First Post! - Shallow Review

[SirHenry]

I guess this is the first post for the HP Mini 210, which is rather fitting as I am typing this from the 210, which I purchased 2 from earlier from Costco. i hope my fiancee will be happy with her birthday present...

This is my first netbook, and I have to say I am rather impressed. Although the setup was rather sluggish, it performs better than I expected on the "zippyness" scale.

It has been on and used for approx 2 hours and there is still 88% remaining on the battery from a full charge, and I have this on high performance mode. I know, not scientific, you'll have to wait for official reviews.

Otherwise the fit and finish is impressive, with the only caveat being the battery... I would rather have this stick more out the back than stick out from the bottom, as I plan on having this in a backpack and I don't want to risk leveraging the battery from the body of the netbook if perchance I stick a textbook in as well. I think its kinda funny that there is no hint of a battery in HP's "leaked" photos. There was no battery in place at Costco either.... oh well, not a deal breaker for me. The lack of a HDMI port could also listed as a problem, but I have no plans on using this with an external monitor (although it may show a lack of forward thinking on HP).

I don't mind the price premium I paid for the two netbooks as I am moving overseas in a week or so, and comparing the prices of other netbooks, the price premium is less than the cost of the conversion in currency...

Anyway, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

[Dunhamzzz]

Cool, nice to hear from someone who has one, I hate to think how long I will have to wait to get one in the UK!

The bigger batteries often stick out the bottom on netbooks, there'll probably smaller/less capacity versions available soon

[SirHenry]

Yea, the 3 cell will be out soon, but I'd much rather/need to have the 6 cell. I prefer the way Asus has handled the dilemma, they make the Eee netbook thicker yet more sturdy with their seashell? design.

I understand that they decided to forgo the custom design of a battery, as the cost would be prohibitive.

A little more about the unexpected good things that I've noticed:

It comes with a quick booting OS that lets you email, play music & video, or use skype without loading Windows! Its super quick to boot, and is great for just checking e-mail in a tight situation.

The free 1GB (freely upgradable to 2GB) Cloud Drive is welcomed. It makes the 160GB drive less cramped as long as you're in range of a wifi signal. There were some issues with multiple instances booting, but a uninstall and reinstall using ZumoDrive (what cloud drive is based on) cleared everything up.

Apologies for the incorrect comma usage, I should really get that under control.

[mikeb0]

I just picked one of these up today at costco. I mostly like it so far, however has anyone figured out how to take it apart or get at the memory or hard drive? I'm thinking upgrading to 2GB of memory if possible would make it perform better. As well as it might be possible to install a higher rpm or solid state hard drive, and/or a 3g modem - it has a SIM card slot I found behind the battery.

[Slick Slab McKnab]

the batter is one thing that i noticed on all the minis. i didnt really like the ones that prop up the netty, and one of the reasons i returned my hp mini and got the nb205, 6 cell and sticks out the back area so it lays flat on a desk. i carry mine in a sleeve and shove it in my bookbag with books, so i know where your coming from.

[SirHenry]

Not sure how to install extra ram. There are two tabs in the back where the battery is, one is for the sim card, and the other is for... i don't know, i fiddled with it but dont know what it releases, idont want to break it (at least not for a while) i guess we have to wait until HP decides to release instructions, or until someone else figures it out.

[EdRooney]

I just purchased a Mini 210-1003sa in the UK.

I wanted to find out what the SIM slot was for and if I had struck gold buying a netbook with 3G WWAN built in (as suggested by the salesman in John Lewis!)

Like you, I wondered how the hell to get the back off ... without breaking it OR invalidating any warranty... you do get a sense to pick off the feet and wonder if screws are underneath... but NO... its much simpler than that!

PLEASE power off the unit and once off take off the battery using the 2x sliding locks, clearly marked on either end of the battery.

Underneath you will now see 2x Orange Tabs with the universal symbol for eject against them (think of the symbol on you DVD player, VCR etc... triangle and line)

You have to press one of these and pull the back firmly but slowly and you will here the cover click... then move to the other orange tab and repeat.

The cover is made from a very sturdy ABS type material (please dont correct me if I got the plastic type wrong... Im not an expert!) Anyway, it flexes a little and with some persuasion it does click all the way off and reveals the RAM, HD, WLAN and PCIe slot.

Unfortunately for me the bad news was there is NO WWAN card built in so I have to continue to use my Mobile Broadband provider dongle, which is a shame because it was nice and neat if inside.

If you go to youtube and do a search on HP Mini 210 there is a German guy with good english (better than my German anyway!) and he shows what I described above.

It looks very easy to replace the RAM... DDR2 SODIMM PC2 6400S however the HD is more involved AND will no doubt invalidate your warranty because you have to unscrew the keyboard! 250GB should be big enough.

Hope that helps. Please contact me if I can help any further. By the way... I am no expert, just sharing what I found over the last 18hours since my purchase!

Cheers

Ed

[Majick]

It looks very easy to replace the RAM... DDR2 SODIMM PC2 6400S however the HD is more involved AND will no doubt invalidate your warranty because you have to unscrew the keyboard! 250GB should be big enough.

No disrespect to the German fellow who's video I watched just yesterday, but he couldn't have been more wrong (although without him I may have taken a hammer to the case.. ). The HD is a snap to replace.

If you're looking at the underside (I'm assuming you have the back panel off already) orient the 210 so the battery slot is facing away from you. There is a black plastic label over the HD with a variety of white printing. Pull the tab on the right of the label up and it peels off easily. Once out the way, lift the left side of the HD up, and then gently slide it to the left. The side with the cable will come out easily and you may then disconnect the drive.

There is a light metal frame screwed into the HD (so that the rubber mounts have something to hold on to) which you need to move to your new HD. Once you do that, put it in the reverse of how you took the original HD out. Easy.

Knowing most companies, it probably still voids their warranty, but I can't imagine they would have made it that easy without expecting people to do it...

I added a 640gig drive. I would have put in a 1TB drive but on principle I refuse to spend more than $150 on replacement drives...

Now if someone can point me to a reliable wifi module with bluetooth, I'll be forever in their debt. And while we're on it, whether or not the Sim slot will work with a PCIe WWAN card if inserted...