Video review- HP Mini 1000 MI netbook

By James Kendrick | Wednesday, February 11, 2009 | 4:02 PM CT | 36 comments |

I have finally gotten time to give the HP Mini 1000 MI netbook a fair shake and so far it’s held up admirably.  While I sometimes experience a bit of lag doing things overall the performance is pretty good.  This video shows off the Mini 1000 MI (Mini Mi) so you can see for yourself how it works.

Comments (36)

  • No Ethernet and weird mouse button placement. :(

    Dave Zatz4:16 PM on February 11, 2009 Reply

  • Dave, I believe that there is an Ethernet port on the VGA dongle I mentioned. The mouse buttons you get used to pretty quickly, at least I did.

    James Kendrick, jkOnTheRun4:21 PM on February 11, 2009 Reply

  • James,
    Would the SSD slow response be
    aggravating if you used it everyday?

    gordon — 6:17 PM on February 11, 2009 Reply

  • Actually Veronica has corrected herself on Twitter and says there’s an Ethernet jack under some flap. So I stand corrected! :)

    Dave Zatz6:19 PM on February 11, 2009 Reply

  • @Dave:
    There’s an ethernet port on the left side of the Mini, covered by a rubber socket right by the headphone jack.

    Alex CF — 7:42 PM on February 11, 2009 Reply

  • gordon, the lag is not a killer deal and it seems to be getting less pronounced the more I use it. Maybe I’m getting used to it.

    James Kendrick, jkOnTheRun6:09 AM on February 12, 2009 Reply

  • Dave and Alex CF, there is indeed an ethernet port under a cover on the left side. I totally missed it but it’s right there.

    James Kendrick, jkOnTheRun6:11 AM on February 12, 2009 Reply

  • One sentence: Please learn to use your camera. Or get one that has macro mode.

    I could be mistaken because of the low video resolution, but I believe your video is badly out of focus. I noticed this on the video on the swivel USB extension. On that one you can clearly see that the table and floor is in focus, but the USB adapter is not.

    Please look into this. It’s pretty aggravating to see out-of-focus footage.

    Thanks,

    Georg

    Georg — 6:48 PM on February 13, 2009 Reply

  • like it, but still not worth on changing my eee…

    xkl10:04 PM on February 15, 2009 Reply

  • It is Firefox! It just uses a skin… It’s also the default file manager.

    Want to speed it up? Press Alt and F2 write gnome-session-properties and unmark the harbour-launcher entry. This will turn off the MIE once you restart your machine. Also, change the heavily taxing (although nifty and sweet looking) skins for Thunderbird, Firefox and metacity (the gnome skin manager) to something more fast. The lag might also come from the Elisa based HP MediaStyle software, which might be running underneath it all the whole time.

    This two steps will bring you a faster experience albeit loosing the cool looking factor from HP. Now, you could also go ahead and set two users, one with all HP MIE bells and whistles, and one without and choose accordingly.

    whiskey — 12:57 AM on February 16, 2009 Reply

  • Yawn , Wheres the enthusiasm ?

    thatdude22 — 2:22 AM on February 16, 2009 Reply

  • One sentence? Please learn to count. Or get a sentence mode.

    Thanks~

    crescentdave — 4:21 AM on February 16, 2009 Reply

  • I just purchased this model and am attempting to add iTunes to this. Can this be done?

    Angel

    Angel — 8:58 AM on February 16, 2009 Reply

  • No, there is no Linux version of iTunes.

    James Kendrick, jkOnTheRun9:17 AM on February 16, 2009 Reply

  • You don’t need iTunes. You can simply install Amarok which you can find in the Ubuntu repository. You might be interested to know that Amarok 2 (not released just yet) has support for iTunes music store. See http://amarok.kde.org/en/node/446.

    postcardfromportugal — 3:19 AM on February 17, 2009 Reply

    • Mean bastard, postcardfromportugal… that was AmaroK’s April fool’s joke last year!!

      No itunes for GNU/Linux, sorry.

      not_fooled — 11:37 AM on February 23, 2009 Reply

  • I would have enjoyed the video more were the video-sound on my Asus 901 (Hardy Heron) functional.

    Teresa Binstock — 5:42 AM on March 8, 2009 Reply

  • Jim, your review last year of the umpc-2133 had resolution of 768 and this hp-1000 at 560 something as I recall from the video. Sounds like a big spread in performance. Did you notice a big change? HP evidently did not carry this performance from 2133 to 1000. In fact could not find 2133 info on HP web site for mini’s.

    John

    john — 9:52 AM on March 18, 2009 Reply

  • A couple articles have stated only programs which have been approved by HP can be installed. Is this the case? Part of my interest in purchasing the mi version was as an incentive to learn programming for linux, so I am hoping this is not the case.

