Customer Reviews

HP Mini 1120NR 10.2-Inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 16 GB Hard Drive, Mobile Internet Experience Software, 3 Cell Battery)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a 24/7 on-call sysadmin, so I needed a suitably light machine I could chuck into my bag and bike around town with, and ended up deciding on the HP Mini 1000-series after seriously considering several others (including its businessy cousin, the 2140)

I was in a hurry to order it so I bought the 1120NR option instead of a build-to-order. If I had BTOed, I'd probably have 2GB of RAM, 802.11n wifi, and an internal Bluetooth adapter. I'm actually quite glad I didn't go overboard, because I spent $330 on a computer and got every penny's worth. It's so cheap, I decided to forego the warranty as well.

I am quite impressed by MIE. I'm a Linux power user, and probably my first task was figuring out how to get a shell open (and I now have gnome-terminal bound to Alt-F3), but this is a polished system, and I have to give HP some credit. The only non-trivial tasks I had to perform which required some manual intervention were setting up tethering to my 3G phone and setting up a VPN connection to the office, both of which work flawlessly with just an hour's fiddling. (I'm using a Cirago BTA6210 USB adapter for BT; it was instant plug-and-play in MIE and required no configuration). I may eventually get tired of the inability to customize the home screen and panels, and install stock Ubuntu, but this machine is ready, with a few hours' work, for everything I need it to do. Well done, HP.

Best features: the display (may be low resolution but is very bright and sharp), and the keyboard. I had almost no trouble adjusting to it and can type at my usual speeds with ease.

The most disappointing features of the machine are ones that aren't likely to bug me, with the exception of the mouse button placement, a problem which is obviated by the fact that the trackpad supports tap for middle and right-click, so who cares? The silly wasted USB slot for the "Mini Drive" inspires a big "whatever". As does the need for a VGA dongle... the likelihood that I'll ever need to hook up an external monitor to this thing is almost nil. If you want premium features, spend the extra $$$ (and it adds up, quick) for a 2140, especially when the HD screen comes out. But this thing works, it's cheap, and it's pretty. If you need a machine for mostly internet purposes (isn't that the whole point of a "netbook"), this is perfect, and it's got one of the prettiest and most headache-free Linux distros I've ever worked with.

The keyboard is wonderful and lives up to the hype. The MI interface is pretty solid, though I have the feeling that if I were able to disable the Elisa media interface (which I would love to do, as it is worthless, crappy software), it would be better yet. The BIG problem is that this little netbook which will likely be bought by other students like myself freezes completely every time it tries to connect to a WPA2 Enterprise secured wireless network. Which is what just about every university uses. Atop of that, HP's support is entirely unhelpful, and it is entirely unclear whether they ever plan on addressing this issue. It's also been pointed out that the webcam window in the display bezel was erroneously manufactured with reflective film over it like the HP logo opposite it on the lower portion of the bezel, making the webcam nigh useless. The fan runs pretty consistently and the system can feel sluggish at times. Nevertheless, it's very sturdy, the keyboard is wonderful and I'd be incredibly happy with it if I could connect to the internet without a system freeze. It's ridiculous to have to seek out coffee shops or lug around an ethernet cable half the size and weight of the computer because I can't connect to my university's wireless, and disconcerting that HP doesn't seem to recognize this problem.

Hardware stuff that I hated:
I got this for about 2 days before I decided to return it. The VGA cable that hasn't been released yet by HP is going to be over $70. A 6 cell battery is $94 (and out of stock the last time I looked). Looking at many forums, the representatives at HP are pretty unreliable about the VGA cable. They tell you to get an Apple mini VGA cable, which doesn't fit at all.[You could get a USB to VGA, but I've heard those are not good quality.] Also, one of the 3 USB drives only fits a proprietary usb stick from HP so that it will sit flush with your computer instead of sticking out (maybe you could use one of those USB drives that is just a flat piece of plastic, maybe not). It's a pretty big chunk of money for just a thumb drive. Lastly, the fan is a lot louder than expected.

What I liked:
I really liked the keyboard. I've got smallish hands and didn't really notice it being much smaller. It was actually more comfortable on my wrists than my regular laptop keyboard.
It included a good chunk of the programs that I would have downloaded (Pidgin, firefox, openoffice, skype etc).
It was pretty easy to navigate to different windows thanks to 2 keys. One was an HP key that brought you back to your home screen and the other brought you to a choice of programs that were already open.
It's very pretty and super tiny, and could probably fit into a lot of people's purses.
Once I changed the toolbars for open office to be on the side instead of on top, I didn't have much of a problem with the size. The memory is simple to upgrade. There's a video of someone doing it in 20 seconds.

