Customer Reviews

HP Mini 210-1030NR 10.1-Inch Black Netbook - 9.75 Hours of Battery Life

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I purchased this netbook because of the small size, excellent price, long battery life, and great customer service that HP is known for.

As far as the computer goes...
The computer itself is very light weight and easy to tote around. Not too heavy in a purse or bag and the size it great for concealing what you're carrying, say on a city bus or train.
I'm not a big Winblows fan so I changed the OS to Linux Mint 8 and that gave me back around 8 or 10GB of space that the old OS was eating up. There is plenty of room on the hard drive for a mid-sized music collection, lots of files, and plenty of pictures with room to spare.
The keyboard is great, but lacks a home key, page up, and page down. The touch pad gives you the ability to double click or single click by touch and there is a button on the keyboard for a right-click action.
The AC adapter is plenty long for most tasks and the battery life is excellent.
The webcam is fairly low quality but for basic things, such as using Skype or other conferencing methods, it will do the job. Speakers and mic are great and produce good quality sound for a netbook.

Customer Service...
After having the 210-1030nr for only two weeks, my hard drive went bad. No drops, no spills, no crazy room mates, just went bad. I called HP customer service and they were excellent! They're sending me the shipping materials to send the computer back and are footing the repair bill for me. Great customer service, just like I expected.

The 210-1030nr would have earned that fifth star had the hard drive not gone bad on me. I know, however, that this is a rare occasion for a netbook and sometimes things are not made properly or other issues occur that are beyond my, or any one else's, control.
This HP has performed very well up until the hiccup with the hard drive. My boyfriend was very impressed with the machine, despite his initial aversion to it's small size; he was worried it would be fragile or flimsy. He will be purchasing one for himself very soon.

If you buy a netbook knowing what they are actually designed to do, you wont be dissapointed with this HP.

Pros:

- The Keyboard is AWESOME. Very easy to type and its by far the best keyboard ive used any any Netbook or regular laptop for that matter and I have wide hands with short fingers. My typing speed is probably 20 words per minute faster than on my dad's netbook.

- I was considering getting the HD screen but im glad I didnt waste the money because the standard screen is perfectly clear and a great size for a netbook.

- I installed Google chrome as my default web browser and it is VERY FAST loading web pages and etc. Internet explorer is too slow.

- The web cam seems to work very nicely for a netbook. But dont expect it to be home video quality. No web cam is that good.

- The $279 price tag is unbeatable. The same computer with the STANDARD BATTERY of 3 hours cost $329 on HP'S website. And like i said this has the 9 hour battery. Fantastic price.

- 9 hour battery has many different settings so that you can customize for performance or longer battery life.

- the battery seems to recharge very fast for a netbook

Cons:

- The Norton internet security that is pre-installed is the netbook edition. This means that if you have standard Norton Internet Security 2010 for 3 pc's on your home's desktop, the activation key wont work with this software and thus you will have to pay for a separate subscription for your netbook. Unless you can somehow install NIS 2010 standard edition onto your netbook. I couldnt because I dont have the CD. I update via download every year when my subscription expires.

- Its a little slow to boot up but nothing i would really complain about. Just close the lid when not using and that puts the netbook to sleep which is faster to boot up.

- Some people may not like that the 9 hour battery has a lip to it so that the computer does not lay flat on a table top or whatever. I personally dont care and would rather have the bigger battery rather than worry about that.

Summary: You cant go wrong with this little netbook especially for this price. This price will not be beat trust me I have been researching netbooks for 6 months before buying my own. You will love this computer.

First of all, this is a decent computer that will allow you to view video content, listen to music, do some word processing, read and send email, etc. Fine. It does all of that well. HOWEVER, due to a wimpy amount of RAM and a weak processor, it frequently CRASHES when I'm using Skype. It just can't handle it.

Other issues: There is NO WAY it has 9.75 hours of battery life. Maybe with the lid closed.

Also, the data transfer software for transferring files from your main PC to this one was IMPOSSIBLE to use, and I use computers a lot. I just could NOT figure out how to make it work, and I searched all over the Internet for advice. That is, the manual that comes with this unit SUCKS. It tells you virtually nothing.

