NB205 owners

Im sitting on the fence between this and a couple others. I have a few questions though.

1. How terrible is the speaker? I have read that its just plain bad but how bad?

2. I have read that it gets hot. How hot really? We talking mildly warm or like a normal laptop after a couple hours of gaming?

It looks perfect the trackpad and keyboard look great but if i cant sit it on my lap comfortably and watch some hulu its a definite dealbreaker.

 

It has one speaker and that is on the bottom near the front. It's poor but to me not a deal breaker. Mine gets warm but not hot. I do not play games other than solitaire. I put it on my lap and surf with no problem. My wife has the Asus 1000HE and I prefer the Toshiba for the keyboard and the trackpad. Both perform the same on the internet. I love the silver keys and the silver finish on the bottom portion. Love the finish on the top and around the screen. NO FINGERPRINTS. I got the brown one. On the speaker, I just use headphones if there is something like music or where sound is really important.

 

Its a tough call but i think im going to have to pass on it. Its main purpose would be watching hulu and other videos and im afraid that speaker would just kill the deal. Otherwise its everything i wanted in a netbook and ill probably end up having to buy one of the plastic monsters.

 

The speaker is about as bad as it gets. I can't imagine how it can be any worst. If you plan in watching movies on it plan on wearing headphones or using external speakers. It does get pretty worm but you can still keep it on your lap with out much discomfort.
Overall I would say that it's a great netbook that looks/works fine. I don't think you can beat the keyboard/touchpad combination.

 

Any possibility of changing the speaker out? It's not a dealbreaker for me, but seems like such a stupid mistake to leave something like that in an otherwise well spec'ed machine.

 

in the HD bay on the bottom, is the Wifi card accessable?

 

Speaker is the really weak, but realistically, so is the one in the 1000HE. If you're going to watch hulu, you're going to want external speakers either way... and just so you know, I wasn't able to get Hulu to play smoothly in fullscreen on the 1000HE or the NB205, which is kinda frustrating.

Oh wells... you can still watch it in the window and its pretty smooth. There might be a work around for this that I haven't figured out yet. Just got mine in today.

 

From all the reviews i have read the HE and newer HA have excellent speakers for netbooks. I think more than once i have read "enough to fill a small room with sound"

I have seen a few videos of the HE playing fullscreen hulu. AFAIK you have to set it to max performance.

Try the hulu desktop program it seems to run smoother than the browser version.

 

Yeah, the speakers are very weak. However, with headphones and iTunes, I have the volume on the setting above "mute" and the volume in iTunes halfway and it's still pretty loud. Like steve p said, definitely use headphones. External speakers kind of defeat the purpose since they're pretty big unless you're exclusively using the netbook at home and not carrying it around with you.

I can watch HQ Youtube fine. I did upgrade my RAM to 2 GB but I don't know if that affects HQ video play. I don't watch Hulu so I can't comment on that.

Still, I got it because of the long battery life and keyboard/touchpad. I'm going to college so it's not like I need to be playing music/movies from the speaker. I'm going to be using headphones and it's already plenty loud on almost the lowest volume control.

 

I had a 1000HE and sure you might be able to get the speakers so you could kind of hear them in a small room. I also have DV5 and the speakers on that are actually pretty good, probably twice as powerful as the 1000HE, but I still wouldn't use them to play watch hulu movies. If you want to be able to hear what people are saying and really enjoy the movies/shows, you're going to want external speakers pretty much no matter what computer you go with. I wouldn't let the speakers be much of a factor in deciding your purchase. That's just my opinion. So far, I've much prefered the Toshiba over the Asus because of the better keyboard. Track pad is about the same on both of them. One thing I really liked about the Asus was that you could overclock it with the software it came with to give you a little boost in performance. I never noticed much of a difference. Maybe a couple less dropped frames in certain videos. The reason I would go with the Toshiba is because it has a way better keyboard, is quite a bit thinner, and has better battery life. Really though you'd probably be satisfied with both of them.

 

The speaker is terrible.

However, in XP, you can go into the audio applet, enable the equalizer and crank up every band. This gets it from terrible to serviceable. I have since installed Windows 7 and now I cannot find that equalizer applet, so it has gone back to terrible.

