Review: HP Mini 1000 Netbook

All right Revanche …. you asked for it………*cracks her knuckles* (although I can’t really do that in real life), now’s your just desserts!

Get ready to be tempted by an extremely cute laptop.

Interested in other Netbooks (all 8.9″)?

Mary from SimplyForties is simultaneously reviewing the Acer Aspire One and her sister also bought the Asus EEE PC Netbook.

I will also be reviewing BF’s Toshiba N100 Netbook with an 8.9″ Screen.

What comes in the box

The laptop of course and a 3-cell adapter, along with a Windows XP CD and a HP Drivers CD.

(Yes, I kept the plastic on it. :P)

It also comes with a keyboard cover and a little flannel cloth to clean the screen with.

Won’t need a keyboard cover in that case.

SPECIFICATIONS

Cost

$549.99 CAD before tax.

I used a $100 CAD gift certificate after tax (hell, it paid for the actual tax + $30), and I ended up paying $503 CAD total, tax-in.

UPDATE:

They dropped the price to $499.99 CAD before tax, so I ended up going back (I bought it 10 days before the 14 day return/exchange program) and told them I wanted the difference in price back, which ended up giving me $56.44 back.

TOTAL COST: $446.56!!!

And when I went back, BF wanted to buy one of his own, and they ended up being TOTALLY SOLD OUT. I’m glad I bought mine and scored the discount to boot.

The site tells me that the the base starting price was $399 with 512MB of RAM and a 16 (?) GB of hard drive space, but Best Buy didn’t even offer that configuration to purchase.

Weight

It weighs around 2 pounds, and the thinness of the laptop is really astounding. Think of a medium-sized hardcover book, and you’ve got it. With the battery in, it can be lifted up with one, wimpy, muscle-challenged hand, and carried like a book.

Here is a shot of it in comparison to a thickness of a USB key.

Speed

It has a 1.6 GHz processor (not bad, my first computer ever, was a 1.6 GHz), and 1GB of RAM (Memory), so it loads pretty quickly and switching from one task to another seems to take an additional 2 full seconds (one one thousand, two one thousand) but nothing that would really annoy me.

I think the minimum RAM was 512MB, but mine came with 1GB.

Of course, if you access anything by USB, expect it to run slower. I should note that I tried playing videos off my Western Digital external hard drive, and it ran smoothly, and held up quite well even while I was typing in Notepad and opening folders in the background.

Operating System

Comes with Windows XP, and they give you the disk with an HP Driver disk when you buy the Mini. I should note that it does NOT come with an optical drive, meaning you cannot put in any DVDs or CDs to run. You’ll have to buy a separate, external optical drive to plug in via USB.

After using Vista, it was weird to go back to XP, but not a huge deal.

Harddrive Space

Mine came with 60GB, which really means around 50GB of free space (Windows XP takes up that space, and whatever programs you install).

I find that small, since I’m used to around 160GB as the standard, but it isn’t as annoying as having it at 16GB, like the Dell Mini 9 that I was comparing this HP Mini 1000 to.

16GB, BEFORE a WinXP system means you get about 10GB of hard drive space. That is truly tiny.

I think I would be able to switch out the hard drive for something larger in the future if need be, like a 160GB (I have heard of people successfully doing so, and adding another stick of 1GB RAM), but for now and for what I use it for, it’s unnecessary geekage and spending.

Quality

The laptop is of pretty good quality.

I touched the other Netbooks quickly with my fingers, opened, closed, and lightly abused and annoyed all the other customers around me.

I felt that the HP Mini 1000 was a solid Netbook. They had a Dell Mini 9 there, and it felt like it was of equal quality in terms of material and construction.

The HP Mini 1000 in the Vivienne Tam design was of slightly superior quality, with harder, less plasticky keys, and of a more solid-feeling body, but at an extra $250 a pop, I was not convinced.

Keyboard

The keyboard is 92% of a full-size keyboard, and I believe that. It’s quite comfortable to type on, but I won’t lie that slight 8% difference can be felt.

The keys are too close to each other, and I will NEVER adjust to that keyboard. I am too used to a 100% keyboard with a couple of mm space in between each key.

However, I tried typing on the other Netbooks (Dell and Acer), and they had smaller screens at 8.9″ and the keyboard was tinier, which REALLY turned me into a two-fingered typist.

Not that it REALLY matters because I never , ever planned on typing long documents on a Netbook.

Screen Size

The Dell Mini 9 for example, had 8.9″ for a screen but it was surprisingly too small. The minimum in screen size should be 10″ or more because it could potentially be a strain on your eyes if it were any smaller.

10.1″ is really the minimum, especially when viewing webpages, since the 10.1″ cuts the size of the page to begin with.

Usability

• I like that the USB ports aren’t set together, but on separate ends of the laptop.
• It’s hard to push in the USB cord (takes some effort) but I like that it locks the USB in place.
• The mouse trackpad is not so glossy my finger gets caught. It glides easily.
• The keys on the left and right of the trackpad instead of at the bottom take some getting used to.
• I don’t like that the adapter cord is RIGHT beside the USB port on the left of the Netbook (annoying because the adapter bends, and isn’t a straight cord in, so I have to flip the adapter the other way so that it doesn’t block the left USB port.

