Acer Review, Asus Review – Netbook 10

We’ve given a few HP netbooks the thumbs up, specifically the HP Mini 5102, but if you average the scores we’ve given the HP netbooks, they’re not quite up there with the rest of the competition. If we’re to describe the HP Minis, we’d use the word “decent”. You can’t go wrong with one, but you can get something better. Not that I’m discouraging you from getting an HP netbook, because they are definitely good. Let’s take a look at the new HP Mini 210.

[Rating:5.5/7]

Features and Drawbacks

• Good design – The 210 has island-style keys and a sliver crystal lid that looks sleek and shiny without attracting too much fingerprints. It looks elegant, actually, and quite pretty. The battery can get a bit distracting though because the 6-cell batt sticks out rather than joins the line of the netbook. Watch out for the battery too, because a little jostling inside the bag might (and could) dislodge it.

• Thumbs-up for the Keyboard – The Mini 210 has island-style keys with have a matte coating that feels rubbery which makes typing a pleasure. The keyboard is also roomy. It makes you feel like you’re not typing on a 10.1″ netbook. The touchpad is 3.1″x1.8″ with integrated buttons.

• Above average audio – For a netbook, the sound is pretty good. It’s loud, clear, and plays music and sounds real well without distortion.

• Performance – If you want to be technical about it, the Mini 210 performs below average on netbook benchmarking tests, but if you’re not concerned with the technical side and benchmarking, the Mini 210 performs great while multitasking with iTunes, Skype, FireFox and MS Word. So if you’re looking for a netbook which could handle your everyday, on the go needs, then, as I said, you can’t go wrong with the Mini 210.

• Above-average battery life, but still not as good as others
  - A 6-cell battery lasted for six-and-a-half-hours on the HP Mini 210 which is longer that an average battery life for a 6-cell netbook. But if you look at the new, Pinetrail netbooks, for example the Asus Eee PC 1005P which lasted for more than 8 hours on a single charge, the HP Mini 210 isn’t exactly up to par.

• Broadcom Video Accelerator
  - Here’s where the Mini 210 is great: video playback. Movies from the hard drive plays smoothly at both 720p and 1080p on Media Player. Flash videos played well, but there were hitches when played on full screen, as on most netbooks. While okay with videos, don’t expect an awesome gaming experience on the Mini 210. If you’re bent on getting a gaming netbook, get one with Nvidia ION. It’s not going to give you the game experience you’re probably looking for, but it’s gonna be better than on the Mini 210.

Rating – 5.5/7

Value for Money – 0.5
Speed and Performance – 0.5
Screen – 1
Keyboard – 1
Portability & Battery Life – 0.5
Looks and Design – 1
Extensibility & connectivity – 1

Technical Specifications

• 10.1″ Diagonal WSVGA LED Anti-glare Widescreen Display (1024 x 600)
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 (shared) with up to 256MB Total Available Graphics Memory
• Intel Atom Processor N450 (1.66 GHz, 512 KB L2 Cache)
• 1GB DDR2 System Memory (1 DIMM)
• 160GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA)
• Genuine Windows 7 Starter
• Up to 9.75 Hours of Battery Life

Bottomline
For $452.00 $329.99, the HP Mini 210 is elegant and attractive, has a great keyboard and is better than the average, last-year netbook at a reasonable price. If you want to go for a good screen and a good netbook for your video and movies, then this is probably your best bet.

Related posts:

1. MSI Wind U135 Review: Low Cost, Average, Short Battery Life
2. HP Mini 5102 Review: One of the Best Netbooks Out
3. HP Mini 311 Review : Windows 7 Home, Nvidia Ion from Verizon
4. Toshiba Mini NB205 Review: Large Keyboard, Long Battery Life
5. Review: HP Mini 311, the one with the nVidia Ion

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