My HP Mini 1000 Netbook Review

My mobile lifestyle keeps getting more mobile so I recently picked up an HP Mini 1000 netbook since my N800 internet tablet was not cutting it anymore. Not only had the OS become a hog and unstable and I was not able to do the firmware upgrade, the battery seemed to be going bad and lastly not having a keyboard made it almost useless for emails/IM on my commute. I'm not sure if I will keep it or craiglist it since it may come in handy for overseas trips for quick email and skyping. Back to HP Mini - Originally I thought about getting the new macbook Pro but that was going to run me almost $3k! and having a perfectly fine maxed out G4 Mac desktop at home, apple not having a net book out yet(although rumors exist they will) made the decision to go with a $349 net book easy and even easier when the possibility of maybe hacking it into OS X netbook as its been done with this dell mini

I think the HP Mini is the nicest out of all the netbooks out there compared to the ACER/Asus/MSI brand names available @ bestbuy. It has a nice glossy finish, 1" thin and only 2.25lb, 2 USB ports and SD slot.

For the ladies that need something fashionable check out the Vivienne Tam edition, its pretty sexy but be ready to pay twice as much. Looking good is not cheap.

I decided to upgrade the standard 1GB DDR2 mem to 2 GB which brought it to a final price of $475. After having my IT guru smutz2k wipe off XP home edition and install XP on it (making it more secure) I went ahead and paid for the premium version of Joikuspot (had been using joikuspot light) and started sharing my 3G connection off my nokia E71 to the net book and its working great! Not only does the commute go by a lot faster but I'm able to do work just fine (I'm writing this on my way home now actually)

If you are looking for something small and portable net book is the way to go (too bad apple doesn't have one out since I don't love PCs) Its a great little machine to do email, IM, web browsing office docs, and more. It's a perfect mobile companion and if you have a 3G phone that you can connect through you will enjoy near WiFi speeds everywhere there is 3G coverage (or just jump onto any WiFi hotspot). Lastly, even if you are not connected on your commute you can still use it offline or what the hell you could just relax and watch a movie off your SD or USB thumb drive.

Below is a youtube video of the HP mini