Customer Reviews

HP Mini 210-1099SE 10.1-Inch Netbook (Vivienne Tam Edition)

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

 

 

I am very pleased with this netbook. It runs beautifully, and actually has a battery life closer to five hours rather than the 4.25 stated by Amazon.

The butterfly motif is beautiful on the outside, and in the inside matching icons and wallpapers are beautiful too. The start button has been converted into a butterfly, and it "flies away" when you press it. Too cute.

I usually have issues using the touchpad on laptops and netbooks, but am happy to report that this is not so on this model.

The 2gb RAM is wonderful too, as it is twice the RAM usually found in netbooks. It was a nice bonus to not have to install more RAM right out of the box. And this has Windows 7 Premium instead of the usual Windows 7 starter.

The butterfly motif may not be for everyone, but I personally love it, but I love even more that the specs (processor, battery life, RAM, screen, OS, etc)on this particular model are as good as or better than those of other netbooks currently on the market. It may have been made with women in mind, but this netbook is no weakling.

I bought this netbook for travel. It is a good size for that. I chose this particular model because I wanted to try Windows 7 and this was the ONLY one that I could find that didn't come with just the starter version - it comes with the full Home Premium version, so I didn't need to upgrade after purchasing. It also comes with 2GB of RAM, which was hard to find without customizing on the manufacturers' websites.

I could not use this computer as my everyday working model! It is only good for short periods of time that don't require high productivity. My reasons for saying this are:

--It is very slow. I started out using the cute butterfly theme, but it was soooo slow that I had to go back to a basic windows desktop. Even with that, it is still pretty slow. It is a shame that you can't take full advantage of some of Windows 7's features because of the amount of cpu that it uses. In retrospect, I would have purchased a netbook with Windows XP.

--The windows are usually cut off on the bottom and you have to keep moving them to see the bottom or to click "OK". Sometimes, you can't even get to the bottom, which is very frustrating. This is not just a problem with this model, I think that most netbooks have this issue.

--The font size is so teeny that you have to strain to see it or use reading glasses. Again, probably the nature of the beast with netbooks.

--The software it comes with is pretty limited, and mostly trial versions. For this price, I think it should have at least included MS Office full version. Also, Windows 7 doesn't include an email program, so you have to find your own.

--A big drawback to the netbook is that there is no CD/DVD drive, so if you want to put software on it, you have to find another way to get it on there. All of this takes more time and effort.

All in all, it serves its purpose as a limited time, travel computer. And it is very pretty, but not worth paying that much extra money for!

I travel a lot for business and needed a laptop that was easy to travel with and could keep up the pace. I'm always working on several documents at once and haven't had any problems with the computer freezing. Yippee...! A keeper in my book. Perfect gift for Mother's Day.

We purchased this HP Mini-210-1099SE so my wife could have a small, lightweight net book for travel. It had to handle e-mail, a very large volume of photos and go online. This is her 7th computer (4th laptop) so she's very particular. It's also the second HP Mini we've purchased. While we were very happy with the first one, the 2 GB of internal memory and the faster processor of this one were a welcome upgrade. We loaded it with Open Office, Firefox, ACDSee, Malware Bytes, Spyware Doctor and a few other programs. The trial version of Norton Antivirus installed on the machine ran without problems. We were also able to install and run Eudora email which ran fairly well, even with numerous and very large mailboxes.

Pros- light weight, excellent screen, good keyboard for it's size, built in wireless, built in video camera, solid construction, SD card slot, large hard drive and distinctive look.

Cons- none major or unique to this machine. All netbooks have similar negatives such as smaller screens, slower performance, no CD/DVD drive and, for some, a little awkwardness using a slightly smaller keyboard. While it worked fine for photos, the lag time with larger (3-6MB files) was sometimes frustrating, but we expected that.

We'd definitely buy the HP Mini 210-1099SE again.

I LOVE my HP Vivienne Tam Mini netbook! My husband and I are semi-retired and travel quite a bit and it was a real pain to drag around my 17" notebook. I especially love this one because it comes with more memory and a bigger hard drive than most of the other netbooks ... plus it has the full Windows 7, not the skeletal version. It has been aces right out of the box.