That said, mine does not get hot, I've owned a few netbooks now and this is one of the better ones temperature wise. It has some other advantages such as the best keyboard and trackpad I've used, and exceptional battery life. The sleep-and-charge USB port has proven to be very useful.

 

I decided to keep mine and not return it. The wi fi connection problem turned out not to be a problem after all.

The speaker does not bother me as I solely use this computer for travelling and watching movies off of a connected portable hard drive on planes, so I always have headphones.

I love the fact that it has 3 USB ports as opposed to the 2 ports of the HP Mini and others. I keep a nano receiver for a Logitech mouse permanently installed in the port on the right.

Keyboard is great and so is the trackpad.

I had, and returned, 3 HP Minis for various reasons....all defective.

The screen is vibrant...and much easier to see than the one on my 8.9 inch Acer.

Loving it.

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9121988&st=notebook+speakers&type=product&id=1218051734899


I also carry these great speakers I got from Best Buy. They clip on to the top of the computer and are powered solely by the USB. GREAT sound. I use them also with my Toshiba U405 when I am travelling with that one.

 

Just how 'loud' are they?

I'm going to be on a mini-road trip and am going to need some volume to watch some movies in the car.

 

After reading about the speaker, I purchased one this morning. Went to the mall and settled in the food court. A lot of traffic. Turned on my Toshiba, plugged the speaker in and went to Hulu. Sounded pretty good to me. No problem hearing the speaker in a high traffic area. The clip isn't too bad. Not the greatest but not too bad. I thought is was a good buy. I guess to answer, the volume was better than expected.

 

I agree with bulldog. I was surprised by just how loud these VERY portable speakers can get with no distortion.

I had originally gotten them for my Toshiba U405 but use it with all my laptops now.

Of course, widely separated stand alone speakers would be better, but these unique speakers cannot be beat for portability and ease of use.

 

Just got mine from UPS and am setting it up as we speak

I got the black one because it was cheaper and I actually prefer the fuller keyboard as opposed to the chiclet keyboard... which is surprising cause I have monster hands (I'm 6'5").

This notebook is really great for the money and puts my moms HP Mini 1010nr to SHAME in terms of speed and multi-taskability.

However, the fan seems to come on more and is a tad bit louder than the HP mini, which I think its rather annoying.

Mine gets warm, which is expected from such a thin netbook, but I'd like it if the fan didnt come on so much.

Touchpad is great, screen is great, speaker is crap, but that was expected.

In the next couple of days I plan on writing out a review for the Black unit as there aren't as many reviews on it.

My battery is a 'tad' wiggly, but just throw a couple pieces of electrical tape on the battery and you're good to go!

Peace

 

For anyone who has the chicklet keyboard. I just got mine and am playing with it. Does your spacebar make a different sound when you press it? My spacebar feels loose, I hope it's not defective. When typing, all the other keys have a dull thud sound, but my spacebar has a higher pitch annoying sound when pressed.

 

Yes. I'm getting a different sound too.

I just installed Windows 7 RC on this. It runs fairly well and it's not that slow. I going to get Windows 7 Home Premium. I'd have to get the full version right? (so it'd be $199?).

 

You can get the upgrade. I don't know how much that is. Though.

 

I hope none of you run into the battery drain problem that mine has. It's not a deal-breaker - but losing 5-10% per day is irritating. Otherwise it's a great little system with very good build quality - and it's not a finger-print magnet!!

 

can anyone tell me how to change the ram? i just can't see how to take it out. i bought a 2 gb stick that should fit, i just can't figure out how to take the old one out. i already broke one of those tiny tabs on that panel that covers the ram

 

You have to unpin the claps on the two sides and it'll pop the RAM to a slight angle (about 45 degrees). Then you slide the RAM out and put your RAM at the slight angle. Then push down so it's parallel to the bottom and close the clasps onto the RAM. I had a little problem putting it in thinking I would break clasps. I hope this helps. I'm not very good at describing stuff, lol.

 

I had the battery drain too. It's the sleep and charge. You can turn it off in the bios and the sleep and charge applet.

