Great little netbook at an affordable price. Specs are pretty standard for a 2010/2011 netbook: 1G RAM, 250Gb HD, 3 USB ports, basic video camera, separate Mic & headphone jacks, sd card slot, vga output and a very useful 8h battery life.
There are a lot of netbooks like this on the market, but what really stands out for me on this one is the keyboard, FULL size main keys with ALL the cursor movement keys: DEDICATED up, down, right,left, PGUP, PGDN, HOME and END. I work a lot with excel spreadsheets and it is really uncomfortable to move pressing fn+end/up orf+end/down or ctrl+fn+home, ctrl+fn+end, etc. to move around. Also scrolling with pgup/pgdown while reading a long web page is a pain when you have to press also the fn key! With most netbooks you have to live with the fn key, not in this case, the NB505 keyboard is really practical and comfortable, almost like a full laptop or pc keyboard, even do the position of the keys is not standard, they let you do the work easier and faster.
I also really like the case feeling: like some very soft rubbery cover, it looks nice and grips nice!
Windows 7 Starter is really basic, but you can find programs, utilities and tips on the Internet to take care of the basic "missing features" like changing the background image, colors, sounds, re-size pictures, etc. I got rid of most of the Toshiba utilities and also Norton, and installed MS Security and my preferred freeware home edition utilities.
I would have liked to have stereo speakers, but the netbook only includes a mono speaker under the unit.
I have older Toshiba laptops with excellent experience, in fact they are still working (WIN98, 450Mb HD,64Mb RAM)! so I decided to take the risk and bought the netbook from Amazon. It arrived fast, and working OK! (no DOA).
Its been a month since I got the netbook and I am still happy, but I think I will upgrade the memory to 2Gb, to make it snappier, I find Win7 heavier than Win XP for 1 gb of RAM (but that is just my feeling...).
All in all, I WOULD recommend it to my friends!
*** UPDATE **** July 2011 ****
I did upgrade the memory to 2Gb on February'11 and it works faster, but, if you plan to do it, just be aware of THIS: (info from the Toshiba support web site)
"NOTE: Two types of DDR memory are used in the Toshiba NB500 and NB505 netbook series. In order to upgrade, you WILL NEED to determine the current memory speed of your Netbook before you buy and replace it:
1) Locate the gray part number label on bottom of machine.
2) If there is a "D3" in the UPPER RIGHT HAND CORNER of the label, then DDR3 memory is installed, upgrade using the following: "PA3856U-1M2G Toshiba DDR3-1066MHz, 2GB Memory" or compatible.
3) All other units, assembled with DDR2 memory, upgrade using the following module: "PA3669U-1M2G, Toshiba DDR2-800MHz, 2GB memory Module" or compatible (cheaper).
Alternate Identification Method (Serial Number):
1) PLL50U-01900C(5B294965K or greater, or a serial number starting with 6B ,7B , 8B) use DDR3.
2) PLL50U-01900C(5B294964K or less, or a serial number starting with 4B,3B , 2B ,1B, ZA, YA, or XA)- use DDR2."
Mine used DDR2...