Toshiba NB305-10F review

At least Toshiba includes its excellent software suite. As well as a helpful backup and restore system which can rescue Windows in the event of a system crash, the toolbox software monitors the hard disk for vibration. When an impact is detected it stops the disk temporarily to avoid damage to both your hardware and data. While this is useful and rarely found in laptops of this price and size, it was activated by even slight vibrations, so we hard to decrease the sensitivity.

The main change in this updated model can be found inside. The processor has been upgraded to an Intel Atom N455, which supports DDR3 memory. Although the clock speed hasn’t increased, the faster memory should improve performance slightly. Unfortunately, this wasn’t apparent in our testing: an overall score of 16 in our multimedia benchmarks was average for a netbook.

The three-cell battery managed a little over eight hours in our light-use test, which is respectable. After this length of time the underside became warm to the touch, but the keyboard remained cool. The fan was also reasonably quiet, but at very close proximity there was an audible whine.

While six months ago this was a fantastic laptop, other manufacturers have had time to release better models that not only look better, but last longer and have improved screens. If you already own the original NB305, there’s no point upgrading. If you don’t, you’re better off with the cheaper Acer Aspire One 533.