Toshiba mini NB305
The world of cheap, ubiquitous, and nearly identical Netbooks has been a stable and predictable landscape for a while now, and hasn’t gotten any less predictable with the launch of Intel’s next generation of Atom processors. Whereas Netbooks used to run Windows XP, have N270 processors, and 1GB RAM/160GB hard drive as standards, now Netbooks run Windows 7 Starter, have N450 processors, and have 1GB RAM/250GB hard-drive configurations, with occasional variations.
Design
Toshiba trimmed down its netbook where it could: instead of the frame being uniform in thickness, as on the NB205, it tapers from 1.4 inches in the rear to approximately 0.5 inches in front, resulting in a svelte look. The front edge is also more beveled, so the system looks more rounded than before. The new screen bezel sports tapered edges; while it’s the same thickness as on the NB205, it doesn’t look as clunky. The major aesthetic change from the NB205 and the NB305 is the battery. The former battery jutted out from the rear, but now it’s tucked in underneath, trimming nearly an inch off the system (although the weight remains constant, at 2.8 pounds). The new position of the battery also adds the effect of slanting the keyboard towards the user; while this is supposedly more ergonomic, the change in angle is so slight that it’s practically nonexistent. Apparently pink wasn’t a big seller, as Toshiba is no longer offering its mini in that color. The NB305 comes in blue, brown, or white.
Keyboard & Touchpad
Under the lid, the NB305 still has one of the best netbook keyboards out there. The chiclet layout works extremely well, and the silver keys are coated in something that makes them feel soft on our fingertips — there’s a $350 version of the NB305 that has a flush matte keyboard. Our one complaint lies with the volume controls, which are located on the number keys; no on-screen rocker appears when you adjust them. Speaking of sound, the speakers on the NB305 seem louder than that on the NB205, but they’re still weak compared to the 532h’s. We appreciate that the touchpad is larger than most, and features dedicated right and left mouse buttons instead of a cramped rocker, but the multitouch pad is too sensitive and we were constantly zooming in on pages. We’ve become quite speedy at switching off this function in the Synaptics menu — a skill that we’re rather proud of.
Dislay
The 10.1-inch glossy LED-backlit screen on the Mini NB305-N410 has a 1,024×600-pixel native resolution. Though this lower-than-HD-resolution screen is common, there are plenty of Netbooks with 1,366×768-pixel resolution displays, including the Sony Vaio W series. Colors and icons are crisp and bright, offering a better-than-average experience once resolution is forgiven. The NB305′s audio has received a welcome bump up from the NB205 series, adding a second speaker for stereo sound. The speakers still lean toward tinny and soft, but they are significantly louder than they were before.
Port
Around the netbook are the standard ports: three USBs, VGA, Ethernet, an SD card reader, and mic and headphone jacks. Many have been asking about the lack of HDMI ports on these new netbooks, and while we’d welcome the additional port for easily hooking up to a larger monitor or HDTV, it’s obvious Atom alone can’t handle even 720p videos, and thus it’s been left off the list.
Performance
Like most newer netbooks, the NB305 utilizes Intel’s new Pine Trail CPU, the 1.66-GHz Atom N450, which offers better power efficiency and a modest increase in performance over the NB205. On PCMark05, the difference was negligible: 1,383 vs. 1,341, respectively—and both scores are about 140 points south of the netbook average. There was more of a gap with Geekbench: The NB305 scored 925, 85 points higher than average, but the NB205-N330BL model reached just 805. Other Pine Trail systems were in the same ballpark: the HP Mini 5102 got 1,408 in PCMark05 and 896 in Geekbench, and the ASUS Eee PC 1005PE-P scored 1,410 and 918 on those same two tests, respectively. The NB305’s 5,400-rpm, 250GB hard drive performed well, copying a 4.97GB folder of multimedia files at a rate of 20.6 MBps, 4.8 MBps faster than average. It booted into Windows 7 Starter Edition in 1 minute and 9 seconds, which is 10 seconds longer than average. When converting a 114MB, 5-minute-and-5-second MPEG-4 video into AVI using HandBrake, the NB305 took 28 minutes and 26 seconds, about 1 minute faster than average, and approximately 2 minutes faster than the NB205. However, when performing the same task using Oxelon Media Converter, the NB305 took 6:03, about 15 seconds longer than the NB205.
We also saw a greater difference between the two systems when it came to graphics tests. While its 3DMark06 score of 159 is about 70 points below the netbook average, it’s still about 50 points greater than the NB205-N330BL. Still, this system is unsuited for gaming. When playing World of Warcraft with the resolution at 800 x 600 and the effects set to default, we only averaged 19 frames per second. If you want to game on a netbook, you’re better off buying an Ion-based system, such as the HP Mini 311, which saw 35 fps at a resolution of 1024 x 768.