Furthermore, online support is also virtually useless, so if you have a problem with this unit, you'll be talking to a person in India, which I've done about 4 times regarding the crashing problem. One guy claimed it was my Avast antivirus program that was incompatible with Windows 7 (I found out on the Windows 7 website, afterward, that in fact Avast IS listed as compatible). This tech talked me into buying McAfee from him (at an inflated price...what was I thinking?), which I returned after my discovery. Probably just lying for cash as he'd been instructed by his boss. Nonetheless, I was pissed, and I had to pay for shipping.

Other issues:

1. This computer gets HOT on the bottom, and has no vents there, only one on the left side.

2. The battery jiggles, as it has an imperfect fit. This is actually rather annoying.

3. You cannot open up the screen more than about 75 degrees, so it won't open flat or anywhere near it. Sometimes, due to my viewing angle, I can't open it wide enough to see the screen as clearly as it could be. Annoying.

Overall, it works great as a second computer, which I keep on my coffee table in the living room. Fine. I browse the Internet with it for hours, listen to all of my music files, read and send email, check bank balances, etc. I watch Hulu videos with it, I download content with it at acceptable speeds, etc. The screen resolution is great, and the keyboard is actually excellent for a netbook--way better than other models. Just know that it's not a workhorse, like all netbooks, so it has limited multitasking capability, and if you overload it, apparently it'll just crash on you.

Well, I did not purchase the HP Mini 210-1030NR from Amazon.com, but I purchased it from my college's campus bookstore. I read the 4-star review from P.Gray, who says she would have given it a fifth star, except that her hard drive died after two weeks, but HP covered all repair costs.

Well, with my particular HP Mini 210-1030NR, I couldn't be happier. I have been running this thing for almost two months now with what I would rate 99% reliability. First off, the most outstanding feature of this netbook is its battery life. Paired with Windows 7, and a good Power Settings policy, you can get the advertised battery life from the netbook by keeping the LCD brightness low when on battery. After two months, with my particular average use, I get about 6.5 hours of battery life out of my Mini. With intermittent use, and letting the netbook sleep when I close the lid, I can go to campus with my netbook in the morning, use it throughout the day, and not have to charge it until I return home after midnight.

I was skeptical when netbooks appeared on the market a few years ago, but whether you choose the HP Mini 210-1030NR or another netbook, I would like to recognize the processor -- the Intel Atom N450 as a revolutionary processor. Where perhaps the N270 would be underperforming, the N450 Atom processor integrates several key motherboard chips into one -- a decent graphics processor, the memory controller, and the core processor. This increases battery life and performance, and it's noticeable. Case in point -- I can watch full-screen 480p video with no skipping whatsoever. No, this isn't 760 or 1080p HD, but it looks great compared to the lower resolution H264 video streams available out there.

My previous laptop would not wake up from sleep mode using Windows XP. This netbook sleeps and wakes up without a hitch, and it's fast, too, on Windows 7. I encourage anyone to consider this netbook or any other based on the Intel Atom N450 platform, quite seriously. It's everything you need it to be, and then some.

Several reviewers have complained about the lack of Home, End, PageUP and PageDown keys. They are correct; there are no dedicated keys for this. BUT, if you press the fn key + left arrow you get the Home key. If you press the fn key + the right arrow you get the End key. If you press the fn key + the down arrow, you get the PageDown key. If you press the fn key + the up arrow, you get the PageUp key. This is not obvious because this is not marked on the keys in a secondary color and you have to get deep into the manual to find out about this. BUT,it works fine. It is unfortunate that HP did not include some large card in the box to explain this, but once you find out about it, then there is no problem.

Overall, I love this laptop. Keyboard is awesome for a netbook. The only thing I regret is getting the glossy screen. The 1030nr has the matte screen. The battery life is less than the ASUS models. This seems to be because HP has less aggressive power saving choices. For example, the CPU is not slowed down when running on battery in the default installation. So when you are on battery the computer is faster but uses more battery power than the ASUS models. (You can confirm that ASUS slows down their netbooks by looking at the Geekbench benchmark scores. You will notice two clusters of scores. The two clusters come from benchmarks with the ASUS netbooks plugged in and on battery) You can create a more aggressive power saving plan in Windows 7. You can slow the CPU down to as much as 60% of full speed. (Setting the power plan below 60% does nothing additional.) I leave the CPU on full speed because 6 hours battery life in real world usage is plenty for me, and I like having a more responsive netbook. If you want maximum battery life and don't care about slowing down your netbook, you should probably choose an ASUS model.

