Whether or not the Toshiba Mini NB305-N410BN is a logical purchase for you ultimately comes down to using its strengths to your advantage, and minimizing its weaknesses so that you don’t regret buying it.
Just as you wouldn’t expect a 16 ounce hammer to suffice for demolishing a building, or expect to cook a three course meal for eight people using only a six inch saute’ pan, you can’t expect a mini notebook computer to replace a desktop where large displays and ultimate processing power are required, or even to replace a fully featured, larger laptop.
Realistic expectations in mind, here are the main pros and cons of this Toshiba netbook.
Pros:
light weight-under three pounds
long battery life-claimed to be in the eleven hour range
big keys-essentially equivalent to a desktop keyboard
Cons:
no CD/DVD drive
small screen-necessitates a lot of scrolling
Perhaps the biggest benefit to the light weigh of this computer is that the dimensions are similarly tiny. This unit can fit into a side pocket of a typical attache case or a large purse.
Battery life is such a subjective area. Everybody does, or should, know that whichever computer manufacturer’s battery life claim they examine, your actual time will be much less, similar to the EPA gas mileage ratings.
In the real world, if you use the NB305 to check, send, and reply to emails sveral times or more a day, do some internet surfing for information gathering purposes, minimize display and processor intensive battery killers like watching You Tube when you’re supposed to be working, and place the computer in hibernation or standby mode when it’s not being used, you can expect the battery on the NB305 to easily get you through the workday. The large keys on the keyboard are a major plus, and the feel is properly tactile. On the con side, the lack of a built in CD/DVD drive baffles many, but this is the trade off for small size and weight. If you absolutely have to have a built in drive, you shouldn’t be looking at netbooks in the first place.
The same should be said about the monitor. It is bright and sharp, but most web sites will require a lot of scrolling, or potentially reducing the display size to the point of becoming unread-ably small. Again, small size and weight dictates the trade-off. Add on an external monitor, keyboard, and any other peripherals, like you probably already do with any other laptop, and you’ve got an extremely viable travel and home office combination at a an attractive price.
Champmtl, March 18, 2011
This is a great Netbook! Upgrading to 2GB of Ram and to Windows7 Home Premium unlocks the full potential of this machine...that's what I did and I love it.