Toshiba NB200

What is it with Toshiba's designers? Their first netbook, the NB100, was a boxy, angular affair that looked like it had appeared out of a rip in time from 1995. Undoubtedly stung by such criticism, Toshiba's design team have gifted the company's follow up, the NB200, with a much sexier design... only to go and spoil it with a …

[DS 1]

Wrong

Dear Reg,

Its high time that reviewers in general started saying it like it is. Another netbook, same N270/280, only 1GB of ram, same hopeless 950 GFX, apart from very very minor differences in apps or design, its same old same old. In much of the time, netbooks have changed little, and they keep being rewarded with good reviews. This 'new netbook' costs more than £300, has some of the cheapest BOM and is only a moderate redesign.

Its time, that reviewers started to ask the serious questions.

1. Why are you not butchering these guys for the monopoly practice of adhereing to the microsoft 1GB limit, and hard disk limits. The consumer is suffering under a garbage limit and you are handing them a recommended review.

2. Very minor updates to the Atom don't make a recommended review. Where is ION, or better core system improments, more ram, bigger drives.

3. The netbook struggles with Linux, and you give it a recommended rating?

The hunnymoon is over for netbooks, its time to put the hammer down.

[Efros]

Too pricey

Infringing on the lower end of the laptop market deos not make it a goer.

[spencer]

@DS 1

I don't think ION is suitable for a net top, the power draw, while slight, is probably too much still.

agree with everything else.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ditto DS

And if it is that good, where is "N" spec wireless??

Come on, it is another 2nd rate, over priced effort.

Give me "N" spec and a SSD for the money and MAYBE it would be worthy of a good review.

The only good point in the battery life; "a highly glossy screen"? a fat lot of good THAT will be outdoors!!!!

[Flocke Kroes]

What happened to the small cheap computers?

My laptop is over 2 years old, faster, better LCD and it cost less. A replacement should be half the price or double the speed by now.

[J 3]

How much?

As expensive, or more, than the "old" 1000HE? Hard to justify, being mostly the same, at some points inferior...

[Chippy-Minton]

Acer Aspire One

Netbooks should be benchmarked from this. It cost £170 from Tesco remember, therefore how can you recommend somehting costing twice as much that is barely any better?

[N]

I hate the keyboard

Called into an electrical retailer the other day, wanting to try a netbook. Toshiba keyboard was the worst of the bunch. Awful slab top keys with no indent. The others I "quick brown fox"ed were much nicer (Asus especially).

[Jon Green]

Ubuntu sound issues

Try this:

As root (in other words, use sudo), edit /etc/group and add your user's name to the pulse-access group. Then log out and in again. You'll probably found you have sound.

Yes, PulseAudio sucks. I don't have the froggiest why Ubuntu uses it, nor why they don't make it usable by default by any user.

[Anonymous Coward]

Haha, oh, wow

I was thinking "doesn't look too bad, apart from the bezel being bigger at the top of the screen" and then I saw the brown one. Euw! This is what happens when you show people a blurry photo of some carbonfiber and then ask them to reproduce it in MS Paint

[Monkey]

Does anyone else think...

... that the netbook bubble has FINALLY burst? No intrinsic product development because of the pre-agreed spec limiting to get XP licenses, so no trickle down of better hardware as prices reduce. No N wireless, STILL a lack of inbuilt 3G slots on most of them, and despite all of the above, prices aren't getting cheaper. Despite it being two plus years into the whole 'netbook' phenomenon.

My laptop cost £800 two years ago, and the same spec model from the same brand now costs £200 less. Which makes a netbook price tag of STILL £300+ for the same spec and same time period a really enormous rip off

People finally seem to be looking at the specs of the latest models and realising they are getting little to nothing new and asking themselves 'why should I spend this much money?'

[Tony Smith]

@Monkey

Prices are higher than they should be, no question, and it's hard to recommend new netbooks as upgrades. If you already own a netbook, there's little reason to get a new one unless you specifically want a longer-running battery or a larger display.

But there are plenty of people out there who don't own one yet but want a machine that's smaller, lighter and more throw-around than a regular laptop. So what if the latter's only slightly more expensive than a netbook and has a better spec? There's a choice to make between size plus performance and portability plus adequate speed.

I used an Eee PC 701 to report from the Consumer Electronics Show last year. I could do all the tasks I'd put my regular laptop to, but in a much, much more convenient-to-carry form. The trade-off was the small screen, but I could cope. This year I went back to a laptop. Next time I'll be using a 10in netbook.

There are more criteria these days than just the price:performance ratio: size, looks, brand and others factors play. In that case, computers are now like cars - they all get you from A to B, but some do it quickly, others carry more passengers, some are very reliable, others just look cool.

[Monkey]

@Tony

Tony, I agree with completely. However (and the however is to clarify my own points rather than dispute those that you made).... Oh and I have owned a NC10 for the last year too and adore the thing.

Everyone generally accepts that the netbooks are built to a tight specification framework in order to 1) get the XP licenses from MS and 2) to produce a machine that has longer battery life. So the specs of the new netbooks are virtually identical to the first generation ones as a result. My point was that in spite of the higher high street prices everywhere right now, my full size laptop has come down in price by 25% for the same spec from the same manufacturer and a much better machine coming in at the price I paid two years ago.

So why have we not seen ANY drop in price of the netbooks when specs are largely the same as two years ago?

No the netbook market isn't as mature as the standard PC and laptop market and I totally accept that the reductions in prices may not be able to be as applied so quickly to them, but I bet in 18 months time they will still cost the same and for the same specs.

Yes they are still a niche product, and meet the needs absolutely beautifully of users who work within the specs, but the prices are starting to look a bit silly regardless when you consider the points I made about pricing of other IT hardware. A fact more obvious to those who bought early and are looking puzzled at the new models and prices, but I know several people who were waiting for the new models before they bought a netbook, only to see prices and specs and decide it was unjustifiable. Regardless of the current climate. The decision was made based on not getting anything new two years on for the same price (or more in many cases).

That was my point originally when I said that maybe the bubble has burst. And the netbook market will stagnate if someone doesn't innovate with either technology upgrades or a price drop for current specs to get peoples attention and put a product above others.

[Anonymous Coward]

Competition?

The fixed prices and specs makes you wonder whether there's really any competition in this market. Perhaps something for Steely Kroes to examine next...?

Horned Bill, because what the heck is he doing dictating how my computer should be specced.

PS: Wouldn't Ballmer be more fitting for the icon than Bill these days?

[Chris Hexter]

Frustrated

Yet another new netbook that fails to provide a tv-out (S-video/Composite) slot! When will these companies realise how handy a slot like this is?