HP MINI 1000 QUICK REVIEW

A revolutionised notebook - HP MINI 1000

The year 2007 saw the advent of Netbooks in the form of the Asus Eee PC. Initially aimed at emerging markets, these light-weight, affordable, laptops come in smaller sizes spanning 5 – 10 inch screens and are relatively more environment friendly. Soon to follow Asus’ canny lead were Everex , MSI, Dell and HP each trying to gain a hold over the fast emerging niche market. With sales growth projected at 21.5 million this year, it’s easy to see why competition is heating up with established brands vying to produce the best. Contending for the top position in the Netbook market is Hewlett-Packard’s latest Mini 1000. Let’s review it to see if it has what it takes to out-sell competition.

The combination of Intel’s Atom CPU, 1GB RAM and Windows XP OS, being used by almost all of the latest netbooks on the market, performance wise, there doesn’t seem to be a significant difference. We’ll have to look, then, at the features that distinguish it from its competitor’s models.

The Mini 1000 definitely seems to be an improvement over HP’s earlier offering, the 2133 Mini-Note PC. Though its essential design remains the same, the use of plastic ensures a lighter unit which is also slimmer. The swirls on the shiny cover give it a classy, understated appearance. Opening the display, you notice that the keypad without a doubt is its best feature. Said to be 92% the size of a regular sized laptop keypad, the flat keyboard and large keys lends themselves to the best touch typing experience on a Netbook. The touchpad at the bottom has two buttons on either sides with the scroll pad in between and a tiny button just above to turn the pad off and on. The glossy display itself has an edge-to-edge glass cover similar to that of Apple’s latest Macbook. While the glass adds to the looks of the unit, it subtracts from the user experience by causing glare issues compounded by the fact that the display doesn’t open as much as other models. Two USB ports and a single switchable headphone and microphone jack leave you wondering what HP was thinking about when it used space to create an exclusive HP Mini Mobile Drive when a third USB port or a separate headphone jack would’ve been more welcome.

With a battery life of 2 hours and 45 minutes, the Mini is bested by both the Asus Eee PC (245 minutes) and the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 (201 minutes). But the sound quality of the speakers, located near the hinge, is very good on this Netbook. Another significant plus is the ease with which one can upgrade the RAM. All that’s required is for the memory slot on the flip side to be opened, the old DIMM to be removed and the new one to be fitted in.

Other downsides include the poor quality of the web camera and the slightly less significant annoyance of a noisy fan that kicks in when the bottom begins to heat, which it does to a certain extent.

Pros:
Great keyboard, aesthetics, portability and screen size.

Cons:

Price ($400 for Linux and $500 for Xp), web cam quality, bulky power brick and no VGA output.

Hp mini 1000 ratings:

Value for money

Our rating