Verizon Wireless has opened the door for netbooks, starting with a stylish little number from HP. Is this the future for connected laptops? Find out in our HP Mini 1151NR review.
Review summary of the HP Mini 1151NR:
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 The HP Mini 1151NR is a stylish, capable netbook with a couple standout features. HP has wisely focused on the keyboard in the netbook families, and the Mini 1151NR has a keyboard that is nearly full-sized, with large keys and an extra wide layout that extends nearly to the ends of the device. That makes a big difference on a small computer. The trackpad gave us trouble, and the screen was a little short for our taste (though plenty wide), but otherwise its a solid, well-designed machine. Verizon Wireless was also smart to add a Qualcomm Gobi chipset, which lets the netbook work on Verizon's fast EV-DO Rev. A network at home, or fast 3G HSDPA networks abroad. Unfortunately, connecting to the network was a bit of a pain, with some buggy, frustrating software required to make the connection. Overall, Windows XP on a netbook kind of takes the fun out of it. The HP Mini 1151NR was capable of performing any Web-based task we could throw at it, from streaming TV to Skype video calls to basic Web browsing, but the aging, working class OS didn't add any excitement to this burgeoning product category. We'd also like to see a larger hard drive on board and maybe an extra 6-cell battery bundled in. Finally, business users should take care and monitor data usage on the road, because Verizon Wireless' limits are shallow, and the extra fees for running over can be quite steep. Release: May 2009. Price: $200.
Pros: Nice looking netbook. Great, extra-wide keyboard. Solid performance. Good networking options with Qualcomm Gobi chipset.
Cons: Trackpad buttons are poorly arranged. Windows XP is not a very fun netbook OS. Verizon's monthly plans can be costly.
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Full HP Mini 1151NR Review:
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Design Very Good
As far as netbooks go, HP's Mini series are among our favorites in terms of design, and when you open up the HP Mini 1151NR, it's easy to see why. The 1151NR has a keyboard that stretches nearly from end to end, with huge keys and an ample space bar. The 10.2-inch screen is also extra wide, which was good for watching movies, but if you tend to browse long documents or Web pages, you'll be doing a lot of vertical scrolling. In fact, Windows XP might have a problem with the 1024 by 576 resolution, as some windows, like the setup pages, would extend off screen and leave buttons nearly out of reach. HP has wisely integrated the speaker into the netbook hinge, a neat trick, and the sound was good, but still a bit small.
Closed, the netbook is small and light, though it wasn't superlative in either aspect. With its rounded corners and plastic shell, it feels as though HP could shave a bit off the overall thickness here. We liked the cool print design on the lid, a subtle swirl of curlicues against the glossy black background. In fact, overall it's a stylish device, mixing glossy black on the lid and around the flush display with a matte finish on the bottom half. At about 2.4 pounds, the HP Mini 1151NR is small enough to throw into a backpack or even a small shoulder bag, and we hardly noticed it in our backpack after a day of walking around with it.
Our biggest complain with the design is the trackpad, or rather the button placement around the trackpad. The buttons are placed laterally, with left click on the left and right click on the right. This was uncomfortable for our fingers, especially when we had to click and drag, so we usually ignored the buttons and simply tapped the keypad for input. This was also problematic, though, as the Synaptics control panel would often forget our TouchPad preferences. The right-hand portion of the trackpad is available for scrolling (actually, you can customize this in the control panel), but scrolling was a bit jerky in our tests, and sometimes the HP Mini 1151NR didn't realize that it was supposed to scroll as we slid our fingers up and down the side of the trackpad.
Hardware specs and ports - Good
The HP Mini 1151NR uses the Intel Atom N270 processer, running at a respectable (for a netbook) 1.6 GHz. Our test unit came packed with 1GB of RAM and 80GB of hard disk storage. We didn't push the machine too far beyond our normal expectations for a netbook, no Photoshop editing or Sony Vegas clipping here, and we were pleased with the machine's performance all around. The bottleneck always seemed to be a slow network connection, and not the laptop specs themselves. In our tests, we ran a streaming video, opened separate apps for Twitter and IM, checked our e-mail, played some music and ran through a spreadsheet in Microsoft Works, and all of these played nicely together without any significant slowdown, except for the occasional hitch in the video.
