The HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Edition netbook was one of the most expensive netbooks on the market when it was launched late last year. The $700 price tag netted you a thin and light netbook with a 10 inch screen. But the real selling point was the red color and floral pattern on the lid courtesy of designer Vivienne Tam.
Now that HP is phasing out the Mini 1000, the Vivienne Tam Edition may be something of a collector’s edition. So I’m not exactly surprised to see that there’s a cheap Chinese knockoff out there. The only thing that surprises me is that it took this long for someone to create a fake version of this netbook.
The clone was built by Qifang Electronics, and looks an awful lot like the original. The main differences are the fact that the knockoff has a 2.5 inch hard drive instead of a 1.8 inch HDD, and the clone costs about $300, or less than half the MSRP of the original.
To be honest, the colors on the Qifang version also seem a bit less vibrant to me. It looks almost like a decal instead of a painting. But this might just be a bad photo.
They are known for cheap copies of electronics, not cheap copies of artwork.
Wouldn’t you really rather buy one of those skins for netbooks? It would be nice to have a choice of which graphic was on your netbook. Not to mention a whole lot cheaper.
The Chinese putting out a cheap copy of an electronic device? I’m so surprised…
Knockoff of HP Mini Vivienne Tam. Not cool.
Seconded, pauli.
That said, I prefer the knockoff to the original in this case.
it took so long cause nobody wants it. the original was hideous, and the copy is faithful to that.