New HP Mini Laptop

[timswim78]

About $500 for a pretty slick, portable notebook. Looks interesting:
Fixed Link

 

[aceO07]

Link doesn't seem to work for me. The HP is finally getting into the hand of reviewers.

I love the higher resolution, but it also seems to be bigger than the EEE 900. The left/right size of the screen has space for the speakers. 12GB SSD on the HP for $500 (no windows) would be really nice if that happens.

edit: My attempt at link. http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8848583

 

[aceO07]

Another review. http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4352

 

[xSauronx]

a via processor though? ick.

i want to see if the Eee comes out with a diamondville soon, and how it does....id kinda like one

but i have to admit, the resolution on that is quite nice. even the 9" eee isnt supposed to get that high.

 

[DaveSimmons]

In PCMark05 the 1.6 GHz via is 12% slower than the Asus eee at 630 MHz, 30% slower than the eee at 900 MHz. And if you buy the $500 model you get the much slower 1.0 GHz via.

Hopefully HP will come out with a refresh using an intel CPU.

 

[YoungGun21]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
In PCMark05 the 1.6 GHz via is 12% slower than the Asus eee at 630 MHz, 30% slower than the eee at 900 MHz. And if you buy the $500 model you get the much slower 1.0 GHz via.

Hopefully HP will come out with a refresh using an intel CPU.

I highly doubt they switch to Intel for the refresh. It will most likely be the Isaiah processor which shouldn't be much slower than the Atom processors from Intel.

 

[abaez]

I was really interested in this, but I like how they send all the reviewers the fastest laptop, but in all their press releases it's cheap at $500! I would have replaced this with my eee if it wasn't $100 more for something even slower.

 

[aceO07]

You can purchase the HP 2133 from the hp website now. http://laptop.hp.com/ go into business ultralight section.

Slow unless you get the expensive models, and even that is slow. Beautiful screen though. If only Asus used that screen.

 

[frostedflakes]

Originally posted by: xSauronx
a via processor though? ick.

i want to see if the Eee comes out with a diamondville soon, and how it does....id kinda like one

but i have to admit, the resolution on that is quite nice. even the 9" eee isnt supposed to get that high.

Diamondville is an in-order, non-superscalar CPU just like the Via C7. Performance per clock won't be much/any better. Don't forget that Atom is not based on the Core architecture, it's actually much closer in design principle to the 15 year old Pentium. Intel built this CPU to be cheap and low-power, not high-performance.

The advantage Diamondville has over C7 is better performance per watt. The chipset also has some nice features, such as H.264/VC-1 decode acceleration.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes

Originally posted by: xSauronx
a via processor though? ick.

i want to see if the Eee comes out with a diamondville soon, and how it does....id kinda like one

but i have to admit, the resolution on that is quite nice. even the 9" eee isnt supposed to get that high.

Diamondville is an in-order, non-superscalar CPU just like the Via C7. Performance per clock won't be much/any better. Don't forget that Atom is not based on the Core architecture, it's actually much closer in design principle to the 15 year old Pentium. Intel built this CPU to be cheap and low-power, not high-performance.

The advantage Diamondville has over C7 is better performance per watt. The chipset also has some nice features, such as H.264/VC-1 decode acceleration.

Well-said, Frostedflakes. But I don't think Intel would put out a "new" CPU (Atom) just to reinvent the Via C7 under the Intel brand name. The Atom will have substantially better performance per watt (taken in context with it's target market) plus the hardware H.264 decode is a very nice feature...as you stated. I think the Atom will be a boon to this emerging mini-laptop/mobile market.

This thread is of keen interest to me b/c I'm in the market for one of these babies. I was (still am, kinda) waiting for the new Asus 900-series of the EeePC with the 9" screen and bigger SSD. Then HP released their perfect semi-failure, the 2133 Mini-Note. The HP has a perfect screen size/resolution (a key pairing, the size/res) and a perfect KB. And they screw it up with a lackluster CPU.

Notebookreview.com has posted an excellent review of the HP2133 Mini-Note. It has tons of really good pics, videos and is a great review, IMO.

Check out this table of PCMark05 scores. Note how the FASTEST HP2133 (1.6GHz and $700!) scores 100 points less than the $400 EeePC at 630MHz. That would be roughly 10% less CPU performance at more than DOUBLE the clock speed. Table copied/pasted right from the review linked above.

Notebook PCMark05 Score
HP 2133 Mini-Note (1.6GHz VIA C7-M ULV) 801 PCMarks
HTC Shift (800MHz Intel A110) 891 PCMarks
Asus Eee PC 4G (630MHz Intel Celeron M ULV) 908 PCMarks
Asus Eee PC 4G (900MHz Intel Celeron M ULV) 1,132 PCMarks
Everex CloudBook (1.2GHz VIA C7-M ULV)
612 PCMarks

Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600) 2,446 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook P7230 (1.2GHz Intel Core Solo U1400) 1,152 PCMarks
Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B (1.33GHz Core Solo U1500) 1,554 PCMarks
Toshiba Portege R500 (1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600) 1,839 PCMarks

Now, lest everyone think I'm totally bashing the HP; I'm not. Keyboard/looks/layout/build quality/features/screen/res wise, it's perfect. I love it and would've bought it today if not for the totally crappy CPU performance. The review also notes that the thing runs hot (complete w/graphics showing hotspots) and the fan whine is noticeable.

It's rightfully debatable that if you're buying a super-mini-notebook like this, you don't need/won't get super performance. These boxes are only for surfing/emailing/light office apps. True. But if that's the game, why not spend $300 less and get a faster, quieter, cooler-running box to begin with?

