Digital Home Thoughts: HP Mini Accessories Trickling Into Market

I've been spending a lot of time with the HP Mini 1000 lately, in all three flavours: the Windows XP-based Mini 1000, the Vivienne Tam Mini 1000, and lately the Mobile Internet Edition or "Mini Mi". It's by far my #1 favourite netbook right now - I haven't booted up my MSI Wind in a month. As good as the HP Mini 1000 is though, it's strange how HP released a product with basically zero accessories for it available at launch - it's only now that these accessories are starting to become available. From the top left, going clockwise, we have the 3-cell battery, the Mobile Mini Drive, the AC power brick, an external DVD burner, a VGA cable, and a sleeve. The VGA cable in particular is a glaring omission: for mobile professionals who want to travel ultra-light, but still need to hook up to a projector, not having the ability to do so is a deal breaker. And given the price premium that HP is charging for the Mini 1000, it's a shame that there's no carrying case included in the box.

What's not shown above is something I saw at CES 2009: a 6-cell battery. It was an interesting design because unlike most netbooks on the market, the HP Mini 1000's battery isn't right at the back, it's in a bit - and that means thaty can't do the "rear hump" like most companies can. The 6-cell battery for the Mini 1000 comes out the bottom and creates a hump that almost looks like a stand for the netbook. Pretty interesting design - I'm not sure how practical it is, hopefully I can get my hands on one. The battery life is about the only complaint I have with the Mini 1000 - it just does't last long enough, but that's pretty much what I expected from a 3-cell battery.