For expandability, the HP Mini 1151NR comes with a barebones assortment of ports. There are two USB 2.0 ports, one on either side of the device. There's also an SD card slot, a VGA output for driving a monitor or projector, and an audio in/out port. The VGA port requires a special adapter. Too bad HP hasn't adopted one of the miniature video ports, like microDVI, or even a standard VGA output, because we think the ability to connect the netbook to a projector will be a popular option among business users. Finally, there's an Ethernet port built in, which is fairly standard on netbooks, but here it seemed unnecessary to us since wireless networking is really this machine's raison d'etre. We would have liked to see more USB ports on board. We also think the 80GB HDD is about half of what we'd expect on a netbook. More storage would definitely entice us to keep more music and videos on this machine and make it a much more potent multimedia player on the road.
Web browsing and Internet connectivity Good
In terms of raw specs, the HP Mini 115NR seems to be at the pinnacle of today's connected devices. Wi-Fi is still limited to b/g flavors, but wireless-N is too expensive for a bargain netbook. The most exciting feature for wireless connectivity is the Qualcomm Gobi chipset. Gobi is network agnostic, so it will work on Verizon Wireless' fastest EV-DO Rev. A network, and it will also work on AT&T's fast HSDPA network, even though these two are usually incompatible. For Verizon Wireless customers, this means that when you're browsing in the U.S., you can use Verizon, but when you travel abroad, you can get a special SIM card from The Network that will let you roam internationally.
In our tests, the HP Mini 1151NR was nice and quick, on par with some of the better EV-DO Rev. A devices we've seen. We saw download speeds of about 1.5Mbps browsing around the greater Dallas metro area. That wasn't as fast as Verizon's new MiFi 2200 portable Wi-Fi hub, but it was still fast enough to stream television shows from Hulu, or make a video call using Skype. While we were sitting still, our Hulu shows played nicely, even in a higher-quality 480p mode. Driving around town with the same video playing, things slowed considerably, and the show became an unwatchable stutter of frames. Lighter Internet tasks like casual Web browsing and e-mail checking still functioned at reasonable speeds.
So, the Qualcomm Gobi chipset provides the power, but we had serious connection issues using the HP Mini 1151NR. To connect to the Internet, you have to go through the Verizon Wireless VZ Access Manager software. In our experience, whenever a carrier requires separate software to connect, it's usually a buggy and unreliable experience, and unfortunately the HP Mini 1151NR was no exception. Our initial run was flawless, but when we disconnected from the network and tried to reconnect, the netbook was unable to bring up a simple Web page, even though VZ Access Manager said we were currently connected. After a restart, things worked more smoothly, but then the software gave us trouble after being put to sleep. Sometimes it would work, sometimes not. Whenever the HP Mini 1151NR ran out of juice and went into hibernation mode, we always had to restart to get the Verizon connection to work again.
This was a hassle, but it wasn't fatal. However, these netbooks, priced at $200 with a contract agreement, are going to appeal to a crowd less tech savvy than we are. The wireless network connection needs to be flawless and invisible. When we launch the browser, the netbook should connect without additional software, and it must connect properly every time. We should not have to restart to make it work, it should just work, like a smartphone just works. This is why we're so curious to see how Google's Android OS works on a netbook.
Productivity Good
The HP Mini 1151NR ships with a light assortment of productivity software. Microsoft Works comes free with the netbook, and this will probably be enough for light Office work. Microsoft Works isn't as compatible as Office, so don't expect every document to open properly, and not every doc created with Works will translate properly to the full Office suite, especially if colleagues are using Macintosh computers. Still, with a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software, it gets the job done. There is also a version of Outlook Express available, and HP has kindly bundled a full PowerPoint presentation viewer app. So, you can still use the HP Mini 1151NR to project PowerPoint decks, even though the full version of PowerPoint is not included.
There are also a few mobile sync and backup options included with the HP Mini 1151NR. HP includes the MigoMobile suite, which lets you synchronize data with a desktop computer or even a portable storage device for easy backup. Roxio's BackOnTrack software provides crash protection and restores lost files. Finally, HP also includes Norton's Internet Security app, which is nice considering the bargain-hunter audience and advanced Internet connectivity on this device.
