Customer Reviews

HP Mini 210 HD Edition with 250GB HD; 1GB Memory

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

 

 

Edit June 2010: I have downloaded a recent update to the touchpad driver from HP's web site and have found it greatly improved. Unfortunately, it was so bad that a major improvement still leaves it lacking... but it's quite a bit less frustrating than before.
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I don't much believe in brand loyalty. I usually do a lot of research, using Consumer Reports, user reviews, expert viewpoints, and a particular brand's repair history in my decision to buy. But when it comes to "inexpensive" home computers, after using many brands over the past 25 years (Apple II+ anyone?), I've settled on HP, and I've been very happy with my HP desktops and laptops, until now.

I have owned the HP Mini 110-1030NR Netbook for the past seven months and wrote a rave review about it last year. I wanted to do the same for this HP Mini 210 HD, and I've been using it for about six weeks, hoping that I'll grow to like it but actually finding myself wanting to give it two stars. I gave it three because it's still a good computer, and the issues I have with it are mostly cosmetic and may not be a problem for others. Much of my review compares the HP Mini 210 to the HP Mini 110, since those are the only netbooks I have used.

I purchased the HD edition solely for the purpose of better resolution - fitting more on a tiny screen. I also liked the idea of the ventless bottom since I often use it on my lap and find laptop chill mats and fans to be an inconvenience. Since this was to function as my only laptop, I went all out, and my trusty 110 went to my very lucky daughter. Even though I like almost everything about the 110 better than the 210, she gets to keep the 110 due to its lower resolution.

Specs: HP Mini 210-1000 HD CTO, "black crystal" color
: self-upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium
: self-upgraded to Crucial CT25664AC800 2GB 200-pin SODIMM DDR2 PC2-6400 Memory
: Intel Atom Processor N450 (1.66GHz, 512KB) with Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150
: 250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
: 10.1" diagonal HD LED HP BrightView Infinity Widescreen Display (1366 x 768)
: HP Mini Webcam
: Wireless-G Card with Bluetooth
: one 3-cell and one 6-cell Lithium Ion battery
: 40W AC adapter (the 110 has a 30W AC adapter)

In addition to the RAM upgrade, I devote an entire SanDisk 4GB Extreme III Class 10 SDHC card to Windows ReadyBoost and I find this to be very effective in keeping optimum system speeds.

Other customizable options include an upgraded N470 (1.83GHz, 512KB) processor, a wireless-N card, an embedded GPS module with HP Navigator software, integrated WWAN with GPS, or Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Video accelerator with ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre.


PROS:
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Worked right out of the box - easy setup, no pre-loaded junk, connects to WiFi and WWAN effortlessly

Beautiful screen for video when not drowned out by glossy reflective surface

Ability to play video and music and view picture library without booting the operating system

Upgraded running speed is fantastic and better than the same upgrades on the 110

Light-weight, sits easily in my lap, very portable

No vents on the bottom

Simple keyboard without a lot of confusing extra functions per key

3 USB ports

The 3-cell battery sits flush with the computer, keeping it nice and slim. The 6-cell sticks out, but not as much as it does on the 110, and that's never been a problem for me.

Improved power switch location, now on the right side and easier to access than on the front of the 110


CONS:
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It goes without saying that there is no optical drive and no separate number pad, but just in case...

Does not feel as strong and study as the 110. The 210 seems to have a flimsier construction throughout.

I thought that no vents on the bottom meant that it would vent well out of the side vents. It does not. Venting definitely seems to be an HP liability. It burns up the bottom left side of the netbook. However, so far my system speed (with the upgrades) is still top notch.

The keyboard on the 110 is SO MUCH BETTER. The 210 has Chiclet-like keys, with large gaps in between that catch dirt particles quite easily. It has no Home or End keys. As noted above, I like the simplicity of the keyboard, but no Home or End keys? Seriously?

The Brightview Infinity screen. It was the only option. It's super GLOSSY, super reflective, super impossible to see in daylight. I sat in the sun and in the shade and played with the brightness settings, barely able to see the screen in either scenario. It's beautiful if you are in just the right light and are able to ignore the image of yourself staring back at you every time the background darkens just a bit. It also picks up fingerprints and dust particles like crazy. My 110 is not glossy and I wish I could have the same matte screen on my 210.

The touchpad. This is why I want to THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW! I've spent the past six weeks trying out the various Synaptics settings, yet it still frustrates the crap out of me. Others complained about the buttons on the 110 being on the sides instead of at the bottom of the touchpad, but I never had a problem with that and I miss the raised tactile buttons. With the 210, HP put the buttons back on the bottom where people seem to be more comfortable, but they also made them flush with the rest of the keypad. I click, I hear the button click down, it even makes the button on the screen appear as if I've pushed it, yet NOTHING HAPPENS. I have to press several times, EVERY TIME I want to select something. There seems to be this tiny little zone that actually works, that DOESN'T include the bottom edge where I naturally tend to click. With tap-to-click enabled, the cursor will jump all over the screen, and will constantly select items I've barely hovered over (and not tapped), yet rarely select anything that I am tapping-to-select intentionally. Changing sensitivity settings had no discernable effect. I don't always have a mousing surface - I often have to use the touchpad, and that sometimes makes the 210 something I dread using. I had no problem getting used to it on the 110, but the touchpad on the 210 is absolute garbage. To top it all off, the 210 touchpad surface shows ugly fingerprint marks while that of the 110 did not.

