Jul

Toshiba NB300 review

by Russell Barnes

Since Intel’s N450 Atom processor boasts such excellent power-saving capabilities over previous chips, it has powered almost all netbooks released in the same period – Toshiba’s mini NB300 was no exception…

The 10-inch screen on the NB300 offers a 1024×600 resolution. Though the screen bezel is a little thicker than we would have ideally liked, there’s little doubt that Toshiba has picked a very high-quality panel – the contrast and brightness are excellent and there’s scarcely a hint of soft focus around the edges. The backlight is also very evenly lit and the viewing angles are impressive.

One of the more interesting additions to Toshiba’s take on the now standard Atom N450 netbook specification comes courtesy of the third USB 2.0 slot that sits on the left-hand bezel. Using a technology called USB Sleep And Charge, it’s possible to charge a USB-powered device like a smartphone or digital camera even when the NB300 is in sleep mode. Sadly, this seems to be limited to activation from within Toshiba’s own proprietary software for Windows when it really should have been a BIOS option to open up this capability for Linux users.

The battery life on offer wasn’t quite as impressive as that of the almost identical Asus Eee PC 1005P reviewed in issue 86, but wasn’t far off. We got between nine and ten hours out of the NB300 – still more than enough to take us through an entire day of average use without needing to charge.

Toshiba also offers a variant of the NB300 at £265 that comes with a 160GB hard drive, but for the sake of around £20 the model we reviewed seems better value. In fact, the only real downside to the NB300 is the fact that it doesn’t feature Bluetooth – you’ll have to go for the NB305 if you want to tether to your smartphone to share 3G connectivity or the like. This model looks slightly different, however, due to tile-design keys which are much smaller, but are well spaced.

Verdict: 4/5
Another great netbook from one of the leading manufacturers. The Intel platform that makes up the backbone for this device is everywhere, so it’s great to see Toshiba innovating with its USB Sleep And Charge technology, though it’s a shame it’s yet to be supported on the Linux platform. Fantastic looks, great battery life and a worthy option in the sub-£300 netbook market.

Click for more reviews from Linux User & Developer, or find out what else featured in issue 88 here…