Other Key Features I will use

• 2 USB Ports – I would have preferred 3, but 2 is better than 1 since I tend to use a Wired USB Mouse
• LAN Connection (hard wired internet connection) (BASIC NEED)
• Wireless Connection available (BASIC NEED)

Other Key Features I will probably NEVER use but is handy to know is there

• A webcam
• Bluetooth
• SD Card slot

Missing Features as compared to other Netbooks and Laptops

• No VGA (Video) adapter
• More than one headphone jack (one is enough for me…really)
• No dial-up modem (which I never use anyway)
• No optical drive (cannot play DVDs or CDs without another USB attachment, which is standard for Netbooks)

PROS

It’s cute

Girly, but true. It’s CUTE. Even if it isn’t as feminine or as girly as a Vivienne Tam limited edition version, it’s still pretty darn cute with its silver swirls on the glossy black case, which makes me smile.

Fabulous for travelling

It may sound like a lot of money ($500!) for a travelling entertainment system, but it’s worth it to me.

I travel quite a bit in my job, but also in my personal life. I live in another province, and going back to Toronto, Ontario takes 10 hours as a round trip.

I can only read and listen to my iPod for so long before I start getting cabin fever, whereas if I pop in a movie or queue up a bunch of videos on my laptop, I can last for at least 3 hours before asking myself “are we there yet?”.

Time doesn’t exactly fly, but it helps.

I also tried loading videos onto my iPod, but the screen is just too damn small to really watch the video in detail without having to rely on memory.

Naturally, I normally stay with my family, but I HATE using their computers because I don’t want to log into Blogger and moderate comments in fear that they’ll find out that I’m an Anonymous blogger, or check my emails and forget to sign out… that sort of thing.

I feel more comfortable if I have my own computer, and sometimes I can’t even get any screen time because my brother is on there playing some addictive video game.

As a bonus, it’ll really come in handy for vacation when BF and I go on mini trips and neither of us are willing to lug a laptop in our backpacks just for the convenience of being able to check our emails or look up things with the hotel wireless connection.

All it needs is maybe a mouse, the actual Netbook and the power cord which is a 3-cell battery and super small and light.

I could pack that Netbook IN ADDITION to my huge laptop and it’d feel like the weight of a hardcover.

Not that I’d ever bring both laptops (what’s the point)? But if I wanted, I could.

Easy to carry on a daily basis if required

When I travel, I don’t really like to leave electronics unattended. Call me paranoid, but I don’t even like leaving them in the car while I run errands.

I heard from a friend who recently got robbed, that thieves can now detect batteries using some sort of sensor that they run over your car and the contents of your car. They can now easily target where in the boot of the car, or which bags contain electronics, and steal what they want.

She even had empty boxes of cellphones and other electronics, but with that sensor, it didn’t emit a beep, so the thieves knew that they were empty.

Scary.

Anyway, when I’m toting a PDA, Digital Camera, Cellphone, GPS system (without the cord), iPods AND a Laptop when I’m travelling, my purse and backpack tends to become a monster.

Sure, all that stuff is pretty light, but when you throw a Dell Inspiron 1525 15″ laptop into there with its battery and mouse, it’s when your shoulders begin to curse the day they were paired up with you.

This Netbook is easy to carry, and if I were out on an interview somewhere downtown, or on a quick client meeting where I may need a laptop with wireless to check my emails throughout the day but am not willing to bring my 15″ Dell all the way there, then this Netbook will do ‘er in a pinch.

CONS

Cannot use it for any heavy duty work

It has 1GB of RAM which is what I’d consider a basic minimum for any laptop, large or small. I don’t need to upgrade to 2GB of RAM because I am not planning on multi-tasking on it.

I could not use this laptop for specific work things – like coding, using it to log into a system, etc. There is no way in freakin’ hell this Netbook would be able to do that with its requirements and size.

I also cannot edit graphics in it, beyond the basic crops (screen is too small, keyboard a tad smaller than a full-sized one, and it isn’t fast enough).

60GB hard drive and only 2 USB ports

Minor issue, but I like at least 120GB – 160GB (as per other Netbooks), and at least 3 USB ports since I always use a wired mouse, but it’s not a HUGE deal compared to the size & weight.

The battery life is not stellar

I mean come on. It’s a 3-Cell battery, around 2 pounds in weight and is tiny!

I cannot expect it to be 3 hours or longer, but it does last around 2 hours give or take how bright you like your screen, if you’re charging something via USB, etc.

It’s acceptable to turn on and use it to quickly look up or check something, but not for any extended period of time past three hours or so.

VERDICT

It is great for a laptop in a pinch but not for long-term use.

Think of it as a slightly larger Blackberry.

You wouldn’t want to type War and Peace on it, but it does the job of keeping you entertained and video-fied (sp?) while you twiddle your thumbs on the train or in the airport without adding to the bulk and weight of your luggage/purse.

Even if I get something like a smartphone or the Palm Pre in the future, I’d still find the Netbook 100% useful when I travel, because those smartphones have pretty small screens for videos (even if you turn them sideways to see them lengthwise).

I packed everything into my travelling tote bag and when I lifted it with everything but clothes or makeup and toiletries packed (including two bars of chocolate and a travel mug), it was light. Very light. And I was a happy FB who loves to travel without a lot of bulk.

So it’s a big BUY IT from me, if you are thinking of a Netbook..

Although, to be fair, if the Macbook Air was cheaper, around say.. the $800 range, I may have purchased that instead, because the screen is a lot larger and it has a full-sized keyboard, which is a plus for me.

Interested in other Netbooks (all 8.9″)?

Mary from SimplyForties is simultaneously reviewing the Acer Aspire One and her sister also bought the Asus EEE PC Netbook.

I will also be reviewing BF’s Toshiba N100 Netbook with an 8.9″ Screen.