Laptop-Review.eu

A netbook is characterized by its small size, low weight, and thin design (this time cast in red with flowers of pink and purple). A beautiful computer with personality and design to have around, but how well does it actually perform? The price is not in the low end when it comes to netbooks, and it doesn't even have the traditional port for an external monitor. Can it justify itself as a good deal, or is it all about looks...

Specifications

Category:
Students, the design conscious, websurfing.

Processor:
Intel® Atom™ processor N270, 1.60 GHz

Wireless communication:
802.11b/g WLAN
Bluetooth® wireless network

Dimensions:
26.17 cm (W) x 16.67 cm (D) x 2.52 cm (H)
1.02 kg incl. battery

92% full-sized keyboard

Support:
Support is available via HP

Warranty:
1 year collect and return, spare parts
The product warranty can be extended such that probable defects are covered for up to three years; ask your local HP retailer

Operating system:
Original Windows® XP Home Service Pack 3 (32-bit)
 
Software included:
Restoration-CD/DVD
Symantec™ Norton Internet Security™ 2009 (60 days live update)
Laptop Help and Support
Microsoft® Works
 
Price:
The reviewed model costs about £450 incl. VAT. 

Package contents 

 

 
The package is designed just like the computer itself...not a whole lot has been left to chance when it comes to looks. The package and netbook go hand in hand with the same, almost feminine style, and the contents are neatly organized and the product well presented. You'll definitely be left with a good taste in your mouth when you take this baby home.

 
You also get assorted manuals and a welcoming pamphlet as is standard. In addition, there is a power supply and two really nice things: a polishing cloth and a sleeve in which to place to computer to protect it from dust and such. The wire has a fine length and is fairly small so you won't get annoyed by it.

Contents:

- Power supply
- Assorted manuals
- Polishing cloth
- Sleeve

Physical aspects
 
First impression
 

 
As is always the case with netbooks, the size really impresses. This one is exceptional though, in more ways than one. It has an incredibly low weight even with battery, which might be comparable to that of a heavy book. Carrying it around is no problem at all. Additionally, its width and depth are lower than those of an A4 sheet of paper, and the charger is actually thicker than the computer. Impressive.

 
The design is smooth and decorated with flowers. It's definitely aimed at female users, mostly because of the colours and design; otherwise it's practically made for student use and such is not limited to women. It can easily fit in a shoulder bag and the like, and if you keep it in the sleeve you won't have to worry about scratches. On the other hand, a design with such a rich floral pattern is less likely to show any scratches.

The keyboard appears to be of good size and the touchpad has been given more than enough space. It's easy to navigate around the keyboard and the display has a fine size. It's incredible that 10.1 inches feels so much larger than 8.9...it really makes a difference to the user in my opinion.

 


The speakers appear once you open the lid and are located right beneath the display. They look very slick in a silvery colour, a fine contrast to the otherwise red look. Again the focus is on appearance.

The lid:


 
The lid is fairly thin and the hinges are tight whether the lid is open or closed or anywhere in between. At the last 4cm before it closes, it feels like it gets a bit looser and closes off with a comforting "slam" feeling, yet without making a sound.

It's primarily the lid which sports the unique design, and the display is surprisingly clear compared to the surroundings. You can't see that it is, in fact, a designer netbook when you're using it (save for the red colour), but everyone else can. Show off? Regardless, it looks quite elegant. HP have imprinted their logo on the lid but rather discreetly compared to the floral patterns. 

The front:

It took me quite a while to figure out, but the front has two buttons. Both have discreet icons to indicate what they are used for, but looking at those icons is much too easy. After a couple of minutes of eager examination, I found that the button to the left is the power button. However, it looks exactly like the other button, which is for (de)activating WiFi. The two differ also in the colour of their diode; where the WiFi diode is blue/red, the power button is white. Both are in reality switches so you won't turn off the computer by accident, and the fact that they are so discreet is not annoying in the slightest...you just have to figure it out first. There are also battery and HDD status indicators.

 
The rear:
 

 
Nothing much of interest here, because the lid slides behind the rear when you open it. A part of it is in a metallic colour so the computer doesn't get too red.

The bottom:
 


Access to RAM and switches to remove the battery. Really isn't much to say here...it's easy to access the battery and there is both a switch to open and a switch to lock. No screws or anything else, quite handy. It's nice that they aren't attempting to put the design on every surface; such would make it seem like they were trying too hard to make it feminine.

The right side:
 

 
From the left, we have an SD card reader and a USB port. Next space has been made for a safety line (though this is not included), which may be a good investment, depending on where you use your netbook.

The left side:
 


On the left, we first have the DC jack for the power supply and then a USB port. After those we have an expansionary port and an audio output jack. The conclusion appears to be that there are two USB ports, which isn't much by today's standards. I would have liked it if they had added an extra USB port or perhaps a FireWire port. But okay. Since it's such an obvious student netbook, can it be connected to an external display or projector? No, because there is no port for it. An unfortunate decision in my opinion, but perhaps the computer isn't aimed at students after all.

