Toshiba’s NB100 marks their debut into the netbook market. They are one of the last manufacturers to launch a netbook and one would think that the delay was a result of them working on some technological masterpiece.

The NB100 measures 225 x 190.5 x 29.5 - 33 mm and weighs 1.050 kg. It has an Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB RAM, 120GB hard drive, 3 USB ports, 802.11g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a web cam. Toshiba’s slogan is “leading innovation” but there is nothing new or innovative about its NB100 – it has virtually the same specs as every other netbook available. Toshiba seems to have realised this and are trying to differentiate it from similar offerings by branding it “The 8.9\" netbook from a brand you can trust”.

The 8.9\" screen is not bad – it is a TruBrite Backlight Display and has a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, so movies are quite clear. The sound is also adequate, but investing in a pair of speakers might not be a bad idea.

We found that the keys on the keyboard were a bit on the small side and as with most netbooks, the touch pad is tiny and it can be quite frustrating to manoeuvre. We don’t understand why manufacturers don’t just include a USB mouse with their netbooks; it would make everyone’s life much easier.

Even stranger is the fact that it comes with a product recovery DVD but the NB100 doesn’t have a DVD drive in which to put it. Therefore you will have to put its contents onto a flash disk and from the flash disk to the Notebook - what a mission! They should just give the product recovery to you on a flash drive to begin with.

Overall it’s not a bad netbook - it does everything a netbook should and it feels pretty sturdy. And if you are looking to buy a netbook the NB100 isn’t a bad option. RRP of R5990 incl.