Toshiba NB305

Indroduction

Oh netbooks. Those tiny little machines that closer resemble Barbie accessories than actual laptops are becoming more and more popular. Their popularity makes sense, for it correlates with how the average person now spends more time online than doing actual computing such as word processing, excel, etc. The typical netbook has disappointingly small screens, keyboards, and trackpads. Are all netbooks the same, or will the NB305 stick out from the rest?
Specs
1.66GHz Intel Atom Processor
1 GB RAM
250 GB Hard Drive
10.1 inch 1024 x 600 display
Windows 7 Starter Edition/XP with upgrade
10.5 x 1.4 x 7.6 inches
2.6 lbs
Outside
Its official name is the NB-305-N440WH, simply meaning this is the NB305 in white. The textured cover (smooth is the other option) for the front cover is breath of fresh air from all these other fingerprint prone gloss covers out there. Personally I would look at the black version, but chance are it is more prone to fingerprints. The body itself feels very solid, and somewhat back heavy (battery side). The bottom is not completely flat for the battery sticks out a tiny bit, but not nearly as much as the Sony W. The bottom has no noticeable flex, while the top cover has a tiny bit of flex; not bad at all for a netbook. The bottom has two nice sized removable panels that will make upgrading  in the future very easy. On that note, I would upgrade to 2 GB of RAM as soon as possible.
The front has an unusual amount of LED lights, 9 in total. These include the usual: power adapter, power, battery, hard drive, SD card slot, and WiFi. The added three ones include 3G, function key, and number-pad. The right side has the audio ports, two USB ports, power, and a Kensington security port. The left side has the VGA port, ethernet, powered USB port, and SDHC card slot. No real surprises here, the third USB port is a nice addition, yet I don’t know many people who even use more than one USB device on a netbook. The oddest part of the keyboard is the one thing that isn’t on it; the power button. It is placed on a horizontal bar that holds the screen on with two hinges. It is sort of hard to describe (look at pictures below) but it can be seen whether the computer is open or closed. Even though this button is exposed while the case is closed, the button remains inactive unless the case is opened. I was hoping that maybe it would be able to turn the computer on and off  when used with an external monitor even when closed, but this turned out to not be the case.
Inside
The screen is the typical netbook 10.1 inch screen. Without turning it on, you’d think all the screens on netbooks are made by the same company, but this Toshiba’s screen is noticeably brighter than the rest of the flock. The resolution is the norm, 1024 x 600, and because of the added brightness, netflix surprisingly looks pretty good.
Netbooks are not really known for their actual use, but this one attempts to cram a lot into the little space it takes up. The keyboard is  unique in that the keys are slightly rectangular. It is hard to measure because different keyboards have different placements, but this one is horizontally about full size. Keyword in that sentence is horizontal. The vertical dimensions do not match the horizontal dimensions which makes room for the massive touchpad, which I will get to in a minute. Toshiba shrunk quite a few keys to make room for the abnormally (compared to other netbooks) large letters: left shift, caps lock, and tab. The (well what I call it) squiggly key, which is normally next to the 1, is placed in between the Alt key and spacebar. Of all the keys on the keyboard, Toshiba may have found the one key that can be moved. Frankly I only use it at the end of an email possibly instead of a dash.
Now we get to my favorite part of this machine: the trackpad. In the rest of the review I pretty much only compare this Toshiba’s features to other netbooks. I am so happy with Toshiba for putting this nice of a trackpad on a netbook, I’m going to compare it full sized laptops. Other netbooks trackpads are terrible, and I typically despise using them. This one is so large it is almost as big as my Macbook Pro’s. Considering that the NB305 only has a 10 inch screen, and my Mac has a 15 inch screen, the NB305 has a much better trackpad to screen ratio.
Performance/Recommendation
This is a netbook. With that bias aside, this is a very capable machine. Just to fill you in, this bias includes underpowered processing, low RAM, terrible graphics, and terrible audio. This is pretty standard across the line, with very few examples that are notably more expensive. These are all things that need to be considered when looking at a netbook. The positives of netbooks are pretty straightforward: compact, light, great battery life, and typically inexpensive.
The question I asked earlier: should you buy this netbook? The first question is whether or not you are looking for a netbook. This may sound like a silly question, but it really is something you need to think about. From there, this Toshiba is capable of accomplishing much more than other laptops in its class. The internal hardware is nothing special, as a matter of fact it is pretty much identical to the others. What Toshiba does offer is the upgradeable option of Windows XP. Whaa? Isn’t that an outdated operating system? Old? Yes. Outdated? No. While higher performance systems profit from the newer Windows 7 operating system, Windows XP does not demand as much processing power, so it will run faster on systems that Windows 7 would normally hog to much attention from the processor and RAM. This is sort of like wearing a heavy backpack. If you’re looking to go for a run, you would run faster without the backpack. But if you need to carry a bunch of something, let’s say textbooks (metaphors for photoshop and other heavy applications), the backpack will make running much easier than carrying the food. Windows 7 provides a need to run large applications faster, but this is not necessary for netbooks with lighter applications.
Back to what this Toshiba offers. The keyboard is big where it counts. It is much more comfortable to type on than any laptop its size. The screen has the usual netbook resolution, but is very bright. The battery life is sensational, while not having a large battery sticking out the back such as the Sony W series. The built in speakers are pretty bad, but listening through headphones is above average in quality. Watching shows through Hulu.com is a little choppy, but movies and shows through Netflix works great. If this is what you’re looking for, the NB305 is the way to go.