Diodes:
 

 

 
As mentioned already, we have 4 diodes at the front - on/off, WiFi, battery, and system indicator. There is also a white Capslock diode just below the display and above the keyboard, and above the touchpad an indicator which, when pressed, (de)activates the pad. A handy function if you opt to use an external mouse.

Keyboard and touchpad:


 
The keyboard is of a size that won't appear to limit you when you type or surf, which is great because that is usually a concern when netbooks are bought. It has some nice, large keys all over, though it's hard to see what they do in the dark because there is no LED-backlight or the like. The keys feel sort of 'plasticky' and can easily appear slightly greasy. While not particularly irritating, it's still a bit cheap for such a considerable price.

The touchpad is of an adequate size and works flawlessly. In their quest for the perfect design, HP have determined that the left and right mouse buttons should be placed on either side of the touchpad. That annoyed me right off the bat. It's very illogical that you must spread out your fingers so to, for example, drag around an icon and the like. It's simply not something you're used to, and it feels unnatural. On this particular point, they should have stuck to keeping the buttons below the touchpad, but then it would have been smaller. Quite a dilemma, but I don't think they solved it very well.

The display:
 

 
They call the display a 10.1 inch HP LED Brightview Infinity widescreen. It can run a resolution of up to 1024 x 567 pixels. The standard for 10 inch netbooks is 1024x600. Why did they choose to make concessions here? It's incredibly annoying to make the display worse than it could be...we might only be talking about 24 pixels, but it's enough to ensure you won't be able to view some websites without scrolling left and right. It makes no sense compared to functionality and is quite frankly somewhat of a downgrade

Other than that the display is razor sharp but you will experience glare in sunlight, though not so much that you can't get used to it. 

At the top there is a webcam and integrated microphone. This has become somewhat of a 'must' on netbooks and laptops in general.
 
Sound and speakers:

There isn't much in terms of an audio experience here. If you want to listen to music on this computer, use headphones. I don't think anyone expects a great audio experience from a netbook though, but what you get here is still humble at best. You can't use it for much more than Windows' embedded sounds and Skype; other things just require headphones if you want to get any pleasure out of the sound.
 
Noise, heat and power consumption

No real noise that actually makes a difference; the few sounds it makes can hardly be classified as annoying. It's nice to have standing around but doesn't get too hot, so you can sit with it in your lap without problems.

The wire has a fine length and good size and is very easy to carry around - in this regard, smaller is better. Such is fortunate, because the 3-celled battery (which most netbook makers have moved away from) ensures you will need to recharge it fairly often.

A strange choice from HP. In general, this computer has some rather odd and dated solutions which may have been sacrificed for the design. Now it's time to see what it has to offer in terms of performance.

Benchmark
All benchmark tests are run at high performance settings on the netbook. Otherwise no settings have been tampered with.

Windows Vista Experience Index:
The computer does not have a Vista Experience Index as it is running XP. I wouldn't recommend getting Vista on it because it only has 1GB RAM, which just doesn't cut it for Vista.

I have found another 3-celled netbook reviewed on our Danish sister site. It's in a lower price range and has some different things to offer, so it's interesting to compare the two. There is money to be saved, but do you lose anything?

The Acer Aspire One A150 3G model had the following specifications:
 
Processor
Intel AtomN270, 1.6GHz, 512KB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB.
 
Chipset
Intel i945GME, 82801GHM ICH7-M/U southbridge.
 
RAM
1.024MB DDR2, PC5300 RAM, 667MHz, Hyundai module (1x512MB+512MB onboard), 1.5GB is max according to Acer.
 
GPU:
Intel i945GME, with 8MB DDR2 RAM.
 
HDD:
160GB hard drive, 2.5" SATA, 8MB cache, 5400RPM, Hitachi Travelstar 5K320.
 
Display:
8.9", with Acer HighBrightness Crystal Brite technology, WSGA TFT, resolution of 1024x600.
 
Battery:
3 celled, 2200mAh.
 
Operating system:
Windows XP Home Edition.
 
Price:
About £330 including VAT.

Boot & out of standby times

 

 
Boot and out of standby times are measured from when the power button is pressed and the Windows desktop appears.
 
It took quite a while to start up the Vivienne. Exactly why I do not know, but there must be some tedious loading procedures hidden away in the netbook. When it actually had started up, it was quick to get out of standby. As can be seen it can be done faster, but it shouldn't be a problem for most as it will likely remain in standby anyway.
 
Battery life

 
Idle times are measured at the lowest power profile on the tested models while Classic times are measured on high performance settings. Both are tested with BatteryEater 2005 in order to find the maximum battery life at the prevailing settings.
 
You don't get much juice from measly 3 cells. That's likely why most are going for 6-celled batteries now, which would be preferable as it is a netbook where mobility and thus battery life is important. Don't expect much from the battery during use or idle, but do expect to recharge quite often. In this regard, the two computers are fairly even, particularly during use.