That's what I'm asking myself right now. The HP is freaking beautiful and the KB certainly beats the snot out of the EeePCs...but look at the support/community the Eee has...hard to beat that. Asus even sends you a Windows Driver CD with every EeePC, even though they come with Xandros Linux out of the box.

I'll be waiting a few months to see how all this shakes out. If HP dropped the price of the top-line model to $500, they wouldn't be able to ship them fast enough to supply the demand.

 

[aceO07]

If the HP 2133 went with a decent Intel cpu and dumped the trackpad for a trackpoint, it'd rock.

 

[Vesku]

I don't see any reason to get more than the basic version. If you're getting the HP going from the 1GHz to 1.6Ghz Via won't take you to a new tier of performance. I guess if you have some really memory intensive app you want to run on it you might spend more for RAM. I don't commute by train or anything so if I need a portable I'm probably going to buy a cheap 15.4 laptop in the same price range ($400-500).

 

[MichaelD]

Link to HP site showing comparison of all Mini-Note models.

$50 over the base price of $500 gets you substantial upgrades. The CPU is 200MHz faster (and with the Via C7 you need all the MHz you can get), you get 1GB of RAM vs. 512MB and a 120GB HD vs. the 4GB flash module of the base model.

I'd say that is $50 very well spent and that $50 is a very fair price for what you get; you couldn't buy a 120GB laptop drive and 1GB of RAM for $50 on your own. I'm not sure if you could just "plug and play" a laptop HD into the 4GB flash model. I would guess "yes" though.

Side Note: I think $500 for the base model is $50 too high. MHO.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
$50 over the base price of $500 gets you substantial upgrades. The CPU is 200MHz faster (and with the Via C7 you need all the MHz you can get), you get 1GB of RAM vs. 512MB and a 120GB HD vs. the 4GB flash module of the base model.

Not only 200MHz more, but if you delve into the specs the FSB is 2x. Base 1GHz chip runs on 400MHz FSB and the 1.2/1.6GHz chips run on 800MHz FSB.

HDDs are SATA and are 5400/7200RPM, so I think they're regular 2.5" sized instead of the 1.8" which are AFAIK all PATA and 3600/4200RPM.

Unfortunately the larger screen and larger HDD takes a toll, with HDD models weighing 2.8 pounds.

What's battery life with the two available batteries? If anywhere near claimed, I'm liking the Cloudbook with the 5 hour battery.

 

[frostedflakes]

Unfortunately I think I've read the Cloudbook doesn't get anywhere close to its 5 hour claimed battery. Expect closer to 3 hours, which is on-par with the EEE PC using 5.2Ah battery.

According to the notebookreview writeup (linked to earlier in this thread), 2h 15m for the 3-cell and 4h 11m for the 6-cell.

If you want some insane battery life and don't mind Taiwan batteries, 10.4Ah batteries have started to show up on eBay for the EEE PC. Based on what I've read people haven't had much trouble squeezing 5 hours out of them, and with light usage you could probably hit 6+.

 

[abaez]

Yep, I have a 10.4 one for the EEE. Sticks out, but 5 hours for that battery, plus 3 hours for the regular one makes it very very nice.

Cost 90$ though

 

[frostedflakes]

Neat, I was thinking about picking one up sometime. How's the quality (i.e. is it similar in color to the EEE, does it fit well, etc.)?

 

[abaez]

Buy from username lycfeng on ebay. Quality is good and it doesn't need a jumpstart like some other batteries.

There is a 12 page thread at the eeeuser forums in the external hardware - someone posted some photos around post #180.

 

[BD2003]

Everything about it looked great - great screen, big keyboard, perfect size - and then I see how bad the processor is, and it's dead to me. I'm sure they'll get it right eventually though.

 

[frostedflakes]

Thanks for the info abaez.

Benchmarks don't do the Via justice IMO. As far as OS responsiveness goes, I doubt you'd notice any difference between the C7 and 630MHz Celly in the EEE PC. The only time you'd probably see a difference is with stuff like gaming, encoding, compression, image editing, etc., which is not what these UMPCs are designed to be used for anyways.

If I got one, though, first thing I'd do is wipe the Vista install and do nLite XP or a light Linux distro. I have nLite XP on my EEE and am incredibly impressed by how snappy it is (how fast it boots as well, Windows is fully loaded up in like 30s). Also reduced writes to the disk by turning off a lot of unnecessary services and other stuff.

 

[punchkin]

Guys, the processor differences don't matter for things most work people do on their computers. This machine would be great for taking notes.

 

[aldamon]

Originally posted by: punchkin
Guys, the processor differences don't matter for things most work people do on their computers. This machine would be great for taking notes.

Unless your professor starts talking while this thing is still booting.

 

[punchkin]

Originally posted by: aldamon

Originally posted by: punchkin
Guys, the processor differences don't matter for things most work people do on their computers. This machine would be great for taking notes.

Unless your professor starts talking while this thing is still booting.

I haven't booted in over four months, the last time I installed software. Why shut your computer off? I don't know much about Linux, but suspend/resume works flawlessly on Windows.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: punchkin

Originally posted by: aldamon

Originally posted by: punchkin
Guys, the processor differences don't matter for things most work people do on their computers. This machine would be great for taking notes.

Unless your professor starts talking while this thing is still booting.

I haven't booted in over four months, the last time I installed software. Why shut your computer off? I don't know much about Linux, but suspend/resume works flawlessly on Windows.

no reboots for security updates?

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Originally posted by: aldamon

Originally posted by: punchkin
Guys, the processor differences don't matter for things most work people do on their computers. This machine would be great for taking notes.

Unless your professor starts talking while this thing is still booting.

thats where the SSD helps... right?

does the SSD in this or the EEE actually help it boot faster?