![]() ![]() Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play ![]() And it's admirably free of "crapware," that annoying-and often intrusive-third-party stuff which PC manufacturers so often pack into their systems. And you get a lot more: a 120 GB hard drive, 2 GB of RAM, a Windows operating system (I got Vista Business, though to be honest I would have preferred XP) and, hence, compatibility with lots of standard software. At up to $749, it's more expensive than the Asus, but the Mini-Note still comes at less than half the price of most Windows ultraportables out there. Eee as I type, those flaws of confinement make Hewlett-Packard's Mini-Note 2133 laptop look pretty appealing. I've used it a good deal since (as have the thousands flocking to buy it), but even the Goliath-beating Asus can be frustrating: The keyboard is usable but a bit cramped, and the little guy comes pre-loaded with applications that are fine as far as they go-but it doesn't run standard software. version of Asus' Eee PC, and found it a solid Web-and-email tool-at a pretty affordable price. So while I've already tested some of the latest tablets for PM, now I'm fully invested in the new form-factor craze spreading through Gadget Land: mini-laptops.Īfter drooling over it at CES earlier this year, I got my hands on the tiny, 7-in. The 2133 measures 165 by 33 by 255mm, making it slightly wider than an Eee PC.Trying to keep up my blog while grading finals means I need a serious to-go computer. It's also approximately 300g heavier at 1.3kg. While it's far from cumbersome, it's definitely eaten a few more pies than its Asus rival.īy making the 2133 bigger, HP has been able to incorporate a relatively large, spill-proof keyboard. This stretches all the way to the left and right edges of the chassis, allowing the keys to be significantly larger than those on the Eee PC. HP says the keyboard is 92 per cent of the size of a 'standard' laptop keyboard, but we'd say many of the keys are actually larger, and more comfortable than what you get on some bigger laptops.Īlthough HP gets it right with the keyboard, it doesn't follow suit with the mouse. ![]() The trackpad is extremely shallow, which means you'll need more vertical finger strokes than you would on a standard trackpad. The selector buttons are also a pain - and they're in the wrong place. Instead of sitting below it, they're located on the left and right of the trackpad. This arrangement takes some time getting used to and we can't help but thinking HP should have also provided a nipple-style mouse as seen on many IBM laptops. The 2133's display measures 8.9 inches diagonally, so it's the same size as the Eee PC 900. Still, it takes the upper hand by running at a native resolution of 1,280x768 pixels. Unfortunately, the bezel, which houses the integrated speakers, is quite large, meaning the 2133's screen appears smaller than it is. In fact, the smallness of the screen and the largeness of the keyboard make the whole thing look out of proportion - like it's made up of two halves of different laptops.Ĭonnectivity is adequate. On the left, there's a D-Sub VGA port, a USB port and mic and headphone jacks. The right side is home to Ethernet, a second USB port and ExpressCard and SD card readers. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are standard equipment.Īt the front, you'll find sliding switches for the power and wireless adaptors. You'll find two main versions of the 2133 on sale: one that uses SuSE Linux, and one that uses Windows Vista Business edition. You get ExpressCard and SD Card readers on the machine's left side It's also possible to find versions of the 2133 with Windows XP on sale at selected retailers. The Vista and Linux versions have similar specifications. They both use a CPU that's the computing equivalent of a lame horse - a 1.2GHz VIA C7-M. The Vista model gets 2GB of RAM - 128MB of which is allocated to the graphics card, while the Linux model uses 1GB. ![]()
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