The processor
 
SuperPi

Super Pi calculates the number PI with 1 million decimals. The result is a time in seconds, meaning that the lower the number, the better. The number can be used for direct comparison with other laptops that have run the same test.
 
Fairly standard for netbooks. They are side by side here and equally strong. They perform well for netbooks, but it's nothing compared to bigger, more powerful notebooks (but those don't really compare since they're aimed at a completely different segment of the market).

SiSoft Sandra CPU Arithmetic
 

 

 
SiSoft Sandra's Whetstone and Drystone benchmark tests the processor’s ability to do pure number crunching, which occurs during gaming or different forms of picture editing. The measure is in Mflops (Millions Floating Point Operations Per Second) – the higher, the better.

Here you can see that the Vivienne is actually taken over by Acer's netbook. When it comes to crunching numbers, you get more performance from the cheaper computer of the two. I doubt that it is something the standard user will notice, but everything counts toward the overall impression.
 
SiSoft Sandra CPU Multimedia:
                                      

 

 
The multimedia test in SiSoft Sandra is calculated on a 2D figure. The output (it/s) is Mandelbrot iterations per second, i.e. the bigger the better.

Just the opposite of the above; here the HP is slightly faster. Still, the difference is marginal at best and if it weren't for the numbers, you wouldn't know there even was a difference.

RAM - SiSoft Sandra Memory Bandwidth:


 

 
Sisoft Sandras Memory Bandwidth benchmark is used to measure the speed of the RAM – the higher the value, the better.

The performance of the RAM is completely normal for a netbook. Both have 1GB RAM and make even use of it. Very standard for netbooks which don't have more or less or any expansionary capabilities. However, the Acer makes less judicious use of the RAM on battery.

HDD - SiSoft Sandra Hard Drive Read:
 

 
Sisoft Sandra's hard drive test module is used to measure the performance of the hard drive. Sisoft Sandra runs a number of tests on the surface of the hard drive and calculates the average reading speed.

Why? This HDD "only" runs at 4,200 rpm which is, quite frankly, an outdated standard. Nowadays most drives deliver a minimum of 5,400 rpm. Again HP has chosen to make concessions in the wrong place. You can definitely see the difference in the test, and you have to wonder why HP opted to make such a fantastically designed netbook with, to a certain extent, outdated hardware.

GPU - 3Dmark:
 

 

 

 
The 3D Mark tests cannot be compared directly as they are very different depending on which graphics system is used. 3Dmark 2003, 2005, 2006 are all based on DirectX 9 and show the performance during contemporary games and 3D programs.

Graphics is not one of the stronger suits of netbooks, and the two are quite even here. I don't think you will notice a difference between the computers here, but then again, neither of them where made for graphics. The GPU works, but it is weak and doesn't cover much more than the bare essentials.

Overall performance:
The PCMark results can be compared directly with other laptops that have run the same version of PCMark. The Program gives a score from tests of processor, RAM, hard drive, display adapter, etc.

Regrettably, the netbook cannot go through a PCMark05 benchmark test because of the small resolution.

Conclusion

The HP mini Vivienne Tam Edition is a most strange netbook. It markets itself primarily on design, one that is well made but likely aimed more towards women than men, and the price is high enough that you can classify it is 'exclusive'. I think they did well with the surfaces and smooth edges; it's nice to look at, and the design is quite good.

Having said that, I must confess I am disappointed. HP usually delivers quality and you can expect a higher standard from them than their competitors.

In this particular model, they inserted some hardware which does not live up to their standards. Put simply, some of the hardware is outdated and you'll find up-to-date components with HP's competitors. For example, the HDD runs at 4,200 rpm rather than the standard 5,400. It only has a 3-celled battery while the standard is 6 cells. Okay, this can be explained away by the weights and its focus on mobility and design. The display runs a resolution of 1024x576 rather than 1024x600 pixels...HP has really made some odd choices in certain areas.

Additionally, it's more expensive than many of the competitors because it is a designer netbook. It just doesn't add up.

The lack of being able to connect it to an external monitor and the fact that it has only 2 USB ports does not exactly make it the ideal student laptop. With the fear of sounding slightly chauvinistic, I'd say that the computer is made for women or someone who needs a netbook for only very basic activities (someone who doesn't need to connect it to an external monitor and is satisfied with two USB ports). Such a user is also home most of the time and thus always has access to AC, and won't get annoyed by the location of the mouse buttons. It ends up being a rather esoteric netbook.    

I am hardly impressed by the Vivienne and its content. Sure it's a beautiful computer and a joy to the eye, but that's about it for me.

Having said all this, it's a very cute machine and I've met plenty of girls who've fallen in love with it, so maybe it's more of a collector's object or a 'must-have' rather than a practical item. That may explain the exclusive price and the focus on design. It'll go great with your summer dress and a long way towards attracting attention.