Thinking about how much I have used the DVD writer in the field previously, I had planned to buy an external version, but so far, I have found external flash drives to be all I really need.

Only drawbacks I found are the battery life seems short and the 512 RAM it comes with had to be upgraded. For the price, this unit is a great little travel companion.

It has a great keyboard. It’s bigger than one would expect and easy to type on. The screen is bright and the webcam sharp. The mouse pad has cool scrolling dots on the right, and the side click wasnt a big adjustment.

It’s fast and mobile and has now become my main computer.

My only complaint is HP’s promise that its computers will recognize its printers. Not quite so. This will only install my Officejet with a cd, which would also have been seamless except that the cd I own is for a Vista. So hopefully HP will be able to give me the necessary software. Otherwise, for the price this is a joy (especially after Vista).

Things I like

The 2 biggest reasons to get the HP mini is its small size and great keyboard. HP makes the best keyboard on any netbook. It includes a full size right shift key. You’d be surprised how much of a difference one key will make for your typing experience. The size of the mini is great too. I don’t know how they get all of that functionality into such a small device. My internet router is bigger than this thing.

Things holding it back from greatness

The only thing I hate about this thing is the lack of battery life. We get only a couple hours of use with wifi on. HP is suppose to release an extended battery for the unit but it has yet to be seen. Also, the ext. battery will likely add a large lump to the back of the device. This would seem to take away from one of its biggest assets, its size. It also sucks that it doesn’t come with Bluetooth or N wireless or 1 GB of memory but I wouldn’t mind paying extra for those. The lack of battery life is holding this device back.

I don’t need these things but if you plan on using the webcam or VGA out port, know that the web cam is mostly useless (too dark) and the VGA port isn’t standard. To my surprise, it doesn’t have a network port. You can probably find a USB solution if you need wired networking, however. The smallish 8gb hard drive may pose a challenge to some.

Bottom Line

If you want a super small internet and emailing machine with the best keyboard in its class, this is the unit to get. If you want better battery life, more hard drive, standard ports, and extras like Bluetooth or N wireless, look elsewhere. I end up getting the Asus 1000HE for myself:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QTXL82?ie=UTF8&tag=epc1000he-20

Tip:

If you need more storage for your 1010nr, the usb drive below will fit into it’s hp mobile port:

Transcend TS8GJFT3K JetFlash T3K 8GB USB Drive

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GDDY4Y?ie=UTF8&tag=pc-accessories-10-20

* Eats very little power – if you set the power options appropriately, this unit can run up to 3.5 hours without affecting performance – once again, the Atom processor generates little heat, eats little power – the SSD drive doesn’t make a sound – the smaller screen I would think uses less power than the larger screens – puts itself into sleep or hibernation quickly according to the parameters you set.

* Extremely bright LCD – this unit has a screen brighter than my Nokia 810 and is visible even in direct sunlight. The brightness gradations are the widest of any mobile device I’ve used.

* Tolerates abuse – like the Nokia internet tablets, you don’t have to worry about bumps and thumps damaging the hard disc drive because there isn’t one – and because the unit weighs very little and isn’t big, it doesn’t “deflect” when you carry it like some of the larger notebooks will.

* Convenient – because it doesn’t weigh much, and isn’t sensitive to vibration, doesn’t generate much heat, and doesn’t have that disconcerting disc drive “hum”, you’re liable to carry this thing around, read with it in bed holding it up above you, or standing it up on its side, or putting it in a baggie and reading it in the tub – its also easy to lose in the backpack because it doesn’t have much inertia and is smaller than most textbooks.

* Versatile – if you like to read Adobe PDFs, the form factor of the screen is such that you can tip the device on its side like a book, and flip the screen rotation, then use the mouse to turn pages (sorry, Kindle), and this works for some streaming video as well.

* Other stuff – excellent wifi reception, convenient trackpad on/off switch just above the trackpad, two usb ports in okay locations, has two flash drive ports, keyboard is quite excellent, shape of the shell is minimalistic and attractive and easy to stow; download HP’s Youcam for the webcam after you “fix” it (see below) — makes the webcam fully functional; matches perfectly with the Nano V550 mouse using SetPoint.

Drawbacks:

* The webcam has this “dark film” over it – google how to remove it if you’re inclined – improves brightness by 100% – could use a kickstand – sound card is okay but not great – screen could tilt back an extra 15 degrees – or – doesn’t have a touchscreen or tablet-screen flip option (okay, I’m dreaming now).

But for 300 bucks, I think I’ll buy another one for someone else in my family because they keep using mine. This device has supplanted my Nokia.