New Gear: HP Mini 1030NR Netbook
Sunday, March 1, 2009 9:50 pm | by George RobertsI picked up an HP Mini 1030NR Netbook from Best Buy yesterday. I had some Reward Zone certificates that were about to expire, so I ended up getting a great deal on it (about $65 out of pocket).
I’ll write up a more in depth review after I’ve had some time to play with it, but I’ll give a few quick observations here. First, I immediately put the Windows 7 beta on it, and it performs really well. It’s not as fast as a full blown laptop or desktop machine, but the performance is completely acceptable for casual, every day web use. While the keyboard is smaller than I’m used to (my “real” laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad R61), it has a very nice feel to it. The screen is bright and beautiful, and about as small as I can see myself using at 10.2″.
It has built in 802.11g wireless, which so far shows really solid performance. The two USB ports allow for some nice expansion options and make it easy for me to use my Sprint EVDO card for on-the-go wireless whereever I am. Even though there’s no optical drive, I can easily plug in an external DVD drive via USB when I absolutely need it.
The HP Mini is a tad bit heavier than other netbooks I’ve seen, but it’s not uncomfortable to carry. It has a similar case design to other HP notebooks, which is very attractive.
All in all, a great package from what I can tell so far. I ran into a problem getting the Sierra Wireless drivers installed for my Sprint EVDO card on Windows 7, but it was an easy fix (I’ll post a full writeup on this in a separate post). I also had to manually install the touchpad drivers, as Windows 7 saw it only as a PS/2 mouse. The default drivers allowed the touchpad to work as a mouse with no problems, but I missed my “scroll area” on the touchpad, so I grabbed the drivers from the Synaptics website.
I’m looking forward to playing with this new netbook!
Twist: on Tech » Why I love (my) … Windows 7 says:
May 3rd, 2009 at 8:14 pm
[...] have an HP Mini 1030NR that I immediately installed Windows 7 on. It came with Windows XP and I just cannot imagine [...]
chris says:
July 11th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
thanks, i have been looking for the drivers for the scrolling touchpad, do you know if it will work with windows 7 rc1?
George Roberts says:
July 11th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
The synaptics drivers should work on Windows 7 RC1 with no problems, though I haven’t tested it yet.
Keven says:
April 29th, 2010 at 10:59 am
Hello, I have been trying to install Windows 7 on my 1030nr (16 gig hdd) but the Windows 7 setup wizard says that i need at least 6.3 gigs free hdd space. I have taken everything off the machine that I could and I still need another 2 free gigs. I am installing from a flash drive.
Anyone have any ideas, or how did others install with an operating system already on the machine?
radio in america says:
October 16th, 2010 at 11:13 am
thanks, i have been looking for the drivers for the scrolling touchpad, do you know if it will work with windows 7 rc1?
Becky says:
December 18th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
I just got a used HP Mini 1030NR. The system its running on is: Microsoft Windows XP-Home Edition-Version 2002-Service Pack 3. Since its used, I wanted to restore back to brand new (default) status, but I don’t have the discs. 2nd I thought might as well update it to Windows 7. I called BEST BUY-GEEK SQUAD to get quotes, for my first option (reset to default) they said I had to buy my restoration discs from HP first for around $20, then take it to Best Buy so that they can install and fix for $130!!!!! I then asked ok, well what if I just update it to Windows 7 (u know buy the software discs and stuff) and they told me IT CAN’T DO THAT, XP IS THE HIGHEST IT GOES. Now I have a feeling thats NOT TRUE because many people have updated their old computers to new software….IF SOMEONE COULD PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS, OR AT LEAST GIVE ME SOME INSIGHT OR ADVICE, OR A CHEAPER WAY, MY WALLET AND I WOULD APPRECIATE IT! THANKS
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January 16th, 2011 at 7:26 pm
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