First of all, let me start by saying that unless is a Mac, I never buy computers from the store. You always get a better deal by ordering online and the ability to customize your order. That being said, I bought the new HP Mini 1030 NR Netbook from the Casa Grande Best Buy last week. Why? Well I have been eyeing the netbook market for a few months now and as soon as Best Buy brought in their first batch, I decided to take a look.

They had four brands/models to choose from, Acer or HP. After seeing them in action and getting the specs, I went home to do my homework. Turns out that the HP Mini was exactly what I wanted. The online price was about $60 cheaper with the option for a few customizations.

My goal was to find a lightweight “cheap” netbook to be able to run the most common web apps. You know Gmail, Google Docs, and web conferencing. It only comes with a 16GB solid state Drive. No biggie since I don’t plan on installing many programs, or storing files directly on the computer.

At first glance, this netbook has a very sleek design. Thinner than it’s competitors. It has a nice design on the top cover to give it a nice polished look. Open it up, and there’s a bright 10.2” inch LCD staring back at you that makes you wonder how HP got so much screen into the little netbook. Enough screen real estate for your most common web sites and more. Not to mention the built in webcam above the screen.

General speed is average compared to a regular notebook. Not bad at all to work with. There are times when it seems to run slow but it’s only using a 1.6GHz Intel ATOM CPU, and 1GB of RAM. I use Skype a lot for my business, and in my testing I found my video conferences to work great… for a while. It seemed that after a good 30-60 mins of video chat, the HP Mini seemed to be a little sluggish. After every call, I would have to reboot to get my speed back. It comes with Windows XP Home Edition, but the first thing I did was install a dual boot Ubuntu Linux setup on it. (By the way Linux runs much faster than Windows on it.)

After using it for the last 5 days I have to say it’s a perfect solution for anyone that needs a computer to surf the web, check their email, and do a little video chatting. I anticipate these things to be selling like hot-cakes this year while everyone is looking to spend less on a computer. At $399, I didn’t even get an extended warranty. It comes with a standard manufacturer 1 year warranty. If it breaks after a year, you will be able to get a faster one for the same or cheaper price.

If you decide to get a netbook this year, or already have one, let me know what you think. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.