I ordered the HP Mini 210-1030R from Amazon, got it two days later, and eagerly started to set it up. I successfully made it through the initialization and registration routines, did a little bit of web surfing and checking things out, then powered it down and restarted it. After signing in to Windows I hung for five minutes with the Windows 7 welcome screen, another five minutes with a completely black screen, followed by a feeble and unsuccessful attempt to complete the Windows login. I finally did a hard reset with the power button; when it restarted which I got a cryptic message about a disk problem followed by the same sequence of events.

I called HP customer support, with whom I spent the next miserable 1.5 hours of my life. After 20 minutes of mostly me waiting around while the support rep updated her system with my information, we finally got to doing a hard disk diagnostic, which verified that the hard disk was bad. The rep then cheerfully notified me that HP would be happy to repair the unit, but that I would have to pay $15-$20 shipping charges to do so. Yes - a unit that was dead on arrival, and I would need to pay for the privilege of getting a functioning product! After another 30 minutes of arguing, getting transferred to a technician who told me the exact same thing, back to the initial rep who repeated the same thing, I finally demanded to speak with her manager. After ANOTHER 10 minutes on hold, I was transferred to a "case manager" - but the case manager was only responsible for HP Direct orders, not Amazon orders (despite the fact that I told my support rep I bought it from Amazon).

I hung up in disgust, checked the Amazon return policy, and found that defective products could be returned with Amazon rightfully picking up the shipping fees. Thank goodness, at least Amazon understands how to treat customers well. I am taking my refund and buying an Asus instead.

There are currently three other reviews here of this HP mini, and two of them arrived defective. That was bad enough, but the horrendous customer service and unbelievable demand for money to fix a dead on arrival product put me over the edge. I've had many HP products over the years, but at this point it will be a long time before I consider getting another one.

I really love this little guy. after letting it update I took some time to uninstall all hp software that begins with hp (IE hp media smart) , norton antivirus, all games by wildtangent so it too will uninstall, times reader, google toolbar, and windows office trial software. Leaving all drivers and other software alone (many are required even cyberlink has video driver so leave alone). I also unchecked Idpt audio in msconfig startup which doesnt stop the sound driver but keeps interface from running everytime it starts and if I ever need to adjust it I can recheck it.

In the end it boots in 50 seconds, even though I usually just shut the lid to put it to sleep and open it for instant use (not much different to battery life it just is bad if droped in this mode). I then added microsoft security essentials (a better less intrusive free antivirus) and my printer drivers. Some Hp software might have been usefull but I have a portable usb dvd drive so don't need their transfer program for software installs or setup advisor or any other junk.

One thing I have discovered is the screen is to small for my eyes so I always wear my glasses. When I use it for IE I can inlarge view with control + shrink with control- and go 100% with control 0 so sometimes I do that but have to drag the up down bars more. The keyboard size really slows my typing speed so for heavy report writing I probably would use a full size keyboard.

As far as 7 starter is concerned its basically a full version of seven just some user settings and some extra apps taken out. It runs all programs that 7 full runs. It runs my full office 2007 I already had and seems to have nothing I need from the full 7 except the background not being changeable and if you download oceanus you can change that too. The network sharing homegroup was easy to share with my other 7 computers and is the same in this version.

I think starter is underated it certainly is faster and more advanced then xp and doesnt have the bloat such as media center full or ultimate 7 has but does have media player which works faster/better for this size device anyway. Linux users can always install their quick but less polished operating system but for the rest of us that want more ease of use/functionality 7 starter is the correct operating system for this device.

