SLJ Reviews the Netbook Toshiba Mini NB205-N230

Windows 7, Microsoft’s answer to the ill-received Vista operating system, was released on October 22, just days before this review was due. I started using Windows 7 in beta last winter and was impressed by how well it performed on my old Thinkpad T40. Since then, I’ve been eager to see if Windows 7 would perform equally well on a more Spartan device: the typical netbook. The Toshiba mini NB205 is as typical as they get: an Intel Atom 1.66 GHz processor, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM, you know the drill—the perfect platform for seeing how Windows 7 scales down for netbooks. Typical, though it may be, the Toshiba mini NB205 has a few wrinkles that distinguish it from the pack. I’ll highlight those, then give you my take on Windows 7 Starter as a netbook OS.

Toshiba mini NB205-N230

Keyboard and touchpad: The nearly full-sized keyboard and a big, three-inch-wide touchpad suits even fumble-fingered users like me.

Hard drive protection: To survive in the K–12 education market, a netbook has to withstand backpack bashing, which is why I favor less spacious but more durable solid state drives. This model gives you the best of both worlds with an impact-resistant 250 GB hard drive that detects abrupt motion and promptly parks until the netbook’s stabilized.

Webcam/Skype: This netbook doesn’t come with a lot of pre-loaded apps, but it does have Skype onboard, ready to utilize its .3 megapixel webcam for videoconferencing. That’s not atypical but, unlike some Linux netbooks, this hardware-software combo actually works. I like that.

Battery life: This one boasts up to nine hours from a lightweight, six cell battery.

Sound: With just a single speaker located in the front underside of the unit, it’s the weakest sound quality of any netbook I’ve tested. In a classroom situation, though, that could actually be an advantage.

Windows 7 Starter edition

What you get in Windows 7 Starter is a super-skeletal iteration of the operating system. There’s no Microsoft Office apps, no glossy Aero visual effects, no Movie Maker, no Media Center, none of that. Heck, you can’t even change the wallpaper. Basically, it’s just a tease to get you to upgrade to a heftier version. Even trimmed down, Windows 7 Starter seemed to really tax this netbook’s system resources, taking about 1.5 minutes to boot up and seeming generally sluggish when opening apps.

Despite my misgivings about Windows 7 Starter on a netbook , the Toshiba mini NB205-N230 is definitely a good little machine. If you get one, consider loading it with open-source software, like Open Office, Firefox, and the VLC Media Player, and saying no thanks to the Windows 7 upgrade offers.