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Left: HP Mini 1000 / Right: Asus Eee PC 1008HA

The Asus Eee PC 1008HA and HP Mini 1000 have a lot in common. They’re both incredibly thin netbooks, measuring an inch or less thick all the way around. And they’re both incredibly light, with the Mini 1000 weighing in at just 2.25 pounds and the Eee PC 1008HA barely tipping the scales at 2.4 pounds. Yet both make room for 10 inch displays and nearly full sized keyboards.

But both Asus and HP had to make a few compromises in order to cram a computer into such a small case. Neither netbook has a full sized VGA port; both require special adapters to plug in an external display. And while the HP battery sits flush with the unit making extended batteries look ugly and unwieldy, the Asus battery is hidden away inside the unit, making extended batteries nearly impossible to install.

For some reason both netbooks also feature glossy displays and shiny plastic casing, which turns them into fingerprint magnets and mirrors when you walk outside.

I haven’t had an HP Mini 1000 around the house for a few weeks, but I met up with TechVi‘s Randall Bennet yesterday and he happened to have on on him. So I jumped at the chance to shoot a few photos comparing the two netbooks. I’ve uploaded the photos to a Liliputing Community photo album. You can check out a slideshow after the break, or head on over to the community page to see higher resolution versions.

Overall, I think the two netbooks are almost exactly the same size, but the Eee PC 1008HA has the illusion of being thinner because of its design, which makes the netbook a bit thicker in the back than the front. In fact, it might actually be a little thicker in the back. They both have excellent keyboards, but I think some users will prefer one over the other. It’s a matter of personal taste. And the HP netbook has that awkward touchpad with buttons on the left and right sides instead of below the pad, while the Asus netbook has a single button with a rocker below the touchpad.

It’s probably worth pointing out though, that HP is phasing out the the HP Mini 1000 and replacing it with the HP Mini 110/1101 series of netbooks. The new models are a bit thicker than both the Mini 1000 and the Eee PC 1008HA. But the new models have full sized VGA ports, 3 USB ports instead of 2. And while the touchpad buttons are still on the left and right sides, HP has gotten rid of that incredibly annoying light above the touchpad that lets you know if it’s locked or not.