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Gateway NV55S05U Review

Starting at $629.99 (Model reviewed)

Introduction

Few middle-of-the-road priced laptops on the market today sit so squarely in the mid-range of features, function, and form quite like the Gateway NV55S05U. If you plotted the performance and quality of the 15-inch Macbook Pro and the Toshiba Satellite on opposite points of a graph then the performance and quality of the NV55 would be at the midpoint. Relative to the Gateway legacy that’s saying a lot. Relative to the competition that isn’t saying very much. But relative to the $629.99 MSRP, is it worth it?

Specifications

• 1.5GHz AMD Quad-Core A8-3500M Accelerated Processor
• 6GB DDR3-type RAM
• 640GB SATA-type Hard Drive
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
• AMD Radeon HD 6620G Video Graphics
• 15.6 inch 1366×768 Native Resolution
• HDMI
• 5.6 lbs. 1.3 inches

Outside

The plastic lid of the NV55 is at first-glance a sterilizing white, then upon closer inspection one notices a slightly darker geometric pattern spread across the otherwise crystal clean top of the laptop. It’s certainly an original style relative to recent models and especially the NV55′s mostly dark-colored competitors, but as such it isn’t for everyone. The design just about disqualifies the NV55 for businesspeople or those who like to avoid flare when it comes to the look of their electronics. With that said I doubt Gateway was marketing the NV55 to these groups anyway.
The outer body of the laptop is coal-black hardened plastic that feels a bit sturdier than the chassis of most laptops in the NV55′s weight range. That’s pretty good considering this beast weighs a whopping 5.6 lbs. The left side is where you’ll find the NV55′s HDMI plug-in, headphone jack, VGA slot, Ethernet jack, extra USB port and charger connector. The right features the other two USB 2.0 ports, lock-slot, and DVD player/burner. The 4-1 card reader is located at the front of the body.
The approaching-six pounds of hardware should mean that the 1.3 inches of closed-width comes as no surprise. The outside quality and styling of the NV55 is appropriate for its cost, however it would have been nice to see some options for the lid design. I feel the pattern and color, however cool, probably just doesn’t fly with enough tastes. Maybe Gateway was marketing towards a particular individual, but eliminating other markets in the process doesn’t make much sense.

Inside

The bleach-bright white of the exterior lid carries on into the upper portion of the interior chassis, only it no longer includes the signature geometric pattern. The opened NV55 is therefore quite an experience on the eyes when in a brightly-lit room. Without a Macbook side-by-side it was tough to judge, but the NV55 seems a few shades brighter white than Apple’s signature hue.
The white is little too popping when it comes to the matte keyboard. Anyone who has to hunt-and-peck – and because the function keys have changed around a little on the NV55 everyone will at least once – is going to have to squint. Otherwise the keys are big and sturdy; when typed they firmly depress downward into the island case without any grinding against the edges.
The white color comes to a halt a little more than a centimeter south of the keyboard, turning into a metallic gray palm rest with geometric shapes similar to those on the lid. Within the gray pattern lies the touchpad, on which the pattern carries on without interruption.
The NV55′s Elan touchpad is comically dinky. That’s because it’s small to begin with, but only looks smaller when compared to the awesome amount of real estate located to the right of it on the rest of palm rest. The maneuverability of the cursor almost makes up for the 3.4×1.8-sized touchpad if it weren’t for the fact that your right palm gets easily tired hanging over the edge of the laptop when using it. You probably want to use a mouse as much as possible with the NV55 unless you’re a south paw.

Performance

The Gateway NV55S05U stores a surprising amount of strength in areas you wouldn’t normally expect such a moderately priced laptop to function ideally. Despite the inclusion of a consumer-base AMD processor when an Intel core i3 would have been better, the 6GB of RAM (8 max) and 640GB of memory in the NV55 makes task management a far quicker ordeal than in competing models. Running a word processor with music in the background and multiple tabs going at once is no problem. Video rendering and 3D MMO gaming simultaneously will probably freeze the system. That’s about what you should expect from the NV55.
The biggest surprise comes in the form of super-grade AMD HD Radeon video graphics. The step up from Intel is a little shocking considering that the NV55 is otherwise not the occasional gamer’s dream laptop. The resulting display is phenomenal especially when watching streaming HD television with a good Internet connection. It even enables the user to play high-end 3D graphic games with minimal loss in picture quality. With that said, viewing range is weak, limited to probably only two individuals pressing their inner shoulders against each other.
The audio, which is brought by-way of a standard line speaker near the hinges, is nothing to write home about. When watching late night talk show television the host’s voice couldn’t be heard unless the volume was brought to a level where the audience reactions were obnoxiously loud and prickly on the ears. The need for headphones combined with the minimal viewing area means the NV55 video watching experience is certainly meant to only be a one-person affair.
The price you pay for all the power that comes with the NV55S05U is that it barely sucks 4 1/2 hours of life from the battery at best. That’s with a moderate dose of video play and relentless web browsing. DVD rips and gaming will bring the life down to under four hours. There are similarly priced laptops with worse battery life and not many that perform as well for longer, so if you dig the punch in this otherwise unassuming laptop four hours isn’t so bad.

Recommendation

Ideal for no one in particular, the Gateway NV55S05U would have benefited from a variety of styles instead of a love-it-or-hate-it white-and-tan lid pattern. With that said those who appreciate the power of the NV55 relative to the price probably won’t care about the way the lid looks. They’ll be happy to see advanced 3D games perform surprisingly well on a seemingly sub-par gaming system. They’ll enjoy the massive amount of storage space and the fast speeds between one task and the next. There might be disappointment in the inability to show off the high-end Radeon displays to more than one person at a time, but people can wait their turn.
The Gateway NV55S05U suits those who are interested in netting the video capabilities of superior laptop models without the need for long-lasting battery life. The style is specific yet attractive to even your more conservative laptop shopper. It’s a solid pick for those who want basic portable computing primed with visual perks.

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