Other things I didn't like:
I really didn't like the Mie interface. I'm not going to put pictures and music on something this small, why should that be half of my desktop? Also, I don't use thunderbird, so the mail app on the left was useless. The battery life is about the same as my regular laptop, which was pretty disappointing. The command line is hidden, not entirely disabled. Press fn+f2 to get to it. If it came with an SSH program, I may have kept it longer...

Buy this if:
You want a small laptop that you can surf the internet and use the few programs that are on it. If you want to change the version of linux on it, this may still be a good choice. It wasn't as slow as I thought a netbook would be, and I did not even upgrade the memory yet.

Don't buy this:
If you need a VGA port to show presentations, or if you want a long battery life. If you want to download other programs, you may have some obstacles to run over, but I'm sure that you can tweak it enough to do it. If you don't want to put a different OS on here and don't like the interface of Mie, you shouldn't get this. If you want to customize stuff, this version of Linux really isn't for you.

It was cheaper for me to return this and just get something that included the VGA cable and a 6 cell battery instead of buying the hard to find parts from HP.

This is definitely worth the price with no tax! Nice little machine, although the Linux software can be a bit buggy at sometimes and the track pad scrolling is really annoying when surfing the web not sure how to adjust it, it gets pretty hot around the memory slots for such a low power system which I was kinda disappointed to see, but I guess its normal. The charging light will not turn off so u have no idea when its done, this happened right after I updated so its a software issue. Hopefully with new updates problems will be fixed. I get 2h 30mins tops from the 3 cell batt, so if your looking for longer times get the 6 cell. Overall a sleek machine that can go almost anywhere. Hope to see more Linux products in the future!!

I bought this mainly for the hardware configuration. I only played with the MIE OS briefly before wiping it out and installing XP. This may not be the way to go for many, but the pricing of a comparable model with XP can get pretty pricey. Other than having to dig around and find the drivers needed for everything, it was a smooth installation.
I've owned this for about 2 weeks and so far battery life has been decent with quick shutdown/boot speeds. At times, running an Antivirus and several applications can cause slight pauses, but nothing that shouldn't be expected with an Atom processor. These weren't meant to be power horses so don't expect to run photoshop on this
If you're looking for a simple "NET"book to surf on, this is a good deal.

I give it three stars, but I would really do is give 4.5 stars for the hardware and 1.5 stars for the software.

The hardware is beautiful and well-designed. The speakers are powerful and well-placed in the netbook hinge. The keyboard is large and the keys are easy to press and quiet. The touchpad buttons being on the side is annoying, but the texture of the touchpad is nice, and the buttons, like the keyboard keys, are not difficult to press or loud.

The Mobile Internet Experience looks great, but it is barely usable. It takes everything good about Ubuntu and throws it out the door. Applications lag, switching is slow, the touchpad configuration and brightness settings are wonky. Battery life is poor.

Can't wait to try vanilla Ubuntu on this thing...

The MIE software is basically a massively HP themed out and revamped version Ubuntu 8.04 LTS with all your favorite applications like Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, Mozilla Firefox 3.0, Skype, Pidgin Messenger, OpenOffice and many more. HP hides the Linux details under the hood like Apple does it with OSX.

It's really cool how the put the work flow together so its simple to use for everyone. The HP button (simply like the xp start menu) when clicked shows your home screen presenting 3 columns: email messages, web search/favorites, and media (music/photos), on the center-bottom of the home screen is your running applications in an iconic representation and a "start new program" icon which brings you to a iconic and categorized menu of applications . On the top-right of the home screen simply the words, Files, Settings, Logout. The task bar is simply HP to the bottom-left, an application switcher at the center, and to the bottom-right, you have tiny icons which shows an HP help button, your wifi signal strength, battery life, sound and time. The software is clean, very polished black, and polished down the the font choice for the interface. It boots up fast as well.

As for the hardware I found a few flaws. The power plug doesn't go all the way in. It's not loose but can come out easily when accidentally pulled. Doesn't have a VGA port but does have an expansion port for one, not a big deal since its design was meant to be tinner than its competitors. Battery life is about 3 hours but only because its only a 3-cell which is smaller in size. Its competitors ship higher capacity batteries. HP's 6-cell increases the height of the unit. I can live with it's hardware flaws.

I love my unit. I use it mainly for watching youtube, googling, web development (remote ssh course), chatting, and email. It's not a big dog like my higher powered desktops and laptops but it does work when I want to work away from home or work.

This netbook is great for what I need it for. The screen is big and bright, the keyboard is great for typing and linux is easy to use.

my only negative is the battery is short at less than 3 hours.