Toshiba Mini NB505-N508GN

Toshiba Mini NB505-N508GN

Toshiba's Mini NB505-508GN has two things that separate it from the netbook pack, albeit only slightly: a somewhat better-than-average keyboard and longer-than-average battery life. Okay, make that three things--it's also better-looking than most of its competition with its smooth styling and lime-green lid. Otherwise, the unit is the epitome of the cookie-cutter netbook. The NB505-508GN scored 33 on PCWorld's WorldBench 6 test suite--a couple of points below average for the class. Part of the problem is that Toshiba saddles the Intel Atom N455 CPU and 1GB of system memory with too much software. Atom CPUs, especially single-core models like the N455, simply don't have the horsepower to handle scores of background applications and processes. Disabling the unnecessary ones--19 of them--in the startup configuration resulted in a much livelier subjective experience. But we benchmark laptops in their out-of-the-box state to better simulate the typical customer experience. While the Mini NB505 isn't a stellar performer, it does run for quite a while unplugged: 7 hours, 32 minutes in our battery tests, to be exact.