HP’s 2133 Mini-Note has been out for a few weeks now and some of the excitement has certainly died down, but even days after its release we knew that this was one of the ultra low-cost PCs (ULCPC) to beat. It was originally intended for HP’s education program, which is why we saw it rushed out early with a VIA C7-M processor (not Intel’s Atom or VIA’s Nano) but even so it has met with critical acclaim. It’s not the smallest or least expensive system in its class but it ranks highly for usability and style so it is worth considering if you are in the market for an affordable ultraportable.
We are about two months late to the 2133 party so I’m guessing most people who set their hearts on buying a 2133 already picked one up. It you did not immediately pull the trigger and wanted to check out the MSI Wind and Asus Eee PC 900/901 first then the Mini-Note is still worth considering but the landscape is shifting rapidly.
After spending some time with the Mini-Note I had some impressions that I wanted to put out there. If you are looking for a more formal review there are dozens of great ones out there, but we’ll be hitting all the big points.
- HP did and excellent job with both size and build quality. The Mini-Note has an 8.9-inch screen but manages to cram in a keyboard that is 92% of full size. What this means is a system that looks strangely wide, but has an excellent keyboard. The system is expertly constructed–it’s much more in keeping with HP’s business notebooks than their consumer ones–and it feels quite sturdy. The metal exterior marks a major improvement over the Eee PC’s plastic, though it’s doubtful that the 2133 will actually be able to withstand the same amount of punishment as the SSD-based Eee PC.
- The 1280×768 display is extremely usable and is an upgrade from most other small notebooks. Text is on the small size, but the display is still quite usable over extended periods of time. The display is glossy which means serious glare if you are working outside or near a window, the only solution being turning up the backlighting, which hurts battery life. The backlighting gets bright enough that the display can be used despite the glare, but it’s still distracting. The LCD area is a good deal wider than the display and the difference is made up by speakers on each side. This is similar to what we saw on the Eee PC 701, but it is more tastefully done.
- The near full-sized keyboard is excellent and make typing a breeze, but it means there is very little room left for the cursor controls. The result of this is a trackpad with buttons on each side, instead of under it. While the buttons work well and have a nice action to them I never learned to like the button placement. Using another button right below the spacebar the trackpad can be turned off. This is useful for models like the tx2000 which have a touchscreen, but it’s not immediately clear why it is necessary on the 2133.
- To mention yet another way why the keyboard rocks, HP placed the left Ctrl key in the bottom right corner, instead of placing the Fn key there. This mimics the placement on a standard desktop keyboard and is something I find inifinitely preferable.
- The Mini-Note has two battery options, the slim 3-cell and the extremely bulky 6-cell. They will get you about two or four hours of battery life, respectively, under typical mobile usage. While four hours is a nice amount of time to get from something to small, I found the Mini-Note much less fun to use with the monster 6-cell battery strapped onto it and propping it up considerable. HP surely could have improved the design of this piece.
- Parts of the 2133 get extremely hot. During use (sitting outside my local coffee shop) the heat was not a problem, but during use inside, especially long installations and other activities the system got extremely hot, to the point where it was uncomfortable to hold. The palm rests were warm, and not really an issue, but the bottom of the system (such as directly under the Fn or right-Shift key) was quite hot, enough even to be worrying. It can make it hard to pick up the 2133 from certain points.
- The system is available in a number of different builds, as well as with Vista, XP, or SuSE Linux. I tested with Vista, a 120GB hard drive, and 1GB of RAM and while it ran well enough, I would not call performance snappy. Having used it with Vista and just 1GB of RAM I’d probably opt for the Linux option or an XP “downgrade”.
- HP managed to fit a 2.5-inch 5400RPM disk in the system, which was a very nice move. The 120GB toshiba MK1246GSX is a very nice option in something this size, though 160GB is available as well. The 4GB flash module on the SLED 10 model will save you $100 and get you solid-state storage but it seems too small to be a reasonable choice at this point.
- This thing isn’t that cheap. You get a lot compared to some other products in the segment, but a well-equipped 2133 is going to run you at least $600. The models with with standard hard drives range from $549 to $819.
- From a power standpoint the VIA C7-M processor is adequate, but nothing more. It will run Vista, and get you online, even through a YouTube video, but you can’t ask much more of it, especially with just 1GB of RAM. VIA’s Isaiah processor (now called Nano) is pin-compatible with the C7 so it’s possible that HP could swap processors in an extremely short matter of time and make the 2133 a much more capable machine. The biggest problem with the VIA processor though is the amount of heat it produces.
Overall the HP 2133 Mini-Note is one of the most usable devices in its size category. The size of the keyboard and the use of a 2.5-inch hard drive give it two distinct advantages over something like the Asus Eee PC, though you trade off size and a solid-state disk for these. In many ways the 2133 is a more mainstream version of the ultra-low cost PC (or subnotebook, whatever you want to call it) it will appeal to users who would never have looked twice at a UMPC. There is some room for improvement but the 2133 Mini-Note is one of the top two or three devices in its class.
D-Link DSM-750 MediaLounge Extender
We got a chance to spend a bit of time with WowWee’s Tri-Bot way back at CES earlier this year, but the folks at RobotsRule recently got a chance to put the bot through all its paces in advance of its summer release, and they’ve now churned out a fairly thorough review. On the whole, they seem to have been mightily impressed by the bot, and they think it’ll appeal just as much to more DIY-minded folks as it will to kids, thanks in no small part to its unique wheel base and tilt sensor-equipped remote control. On the downside, the bot’s sensors were unable to detect anything on the floor below its chest, and it apparently had a tendency to occasionally topple over while trying to climb walls (the ten minutes of pre-recorded audio also seems like it could get tiring real fast). If that hasn’t made up your mind, you can check out the review in video form after the break.