Toshiba NB200 netbook, er, mini notebook

Toshiba doesn’t do netbooks. It does mini notebooks. Well, OK then. But the NB200 which I’ve been looking at for a couple of weeks, has a remarkably netbookish set of specifications.

There are no less than ten variants of the NB200 listed as I write, with mine, the NB200-10Z having just undergone a price drop to £303.48 ex VAT. For that money you get:

Windows XP Home Atom N280 processor 160GB hard drive 1GB RAM 10.1 inch 1024 x 600 screen 3 x USB Webcam SD card reader Wi-Fi 802.11b/g Ethernet

You can check the rest of the specs out in detail here.

Everyone in the netbook game has to work to differentiate their offerings from everyone else’s. Part of Toshiba’s play is to call its offerings mini notebooks.

There is also a colour thing going on. The brown finish of the NB200-10Z I was sent won’t suit everyone, but others among the ten variants come in black, white, pink and, probably my favourite, indigo. There is a problem in that all colours are not available in all specs variants. If there are features you really want, you’ll probably just have to take the colour on offer.

More practically, there is anti shock protection for the hard drive, a powered USB port so you can charge devices when the NB200 itself is switched off and a comprehensive power management utility.

I found the isolation keyboard comfy to use though there is a fair amount of give which heavier handed typists might not like too much. The touchpad is wide enough to get the cursor right across the screen on a single sweep. Sound output was disappointing with the speaker very quiet and tinny.

What really impresses with this netbo- er mini laptop is battery life. Toshiba claims up to nine hours of life, and while you might find it difficult to reach that it should be possible to get six hours plus even when using Wi-Fi or a 3G dongle. Inevitably, to provide this much life, the battery protrudes from the back of the casing. But that is not unusual and it doesn’t look too odd.