Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 21 May 2009 17:44
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Toshiba’s new NB200 netbook is a big improvement on its predecessor, the NB100, finally giving Toshiba a much better netbook to compete with. What’s inside, and what makes it stand out a bit more in the netbook world of same, same but not that different?
New models in the netbook world are coming thick and fast, with Toshiba’s NB200, the second new netbook to launch this week!
Toshiba’s first netbook, the NB100, was certainly technically capable and similar in spec to other models, but should have had a bigger screen and definitely a bigger keyboard.
Thankfully, its successor has arrived, and while it doesn’t yet introduce a touch-screen option like the
Dell Latitute 2100 “education focused” netbook launched earlier this week, it’s definitely a contender and brings some fresh competition to the netbook market.
The “Toshiba NB200 Mini Notebook” reverses the “too small” keyboard problem with a very welcome fix , with what Toshiba describes as a “full 19mm pitch keyboard (desktop standard)” instead, while also swapping the NB100’s 9-inch screen for an LED backlit 10.1-inch widescreen at 1024x600 resolution.
All three versions of the NB200 sport the slightly faster 1.66GHz N280 Atom processor (as opposed to 1.6GHz N270 Atom found in the NB100 and most other netbooks), an Intel GMA 950 graphics chipset, and then the rest of the standard netbook lineup, with a couple of nice extras added in.
There’s 1GB of RAM as standard in a single memory slot (replaceable by a 2GB stick of memory), a 120GB HDD (one model) or a 160GB HDD (other two models), a 3-cell battery (“up to” 3.5 hours) or 6-cell battery (“up to” 9 hours), 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.1, although this comes as standard on one of the three models.
There’s also a VGA out port, mic and headphone sockets, an internal card reader, Ethernet 10/100, a webcam with inbuilt mic (and included facial recognition software), inbuilt stereo speakers and 3 USB 2.0 sockets.
So what are the extras when compared with most other netbooks, what are the three models, and what do they cost?
Please read on to page two, where all is revealed!
