HP Mini 210 Review

The newest addition to HP’s line of consumer netbooks, the HP Mini 210-1032NR ($349.99 list) introduces a sleek new look and is based on Intel’s “Pine Trail” platform, which includes the low-voltage Atom N450 CPU and the NM10 Express Chipset. This reasonably priced 10-inch netbook offers very excellent battery life and a nice variety of ports, and because it is a Costco model, it comes with a two year warranty. But, its overall performance is nothing to write home about, and the touchpad’s erratic behavior can be maddening.

Design
Unlike the shiny, swirly design used on the HP Mini 110 and Mini 311 models (and many of the larger Pavilion notebooks), the Mini 210 features a subtle black Crystal pattern with a semi-gloss end that is honestly smudge resistant. Extending the pattern to the bottom of the chassis is a nice touch that gives the entire system a uniform look and feel. Weighing 2.8 pounds and measuring 1.5 inches at its thickest point, the Mini 210 has a bit more bulk than the Acer Aspire One AOD250 but is still a tad lighter than the HP Mini 5101 and Samsung N120 (12GBK). This configuration comes with a 6-cell battery that juts out from the back, making the rear of the chassis approximately half an inch taller than the front end.

The keyboard deck has a nice smooth matte black end, and despite its size (92%), the black chiclet-style keyboard provides a firm, comfortable typing experience. The touchpad, but, has a mind of its own; the cursor intermittently jumps from one side of the screen to the other at the slightest touch and no amount of tweaking the mouse properties seems to help. Conversely, the mouse buttons are very responsive and have a soft touch.

Features
The 10.1 inch LED backlit show has a maximum resolution of 1024 by 600 pixels. The panel is covered with an edge-to-edge, anti-glare coating that helps deliver a sharp picture with bright, bold colors, but as with most glossy treatments, it tends to reflect ambient light. Viewing angle performance is quite excellent for such a small screen, although colors do lose a small luster when viewed from an extreme side angle.

The Mini 210-1032NR offers a generous feature set which includes three USB ports, Ethernet and VGA connectors, a Webcam, 802.11n wireless networking, and a 5-in-1 card reader. Unlike the Mini 5102, which uses a quick 7,200-rpm hard drive, the 210 comes with a slower 5,400-rpm drive with a storage capacity of 160GB. Windows 7 Starter Edition is the operating system of choice with this model, and there is some useful software preloaded on the drive, such as HP’s QuickWeb (powered by Slashtop), which lets you go online without having to boot into Windows, and HP’s CloudDrive (powered by ZumoDrive), an online storage and backup solution that give you instant access to multimedia files without having to use up valuable disk space. Purchasing this netbook from Costco gets you a two-year warranty instead of the standard one year plot.

It also comes with Costco’s Concierge Services, a free service to Costco members who buy electronics at the store. The service gives you access to technicians to walk you system setup, product use, and for troubleshooting. Lastly, the store accepts returns within 90 days.

Performance
Powered by Intel’s 1.66GHz Atom N450 processor and 1GB of DDR2 memory, the Mini 210′s productivity performance results lagged most of the current netbook offerings, though only by slight margin. Its overall SYSmark 2007 Preview score of 37 was only 1 point behind that of the Mini 5102 but trailed the Editors’ Choice Toshiba mini NB205 by 4 points. Multimedia performance was better; its Windows Media Encoder timing of 4 minutes 34 seconds was four seconds quicker than that of the Mini 5102 though a full 10 seconds slower than the Mini 5101. Thanks to its 6-cell, 62Wh battery and the low-voltage properties of the NM10 chipset, the Mini 210 lasted a whopping 8 hours 35 minutes on the MobileMark07 battery test. While not as lengthy as the Mini 5102 configured with a comparable 6 cell battery, battery life was still 1 hour 15 minutes longer than the Mini 5101, which had a 4-cell battery and more than 3 hours longer than the Lenovo IdeaPad S12.

With its affordable price tag, extended Costco warranty, and power-saving features, the HP Mini 210 is a excellent deal for netbook fans seeking a system with a solid feature set, as long as you can live with a skittish touchpad. Its productivity performance may not win any awards but it’ll get you through a full day of computing on a single charge.

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