The Toshiba AC100 may look like a netbook, but the differences extend beyond the Android software it runs. There are some changes under the bonnet and on the outside too that sit it in a category of its very own, but is it one that’s worth buying in to? Find out in this part of our Toshiba AC100 review.
Read the rest of our Toshiba AC100 review
Toshiba AC100 review: Android laptop tested
Toshiba AC100 review: Android 2.1
It looks like a netbook from afar, and with a 10.1-inch screen, similarly sized keyboard and 8GB SSD, it sure sounds like one. But get close and you’ll see the Toshiba AC100 is streamlined, evolved – something else entirely, and entirely skinny.
Sure, it’s got all the ports you’re used to (One USB, an SD card slot and HDMI-out which works perfectly), and even quick launch function keys along the top of the keyboard you might recognise (Pause, play, WiFi, volume and brightness toggle). USB peripherals work fine.
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But it’s drastically thinner than any Intel Atom netbook you’ve seen (14mm at its fattest), while its Nvidia Tegra 2 powered hardware boots up Android in 17 seconds (Rather than a minute or more for Windows) – and lacks a fan, so is dead quiet and cool.
The Toshiba AC100 still packs some of the features of a netbook you may most covet over all those flashy tablets though: the keyboard is spacious, if a tad spongey in the centre, there’s a trackpad with left and right click buttons on the bottom, and the whole affair looks and feels seriously slick, even if the yellow is a bit “dangerous”.
The screen on the Toshiba AC100 is admittedly rather disappointing: it’s dull and washy, with poor viewing angles. But we don’t see this being too much of an issue for solo use: what might annoy you more is that it’s not a touchscreen, and if you’ve used Android on a phone before, you may find yourself prodding a link with your finger without thinking.
But it’s the performance that stands out. While Android (especially on the Toshiba AC100) isn’t capable of any meaningful image editing, or running old Windows games, browsing the web for info and checking email is much speedier than trying to use Firefox on a netbook, and sitting there while it summons the strength to render a page. For these basic functions, it’s blazingly fast.
And despite its size, battery life on the Toshiba AC100 is solid. We got a solid six hours of heavy use with WiFi on and the screen brightness up to the max – if you turn off the USB root you can save yourself more. That’s not a record but look at it relatively: considering how much smaller its battery is than the Li-ion bricks on the longest lasting netbooks, it’s stunning. When the 3G version of the Toshiba AC100 arrives, we’re confident it’s the sort of machine you can leave on when closed to pick up email, and still get a whole day of casual use out of – the push email feature isn’t hugely useful for the current WiFi only model.
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There are several others nice touches hidden around the edges that make the Toshiba AC100 stand out too. The mini USB port isn’t for mounting gadgets on the Toshiba AC100: it’s for mounting the Toshiba AC100’s 8GB SSD on your PC like a USB drive. If you’re not into Dropbox (Which works like a champ here, by the by), it’s an easy way to sync files, and could potentially even let you sync media to it with a program like doubleTwist. There are also LED lights built into either side which glow (or “breathe”, MacBook logo style) when you get an email and the laptop is shut (but not in sleep – you can choose what happens when you close the lid in the settings).
The Toshiba AC100 is quick to fire up out of sleep mode, but though that battery life is impressive, we were surprised and saddened to find it fell far short of the standby time Toshiba promised (A week – which would be thoroughly impressive if true, and only really matched by the iPad). We shut it with a full charge on Friday evening and came back to it at the same time on a Sunday to discover it was all juiced out. That’s a bit of a downer, and puts it on a par with similarly sized Intel rivals for power consumption – as does the surprisingly large power brick. Why not build it into the plug, like Asus used to do?
Regardless, the build of the Toshiba AC100 is very nearly a triumph. We’d love to see a market for laptop-esque computers with mobile processors arrive to complement the nascent tablet market – though it might be Chrome OS models that make them mainstream, rather than this.
Read the rest of our Toshiba AC100 review
Toshiba AC100 review: Android laptop tested
Toshiba AC100 review: Android 2.1
