Performance
The Toshiba mini NB205 contains Intel’s latest 1.66-GHz Atom N280 processor; as we found with the Eee PC 1000HE and the MSI Wind U123, it makes a slight performance difference, but it’s not dramatic. When we ran PCMark05 (which measures total system performance in Windows XP), the Toshiba NB205 notched a score of 1,496. That’s 111 points higher than the category average of 1,385, but 92 points lower than the Eee PC 1000HE. Overall, performance was pretty snappy, and we had no problems streaming video at full screen or working with several applications (Firefox 3, Microsoft Works, and Skype) simultaneously.
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The NB205’s Intel GMA 950 graphics chip delivered a score of 92 on 3DMark06, which measures graphics performance. This mark was a little lower than the netbook average of 97, but, unless you’re planning to play the latest 3D games, you won’t notice a difference. A 720p video clip played smoothly. Using Handbrake, we transcoded a 5-minute-and-5-second MPEG-4 video clip (114MB) to the AVI format in 27 minutes and 23 seconds, which is only seconds slower than the netbook average.
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During testing, the keyboard and touchpad were not noticeably warm, although the underside of the unit heated up, measuring 94 degrees Fahrenheit.
Storage
The NB205’s 160GB, 5,400-rpm drive booted Windows XP in 1 minute and 25 seconds. Though this is longer than the 55-second netbook average, we attribute the difference to the amount of trial software that is loaded on the system. On the LAPTOP Transfer Test, in which we duplicate 4.97GB of mixed-media files, the NB205 took 4 minutes and 41 seconds, or a rate of 18.1 MBps, which is 3.5 MBps faster than the average netbook, though not as fast as the Eee PC 1008HA’s mark of 23.1 MBps.
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Standing out from most, the NB205’s drive is protected from sudden drops by a 3D accelerometer. Using Toshiba’s software, you can turn the protection on or off and adjust the level of sensitivity.
Stellar Endurance
The Toshiba mini NB205’s standard six-cell 5800 mAh lithium ion battery outshines all other netbooks. On the LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi), the system lasted longer than a good night’s sleep—a very impressive 9 hours and 24 minutes. This runtime blows away the six-cell netbook average of 5:40, and it beats out even the Samsung N110, the longest-lasting mini-notebook with a six-cell battery to date, by 1:06. It even beats the MSI Wind U123—which has a nine-cell battery—by 19 minutes.
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Wi-Fi Performance
The NB205’s 802.11b/g Wi-Fi card provided adequate performance on our tests, delivering 21.3 Mbps and 19.8 Mbps from 15 and 50 feet, respectively. These scores are higher than the netbook averages of 18.7 and 15.7 Mbps, but are not as high as the ASUS Eee PC 1008HA (which is also not equipped with wireless N). The NB205 maintained a strong connection during our day-to-day Web activities; streaming music over Slacker without pauses, and streaming video clips on Hulu.com that were void of buffering delays.
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