1/11/10

HP Mini 210 Review

HP's Mini 210 ought for getting boring. such as the Ford Fiesta for the PC world, it is a point-A-to-B spending budget box from the well-known producer not especially nicely recognised for getting risks. but in inclusion like its automotive doppelganger, the Mini 210 yields some unforeseen surprises. apart from styling that breaks the monotony of countless Taiwanese clones, it sports activities an exceptionally higher resolution display, optional Broadcom film decoder chip, as well as a touchpad that emulates Apple's MacBooks. As we found out out, that last place proves for getting a key – debatably fatal – stumbling obstruct to the Mini 210, but purchasers who can uncover to reside using the mind-bogglingly-bad pad, or spring for just about any wireless mouse, can uncover to cope with an otherwise astonishingly nicely positioned jointly netbook.

Features and Specs

Like most products on this class, the Mini 210 runs Intel's preferred Atom processor, using the bottom design picking up a 1.66GHz N455. purchasers who want multimedia ability can spec a product using the a lot quicker 1.8GHz Atom and Broadcom's Crystal HD film accelerator for an additional $40. With or devoid of them, all products hold Intel's GMA 3150 integrated pictures processor. purchasers may find to outfit it with as a whole great offer as 2GB of memory, a 250GB difficult drive, in inclusion to embedded broadband from AT&T, Verizon or Sprint. The 10.1-inch LED-backlit show provides 1366 x 768 resolution.

At 10.55 inches extended and 6.9 inches deep, the Mini 210 capabilities a footprint no bigger compared to standard notebook computer with its display size, and at 1.1 inches thick at its thickest point, truly arrives in for the slender side. It will not really challenge the inch-thick Asus Eee Seashell, however it is not much behind. And at 2.69 pounds, you will not uncover it a backpack or briefcase any additional compared to standard netbook.

Our Mini 210 arrived equipped with an Intel Atom operating at 1.66Ghz, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB difficult drive, and Broadcom's Crystal HD film accelerator.

Netbook keyboards are in no way ideal, however the broad chiclet-style keys for the Mini 210 purpose nicely enough, and glimpse decent executing it. We liked the bold, square-shouldered keys, their velvety plastic material feel, as well as the clean, effortlessly legible sans-serif typeface on them, even if keystrokes do really feel instead short and ungratifying – a hallmark of practically all netbooks.

If only identical may be mentioned for the touchpad, which could be so profoundly awful that people sat for 15 mins wanting to translate the aggravation it experienced triggered us greater compared to program for the evaluation into words. Worst touchpad ever? That only hints in the profound level of incorrect here. producing utilization of the touchpad for the Mini 210 not merely felt like operating an iPhone using a wet pair of ski gloves, we are relatively good it experienced some longterm results on elevating our bloodstream stress and eroding our sanity.

How do HP control to backpedal within your completely workable touchpads of its previous netbooks? ordinarily enough, they experienced been wanting to create it better. We photo it went something like this: within a valliant work to duplicate Apple's brilliant MacBook touchpad, which forgoes buttons altogether in favor of the one giant pad that clicks down, HP began R&D on its individual version, fell flat on its face, and apparently made a decision to stuff it right into a production notebook computer anyway.

Like the aforementioned MacBook touchpad, the whole pad clicks right down in area of ideal and left click buttons (a weight T-shaped divider etched for the bottom hints in the zones for ideal and left clicking). If it worked something like Apple's MacBook masterpiece, the sheer sizing for the pad would shoot it straight to the best of our favorites. however the ask for to the multitouch pad gets completely boggled in using just two fingers for the pad. producing utilization of your left index finger to click while your ideal hand does the pointing ordinarily delivers concerning the cursor to hop greater than a few inches for the screen, as opposed to clicking the icon you wanted. Or stalls the cursor in place, should you drop an extra finger while it is moving. Or locks it right into a scrolling up and right down motion. The indicators or symptoms vary, however the end result may be the same: utter frustration.

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