The new Toshiba NB200 looks exquisite

The new NB200 is a significant update from the MB100

The beautiful NB200

Closer view with keyboard and ports

Sleek as a stick

What wouldn’t I give for a long long battery life in my netbook. And voila! Toshiba heard it. They decided to give me not 4-hour like Aspire one, not 6-hour like some Eee PCs, but a staggering 9-hour battery life with the new NB200. Should travel without wink for atleast 9 hours – maybe more depending on how much I can squeeze out of it.

So here comes a new netbook from Toshiba – with a difference. It comes with the oh-so-predictable 10.1-inch panel with a TruBrite display i.e. LED backlit for richer and sharper viewing. This is the first thing you’ll notice, because the earlier N100 has an 8.9-inch panel. The resolution for both the models is same though – 1024 x 600. The new black NB200 comes in a glossy coat, unlike the Satin Brown, White, Pink ones that are wrapped in premium texture design.

The company promises a “near-fullsize” keyboard although the exact size is not given. An extra-large touchpad is also attached. As mentioned above, the 6-cell battery promises up to 9 hrs of life which is a decent claim. Too long for you? Don’t go for it – go for the default 3-cell battery also which should give around 3 ½ hrs of juice.

The NB200 has same hard disk capacity at 160GB as the NB100 Windows version. The NB100 Ubuntu version has significantly decreased the disk space to below 100GB – so if there’s a Linux NB200 and it comes with a much less disk space – don’t be surprised. To protect this huge amount of data, Toshiba decided to add a 3D sensor that, as the company promises, will protect the drive from any unexpected knocks and shocks.

Connectivity comes with the 802.11 b/g WiFi and Ethernet, and a built-in HSDPA 3G is an optional extra. I would’ve been glad to have an 802.11 n like the Eee PC 901, or an 802.11 b/g/n WiFi though. They provide a faster connection. The Irish times says the NB200 also provides its own network connection utility, a webcam app, Camera Assistant and Microsoft Works 9 (the version without advertising) and a 60-day Office trial. There’s anti-virus sampleware too pre-installed.

The brown and white model ships next month, but the promised pink version won’t arrive until late summer – confirmed by an article in the Irish times.

The 1.1 kg NB 200 should have a price starting off at about €355. But Toshiba’s official website promises more details on the 28th of this month. So hold on till then in case there’s more in the bag.