Synopsis: If you're looking for a beautiful netbook to stream video on, with a highly capable computer, then I can recommend this 210 HD. If you know that you will mostly be using a mouse with it, then I can recommend this 210 HD. If you need higher resolution in a 10.1" screen and there's nothing in the same range available, then I hesitantly recommend this 210 HD. If not, then I regretfully recommend you look elsewhere.

The Good:

* Sharp Display
* Ample Storage
* Keyboard Feel and Response
* Good Sound Quality
* Windows 7 Starter Edition

The Bad:

* QuickWeb
* Music Playback Skips Occasionally
* Screen Glare in Bright Settings
* Needs a cooling pad with fan for extended use

Overall: The HP Mini 210 is a good option for casual users looking for a browsing and basic multimedia experience in a lightweight device.

Setup: Setup for the HP Mini 210 is very straightforward. It is a simple matter of connecting the battery and the power cord then powering on the device. The welcome screen guides you through the initial steps to get up and running. Getting connected to wireless networks is also straightforward. The only other thing to do is install any of your preferred software such as Firefox or Chrome.

Boot Options: The 210 offers to booting options: Windows 7 Starter and HP QuickWeb. QuickWeb is HP's version of the Slashtop Linux environment. Unfortunately I found QuickWeb to buggy to be useful. One issue was merely annoying. No matter where I placed my music library in the Windows environment - yes I checked the proper location in the docs - I could never make my music visible for setting a favorite. This is relatively minor, but something this basic should just work. However, the last (and final) time I booted in QuickWeb, no app consistently recognized keystrokes properly. I was afraid that the 210 was going bad, but booting into Windows made the issue go away.

Windows is a slower boot option, but it is more reliable. I also prefer being able to choose and install my browser - Chrome in my case. This is also a real indictment of the QuickWeb media player in that I prefer the scaled down version of WMP as a far superior choice for navigation.

A more interesting and potentially much more effective option would be to make the 210 dual boot with Windows 7 Starter and a full version of Linux such as Ubuntu or Suse. I would love the alternative, but I don't want the system administration overhead of having to partition the hard drive myself and figure out how to install a Linux image without a CD-ROM drive.

Keyboard: The keyboard is pretty good. The design seems to have been lifted from what is common on Apple products, and I can say that I like the responsiveness of the keys. I do find that my arms get tired from extended usage from the keys being closer together than a typical keyboard. However this will vary from person to person. If you haven't used a netbook before, you might want to see if you can try a friends first if this is a concern for you.

Display: At 10.1", the 1366 x 768 resolution is very sharp, but it is also small. Thankfully The 210 supports a pinch-to-zoom feature that allows zooming in for larger text. I'm pleased with the crisp display and the ability to make things larger on an as needed basis. Video playback is very smooth, and the picture quality is nice. I've watched both downloaded music videos as well as streams from Hulu. The processor and graphics cards are probably not sufficient for heavy duty gaming, but I would think that usage is outside the target demographic for netbooks in general. Streaming HD video was the only area that came up short, but this is likely more of a limit on the processor. The one caution for users would be the glare on the screen. The 210 does not fare well opposite a window with a bright light coming in.

Sound: Due to the generous hard drive size on the 210, I have copied over my entire music library - about 20 GB. The 210 comes with Windows Media Player 12 installed, and it has most of the features that users expect. It does not have the "Recently Added" menu that users are accustomed to. This is not huge, but I noticed it right away. Sound quality is generally good, but you will want either headphones or external speakers as the on the 210 do not produce a lot. Occasionally I experienced a skip during music playback. This seemed to coincide with when the processor was being used heavily while browsing or downloading other content. This is spotty, but I would rather it not happen at all.

Applications: I bought the 210 to use mainly as a small, convenient device for surfing the web and listening to music so Chrome and WMP are my main apps. The 210 comes with Microsoft Works for office productivity, but I do not recommend it. I tried pasting in a doc from Google Docs to see if it had improved spell checking, but pasting text of any length into the Word Processor crashes it every time. There's really not enough processing speed for the full Microsoft Office suite, and I don't think this is the main function that HP had in mind for the device anyway.

The other app that can be added from the device is Skype. The Skype client in Windows is more full featured than the one in QuickWeb (yet another item in Windows favor). It is able to take advantage of the built in webcam on the 210. The webcam quality is low, but it is sufficient for casual use with family and friends.

Games: Like other HP computers, there are a variety of free and purchase gaming options available. I am not much of a gamer, but Freecell, Hearts, and Minesweeper are sufficient for the rare times that I want to play a game.

Windows 7: I purposely left Windows 7 Starter Edition in any depth to the end because I find this to be a non-issue. Everything that you read about it decries the limitations it has and calls it a "crippled" version of Windows. The question I have to ask in response is, "Is it sufficient for the intended usage of the device?" I believe that I am the prototypical netbook user who wants to browse the web and use basic multimedia features without hauling a large device around. Windows 7 Starter is geared for the hardware profile that most netbooks have today. If you need to do something that Windows 7 Starter doesn't support, you probably need a higher powered notebook too. I am not even really a Windows fan if you get right down to it, but it requires the least effort for what I want to do at this time. What I can say is that I find it to perform reasonably with the hardware for the targeted usage of a netbook. I cannot support arguments that are based on trying to make the device something that it is not intended to be. This is probably not a popular stance, but I'm trying to bring a little balance to the discussion.

Other: I did not take any measurements, but I noticed that the 210 got hot after about 30 minutes or more of use. I bought a iHome netbook cooling pad with dual fans, and I noticed that the 210 doesn't seem to get as hot. I know this is somewhat vague, but observation was good enough for me to be satisfied.

If you have any questions that I have not addressed, please feel free to ask in the comments section below.