length MP4 movies and still have over half the battery life left.
10. It boots up fast and it has no problem with multiple windows.
11. Netflix live stream videos work great on it.
12. 3 USB Ports (one can charge while it is off), 1 VGA Port, 1 RJ45 Port, and a SD Port.
Now on to what I don't like.
1. The back of the battery does stick out another inch but it does seem to act like a bumper. I bought a Targus bag with a handle and it fits perfectly.
2. The speaker is very inadequate, the earphone jack works well.
3. The Wireless setup was a pain. I wish it had a dedicated switch.
4. The instruction manual is almost useless.
5. Can't really adjust the screen resolution (although the stock settings are fine).
All in all it was a pleasant surprise and I am glad I waited to buy.
Get more detail about Toshiba Mini NB205-N312/BL 10.1-Inch Royal Blue Netbook - 9 Hour Battery Life.
