hp-mini-1000-review-2

Performance and Benchmarks

The Intel Atom-based netbook platform gives a speedy user experience, handing everyday applications with ease. Everything from web browsing to movie watching can be handled with little effort, leaving only HD content and gaming to your larger machine. On the Mini 1000, with the slower 4200RPM 1.8" PATA hard drive, some disk intensive applications were sluggish at times. Boot times felt slower than what we were used to and moving files around from external drives took longer than expected. Looking at our HDTune image below you can quickly see the problem, with much slower data transfer speeds than what you would find on a 5400RPM 2.5" SATA drive.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
HP Mini 1000 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	125.788 seconds
ASUS N10 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	126.047 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 1000HA (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	117.577 seconds
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	127.172 seconds
Acer Aspire One (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	125.812 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 901 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	123.437 seconds
MSI Wind (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	124.656 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 900 (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz)	203.734 seconds
HP 2133 Mini-Note (Via CV7-M ULV @ 1.6GHz)	168.697 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 630MHz)	289.156 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz)	200.968 seconds
Everex CloudBook (VIA C7-M ULV @ 1.2GHz)	248.705 seconds
Fujitsu U810 Tablet PC (Intel A110 @ 800MHz)	209.980 seconds
Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B (Core Solo U1500 @ 1.33GHz)	124.581 seconds
Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.2GHz)	76.240 seconds
Dell Inspiron 2650 (Pentium 4 Mobile @ 1.6GHz)	231.714 seconds

3DMark06 comparison results:

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
HP Mini 1000 (1.6GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	88 3DMarks
ASUS N10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	73 3DMarks
ASUS N10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, NVIDIA 9300M 256MB)	1,417 3DMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1000HA (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	95 3DMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	N/A
Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	122 3DMarks
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)	122 3DMarks
HP dv2500t (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,055 3DMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	532 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks

HDTune hard drive performance results:

Speakers and Audio

The speakers on the Mini 1000 sound very nice, and easily win out over other netbook models. They are located right underneath the screen, so they don't get blocked with your hands on the keyboard. Bass and midrange are weak, but this is common even on much larger notebooks. Peak volume levels are adequate to fill a small room with a movie or podcast, but headphones might be the better alternative out in public.

Ports and Features

Port selection is sparse from what we have seen on most netbooks, with only two USB ports, LAN, one combo headphone/mic plug, and a proprietary VGA connector. To have video output the purchase of a separate adapter to get VGA is required. The Mini 1000 also has an SD-card reader and for models that do not have a hard drive, a special USB port for storage expansion.

One odd feature is a missing Kensington Lock slot related with a proprietary connector that looks more like a lanyard hook than a security attachment point.

Heat and Noise

While the older Mini-Note 2133 with the VIA platform that scorched pants and fingertips the newer Atom-based model is cool to the touch. The palmrest and keyboard are slightly above room temperature and the bottom panel is finally lap friendly. The only hotspots were above and below the stick of RAM, which included the touchpad, since it is right above that area. Noise from the cooling fan was minimal even under stress. The temperature readings below are listed in degrees Fahrenheit:

Battery Life

With the screen brightness set to about 60 percent and wireless active the HP Mini 1000 managed 2 hours and 55 minutes of battery life before it had to go into sleep mode. This is a big step up when you look at the Mini-Note 2133 which only managed 2 hours and 15 minutes on the same size battery. The downside to the slim battery design and location on the Mini 1000 makes it nearly impossible to design an extended battery for it. For travel use, especially with 3G WWAN, you are really living life one outlet at a time.