HP MINI 5101 N280 EN

Thursday, September 16, 2010

HP MINI 5101 N280 EN

HP MINI 5101 N280 EN Review

This notebook is more expensive for the specs of hardware you get, but if you like aluminum cases and hard-rubber around the keyboard, then this laptop is perfect for you. It has no problem playing flash videos (even full screen "HD" videos), and plays downloaded DVD's just fine, though I can't vouch for the ability to play blu-ray quality movies.
The keyboard is the largest keyboard you fill find on a netbook. It really is 95% of the size of a full size keyboard, so even for someone 6' tall, I don't feel like I'm cramping my fingers to type. The built in webcam runs smoothly for Skype, AIM, and MSN, and probably works just as well for other clients.

The Catch
The problem with this netbook is not the hardware. The problem is not even Microsoft Windows XP SP3 that it ships with. The problem is the TONS of crapware that HP installs with this netbook by default. To put it in perspective, it took *2 hours* for the netbook to boot for the first time, and not because it had to install XP. It was installing the loads of garbage software that HP decided would enhance your experience or whatever. The best part is, some of that garbageware that HP installs will actually *break* the functionality of XP. Case in point: HP forces the installation of a 3rd party network manager that *disables* XP's built in networking capabilities. If you uninstall that network manager, you will NOT be able to connect to the internet without using 2 registry hacks to re-enable XP's network manager.

I want to give this netbook 5 stars, but HP's garbageware is enough to lower the experience from excellent to "holy crap why does my new computer run like it's 1998?"

Do NOT buy this netbook if you don't know how to reformat and install your own copy of XP, Windows 7, or Linux.