I did buy a wireless mouse (I'm really bad with the pad), a thumb drive with Ready Boost to speed things up and an external DVD drive so I can watch movies on the road and burn my travel photos to disc. That didn't really add much to the cost and everything fits into a padded "mini" backback. Perfect for traveling. I also use it in the kitchen to read on-line recipes while I cook and listen to Pandora Radio!

My only semi-negative is the battery life. I will probably upgrade to the 6-cell sometime in the future, but the 3-cell one it comes with is not a deal breaker. It's fine.

HP Mini 210-1099SE 10.1-Inch Vivienne Tam Edition Netbook - 4.25 Hours of Battery Life

UPDATE: 10 months in and the hard-drive failed. Not good, and I'm getting the run-around by HP. Well, it was nice while it lasted. Won't be buying any more HP products.

Depending on your expectations, this is either quite good or it's disappointing.

If you're wanting an attractive, very lightweight unit to take with you when you travel that does email, internet, and word processing, this is a good way to go. The extra design asthetics are almost worth the extra bucks in the netbook category as the butterfly motif (both outside and inside) is quite stunning.

If you're expecting this to have the speed and perform even basic tasks, like email, on par with a full sized laptop, this is where the disappointment sets in. The Intel Atom Processor is actually quite slow and Windows 7 takes quite a bit of time to launch on the Vivienne Tam. More than just a few minutes. Playing simple games on this, like Hearts and Mahjong and Solitaire, the graphics are less crisp and actual game play and refresh rate is noticeably slower.

The keyboard is surprisingly comfortable and easy to use. I had no problem with that at all. Also surprising is how easy on the eyes the screen is. Everything is full size, it's just taking up a smaller amount of space.

The actual screen resolution is quite low and that makes viewing certain websites and programs difficult. I couldn't get some programs to load at all. I didn't find the battery life to be impressive at all at around 2-2.5 hours. For something that uses very little power I would expect it to last at least twice as long. The Beats Audio is also quite sub-par to the Beats Audio on the Envy Laptops. It still gives out an incredibly teeny sound. The webcam on this laptop isn't nearly as good as it is on other laptop. Though the "mirror" function is neat, the picture is still quite sluggish and choppy.

All in all: 5 stars for portability, 5 stars for asthetics, 3 stars for speed and performance, 3 stars for overall features.
I actually give it 3.5 stars, but Amazon doesn't do half stars so it gets 3.

I love this computer. It works perfectly for my needs, for a lightweight computer for my train-ride commute. The screen resolution and contrast is great. I worked a little on the settings to maximize the workspace on the screen, and it is perfect. Despite the keyboard being smaller than the full sized ergonomic keyboards I use at home and at work, it works out just fine. The style and color is so cute. Plus the on-screen theme continues with beautiful animated butterflies - both me and my kids love. The combination of style and functionality make this a computer that I'm actually excited about. With its powersaving, I'm thinking about replacing my desktop at work with this and simply plug it into my network (have yet to try how it handles more demanding applications than Office and the Internet). I did find a better price at another retailer.

HP Mini 210 - Vivienne Tam was one of the best things I bought this year. It's so beautiful and works like a standard notebook. At first, I thought I wouldn't make used to work with its little screen, but once you realize how easy it is to carry it to the University, work, trips.. You don't even remember it is smaller than the others. Its battery is also a great positive point. I worked for 4 hours without recharging it! The only thing that I'd try to improve is its speed. It's a little bit slow, but this wouldn't be a reason for not to buy it. I do recommend this product and Amazon! My product arrived in perfect conditions!

i just bought this computer and is great!
im still getting used to the change from my 14" laptop
to this mini screen
overall it works great
also need some getting used to windows 7
i love the butterflies theme one of the main reasons why i bought it
and is also very girly :)
i would be using it for school since my laptop is heavy to carry
this would be so much easier on me!

This is the best little netbook - I like it better than my laptop! It is so easy to use and beautiful to look at. I would recommend it to anyone that needs to compute on the go and wants to be stylish doing it.