Toshiba NB500-108 10.1-inch Netbook (Intel Atom N455 Processor, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Windows 7 Starter)

 Brand Toshiba | Model: PLL50E-008012EN

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Toshiba NB500-108 10.1-inch Netbook (Intel Atom N455 Processor, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Windows 7 Starter)

Product Overview

Toshiba Toshiba NB500-108. Processor: 1660 MHz; N455; 667 MHz; Mobile Intel?« NM10 Express Chipset. Disk drive: 250 GB; Serial ATA; 5.400 RPM. Display: 10.1 "; 1.024 x 600 pixels; Toshiba TruBrite?« WSVGA TFT High Brightness display with LED backlighting and 16 : 9 aspect ratio; 16 ms; 0.2175 x 0.2088 mm; 400:1. Memory: 2.048 GB; DDR2 RAM (800 MHz). Video: GMA 3150; shared. Audio: Realtek ALC259-GR; 24-bit stereo; built-in speaker. Weight & dimensions: >1.32 g; 262.0 x 190.0 x 16.6 (front) / 35.5 (rear). Energy management: Lithium-Ion; 10.8x 4.400 mAh; main; 50; 60 Hz; up to 8h00min (Mobile MarkÔ"ó 2007). System requirements: Genuine Windows?« 7 Starter 32-bit (pre-installed; Toshiba-HDD recovery). Environmental conditions: -20- 60 ??C; 20-80%; 5- 35 ??C; 0 - 3.000 m; 0 - 10.000 m

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice machine but a bit sluggish, 21 July 2011

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J. S. Hardman "Consultant software developer ... (Near London, UK) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Toshiba NB500-108 10.1-inch Netbook (Intel Atom N455 Processor, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Windows 7 Starter) (Personal Computers)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)

Although I've been a user of desktop and laptop PC's for years, this Toshiba NB500-108 is the first netbook I have used.

It's a nice size for popping in my bag for taking to work. Weight is far less than any machine I have carried around previously. The machine gives an impression of good build quality and of being quite sturdy, although I have bought a Belkin Neoprene Sleeve to give it a little more protection from the other stuff I carry.

The screen is crisp and bright, the mousepad works well, and the keyboard is fine for small amounts of use (as per any other small machine in my experience). The wi-fi also works well, although I normally plug in an ethernet cable to connect to my network when at home. USB ports work fine too. Audio quality is perfectly acceptable. I haven't made use of the webcam so cannot comment on that.

My original intention when getting this machine was to use it to do light work whilst travelling by train, and to catch up on films and TV programmes that I never get around to watching at home. This machine comes with various bits of software installed, including the BBC iPlayer Desktop, but I have found that this machine is a little too slow to watch video - the images do not flow smoothly, with hiccups every now and then, enough to be annoying (for me at least). Whether upgrading the amount of RAM onboard would improve this is something I cannot comment on - I haven't tried it yet. Microsoft Office Starter 2010 is also pre-installed, giving cut down versions of Excel and Word - very useful for light work.

As well as the video performance already mentioned, performance generally is sluggish. I have found that I often end up starting more than one copy of an application, as the first double click appears to do nothing, so I do it again. In fact, the first double click did something, but the result was so slow that I tried again. Startup is slow too, particularly if applications update themselves automatically when they start (don't try doing anything much whilst Windows updates are being installed). I will be installing Soluto to try to speed up the startup sequence when I get time - my guess is that a number of Toshiba proprietary applications will find themselves disabled.

The pre-installed anti-virus software did not work for me - I suspect the registration got confused by the fact that I am already a licensed user on another machine. I gave up trying to sort this out, uninstalled it and installed another package instead.

