It’s not all that often that we see pink laptops from HP (although they did have the Mini 110 XP which we talked about briefly in our Mini Laptop Computers post, and also the very memorable floral Vivian Tam edition that came out a few years ago), but the Mini 210 comes in a pretty matte pink called “luminous rose” (as well as charcoal, lavender frost, crimson red and ocean drive blue).

The Mini 210 has been around for a while, but this post is about the new and updated version. This new release comes with an optional dual core processor and a 6-cell battery as standard.

Another nice improvement is that the battery no longer sticks out from the laptop (which really bothered me with the old model, on a laptop this tiny, it’s very noticeable) but sits flush with the back.

It is also customizable, and as usual, here are the specs for the basic model and one that has been upgraded with all the top choices:

This system sells for $329.99 + $20 for pink = $349.99

Processor: Intel Atom N455 (1.66GHz, 512KB L2)
Operating System: Windows 7 Starter, 32-bit
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150
RAM: 1GB DDR3 (1 Dimm)
Hard drive: 160GB, 7200RPM
Battery: 6-cell Li-Ion
Screen: 10.1″ WSVGA BrightView Infinity LED (1024 x 600)
Size: 10.55×7.51x 0.9-1.26”
Weight: 3.1 lbs

Other features include:
- 802.11b/g/n WLAN
- An integrated webcam with microphone
- 3 USB and 1 VGA port
- 93% keyboard

This configuration sells for $559.98 + $20 for pink = $579.98 +$20 for the HD Screen = $599.98

Processor: Intel Atom N550, dual core,1.50GHz
Operating System: Windows 7 Premium, 32 bit
Graphics: Broadcom Video accelerator + Intel Graphics 3150
RAM: 2GB DDR3 (1 Dimm)
Hard drive: 250GB, 7200RPM
Battery: 6-cell Li-Ion
Screen: 10.1″ HD BrightView Infinity LED (1366 x 768) (+ $20)
Size: 10.55×7.51x 0.9-1.26”
Weight: 3.1 lbs

The extra features are the same as for the basic Mini

Other optional upgrades are:

Networking: 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth (+ $25)
Mobile Broadband: HP Mobile Broadband with GPS (+ $100)
GPS: Embedded GPS with HP Navigator software
Theft Protection: LoJack (1, 2 or 3 years at $39, $69, $109 respectively)

So that’s a difference of $250 – quite a lot, but you do get some nice stuff for the money. The dual-core processor and 2GB of RAM are worth the extra money in my opinion. Depending on what you use your laptop for, you may be fine with the smaller hard drive, but if you (like me) tend to store a lot of photos on your hard drive, or don’t want to bother with a lot of peripherals (like an external harddrive and disk drives for daily backups), definitely go with the larger one.

Are the other extras worth the expense? Again, it depends on your preferences, but for me, personally, I’m just as happy without them.

All in all, this is a wonderful little laptop, with a nice, comfortable keyboard, great looks, perfect for surfing the net, connecting with friends and family, word processing and listening to music.