Netbook review: HP mini 1110nr

Netbook, subnotebook, mini.  They all really mean the same thing in this popular generation of portable devices.  The Netbook is not made for power but made to be convenient for travel and still be able to have full access to a full fledged machine that you can type your e-mails or check the stock market while waiting for a friend in Starbucks.  These notebooks were meant to be made cheap to be in the category of “netbooks”.  In fact, I do believe that’s a great name for a device.  It’s meant to surf the net.  

Before I start my review, let me begin my tirade about not being able to choose from an “Only english” keyboard at major manufacturers now.  I do NOT want to type on a french-english keyboard, not only are you squishing keys together, but the enter, shift, forward tick and a NUMBER of other keys have been ALTERED.  So, Canadian manufacturers and major retail outlets (yes, I’m talking to you Best Buy and Futureshop), GIVE PEOPLE A CHOICE here.  How can we have harmonized equalization if we can’t even buy the things that we want?  

I recently played with the HP Mini 1110nr which all in all was a good machine for putting around and a great Ubuntu interface for those who really know little to none about computers or the internet.  I will give it to HP, the HP Harmony interface was pretty slick.  HP never at all put limitations on the user within the interface.  In fact, you were able to gain sudo access using the function+f2 combination and typing in gnome-terminal (and alternatively getting it to it from the settings menu under the advanced tab if you configured it to do so).  

The 1110NR sports a 8GB solid state memory drive (WITH an extendable solid state memory slot that you can purchase at HP), 8.9″ screen (brightview), 1GB of DDR2 memory, 128MB shared video card memory (Intel 945 accelerator), N270 dual core 1.6Ghz CPU and 92% full keyboard (scissor style, not chiclet).  It also came pre-installed with Ubuntu and the HP Harmony interface (which is not impossible, but difficult to customize).  Added to the list of features, it had 2 USB ports, an SD slot, webcam, speakers, HDMI port and wireless capabilities.  

The good:

- 2.3 lbs (1.2 kg) made it light enough to keep in my purse
- Stylish design so I wasn’t embarassed to  carry it around
- US keyboard (wohoo!)
        NOTE:  I did drive down to the state to get my dv7 because of the french/english keyboard issue
- Fast boot time (less than 5 seconds)
- Almost full-sized perfect keyboard (chiclet or raised scissors would have been better)
- Came with software the most people need for a netbook
        Specifically:  OpenOffice, Firefox, calculators, notepad,  thunderbird
- Easy to use interface

The bad:

- Firmware is not updated, would not awake on sleep or if closed upon playing multimedia (streaming radio)
- Sound was terrible (what do you expect?)
- Too little shared memory for video, VERY choppy to view YouTube (especially high quality and HD)
- Too little memory for how cheap solid states are getting (8GB, really?)
- A little expensive consider the Acer Aspire One was 200 dollars cheaper 
- Too difficult for the normal every day person to install new applications (Yes, I know, they had an update tool, but it only updated the software that HP supported)
- No numlock
- Screen is difficult to view due to it’s glare
- The keyboard is not raised enough, touch typists will need time to adjust

In comparison, for example, to the LG X110 which looked like it came from 5 years ago, had an old style WXVGA screen, raised keyboard (looked like it was 90% full), had built in numlock and 3G and a bunch of other bells and whistles!  Yes, another hundred or so dollars does certainly go a long way in the hardware world.  

The battery life on the 3-cell lithium polymer battery lasted max. 2.5 hours even with the power saving options.  This was, however, with the wifi on which all in all does change the results.  

I also noticed the performance on the 1110NR was just crap.  I was up near 20% idling with few to little programs running (harmony, gnome, components) and 50% upon firefox with a couple of tabs open.  There were few times where the idle was down to less than 2%.  In comparison, the 1035NR running Windows XP Home ran much better on idle and with a few applications running in the background. 

So, to be honest here, I returned the notebook.  Instead, I got the 1035NR.  This is the 10.2″ screen with the Windows XP home edition.  The chassis size for the 8.9″ and 10.2″ are *identical* making the screen difference of 1.3″ a HUGE amount of difference.  The difference was stellar!  More articles to come…

Please read Netbook Review:  HP Mini 1035NR and Netbook:  The revolution, the future