During my evaluation period I looked at products from Dell, Asus, Acer and HP. Most of them had comparable systems, within a similar price range.  I had all-but decided on an HP when I received an e-mail from Dell announcing $100 instant discount on their mini-9 series.  This put the base unit at the same price as the HP I had been lusting over.

Each had same memory, hard drive, operating system, screen resolution and advertised battery life.  However, the HP also included a 2GB additional storage “thingy” ( it’s like a flash drive, but slides all the way in), and at 10.1 inches, the screen was about an inch bigger.  HP wins, and enough waiting.

I went to my local Best Buy and bought the HP 1030nr.

I was immediately struck by how lightweight it is (just under 2½ pounds), especially compared to the 17” wide screen HP I normally carry.  Initial set up took just a few minutes.  Cold boot takes only about 45 seconds – wow!  I was not happy with how long the system updates took, but that is not the fault of HP.  I’ll share blame for the long update with Microsoft.  I had planned on removing Microsoft works but forgot to do so before running Microsoft update.  An HOUR later, after the updates had finished installing I removed works and installed Open Office, Tweetdeck, AVG anti-virus and yahoo messenger.  A glance at the remaining space available made me happy I had opted for the (slightly) higher priced 16GB drive and not the 8GB.  I had 7.5GB remaining.  Quick math tells us that (unless XP is magically smaller) the 8 GB drive would be maxed out already.

I’m also happy I went with the larger size.  The screen is perfect for quick notes and email ( I am typing this on it).  Even when running on the battery the screen is crisp and bright.  The keys are decent size, but close together.  I find I am missing & fat-fingering quite a bit, but suspect that I will get better as I continue to use it. I really think the smaller Dell would have been too small for me.

Th HP’s speakers are tucked away below the LCD and behind a narrow wire screen that looks as if it could double as an electric shaver.  Even as small as the speakers are, the sound is surprisingly good.

My initial gripes about the Netbook 1030 are few.  The glossy case shows every fingerprint, smear  and smudge and the door for the SD uses a spring loaded, removable plastic card rather than a flap door.  When removed, the card leaves a hole much larger than the SD slot. Even though the system does not have a bluetooth card installed, the software is installed and loads (or did before I removed it) on start up for some reason.  Lastly, unlike most larger systems this one did ship with restore CDs.  Too bad there is no CD to run them from.  Hope it doesn’t crash.  Perhaps netbooks should ship with system restores on protected flash drives instead.

As for battery life, this is first time running without the cord and after a few minutes more than 3 hours, the indicator tells me I have 28% remaining.  Nice.

I look forward to using the system as I travel and at upcoming conferences.  I’ll post an updated review in a few months, probably after PubCon South and SXSWi in late march.  If you want to know how it’s going before that, give me a shout on Twitter.

Are you using a netbook?  Tell me what you think about it.

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

Netbook Reviews and Initial Reaction

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We’ve all heard that when you have a happy customer, they’ll tell you.  But, when you have an unhappy customer, they’ll tell everybody but you.  And, unfortunately most of those people will repeat the story of a dissatisfied customer over and over again.  Even worse, much like in the game “telephone” where a story gets passed from one person to the next until the last person invariably hears a story that is a far cry from what was told by the first, the original story of dissatisfaction often grows well beyond all recognition.

Your Product is Crap!

Microsoft has been battling with a game of “telephone” over the last few years with it’s Windows Vista operating system.  I’ll be the first to admit that it’s initial release was, well – crap.  However, is that any different from all of the other Microsoft releases?  I wish they would change the model and release a solid product from the beginning, but they seem content with shipping a buggy product and letting the public find the problems they then fix in subsequent updates.  This time however, it bit Microsoft in the butt.  There were more bugs, more big bugs and they seemed slow to acknowledge and repair the problems.  That really got the tongues wagging.  Before long you could grab any ten people off the street and they would tell you that Vista was crap – even if they had never seen it themselves.

It had to be true…they heard it from a friend, who has a son that works with a woman who’s neighbor is a computer guy…right?

Now add the clever “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” spots to the mix and Microsoft is suddenly losing ground fast.  How can they fix this massive PR nightmare?

Change the Story Your Customers Are Telling

Enter “The Mojave Experiment.”  Microsoft did what I feel was a brilliant move. Under the guise of market research, they escorted people into a little room and asked what they thought of Vista.  Of course, they all hated it, a lot.  They are then offered a “sneak preview” of the new operating system, code-named “Mojave.”  People are in awe, wow – this is great – I love this – when will it be available?  Guess what…you’ve been punk’d! Mojave is VISTA!

I wonder what all those interviewees told their friends and neighbors when they got home.  Did they tell everyone how ticked-off they were at Bill for punking them? Possibly.  More likely, they said that Vista isn’t the piece of crap everybody has been saying it is and is actually pretty cool.

Now before you fill my in-box with anti-Microsoft hate mail…No, I do not think Vista is done growing up yet, it still has issues.  However; I do think it’s been getting a bum rap.  I’ve been using it for the last six months and have had no problems at all – none.  I do know people that have, but the first-hand stories are not that bad.

So, in closing I’ll ask that if you have not tried Vista (or any product for that matter) YOURSELF, or at least talked to somebody that has, do us all a favor and keep your opinions to yourself until you have.  ;-D

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How Do You Fix a Broken Brand?

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