So, to summarise, a machine that looks good but is not as fast as required for my plan of watching videos on it. After owning it for a while, I use it successfully for slideshows, for web-browsing, for light work using the pre-installed Microsoft Office Starter 2010, and for listening to audio. I do not use it for video unfortunately, so do not get as much use out of it as I had hoped.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for casual web-browsing, 7 May 2011

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Peter (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Toshiba NB500-108 10.1-inch Netbook (Intel Atom N455 Processor, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Windows 7 Starter) (Personal Computers)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)

This is a really dinky little notebook. It looks just like a full-sized laptop, but in miniature, and it has a chunky, well-built feel. With the mobility offered by its tiny size, and its long battery life, it's a convenient way to have access to the internet around the house when you want it (or away from home if you can use your friends' internet or public WiFi).

The screen offers 1024 x 600 pixels, which is wide enough to display websites properly. For comparison, the iPad2, which is Apple's equivalent of a notebook, has a slightly larger screen resolution, at 1024 x 768. Both have a 1GHz processor. Although the Apple chip is not an Intel Atom like the Toshiba, they both have integrated graphics. The Toshiba scores mightily over the iPad by having a build-in keyboard, using full-size keys for the letters and numbers, although the special keys (tab, enter and especially the Fn/Windows/Alt keys) are squashed in around the edges. Comparison with an iPad may seem a little odd, but both devices have the same primary function - portable, accessible internet access - and the Toshiba netbook offers better accessibility for people who prefer proper keyboards, although having a keyboard of course makes the netbook rather larger than an iPad. The Toshiba's battery life with the supplied 48WHr battery is about 8 hours (less if you're streaming video), which is comparable with the battery life of an iPad. I've taken my netbook to work, and had it turned on all day running on battery and connected to WiFi, and it still had more than an hour of battery life left when I finished work.

The hard disk is split into two 116GB partitions (it's a 250GB hard disk), but everything (Windows, programs and your data) are saved to the C drive by default, so you need to make a conscious effort to use the D drive. It would be a good place to store downloaded video, or other large files.

Connectors (another plus over the iPad!) are an SD card slot on the front (compatible with SDHC), 2 x USB on the right, and one USB, microphone and headphone jacks, a VGA video socket, an Ethernet LAN port (100Mbit/s) and a charging socket on the left. There's also a small fan vent - the fan runs intermittently as required, and it's pretty quiet, but it does mean that this netbook isn't completely silent. There's a webcam built in, that works fairly well, although the resulting picture is a bit grainy. There's a bright blue LED that lights up when the camera is in use. The touchpad supports (polite) 2-finger gestures, such as rotate and enlarge/reduce.

The operating system is Windows 7 Starter, which is the right choice for a tiny computer like this. The Windows Experience Index, if such things matter to you, consists of 2.3 for processor, 4.5 for RAM speed, 3.1 for graphics, 3.0 for 3-D graphics and 5.5 for disk transfer rate. The scale goes from 1.0 to 7.0, with high numbers being best, so it's the CPU that's the limiting factor with this netbook.

There's a reasonable selection of bundled software, most notably Microsoft Office 2010. You need a license, which you need to buy separately, but all the software is preinstalled, so the license just enables the parts of Office you buy licenses for. If you don't want to pay extra, you can have Word Starter and Excel Starter (which have as much functionality as you'll need for most everyday tasks) for free.

You also get a cut-down version of Nero 10, which is good for backing up your hard disk. As there's no CD or DVD drive, the Nero disk-burning functionality isn't going to be much use unless you buy an external (USB) drive (I have a Samsung SE-S084D, External USB 2.0 Slimline 8x Dvd Writer With Playback Via Tv Support -black but it's not necessarily the cheapest option). You should also consider getting a 250GB (or greater) external USB HDD for Nero to back up the netbook to (for example, a Seagate 500GB Expansion Portable USB 2.0 Hard Drive). Note that Nero will format the external disk, so you can't use one that already has data on it. Most importantly though is to create a bootable recovery image on an 8GB SD card (such as a SANDISK 8 GB Secure Digital SDHC Card). The netbook prompts you to do this when you start it up for the first time. It means that if the internal hard disk breaks down, you can install a new one and get the computer up and working again without too much hassle.

