Foreword:

The Toshiba Mini NB205 is the latest entrant in the netbook battlefield with a 10” screen, a differently styled keyboard and a comfortable touchpad. After months of competitive analysis, Toshiba has launched a netbook that they believe have everything that the public has been asking for with their netbooks.

The Mini sports a matte-finish rather than the glossy finish that has become the de facto configuration in the netbooks of today. It is slightly thicker and not as curvaceous as most of its peers. It weighs slightly lesser than 3lbs and comes in Sable Brown, Posh Pink, Royal Blue and Frost White colors to add to the gamut of colors that the netbook market is filled with.

The six-cell (63Wh) battery is a marathon runner with a reported 8 hour 27 minute run that surprised everyone. Three USB ports (one of which offers the very useful sleep-and-charge function), VGA-out, Ethernet, SD card slot and built in webcam are staples of the netbook crowd except the sleep-and-charge function.

+Ves:

• The raised keyboard of the Mini NB205 is quite easy to type in, proving to be comfortable on the hands once used to. The keys are individually smaller and slightly rectangular but are well spaced-out making it easy for you to type with.
• A 3-inch wide touchpad, the largest on a netbook, is very comfortable and highly praised for its capability. The mouse buttons are oversized and provide a very good feedback – absolutely perfect for a device that will be used mostly for browsing the internet and clicking repeatedly instead of watching movies or listening to music.
• The sleep-and-charge function of one of its USB ports is a handy feature.
• The battery life outlasted everything that did not have an 8-cell battery at 8h 27m. It is nothing short of amazing to have such a long lasting battery life bundled with a spacious touchpad and an easy-to-use keyboard.
• Toshiba worked very hard to meet energy standards requirements. The NB205 is rated Energy Star 5.0, EPEAT Gold and is RoHS certified.
• Marginally faster 1.67GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU.
• 1GB RAM included that is upgradeable to 2GB.

-Ves:

• The battery is bulky and looks awkward when it sticks out of the netbook.
• The screen bezels are thick and they make the screen look smaller in comparison.
• The audio output is poor and almost inaudible in some environments.

Final Word:

Though it packs quite a bunch of input features, the Mini NB205-R is, on the whole, just another netbook at $400. It trails the 1000HE from Asus by a few seconds in video encoding, but for basic internet browsing and some light music (with headphones, of course) this netbook is just as good as any other.

Foreword:

Dell’s latest Studio offering has struck the perfect balance between price and features, rating very high on the “value for money” scale. It is not too cheap at $799, however, it is not too expensive for those who are looking for an affordable desktop replacement. With a plethora of ports, a 500GB HDD and six hours of battery life, this laptop excels wherever it is used.

+Ves:

• With a 15.6” screen, it is worthy of the name “desktop replacement”. With plenty of screen area for watching a movie or working on spreadsheets, this laptop will definitely take the place of your desktop, even though it has a comparatively smaller screen size than HPdv6 or Y650 (at 16”).
• Even without an adjacent numeric pad like NV5807u and the Toshiba Satellite L505D-S6947, the overall ergonomics of the keyboard provides much for both touch and the hunt-and-peck typists. The touchpad is calibrated well, and the mouse-buttons are soft and easy to click.
• The slightly higher price is justified when it comes to the hard drive department because of the 500GB hard drive against the 320GB found in most of its competitors.
• It comes with a lot of ports, including three USB ports, one of which also functions as an eSATA port. A HDMI-out is a boost for those who wish to see movies in high definition in a larger LCD screen. The CD tray is slot-loading for aesthetic reasons.
• Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Video encoding tests saw this notebook beat the NV5807u, the Inspiron 1545 and the dv6t(1030us) while the PCMark Vintage scores saw this ceding first place to the Y650 (which uses a faster processor).
• The battery life is where this desktop replacement aces its competitors. With a 6-hour battery life, it considerably outshines the closest competition which was nearly double that of its closest competition. This is because of the 9-cell battery (85Wh) that is bundled along with it.
• Since this was a Costco product, the standard 2 year warranty on parts and labor applies to this as well.

-Ves:

• The price does not justify the 2.1GHz Intel core 2 Duo T6500 processor and 4GB RAM that is found in practically all of its cheaper competitors.
• With an integrated graphics card, this computer is incapable of supporting graphics intensive games like Crysis. Gamers are advised to look for better options.
• The laptop itself is bulkier than most of its competition at 1.5” at the back. It is deceptively light, however, at 5.8lbs, while most of its competition is heavier than it.
• The design is not very appealing to the eye with Midnight Blue plastic material adorning it. Some other budget systems are made from fancy metals instead of boring plastic.

Final Word:

While the Dell Studio 1555 (USE006CS) is not the best looking laptops in the desktop replacement category, it is certainly one of the most capable in the $600-$800 price category. It beats competition from the Gateway NV5807u, Inspiron 1545 and the HP dv6t by boosting both battery life and hard drive space, and the inclusion of a two year warranty just goes along in helping its cause.

Foreword:

The Dell Inspiron 1520 set standards when it came to a business laptop. The Vostro 1500 is the small business equivalent of the Inspiron that starts at less than $600. It can be customized with a Celeron M540 processor, or the much faster Core 2 Duo 7500. However, an AMD processor option is not available with this laptop. With a simple, but effective exterior design, the Vostro does look very professional. It is not flashy, but it does not look cheap – a winner in my eyes. The LEDs are well saturated with blue, however, many LEDs such as the CD drive, battery level and “Wi-fi catcher” LEDs were green leading to an inconsistent look when it came to styling.

+Ves:

• Great accessorial and multimedia options for a business laptop – four USB ports, a FireWire port, a VGA out and an S-video out ports. Along with a 4-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro) this takes care of all the peripherals you would need to couple with this computer. It also comes with a standard dual layer DVD burner and an ExpressCard slot. Additionally, a 2 MP webcam can be ordered for videoconferencing.
• The option of removing or adding software packages has always been the core of Dell’s strength – user customization. You can remove trial packages from McAfee or Norton if you already have another antivirus subscription, in addition to removing Earthlink ads for a DSL connection along with other third-party software that you deem unnecessary. Dell also puts in a one-year subscription of the DataSafe service with a 10GB space there for your backup needs.
• You can order a cellular modem from Verizon (EV-DO Rev A, $150), Sprint (EV-DO Rev A, $150) or AT&T (HSDPA $180) for connecting to these carriers’ broadband networks on the go. However this option is pretty expensive.
• As a performer, this machine did perform with the default configuration ($1282) with an Intel Core 2 Duo T3700 CPU and 2GB of RAM, outscoring the enterprise notebook the HP Compaq 6910p and its cousin the Dell Latitude D630 in SYSMark 2007 preview tests.

-Ves:

• For a 15.4” laptop, the system is unduly heavy at 7.3lbs because of the fairly thick and solid magnesium alloy at the bottom of the laptop and the screen.

Final Word:

As with all Dell systems, the Vostro 1500 is highly customizable before buying, and with the excess of configuration options available, very few people will go away unsatisfied. The Vostro is basically an Inspiron geared for small businesses – with lesser trial software and more business-centric ones that help your enterprise immensely. The direct buy of $1282 offers premium features for small office heads without unnecessarily spending surplus money on features they would not need. Although it is heavy for its kind and clad in black, that is not much of a problem especially since this is a desktop replacement and is not supposed to be too showy. With the quiet mouse buttons and responsive touchpad along with the great keyboard, this laptop was very comfortable to use. A 14” version shaves off some of the weight, but is pretty much the same machine.
All in all, this is a great buy for small business owners because of its cheap price and great set of features.