Toshiba NB100 - any reviews or does anyone have one?

[Pob255]

Now I know lots of people seem to prefur the larger 10" based netbooks, but not all of us have sausage fingures and require maximum portability.

Must admit I do like the look of the new samsung nc10 but the slightly smaller size and importantly the lower weight make this new toshiba look good. (it's 1kg vs 1.33kg of the samsung)

I should point out this is not for me, I've been given the requirements of
Windows XP
Enough performance to be useable (mainly word processing, powerpoint and net browseing, however it will probably need the new MLE software so need 1gb memory)
80gb storage or more
small (I'm sure I could convince her that 10" based is also fine)
As close to 1kg as possible (that's the one that makes rules out most 10")
Max price £350

[Pob255]

So no one then?

[Pob255]

well as the toshiba ticked all the boxes and I couldn't find any real negitives about it I've sugested it.
when it comes I'll knock out a review/comparison to my eee pc 901

[Webby]

Let us know how it turn out

[Pob255]

Well it came in today

first impressions very nice, due to an order mix up we got the gold one not the black one.
however I must say it's not really "bling" gold looks more like a warm silver colour and not at all bling'y
(sliver is often slightly blue, this is slightly yellow/orange.)

I'm just going to pinch a camera and take some side by side shots with my eeepc 901

[Pob255]

NB100 Mini review

Ok here we go, I'm not going to bother too much about packaging it comes in, a cardboard box.
As I happen to have my eeepc box here as well, the toshiba one is slightly larger and has a carrying handle, the handle is very thin, I gave a good pull on it and it's strong enough just would eat into your fingers if you had to carry it for a while
(Apologies, for the fuzzy edge, seems that there's something wrong with the camera )

Inside the nb100 is held onto it's cardboard tray with a sheet of plastic, it's the standard way toshiba box there laptops and it works very well.
I will say I was a bit disapointed with the stuff that came with it, namely a power unit, single uk mickymouse lead, warranty card and booklet, quick start booklet, a small and simple manual and a single recovery cd.

Enough wibbling, lets get it out and next to the 901


Here you can see the slight gold colour


You can see the way the battery sticks out the back.


As you can see apart from the battery sticking out the back they are pritty much the same size and wight

I opened them up to get some first impressions, the hinge on the nb100 means that the sreen is about 1cm forward and it has a nice looking glossy screen although the lid had more flex in it and is not as stiff as the 901's lid.

Now my 901 was a bit dirty, loads of finger prints, so I gave it a good clean and I spotted I'd managed to put a print on the nb100 screen.
In the cleaning I discovered that the 901 only opens to about 135degrees where as the nb100 goes all the way back 180 degrees.


Back to the laptop

As you can see they are very simular, the keyboards are so simular that I'd not be surprised if you could swap them over.
They other thing you notice is that as glossy as the screen is vs the 901 the inside of the laptop is a nice textured matte.
To really show how shiney the screen is I took this photo


The other thing that sticks out is the touch pad
nb100


901


well as you can see the nb100 touchpad is much smaller and while the buttons look nice with the wider left button I found to use them they are a bit too narrow.
It wouldn't be a problem if they where raised up, but unfortunately they are flush with the pad and have a bit too much travel which make pressing them a little uncomfortable. Overall I find the touch pad of the 901 much nicer (I've found that the touch pad is one of the main let downs of toshiba laptops as well)

However the screen on the nb100 is lovely and it shows up even more when you trun it on.

while both are the same size and res (1024x600) the nb100 is definately brighter and the blacks are deeper.
However the flexyness of the lid shows up here, simply adjusting the angle of the screen causes ripples on the screen, also if you just push on the screen it requires less pressure to cause ripples than on the 901
Don't get me wrong the build quality seems very good, just not as good as the 901 especially on the lid.

So all told it's not a bad laptop, on first impressions it stacks up very well against the 901 mainly because they are so simular, it does have a much better screen but loses out on the touch pad and the screen lid rigidity.
It boots into windows fairly fast, but I cannot really compare it to the 901 here a my 901 is running linux, so I cannot really compare the nb100's 120gb hard drive speed to the speed of the 901's ssd.