Streaming video using BBC iPlayer works really well for such a small computer. There's a client installed, but you can just stream the content directly from the BBC website using your browser. There's also a Skype client if you want to use this netbook for making free video calls to other internet-connected people.

There's a trial version of McAfee antivirus software installed. A year's subscription is expensive though, so I've uninstalled that and installed Microsoft Security Essentials (which is a free download) instead.

Toshiba also include a number of utilities, which are of variable usefulness. There's a utility that nags you to update drivers but doesn't tell you how to do it (annoying), there's a utility to turn the webcam on and off (useful) and another to show available WiFi connections in a sort of radar screen (not essential, but quite pretty). It's fairly easy to uninstall the utilities you don't like (Control Panel => Programs => Uninstall a Program), but be careful not to uninstall a program that you want by accident!

This little Toshiba netbook is a practical solution to having portable access to the internet. The convenience means you may find yourself using it more than you imagine.

MEMORY UPGRADE: The netbook comes with 1GB of RAM installed. This is barely enough even for Windows 7 Starter Edition, and a lot of the netbook's CPU is consequently used up in swapping data to disk and back again. It is well worth while replacing the 1GB module with 2GB. It's not difficult, although you need to be careful: if you're not comfortable doing it, then seek help. Crucial and Kingston both sell compatible memory that is cheaper than the official Toshiba module. To fit the memory, turn off your netbook, and turn it upside down. There's an irregular-shaped panel (the one with stickers on) that can be removed by unscrewing two small crosshead screws and then prising it off gently (it's a bit flimsy, so be careful). The memory module is on the left: there are two spring clips holding it in. Gently remove this and replace with the new module, making sure the contacts are seated and then clipping it down. Replace the cover (it needs to be popped gently back in, then tighten the screws). When you turn the netbook back on, it should automatically recognise the memory.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad little chap but won't win any beauty contest!, 27 April 2011

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TheShopaholic (UK) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Toshiba NB500-108 10.1-inch Netbook (Intel Atom N455 Processor, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Windows 7 Starter) (Personal Computers)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)

I was very much looking forward to receiving this. Having owned many laptops in my lifetime, some provided by my employer and some of my own and more recently, I had been the proud owner of a Samsung Go N310 netbook. The Samsung had been purchased after many hours of research on the internet and was standing up as one of the better netbooks available. They weren't wrong! However, that had been long since commendeared by my daughter and I can barely remember what it looks like.

So my nice new Toshiba netbook arrived and I opened it. Size seemed pretty much the norm. Perhaps not quite as nice looking as the Samsung but then the Samsung had actually been designed by a Japanese artist and was meant to resemble a pebble with its rounded edges. It was quite unique and a pleasure to behold. The Toshiba resembled a normal laptop in miniature, it would not win any awards for design but it was by no means `a monster'.

First impressions were: screen was nice and clear and bright. Keys were reasonably pleasant to the touch but the mousepad was a little strange. First of all, they had done a nice job of trying to camouflage it and so unless you look carefully you can find yourself spreading your thumb across the space below the keyboard but just outside the pad area and your pointer obviously does not respond. Quite difficult to tell where it starts and finishes unless you pay close attention and are in a well lit room.

The spec of this netbook and the Samsung are quite similar in many respects. In fact, the only real difference I could find was the processor. The Samsung had the Intel Atom N270 and this has the Intel Atom N455. The only improvement in the new Atom seems to be its TDP (Thermal Dissipation Point - the max power it can handle and dissipate heat produced to prevent overheating). This had more than doubled, however there were no longer onboard graphics. Is this a good or bad thing? Not really sure. We are not exactly expecting this little number to be a gaming machine or intended for creative work so I guess that is a side issue.

It was nicer however, to have Windows 7 Starter on this one, instead of Vista with a scrolling screen to compensate for its small size.

Audio is not bad - not crystal clear but fairly good.

Built in webcam and audio (intended for Skype and other multimedia/socialmedia use) is good and useful. I remember paying £1600 for the first Sony Vaio with a built in webcam and of a similar size to a netbook in 2005 so all this functionality for this price is great.