 

That was my suspicion as well. It's a nice feature, but I honestly have no use for one at the moment

 

Do you get impacted by the sleep and charge if nothing is plugged in?

 

I don't. I'm not even sure if that needs to be activated and if it does, I'm pretty sure that it's not.

I'm currently using Windows 7. Does anyone know if I can get internet to work while the laptop is asleep? I tried changing the properties so the device for wireless and ethernet is powered when it's asleep but I still lose my Wifi signal when I close the laptop lid. I even restarted it to see if it would be in effect. I guess it doesn't work?

 

if the laptop is asleep, why would you need it to have network access? It can't do anything while its asleep...

 

if the laptop is asleep, why would you need it to have network access? It can't do anything while its asleep...

 

How does windows 7 do? I read that you lose the FN-F8 to turn the wireless on-off...is it a major pain to do it through the settings in win 7 instead?

 

Oh, I always thought you can still dl or stay on AIM while the laptop is asleep.

Probably but I always leave wireless on anyways.

 

No, not when it's asleep. You can set the the screen to turn off when the lid is closed, and set it to power off when idle though.

 

Can someone confirm how mnay mini pci-e slots this has please.

 

Not that you can add to the netbook, but the the device manager reports there are four pci-e root ports...

 

How come you cant add to it?, is it just the Torx screws stopping you or are there only 2 slots for the Bluetooth and WiFi?

 

well i'd just be bluetooth and wifi... what else do you expect to fit into the little thing?

 

An ssd? HD crystalizer from broadcom? Tv tuner? WWAN card? theres loads of things hence me asking how many slots it has.

 

Mr. Yoshii - Thanks for the pointer on the sleep-an-charge battery drain issue. Sure enough that was the culprit - I feel like a dufus ...

 

So nobody has taken the hdd cover off?

 

^^^ I have. Half sized mini pcie wifi card, and the HD.

 

Just great, what about on the 3g version where is the 3g card and bluetooth card? 1 slot is of no use to me.

 

Glad I could help. On a side note what's with the NB205 review on the front page, way different view than laptopmag's.

 

Everyone's entitled to their own opinion... The nb205 isn't a perfect machine, but its the best for me...

On the other hand, I still don't see whats so amazing about Asus EEE pc's... the keyboard are just horrid!

 

If I open up the area where the wireless card is and look down further in the machine I can see a silk screened "WWAN" printed down on the board.

What I can't tell however is if there is another pci express connection down there for another card. In any case it looks like you would have to take the system somewhat apart to get to that area of the motherboard.

 

Thankyou , thats exacly what i wanted to hear, taking the system appart is no problem just need to sell mt XPS now.

 

If you'd like, I took two pictures of the area in question. They're kinda fuzzy, but you can clearly see the WWAN markings on the board. This is under the same door as the HDD, the larger metal one that's screwed down with torx screws.

http://img198.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=nb205wwan1.jpg

 

Also, after looking at it closer, I don't think there is a mini PCIx slot soldered to the motherboard..... I can see the white pad for it to be located and what I think are the solder pads, but no slot itself.

If you're good at soldering, putting one on is honestly pretty trivial, but I don't see any additional slots or anything for a sim card...

Just letting you know what I see so you can make a good decision...

 

Ahhh right, well im not that good at soldering and dont think i would want the risk of damaging a brand new system, i might see if i can find a the model with the built in WWAN then remove it, i have noticed tho having WWAN means theres no bluetooth so its a bit hit and miss thanks alot for the pics tho.

 

Huh, I bet what the deal is that the lower end NB200 is sold with the WWAN packages. The differences between the models are that the lower end models have the plain black cases on them without bluetooth. Also a lower end model yet that only has a 3 cell battery.

I bet the black only models are the ones that carriers are using to bundle...

FWIW I don't see the bluetooth hardware in those openings at all, I'm willing to bet it's hooked up with a separate little card and maybe a ribbon cable or something.

 

Well I ended up returning the toshiba nb205 I had.

I wasnt having any issues with network connectivity, except I when I went up to campus today, I couldn't connect.

So i got an HP Mini instead.

The toshiba WAS nice though