Wired: Review – Toshiba NB505 Netbook
The new Toshiba NB505 netbook has a 1.6 GHz and 1 GB of RAM and set new records for low performance on benchmark tests, but at $288, Wired says, the price is right for small business users with light computing requirements.
“How do you create what might be the world’s cheapest computer? Easy: You strip it to the absolute bare minimum.
Toshiba’s NB505 netbook isn’t quite as skeletal as that, but it’s awfully close. And at all of $288, asking for much more would probably be a bit greedy.
The specs don’t merit a whole lot of notice: A 1.66-GHz Atom CPU and a paltry 1 GB of RAM ensure performance scrapes rock bottom. Though it couldn’t actually run most of our benchmarks, those that the NB505 did complete were near-record-breaking … on the bottom end, that is. A 250-GB hard drive is more than plenty, and the three USB ports plus SD card slot cover the connectivity basics. The 10.1-inch LCD is about average in both brightness and resolution (1024 x 600 pixels), and at just 2.7 pounds, the laptop’s heft is in line with other machines in its class.”