Hewlett-Packard VM257UA#ABA Review, Compare, Prices, Discounts
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Hewlett-Packard VM257UA#ABA Review, Compare, Prices, Discounts.
Product: Hewlett-Packard VM257UA#ABA Amazon Price: Too low to display Availability: In Stock |
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Okay, okay, you've probably read the reviews plastered all over the likes of PC Ragazine, C|Net, and other sites. You've probably seen the reviews that say "Ugh, it can't play Crysis, what's the point? " Forget that. Think what you're buying - a netbook. A *small*, low-to-middling performance system. It should be fairly power-conservant, but have the horsepower to actually speed some applications, browse the Web, peep some videos (even HD, maybe), and play some games (3D games would be nice) .
Fortunately, the Mini 311 does everything you could ask for from a system of such exiguous stature. I personally received mine, and proceeded to wipe out its Windows install in favor of the soon-to-be-released Ubuntu Linux 9.10 (aka karmic) . So far, I've been nothing but impressed. The CPU, while being low-power, seems to do unbiased sparkling with everything I've thrown at it - web browsing, e-mail, text editing, office apps (OpenOffice.org 3.1, which is also available for Windows), and even some mid-level gaming (several titles from Telltale Games), music playing, video playback (with nVidia's PureVideo hardware-assist functionality), and so on. It's not going to replace your desktop - but then, that's not the opinion. However, if you're sitting on the couch, or want a slight computer you can retract with you with agreeable functionality, this machine is a great choice. You can even hook it up to your HDTV with its HDMI port and seek HD video relate - even Blu-Rays, if you regain the external BD drive.
I haven't personally do its battery life to the test, but I've heard numbers in the 5+ hour range, and they seem completely reasonable based on my utilize of mine to date. The Atom CPU draws very minute power, and the Ion chipset, though somewhat more power hungry than Intel's, more than makes up for it with the functionality boost it offers.
In short, the HP Mini 311 is a very complete, very functional puny system, and for the asking trace, it's completely worth it. If you're looking for a netbook with some gaming potential, it's a generous choice. No, it's not going to come a $2000+ desktop system with nVidia's latest high-end graphics hardware, so if you're expecting that, you're going to be disappointed no matter what netbook you pick.
I am lucky enough to work in an IT department that has a few netbooks floating around, so I have had a miniature time to mess with several netbooks offered by Asus, HP, Dell, and Acer. The majority of netbooks offered by these companies reach similarly configured, although with a smaller 10" conceal and without the Nvidia ion video. This netbook performs op par with others that I've tested, with several principal exceptions.
First off, it's video and 3D performance are plan ahead of other netbooks I've primitive, as well as some standard laptops that I've broken-down which have integrated Intel graphics chips. To test its video capabilities, I grabbed a couple of video files I had stored including a SD, 720p, and 1080p video. All three played without any stuttering or dropped frames, both on the laptop and when connected to my 1080p TV over HDMI. The 1080p video took several seconds to launch (probably 15-20), but once it fired up, no problems at all. I also tested both SD and HD videos streaming from Netflix and had the same results, no dropped frames or stuttering. On a standard netbook (non-ion), HD video is unplayable, and SD fullscreen videos have quite a few dropped frames. However, the HP 311 serene struggles with HD flash video, but I've heard there is a modern version of flash in the works which will earn utilize of discrete video processors which should be out in the next month or two, and should address this train.
To test the 3D video performance, I tried a couple of games that I've played on and off over the years. I'm obvious there are a few WOW players out there who are wondering if WOW is actually playable on this machine. The acknowledge is yes. I am not a player myself but have dabbled with WOW in the past, and am familiar enough with the game to know what frame rates would be playable or not. I installed the WOW free trial and messed around in starting areas and entered a major city. The frame rate did dip a bit once I entered the city, but never dropped below playable levels. Might not be the ideal choice for major raiding, but qualified enough for getting your WOW fix on the go. You will survey that session changes grasp a bit longer due to the improper voltage Atom processor, but this also occurs at speeds that I would reflect acceptable.
I also tested a game which I do play frequently, Eve Online. Again session changes took a bit longer than what I'm outmoded to, but the frame rate in busy systems stayed exquisite accurate and always what I would mediate quite playable.
I'm not going to go tidy deep into features like the keyboard and mask, they're about what you would put a question to on a netbook, I can type well on the keyboard but score myself slowing down slightly due to it's smaller size. The 11.6" shroud is positive (although it is reflective, retain this in mind if you understanding to be using it in sunlight), and quite a bit more usable than the 10" screens of slightly smaller netbooks in my conception. The touchpad is definitely not the best I've old, sometimes taking several tries for it to discover taps. I will mess with the sensitivity settings and spy if I can iron this teach out.
My one legal gripe about this netbook is it's lack of RAM. I reviewed it as it came, running 1 GB. I took me about an hour of exhaust to go support on Amazon and order another 2GB. It's usable, but there are quite a few pauses when running several programs at once. Increasing the RAM should abet this out quite a bit, and the session changes in games that I mentioned earlier should purchase space quite a bit quicker once you add RAM.
All in all, I like this netbook a lot, it meets my requirements and I am delighted with the pick. It is the best netbook I have feeble thus far, and discover forward to when my RAM arrives, which should build the machine about perfect.
Note about upgrading the RAM: this machine will bewitch a 1 or 2 GB chip, PC3-8500 DDR3-1066. It uses the 204 pin DDR3 rather than the 200 pin DDR2 RAM that most netbooks consume. The 1 GB that this netbook comes with is not removable, and it has 1 free upgrade slot.
I bought this valid model and did the following:
- Installed an additional 2GB RAM
- Wiped out the XP install and replaced it with an OEM copy of Windows 7 Home Premium
I'm a scientific computing geek who uses a loaded Macbook Pro for daily work. I wanted something a bit smaller for the days where I impartial needed to do email, documentation writing and web browsing. I also wanted to check out Windows 7 as well. I'm not a gamer.
Overall I'm very gay, this is a immense small notebook and the larger size is more than made up for in the graphics and demonstrate performance. Even with the 1GB standard RAM the system handled Windows 7 quite well (I was very suprised) . Adding additional memory is speedily and cheap so I'd recommend it.
For email, media playing and web browsing it has been vast. I've never advance halt to running the battery down during half or three-quarter day sessions when I'm away from my desk. Works ample with my Verizon high accelerate internet dongle (Verizon USB 760) as well.