I remember having a Toshiba some years ago and was frustrated by the amount of proprietory software apps on it. Most of which start up automatically with windows and can hog process memory and CPU allocation. I found this annoyance again with this netbook. Although the apps were useful to someone wanting to just plug in, fire up and use - I decided to remove them from the windows start-up list to conserve the power of the CPU and memory for other things.

It comes pre-installed with useful shortcuts and apps like Skype, Ebay, BBCiPlayer and the Toshiba Music Place for downloading music.

I have to say that despite the fact that the processor speed is the same, I found this netbook a little slow in starting up applications. I sometimes pressed the icon for a particular app more than once thinking it was not starting only to find that it would try to open up several times and I would have to then cancel the unnecessary duplications.

Once running, surfing the web and doing what this was intended for (internet use, social networking, email etc) is fine. Slightly speedier than using your iphone or android phone and a little less fiddly.

Battery life is pretty good. Toshiba state up to 8 hours and it seemed to live up to close to that through normal use.

So all in all, this is by no means meant to be a replacement for a standard laptop if you intend to run office, creative or standard applications but it does the job if you need something handier, smaller, and lighter. Internet activity can be conducted adequately with this and its built in webcam, speaker, mic and wireless internet. This, and all netbooks for that matter, are great for teens or people on the go who want to keep up with social networks or those who do not need a big powerful monster to carry out day to day tasks.

I would recommend this netbook but was very surprised at its slow application startup and have to wonder if maybe I was sent a `duff' version!!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great netbook that sits high on the pile, 25 April 2011

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A R Hartley "Monkey" (Hull, UK) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Toshiba NB500-108 10.1-inch Netbook (Intel Atom N455 Processor, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Windows 7 Starter) (Personal Computers)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)

I personally use a PC and Mac, so when this turned up i have to admit i wasnt expecting much, especially after an ealier experience with a Dell Netbook.

Now to start with these netbooks are not designed to replace a pc or laptop. They are much more geared toward light general use, surfing the net, some light productivity like word processing and powerpoint etc, and general media playing. The netbook can handle all this with ease but its much more mobile than a laptop.

This little fella comes with an Intel Atom 1.66Ghz cpu which is half decent, would have been great with a dual core but hey its still good. It has a decent size HD of 250GB, but this isnt a problem with external drives or if you fancey using an SD card as storage. 1GB of DDR2 ram which is low in my opinion as it will steal some for the onboard graphics, so upgrade to 2GB (1 slot), it doesnt make a ton of difference but makes it all smoother.

One annoyance is the fact its shipped with Windows 7 starter, its a pain and if i were you do as i did and take it off and put a full version on, i have used Windows 7 Ultimate and im gonna put MAC OSX on it as it will run without a problem and you will get so much more out of this netbook with them on it.

The battery life states 10 hours i think it is, but you get nearer 7-8 hours of moderate use which is great compared to the Dell my misses used which had about 3 if you were lucky.

The wi-fi is strong on this, features 802.11b/g and that all important N for much better coverage. I havent tried the webcam but they are all the same anyway nor have i tried the voice recog software for the built in mic.

The screen is the usual 10.1 inch display but its very bright and crisp, its slightly better than the dell i used and performs well when running media.

Media playing on this is good, ive used Media player aswell as other media software to play media files such as AVI's and MP4's etc and its fine. MP3s through winamp play fine and the system copes well with it all. I have also tried rigging an external DVD drive to it and it copes well with DVD's through media player, it will run powerdvd too but later versions can drag the performance down a bit.

Surfing the net is a doddle but i recommend switching to Opera browser instead of Explorer as you get much more performance wise and it will maximise the screen use.

The build quality is top notch, it has a textured rubberised feel to it and it feels like it can take a few knocks without breaking, although i wouldnt recommend dropping it!

All in all this is a great bit of kit, out performs other netbooks i have used, let down by the windows starter software and just 1gb of ram but both can be sorted easily.

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