HP Mini 210 (Vivienne Tam Edition)

Ultraportable notebook

By Jeska Innes / Tuesday, July 27 2010

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During our maiden voyage to a café it quickly became apparent that this designer notebook turns heads. While I sipped my latte and logged onto Facebook I could feel the eyes of nearly every woman in the room drilling into my test unit. Even the male café owner had a thing or two to say about the Butterfly Lovers.

The Butterfly Lovers? Let me explain. Inspired by the Chinese love story of the same name, the HP Mini 210 Vivienne Tam designer edition’s golden lid is imprinted with (you guessed it) fluttering butterflies. It’s literally come straight off the runway, and it really is stunning. Showcased at New York Fashion Week as part of Tam’s 2010 spring collection, this “digital clutch” is intended to land in the manicured hands of the fashion conscious (read: women).

Let me make this clear immediately – this is essentially a regular HP Mini 210 with a fashion facelift. Right down to its Intel Atom processor, its physical hardware is totally standard. Its point of difference lies in the exclusivity of its designer imprint and branding. I should also mention here that the notebook comes loaded with a Butterfly Lovers desktop theme that features an animated butterfly start menu, three coordinating wallpapers and Vivienne Tam icons. This really begs the question, how much do you value fashion? And more importantly, how much are you prepared to pay for it? Let me put it in perspective: sans flying insects the regular HP Mini 210 is $799, which is a pretty good deal. This bad girl is $999. That’s a 20% price difference for the sake of designer aesthetics...

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