Typing on the HP Mini 1151NR was pretty comfortable, thanks to the extra-wide keyboard and large keys. It was a much better experience than we've had on other netbooks, like the diminutive Asus EEE PC. The trackpad issue still bugged us, but it was no trouble to connect a USB mouse if we wanted to skip the trackpad. Also, to keep us from accidentally moving the pointer while we typed, HP has included a special button just above the trackpad that disables it quickly. So, if you're typing a long document and won't need to scroll or move the mouse, you can deactivate the trackpad with a single press.
Fun Medicore
The HP Mini 1151NR looks cool, and it's certainly portable enough to take anywhere, but it wasn't the best computer for having fun, and we think Windows XP deserves much of the blame here. While Windows XP is a good choice for its familiarity and stability on a netbook that lacks the power of a full, modern desktop, XP is such a stodgy OS that it was constantly bugging us. We got error messages all the time that were of little use or consequence to us. The OS was continually reporting devices that had been disconnected or network cables that had come undone, when no such thing had actually happened. Plus, the system occasionally forgot our settings, for the trackpad or network hardware, for instance, and we were forced to dive into the labyrinthine control panels in Windows XP.
The wide, 1024 by 576 pixel screen is just shorter than the 1024 by 600 pixel standard for netbooks, and it was good for certain tasks, but fell short in others. Watching television on the Web was a great experience, as videos sized nicely to the display's aspect ratio. Playing Flash games on the Web was also fun. These worked just as well as they do on our more powerful "Pro" laptops, so the netbook's performance was not an issue. The wide, short screen did make some browsing a bit tedious. Keeping up with our RSS feeds in Google Reader, for instance, meant a lot of scrolling, since most of the useful bits were hidden below the screen. We'd like to see a Web browser made for this sort of extra-wide screen, one that puts the navigation controls on the side, since top-to-bottom screen real estate is at a premium.
Battery Life Good
For our battery tests, we tried a variety of usage scenarios. In our most demanding test, we played back to back episodes of "Bones" from Hulu, using the HP Mini 1151NR's 3G wireless connection, until the battery died. We left the screen at a mid-level brightness, and in this case managed to kill the battery in 2 hours exactly. That's not bad. In a more casual Web browsing test, we got just under 3 hours of use surfing the Web with the Wi-Fi connection instead of the cellular data connection. Our ideal would be 4-6 hours, or about the length of a flight from New York to California. Still, this is on par with other netbooks we've tried. That battery is removable, and there are higher-capacity options that add some extra bulk to the device, but hardcore users would be wise to invest if this is going to be a dedicated Web surfing machine on the road.
One problem we found with the battery was a very short standby time. We're going to blame Windows XP here, since the OS has long given us trouble in sleep mode. But after about an hour's use one evening, we closed the machine and left it aside until the next morning. When we tried to awaken the device, it didn't have enough power to turn on until we plugged it into an AC outlet.
Value Mediocre
The HP Mini 1151NR is available from Verizon Wireless for $200 with a contract agreement, after a $50 mail-in rebate. A similarly equipped HP Mini 1000 purchased directly from the HP store without an agreement will run you $570, so Verizon is certainly offering a steep subsidy on this laptop. However, that initial $200 price is still a bit high. Radio Shack is currently offering an Acer Aspire One netbook with an AT&T contract at half that price. The Aspire One uses a smaller screen (8.9-inches vs. 10.1 on the HP Mini 1151NR), but it also comes with a hard disk drive twice the size of that on the HP Mini 1151NR. In any case, the starting price for the HP Mini 1151NR on Verizon isn't terribly unreasonable, but we think this will be the high end for netbook pricing with a carrier contract agreement.
More troublesome to us is the actual wireless contract. Verizon Wireless is offering 2 plans. For $40 monthly access you get a 250MB allowance, and for $60 monthly you get 5 GB of wireless data. Both of these seem like serious limitations on data, especially if this device will be used for serious Web browsing and video streaming. In a long weekend of testing the HP Mini 1151NR, we burned through more than 1GB of data. That's in about 3 days of casual, not dedicated use. Had we not streamed so much video, this would be much lower, of course, but if you do happen to go over, Verizon Wireless really takes their pound of flesh from you. Go over by 1GB and Verizon will charge you $50 or $100 depending on which monthly plan you chose.
Price and availability
The HP Mini 1151NR is available now from Verizon Wireless for $200 with a contract agreement and mail-in rebate.
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