    DaveB — 1:54 AM on March 19, 2009 Reply

    • HP’s built-in desktop on my Linux-only Mini 1000 Mi was very inconvenient for me, so I used a usb.iso with Hardy Heron and installed 8.04 on my Mini 1000. As a result, I have complete access to what’s offered by synaptic, etc. If you make a Linux iso usb or CD, I suggest being near an ethernet internet source so that you can install updates right away (whether for Heron or Ibex). Some folks have issues with wifi. I did temporarily, so I installed the updates, then (in my small mountain town) had to set to WEP 64… I’m totally pleased with 8.04 as my Mini’s only OS.

      Teresa Binstock — 8:43 AM on March 21, 2009 Reply

  • Is it possible for an end user to replace the SSD with a HDD? My understanding is that the keyboard must be removed to access the drive bay area. How difficult would it be? Also, can WinXP Home or Pro be loaded?

    Thanks!

    Lon — 1:20 PM on March 21, 2009 Reply

  • Is the hp mini 1000 mi better that the dell inspiron mini 9? for a high school student?

    Daad — 10:37 PM on March 21, 2009 Reply

    • Read reviews about battery time. My Asus 901 with Hardy Heron has appx 3 times the battery duration of my Mini 1000 Mi. I don’t know about the Dell. Some of the newer netbooks have even longer battery time. My Mini 1000’s screen and keyboard are much nicer than my Asus 901. Many factors to consider. Another: netbooks with SSDs and no HD are said to be more durable in regard to bumps and drops. My Asus 901 (20g SSD only, plus 16g SDHC) has plenty of storage – given that I’m not storing music or photos on the 901 and have external HDs for primary storage of raw and dng photo files. For my uses (medical research), my Mini 1000 has replaced my Asus 901.

      Teresa Binstock — 8:15 AM on March 22, 2009 Reply

  • I am heavily considering buying the 60GB HDD version HP Mini. I love and use iTunes dailey on my current HP HDX 16 laptop. I am hoping to run iTunes on a HP Netbook using a external HDD. Do you know if the Netbooks are capable of running iTunes? I am looking to buy in the next 2 weeks. The Netbook Im looking at has 60GB HDD, XP Home, 1GB Ram, and bluetooth. I use a wireless connection at home. But will use at wifi spots often. If iTunes will run with external HDD I am so sold. But I dont wanna waste the money if it wont run itunes, that is the main thing. I am also considering the Acer Netbook. Can you advise? Thanks

    Anthony Coons — 10:22 PM on May 13, 2009 Reply

  • hi, help me please. i got an hp mini 1000. after i used it for a month, webcam is not found. how could i fix this problem?

    jaja — 2:42 AM on May 21, 2009 Reply

  • Based on what you know and have seen in the various models you’ve tested Jim, which would you buy? In that all the critical ’stuff’ is the same for all makes, what can and should be the determining functional factor?

    john

    john — 9:47 AM on May 21, 2009 Reply

  • Would I be able to hook this up to a video projector (using a monitor cable port) to use in a classroom?

    Patricia — 3:54 PM on June 17, 2009 Reply

  • Ok, to be clear, itunes. Can or can’t be used on my HP mini ? If so please share…. thanks

    lance — 7:18 PM on July 20, 2009 Reply

  • I’ve had my HP Mini for several months, use it daily. Were I to choose again or buy another netbook tomorrow, I’d purchase an Acer Aspire One, would not get another HP Mini.

    Teresa Binstock — 8:22 AM on July 22, 2009 Reply

  • Interesting comment on the HP, Teresa and curious to know why or what led you to this opinion.
    I’ve been on the verge, for several months of buying a net book but can’t make up my mind which. All makes seem to have the same ’stufrf’ with the only dif possibly being the key board.
    Would you mind elaborating?

    Thanks,

    john

    john — 10:58 AM on July 22, 2009 Reply

  • My HP Mini runs Ubuntu 8.04, as does my other netbook (Asus 901). My HP Mini has only two USB ports, most netbooks have three. My HP’s video output is non-standard, thus an extra jack is needed. The keyboard keys seem somewhat too large. I prefer the feel and size of the Acer keyboard. My HP’s control key is so large that it can be held down (not perfectly centered on the key) and the key doesn’t always connect. The Ethernet port’s cover seems gimpy and likely to break, probably then leaving a stub of rubber in the way, thus the task of removing what will be the broken stub. The HP’s on switch seems poorly designed, and I wonder how long it will last. The screen has a tilt limit, with result that tipping the laptop for better hand angle is limited by the screen’s tilt-limit. Most Acer Aspire One models have bigger HD. All in all, my HP Mini is usable, but has the aforementioned factors that prevent enthusiastic endorsement.

    Teresa Binstock — 2:32 PM on July 22, 2009 Reply

  • Great info for potential buyers of a mini, Teresa. Thanks so much.

    John

    john — 2:51 PM on July 22, 2009 Reply

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