Toshiba NB250

Toshiba NB250 review

There's a big question in the PC market at the moment: Has the netbook had its time? It's not hard to argue that it has. Certainly the Toshiba NB250 is what you'd call a standard example of the genre. It doesn't do anything remarkable to push netbooks to radical new heights.Technologically – and this a given for the genre – the NB250 is a world away from Core i5 notebooks such as our top-rated Samsung R590, which comes in at triple the price, and even the cheap-but cheerful £590 Medion Akoya P6625. Core i5 notebooks mix power and performance, don't cost the world (although they look pricey next to the likes of this), and have none of the fundamental restrictions of Atom-powered netbooks. Of course, the netbook isn't meant to compete with powerful PCs like these. It's meant for slinging in a bag, taking on the road, doing the tiny things and doing them for longer than any power-hungry platform could even hope to. Netbooks are good at it, too. But times have changed, hence the initial question. We live in Steve Jobs' radical 'Post-PC era', where tablets like the iPad and ever-strengthening smartphones are doing the netbook's work and far more besides. But don't panic.