We were delighted to receive the NB200, Toshiba’s second foray into the netbook world. We gave the first, the NB100, an average rating. Toshiba were not discouraged however (all the better) and are now offering a second cutting, announced as high-end, compact but also nicely designed, without making any concession to performance.

Handling, design and build

Elegant it is too! Definitely a word that comes to mind when you look at this machine. We appreciate the choice of matte colours for the plastic casing (imitation brushed metal). This gives a professional overall feel that is indeed high-end and would not be out of place on your desk.

The keys on the keyboard are slightly raised from the casing and well spaced, which gives it a very airy overall aspect. The caps and tabulation keys are slightly reduced in size to make space for this, as well as the arrow keys on the right and some other keys. The large touchpad is positioned under the space bar. We did have some difficulties in using it, especially the scroll feature that is difficult to localise on the sides. There are two large buttons under the touchpad for left and right clicks.

Unfortunately the NB200 does make a bit more noise than we would have hoped. The fan brings itself to your attention too regularly as far as we’re concerned. Although noise levels are reasonable, there has been quite a bit of progress made here by the competition and this makes us less indulgent.

The webcam gives a good image, shame, then, that the microphone doesn’t measure up. You can’t hear yourself very well on recordings. Is this because the sound from the speakers is too weak?

On the side of the machine you’ll find: 3 USBs, 1 SD format card reader, 1 VGA and 1 RJ45, which is pretty much standard

There are two panels under the computer. We could only open one of them (the RAM) as the other was closed using a type of star screw for which we didn’t have the right screwdriver. Is this a way of Toshiba telling us that it’s best only to mess around with the RAM?

SD reader	2 USBs
2 mini Jacks, RJ45, USB	VGA

Processor Power

No miracle here, results are the same, or almost the same as you get on other netbooks. The core of the machine is still an Atom, an N280 this time. In practice, this doesn’t change much if you compare performance with that of a Core 2 Duo. You still have to wait 3 to 6 times as long depending on the operation requested.

Playing films, you’ll have to draw the line at heavy HD files (Blu-Ray type files).

Gaming

Generally speaking, gaming on netbooks is only for real enthusiasts.

Audio

What a great idea to put the speakers under the machine’s casing! Although on some laptops the use of the computer as a surface area to reverberate off can give nice results, here the sound is projected backwards. Great for anyone sitting opposite you, but not you! The headphones socket is fine.

Battery life and portability

1.3 Kg is pretty good for this netbook. However the charger is heavy at 389 g, when you think that Asus makes its chargers at under 200 g. Battery life of 6h10 ensures a top score in this category.