3. Toshiba NB250 - £243
The most remarkable aspect of the Toshiba NB250 is its absolutely superb keyboard, so we'll start with that. Unlike many netbooks, it's spread out as far as it possibly could be, from one edge of the case to the other.
It's the closest thing you're ever going to get to a full-sized layout on a netbook PC. The keys are moulded in the faux-chiclet style reminiscent of early Sony Vaio laptops, which makes for an excellent typing feel but some concessions have to be made. The right hand side of the keyboard is rather restricted, crushing the symbol keys and the Enter key into a rather narrow column for example.
Annoyances be damned, though: you need a keyboard. This is something a touchscreen tablet just can't provide, and that a netbook – especially this one – does very well.
Next up is storage. The NB250-108 we've tested doesn't have a gigantic hard drive, but neither do most netbooks, and the 250GB on offer here will go a long way.
And then there's the battery. It's astonishing, lasting an easy 8.5 hours on a single charge. The Atom N455 at its core might be unremarkable in terms of processing power, but it works exceptionally hard for such a power-friendly design.
