Netbook's Biggest Secrets Revealed: HP Mini 1000 does 3G

The HP Mini 1000 Netbook has a 3G modem--who knew? Well, HP presumably and now the rest of us do, thanks to an enterprising Mini 1000 owner and forum poster at Pocketables.net. He or she (impossible to say with a name like dplxy) discovered a SIM card slot hiding out in the Netbook's battery compartment. After speaking with HP and AT&T, user dplxy was able to find a WWAN driver from HP that did the trick--no hardware required. All that was needed was downloading the driver and then popping a SIM card in the mystery slot, which would seem to indicate that HP is shipping 3G-equipped Netbooks but not telling anyone.

(Credit: Pocketables.net)

Sadly, we just returned our HP Mini 1000 review unit, otherwise we'd be trying this out for ourselves right now (damnable loan agreements!). So, if you are an owner of the HP Mini 1000, take a peak underneath to see if you have this mysterious SIM card slot. Forum poster dplxy outlines the simple process on Pocketables.net and kindly provides a link to the WWAN driver you'll need.

Now, all we need is someone to discover a secret 6-cell battery to replace the puny 3-cell unit that is currently your only option with the Mini 1000.

[ducttape36]

wow. why would they try to hide that? maybe they are still working driver stability?

[joshhyde]

Not for U.S. models. See here:

http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/11/hidden-3g-cards.html

[iff2mastamatt]

According to the article, the US models do have the slot, but maybe not the actual 3G card. Would it be possible to put a cell phone SIM card in it? If that could work, HP is now talking business....

[quality4me]

DP Lexi.. sounds like a girl to me..

[tipoo_]

Wow, why would they not make that more well known?!?!?!?

[dredgerie]

too bad it's such a pain to clone sim cards, or you could leave one in your phone and the clone in this, then throw it all on a 3G network.

[KevinXI]

Is this the only laptop to have a SIM card slot?

[Reaper0700]

My 3-year old Sony Viao T-350 has a SIM card slot, So I bet the TX & TT series that replaced it have them. But they are Ultraportables, not Netbooks.

[n4osx]

I advise caution thus far, guys. I've been trying to get this working all morning - as of yet, I can't find anyone at HP or AT&T who seems to know the password for the AT&T mobile broadband installer that's included with HP's referenced driver service pack. If anyone knows it, please post so we can verify if this works or not.

[ejeon1989]

How did CNet not find this out beforehand in their review? It seems like a pretty big SNAFU in my opinion.

[wadah1111]

Bah! all gadgets have secrets, you just have t be curious about everything.

[bsbal1234]

Does anyone know if this works with T-Mobile's new 3G network?

[HiloHITech]

You may want to do some more checking on this guys. My mini has the sim slot but the wireless module inside ( I took it apart to check this) is a wifi/bluetooth only. There is a 3G/wifi/bluetooth listed in the manual but according to HP has not been released yet. Some people may have gotten the 3G one by mistake. aloha

[mrdavej]

Dell Latitude D620 has a SIM slot too, not sure if it works, didn't find a driver. popped several vendor cards into it, including att, Tmobile, USC and nothing :(

[sermann]

Most recent Dell notebooks have a SIM slot and the 3G antennas, but will only have the 3G module if ordered. Depending on where you are in the world, you can buy the 3G module from Dell and either install it yourself or have somefrom from Dell do it for you (for a fee). Drivers are available on http://support.dell.com...