HP Mini 1151NR (Verizon Wireless)

Wi-Fi and Battery Life

The HP Mini 1151NR’s 802.11b/g Wi-Fi card is plenty fast, delivering a whopping 22.9 Mbps and 18.8 Mbps from 15 and 50 feet, respectively. These numbers are considerably higher than the netbook category averages of 18.9 and 15.7 Mbps. You should be able to move a good distance from your router at home or at hotspots and still expect good connectivity.

On our LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi), the included three-cell battery lasted 2 hours and 56 minutes, which is better than the average of 2:40. When using mobile broadband, that runtime dipped to 2:24, which is fine for a trip to the coffee shop or a commute but not for a day away from the office.

Those looking for more endurance will need to spring for the six-cell battery, which unfortunately costs a hefty $129 and sticks out from the bottom of the system. We will update this review once we’ve had a chance to test the system with a six-cell battery.

Heat

Perhaps it’s the heat generated by the mobile broadband radio, but we couldn’t help but notice just how warm the Mini 1151NR got during testing. The area beneath the keyboard to the right of the touchpad was especially hot, measuring as high as 110 degrees. The bottom of the system was also hot; we measured 114 degrees near the door for accessing the memory. The keyboard was relatively cool at 92 degrees but the touchpad measured 100 degrees.

Software and Warranty

Like many other netbooks, the Mini 1151NR comes with Windows XP Home preinstalled. HP bundles a fair amount of software, including My HP Games, Snapfish Photos, Microsoft Works, Roxio BackOnTrack (backup), MigoMobile Desktop 4 (synchronization), and a trial version of Norton Internet Security.

The company backs the netbook with a one-year warranty and 24/7 toll-free technical support. You also get one year of free limited software support with product registration.

Value

Verizon Wireless isn’t the first carrier to offer subsidized netbooks. AT&T has been offering a $99 9-inch Acer Aspire One (now $49.99) for months through Radio Shack (with a similar two-year agreement). AT&T is selling this Acer and a host of other netbooks in Atlanta and Philadelphia for now; these include the $149 Dell Mini 9, $349 Dell Mini 12, and $249 LG X110.

While the 10-inch HP Mini 1151NR is cheaper than the 10-inch LG netbook that AT&T offers, the LG system has a much larger hard drive (180 GB vs. 80 GB). AT&T’s data plans are similar to Verizon Wireless’. You pay $60 a month for 5GB of data and $40 per month for 200MB; Verizon Wireless offers 250MB for the same price.

Verdict

While not exactly a steal, the $199 HP Mini 1151NR offers pretty good bang for your buck. The keyboard is top-notch, and we appreciate its ability to connect to the Web without having to rely on an external broadband card. On the other hand, we would like this subsidized netbook a lot more if Verizon Wireless and HP included a six-cell battery that lasted longer on a charge. We also wish the Mini 1151NR ran cooler and came with a bigger hard drive. If you can afford the monthly data fees, this netbook is worth a look.