Toshiba NB550D review
in Laptops
Verdict
The first Brazos netbook excels at graphical tasks, and battery life is immense. If only it had arrived last year
Review Date: 25 Mar 2011
Reviewed By: Sasha Muller
Price when reviewed: £251 (£301 inc VAT)
Features & Design
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Value for Money
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Performance
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| Details | |
|---|---|
| Part Code | PLL5FE-00M008EN |
| Review Date | 25 Mar 2011 |
| Price ex VAT | £251 |
| Price inc VAT | £301 |
| Overall rating |
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| Features & Design |
|
| Value for Money |
|
| Performance |
|
| Warranty | |
|---|---|
| Warranty | ERROR: Script can't be evaluated |
| Physical specifications | |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 262 x 190 x 36mm (WDH) |
| Weight | 1.270kg |
| Travelling weight | 1.6kg |
| Processor and memory | |
|---|---|
| Processor | AMD Fusion C-50 |
| Motherboard chipset | AMD Fusion |
| RAM capacity | 1.00GB |
| Memory type | DDR3 |
| SODIMM sockets free | 0 |
| SODIMM sockets total | 1 |
| Screen and video | |
|---|---|
| Screen size | 10.1in |
| Resolution screen horizontal | 1,024 |
| Resolution screen vertical | 600 |
| Resolution | 1024 x 600 |
| Graphics chipset | AMD Radeon HD 6250 |
| Graphics card RAM | 256MB |
| VGA (D-SUB) outputs | 0 |
| HDMI outputs | 1 |
| S-Video outputs | 0 |
| DVI-I outputs | 0 |
| DVI-D outputs | 0 |
| DisplayPort outputs | 0 |
| Drives | |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 250GB |
| Hard disk usable capacity | 233GB |
| Spindle speed | 5,400RPM |
| Internal disk interface | SATA/300 |
| Hard disk | Toshiba MK2565GSXN |
| Optical disc technology | N/A |
| Optical drive | N/A |
| Battery capacity | 5,300mAh |
| Replacement battery price inc VAT | £0 |
| Networking | |
|---|---|
| Wired adapter speed | 100Mbits/sec |
| 802.11a support |
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| 802.11b support |
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| 802.11g support |
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| 802.11 draft-n support |
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| Integrated 3G adapter |
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| Bluetooth support |
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| Other Features | |
|---|---|
| Wireless hardware on/off switch |
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| Wireless key-combination switch |
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| Modem |
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| ExpressCard34 slots | 0 |
| ExpressCard54 slots | 0 |
| PC Card slots | 0 |
| USB ports (downstream) | 3 |
| FireWire ports | 0 |
| PS/2 mouse port |
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| 9-pin serial ports | 0 |
| Parallel ports | 0 |
| Optical S/PDIF audio output ports | 0 |
| Electrical S/PDIF audio ports | 0 |
| 3.5mm audio jacks | 2 |
| SD card reader |
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| Memory Stick reader |
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| MMC (multimedia card) reader |
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| Smart Media reader |
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| Compact Flash reader |
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| xD-card reader |
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| Pointing device type | Touchpad |
| Audio chipset | AMD HD Audio |
| Speaker location | Wrist rest |
| Hardware volume control? |
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| Integrated microphone? |
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| Integrated webcam? |
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| Camera megapixel rating | 1.3mp |
| TPM |
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| Fingerprint reader |
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| Smartcard reader |
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| Carry case |
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| Operating system and software | |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 7 Starter 32-bit |
| OS family | Windows 7 |
| Recovery method | Recovery partition |
| Software supplied | N/A |
| Battery and performance tests | |
|---|---|
| Battery life, light use | 9hr 55min |
| 3D performance (crysis) low settings | N/A |
| 3D performance setting | N/A |
From around the web
This seems like the prefect netbook. All I have to do is wait for my AA1 to die.
By JamesD29 on 25 Mar 2011 ![]()
and work out how to get it without paying the windows tax.
By JamesD29 on 25 Mar 2011 ![]()
I love the sound of the netbook, however i'm guessing the 2 out of 6 stars for performance that it gets is comparing it to full power laptops.
Are there any plans to make a completely separate netbooks category, or is the reasoning behind not doing that the popular theory that netbooks are a dying breed?
By khellan on 27 Mar 2011 ![]()
Toshiba NB550D
This is a superb multimedia netbook ideal
for traveling with the
digital camera and Camcorder. Toshiba beat
Asus to the Draw, their
equivalent using the same
processor and HD graffics
card is only coming out in USA in April.
This is a superb machine!
Snobbie45
By Snobbie45 on 29 Mar 2011 ![]()
Toshiba reliably rip you off!
£80 to £120 more for a Netbook with a much slower CPU and better graphics is a joke unless you need it for media; the mentioning gaming support is pointless for such a slow CPU.
I'd only consider this Netbook if:
* the CPU had a much higher maximum clock speed e.g say 1.5GHz.
* demand scaled variable CPU speed for the same battery life.
* was much cheaper, say max. £250, inc. VAT!
As is, if I was buying a new netbook I'd still opt for a £180 to £220 (VAT inc) Atom one, for the faster CPU, given £300 is a rip-off, but hardly surprising given it is Toshiba!
For just media playing, my Advent Vega is far more portable than any netbook, and can drive HDMI TVs (unlike the crapple iPad2), and is still cheaper at £250, or less for business.
I've travelled with my devices, so this is not just hot air.
By Schematrix on 31 Mar 2011 ![]()
Too late for netbooks and not ready for tablets...
AMD missed the train. Everyone bought a netbook with Atom previous years, Intel sold Atom without any competitor to every netbook. Now Apple set the trend favoring Tablet, and I see no hope for AMD. They may prepare a Nvidia Tegra competitor 2 years later...
By HopeLESS on 1 Apr 2011 ![]()
maybe a little too pessimistic...
Yes ideally both consumers and amd would have liked it out a lot sooner but you're either missing the point or engaging in silly hyperbole.
It's a scalable architecture aimed at low power all round performance. In fact equally clocked it is a more powerful cpu than the atom and the better alternative for 'portable productivity' to use a silly buzzword. There is plenty of potential in the fusion series, expect to see it in plenty of laptops. I'm interested.
By Hmmmm on 5 Apr 2011 ![]()
Good little netbook
I have just got one of these, and once you take off all the crapware it runs great. Gonna upgrade the RAM now though.
By Jon2010 on 14 Apr 2011 ![]()
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