Toshiba NB100-111 – how tiny can a netbook be

It seems that Toshiba focused a lot on reducing the size of its notebook. This way, the NB100-111 is perhaps one of the smallest netbooks on the market these days. But that doesn’t mean it can’t compete with its bigger brothers in terms of performances. And speaking of performances, here are the main stats of this gadget:

• 8.9″ display (1024 x 600 px)
• CPU: Intel Atom N270
• RAM memory: 1GB DDR2 667 MHz
• Graphic chip: Intel i945GME
• Storing: Toshiba MK1252GSX HDD
• Battery: Li-Ion 5200mAh
• Connectors: 3xUSB , 1xRJ45 , 1xVGA , audio
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
• Others: MMC/SD/MS card reader, webcam

Toshiba NB100 , probably one of the smallest netbooks on the market

Toshiba delivers this netbook in many colors and with several operating systems, including Ubuntu and Windows XP. Since the producer focused a lot on cutting down the size, the NB100-111 is just 22,5 cm long. But unfortunatelly that means there’s only enough room for a 8,9″ screen there (with 1024×600 px resolution). The keyboard was also affected, as some of the keys are quite small and really uncomfortable to use, especially in the beginning. Given enough time, you might get used to them, but the experiece will still be pretty awkward .

Since this Toshiba is so small you would expect it to be light also. But, it’s not lighter than the other netbooks around, because it has a bigger battery: a 4 cell 5200 mAh one. But it’s OK, the total weight is just around 1.050 Kg.

As for the building quality and the materials used, this Toshiba netbook is just plain ordinary in its class: simple plastic used for almost everything. Ee weren’t expecting anything fancy though.

Style and performances in a compact package

The really unpleasant part about this notebook comes now: it doesn’t have any kind of optimization software that should manage the way the components inside the CPU work in different given conditions (when connected to the AC line, when in baterry mode, etc). Thus, everything runs exactly the same no matter the conditions, and this has a pretty nasty effect on battery life and temperature. The little NB100-111 gets quite hot on its lower back, so holding it in your lap while using is not a solution here. And, although the battery is quite big, this notebook can play a video from DVD (the standard multimedia test) for only around 3 hours.

So, in the end, the Toshiba NB100-111 might be a very nice ultra-portable notebook. It retails for around $450 and can be mostly find in Europe. It has a couple of good points that make it a good travel companion (small, pretty light, decent autonomy and decent aspect), but gives you the thought that somebody tried to make tthe gadget smaller than it should be. And that’s when you consider the keyboard, screen and the high temperatures problem. But, if you can get past these, the NB100-111 model from Toshiba will be a decent choice.

Tags: good autonomy, Toshiba, Toshiba netbooks, ultra portable