Hey Everyone,
I figured I'd review my little HP Mini netbook for those of you thinking of delving into the netbook market. The model I have runs Windows 7 Starter, and has a 160gb HDD, 1gb of Ram, and an Intel 1.66Ghz Atom processor all performing on a 10.1 inch (1024X600 resolution) screen, with the help of a 6 cell battery. Specifically the HP Mini 210 (1030NR)
Let me start off by saying... "wow, not what I expected..." when I purchased this netbook off Amazon for 270 dollars I was expecting performance somewhere in the realm of a smartphone, I was expecting sluggish internet browsing, sluggish video and audio playback, and I didn't even know about doing stuff like Powerpoint and Word, I was wrong... Let me list out the Windows Experience Index for you:

Processor:2.4
Memory:4.5
Graphics:2.9
Gaming Graphics:3.0
Primary HDD:5.3

That's not too shabby for something that gets nearly 10 hours of battery life. I do wish there was another stick of ram for a total of 2gigs, just to make it a little better at running multiple tasks but given the processor it may not make too much of a difference. However, I can easily run Windows Media Player, Firefox, and word all at the same time.

As I said before, the battery provides for almost 10 hours of operation under normal use (Web browsing, word processing) I haven't tested watching movies until the battery runs out to tell you how long it lasts under that load but I can assure you that under normal use it does last as long as it says. With the standard 3-cell battery the laptop is supposed to get somewhere around 5 hours, although I can't vouch for that since I have the 6-cell.

Although the netbook doesn't have a disc drive, it does have a few nifty features like 3 USB ports, a VGA out port, a Card Reader, a WebCam and a 160gb HDD, so the lack of disc drive is more than outweighed (I took a DVD/RW drive from an old laptop and bought an enclosure for it and use that as the disc drive when needed). Since it has the 160gb HDD (optional 250gb available) there is plenty of room to store enough tv shows or movies to satisfy you on a plane ride or long car ride. The WebCam is pretty good as well, although I have never had another on-board webcam to compare it to, it looks similar to the quality of my friends HP dv6000 series' webcam.

The main benefit to this little netbook is the battery life, but the size is also a plus. I used to lug around a 17inch DV9000z (Which has since been retired to the desk) and something that big simply isn't meant to be bumped and bent on a daily basis in a backpack or carrying case, you need something small if you want it to work for a long time. Which is where this little Mini comes into play.

The Keyboard on the Mini is almost regular sized, in fact its so easy to use that I've been using it to type this review, its comfortable. The one downside to the input is the mouse pad, I wish it had physical buttons instead of one click-able pad with sort of a right and left click at the bottom. The buttons are responsive but it takes a hell of a long time to train your thumb how far it needs to go before you click (since there is no indent or anything to let you know where the buttons are without looking)

Finally, we come to the Operating System, which is Windows 7 Starter. You'll hear a lot of complaints about the "starter" part of the name, people saying its severely dumbed-down compared to the regular windows 7 or XP(found on other netbooks) personally... I love it. I'd rather have a new shiny OS that looks brilliant than old XP on my netbook. The only noticeable thing missing in starter that the average person would use on a daily basis is the lack of ability to change your background image (Which I don't care about), and if it really bothers you there are plenty of programs out there to hack this issue for you.

I almost forgot to mention the side air vents. This netbook has a great feature in that its vents are on the side instead of the bottom like many laptops. This means that you can put it on your lap, couch, bed or anywhere soft without having to worry about it over heating. Just another great feature of the HP Mini 210.

All in all, I love this little netbook, I use it everyday and for most of my computing needs, and with the new desktop i hardly ever use the dv9000z that I just replaced the motherboard in. The quality is superb (had it for 2 months with no problems) and the performance is surprisingly good, and for 270 dollars there is really no way to go wrong with this little HP Mini 210. If you are looking for a netbook, definitely consider this one.

The worst part is that it comes with windows 7 starter. I have not heard of this version before, t is very limited(you can't even change the wallpaper of your computer). you are forced to consider an upgrade.

The other thing i dint like is the strength of the wi-fi receiver. I had to buy a wireless usb receiver to improve the quality of my signal.

Battery time is great and so is the price. Liked the keyboard size too.

This computer has been nothing but trouble. Tech support is useless as the only advice they seem to be able to provide is to reformat the hard drive. Would be a great product if it worked right. Windows 7 starter is buggy. The keyboard has a glitch that results in letters not being typed sometimes (not a function of how hard you touch the keys.....it's a software problem). External monitor connection is useless because the max supported resolution is the same as the tiny laptop screen. Oh, and it crashes every time it goes into sleep mode. Total junk and no help from tech support despite hours on the phone. Don't buy this computer.