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Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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3.0 stars
"Great size, not worth it though - get the next model up with more storage space"
Pros: perfect keyboard, QUIET!, bright crisp screen, good sound, swanky looks
Cons: SuSE clunky, slow ram, tiny hard drive, VERY hard to upgrade hard drive
Summary: My experience with the HP MiniNote has been very love/hate, a sort of abusive relationship. It has the potential to be perfect. However, this particular model is a lemon. The flash module does not have enough storage space. Flat out. Does not. No bones about it. Upon first boot, I was unable to install updates from SuSE (security related and performance related; very routine stuff) because there wasn't enough storage space! HP gave the computer a 3.7 GB drive (which is 4 billion Bytes), which is less than 4 GB. In addition, they format the drive to have 500+ MB of swap - totally unneccesary for this version of linux; 200 GB would suffice. But, as configured, no updates!!!! Crying shame!!!
The external monitor did not work very well. As in, I couldn't get it to work. I suspect that the updates would have fixed this, had I been able to install them.
Despite the severe limitations of the 4 GB flash module and the poor planning of the HP engineers, I really like this laptop! The size is by far the best of any laptop I've ever used. The keyboard is big enough, all the keys are in the right place, and the key action is small. The screen is bright, and can display full web pages, or any program, in its native size. It actually has more dots than my last 12" screen laptop.
Two major issues left to comment on: since the storage capacity was not going to work, I coughed up $55 to buy a hard drive to replace the flash module with. Well, upon opening the computer, I find out that the hard drive bracket will not fit my new drive. So I call HP to buy a bracket. Sorry, they say, I can't buy one without buying a hard drive from HP too - for almost $200!!! So I go make my own bracket, almost certainly voiding the warranty.
The computer also gets VERY hot during routine use. This is largely due to a poor thermal design. There are little dust screens that can be removed if you are REALLY gutsy with a good set of non-magnetic screwdrivers and knife and maybe a tweezer in case you drop something. Removing the dust gaurd dropped the computer temperature from iron-your-shirt-hot to warm-to-the-touch.
Additionally, if you are the "buy it and maybe return it" type, be warned - it is VERY hard to return one of these. I bought mine from PC Mall, and was informed when I tried to return it that I could not due to an agreement with HP. HP Tech Support claims the agreement is that I just have to get a conference call between PC Mall and HP. However, after chasing that wild goose for three hours, I just gave up and decided to fix my computer myself and not return it.
Also ultimately gave up on SuSE and installed Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 LTS. A little Googling and some seriously weird command line garbage and everything works BETTER than it did in SuSE. The only things that don't work (which also didn't work in SuSE) are the microphone and the external monitor.
- 1 reply to this review
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Does this netbook have WI FI ready for use?
I don't want to have to buy additional cards.
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