This is a very nice and very neat machine. At this time (July 2009)
it is clearly the most powerful Netbook I could locate. The battery life is
wonderful. They advertise 9 hour, and I think it is possible. I used mine nearly
all day from 7:30AM until 6:30PM, and still had 37% battery life left. The full
keyboard is a major plus.
It did not come with full instructions, and being an Apple Computer guy (Apple doesn't make a netbook or I would have purchased one), I found the entire setup
confusing. There was a simple set of instructions to get it going, and major books on warranty and safety, but no full instruction manual or even notice that one
existed. After, 2 days of frustration and one call to customer service, I found the instructions located deep in a folder on the hard drive. They could have at least
either printed them out, or told you where to find them on their little setup sheet. The machine came with the wireless turned off manually on the keyboard. I had to
call customer service to find out how to turn it on, and it was not easy to figure out all the triple function keys without instructions.
I had one major crash the first week I had it, and I'm not sure it was the computer's fault. I tried to erase various startup programs (it came with a lot of B.S. adds)
and during that effort, I erased the touch pad's control center. Bummer, I had to do a
complete system reinstall. But, the Toshiba customer service was great. They really worked with me to solve the problem. That is one of the best features of this machine is
Toshiba Customer Service. They are located in the Philippines,and speak English very well. They are almost as good as Apple Computer customer service.
I didn't buy the HP, because I saw several of their machines at Costco and they were poorly made. Also, to say HP has bad customer service is like telling
Custer there are just one or two indians over the hill. They are AWFUL!!!!!!! HP has the worse customer service on the planet! Never buy anthing from them
if you ever expect to have to call them. If you hate someone give them an HP computer, or anything else these bums make. Then stand back and watch the laughs.
Now that I have the Toshiba properly setup, it works great. I purchased Microsoft Office and updated Adobe Acrobat. I also installed Norton 360 and AOL: all
run with no problems. The Toshiba does not run Vista, but will run the new Windows 7 coming out later this year. The screen is very bright and the black
one looks like it's made of carbon fiber: it's also $50 cheaper than the other colors. I got the Samsung DVD portable drive Model SE-S084, and it works great.
It does use two USB ports to drive the thing, as it requires no other power source. A little hassel, but no real problem in order to eliminate power cords.
The touch pad works well (but no two finger scrolling like on a Mac), and it has many available options. The machine is a hit around my office and draws a crowd
when I pull it out.
I highly recommend this machine, at least until Apple releases a Netbook of their own: probably at the September Apple Convention where I expect to see
Steve Jobs show up and announce some new killer machines. Get more detail about Toshiba Mini NB205-N312/BL 10.1-Inch Royal Blue Netbook - 9 Hour Battery Life.
