HP 2133 Mini-Note PC

It didn't take long for PC makers to realize the gold mine ASUS struck with its Eee PC 4G. The Eee PC is a sleek, 2.2-pound ultraportable that costs less than $400—something the UMPC platform had promised but failed to deliver. Now, manufacturers are mobilizing to create an Eee PC "killer," so to speak. The HP 2133 Mini-Note PC ($749 direct) has the potential to be just that. It sports a sexy, 3-pound design, has features similar to the Eee PC, and offers a variety of operating systems to choose from. Even more compelling, however, is that this miniature device can be used by kindergarteners or top-level executives alike, and is affordable to most families with schoolchildren. My configuration was relatively expensive; others start as low as $499—a price that HP had to nail down in order for the Mini-Note to fly.

The Mini-Note is designed to look like a $2,000 machine. The anodized aluminum that HP draped all over the exterior is absolutely gorgeous. It makes this tiny laptop look like a darker, miniature Apple MacBook Pro. The Mini-Note is about as well made as the HTC Shift but costs only half as much. Not as light as the 2.2-pound ASUS Eee PC 4G, it weighs 2.8 pounds with the three-cell battery and 3.2 pounds with the six-cell battery that my test unit came with. Although the Mini-Note isn't pocketable like the Fujitsu LifeBook U810, carrying it around the country or the city is still an absolute joy.

The masterful design is carried over to the interior, where a frameless screen and a wonderful keyboard reside. The 8.9-inch screen is bigger and brighter than the Eee PC's 7-inch display. "Frameless" refers to the glossy coating on the screen that extends to the screen's borders, making it look like a miniature HDTV, complete with a pair of speakers along the sides. Further, the size of the screen keeps text or images at its native 1,280-by-768 resolution from looking unbearably tiny. By contrast, the HTC Shift sports an 800-by-480 resolution, but because of the Shift's smaller screen size, HTC had to put in a resolution toggle switch (to 1,024-by-600), allowing users to fit more content on the screen.

HP did a nice job of masking the fact that the keyboard scale is 92 percent, not full size. There's barely any spacing between each key, giving the illusion of a bigger keyboard. Typing up this review on the Mini-Note was almost as comfortable as it would have been on a mainstream laptop with a full-size keyboard and is hands-down better than the Eee PC's keyboard. The placement of the mouse buttons, however, is questionable because they are adjacent to the touchpad. In other words, when navigating with two fingers (with the index finger on the touchpad and your thumb on the left-click button), you have to use a third finger to click on the right mouse button. The other way would be to use two hands to surf (one to left-click, the other for the touchpad and right-click button), which is awkward. I'm surprised HP didn't use a pointing stick as it did on its Compaq 2710p, in which the mouse buttons are properly placed—below the pointing device. HP has informed me that the touchpad was used because the Mini-Note's intended audience—K-12 students—prefer it over a pointing stick.

The two USB ports are one shy of matching the Eee PC's three, but the Mini-Note has an ExpressCard slot for devices like a 3G ExpressCard for cellular broadband. Like the Eee PC, it comes with an SD slot for those who will be carrying around their digital cameras. The Wi-Fi on/off switch located on the bezel controls both Bluetooth and 802.11a/b/g (that is, if you put the switch to "off," it turns off both Bluetooth and 802.11 functions). The built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam is a necessary add-on given the prevalence of video chat clients like AOL and Skype. The lack of an optical drive is understandable given the Mini-Note's tiny size, but because of the storage options, most users can easily live without one. For instance, you can rip or download DVD movies onto your hard drive instead of carrying a USB optical drive.

For local storage, you have several options. You can choose 5,400- and 7,200-rpm drives with either 120GB or 160GB capacities. Other options are 4GB (solely for Linux-based configs) and 64GB SSDs. As they are much more rugged, the solid-state flash drives can give you some peace of mind. The 7,200-rpm spinning hard drive on the Mini-Note configuration I tested gives you bigger capacity, but heat issues are an uncomfortable side effect. Temperatures, as measured by my Fluke infrared thermometer, went up as high as 103° F at the bottom of the system.

HP opted out of using Intel technology, which is surprising considering Intel's recent announcement of the Atom Centrino platform (available as of April 2)—the next-generation (and supposedly affordable solution) for UMPCs and ultra mobile platforms. Instead, the Mini-Note runs a VIA C7-M 1.6-GHz processor, accompanied by VIA integrated graphics. Similar to the components found on the OQO model 02, they do a decent job with general-purpose computing tasks. Yet they're not as energy efficient as Intel processors, and there are heat issues.

My configuration runs Windows Vista Business—not the best choice in operating systems, but it ran smoothly—to a point. If you keep workloads light and steer clear of heavy-duty security and graphics applications, it will be fine. It also helped that this configuration loaded 2GB of RAM, which unfortunately is the maximum amount the Mini-Note will take. Still, an operating system like Windows XP Professional would bring a better and smoother user experience.

BAPCo's SYSmark 2007 Preview raw performance tests and the MobileMark 2007 battery test failed to run, not because of processing power but rather due to the limitations of the benchmark tests. (HP is reporting 4 hours for the six-cell 55-Wh battery and 2 hours for the three-cell, which looks about right based on my experience.) The Mini-Note did complete the video encoding test, although its scores lagged behind those of the HTC Shift by more than 10 percent and behind those of the Samsung Q1 Ultra by more than 15 percent. The latter two systems have Intel processors. We didn't try it on the CineBench R10 tests, which we use for dual-core processors, because the Mini-Note has only a single-core processor. Its performance test scores, in my opinion, are comparable with those of the ASUS Eee PC 4G, which has a Celeron M processor. Although the Adobe Photoshop CS3 test installed successfully, the Mini-Note's score (4 minutes 6 seconds) was not flattering.

HP considers my $749 configuration an ideal one for students and business travelers who want to get the most out of the Mini-Note. For K-12 students, the beauty is that HP offers the model at a more affordable $499 with SuSE Linux, a VIA C7-M 1-GHz processor, and 512MB of RAM—very similar to the specs of the Eee PC 4G. A $599 configuration comes with a 1.2-GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and a Windows operating system (either Vista Basic or XP).

There is a wealth of options available for the Mini-Note. You can configure it as you would any HP business laptop, which is not the case with the ASUS Eee PC, the HTC Shift, and the Samsung Q1 Ultra. That's the advantage of being the number one PC distributor in the world. Keep in mind, too, that the price on this system can climb to around $1,000 or more if you tack on features such as a 64GB SSD drive, additional batteries, and other accessories. But at least HP offers them.

Although the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC is not quite the ASUS Eee PC killer, it's still a force to be reckoned with in the ultra-mobile space. It blows past the HTC Shift, the Fujitsu LifeBook U810, and the Samsung Q1 Ultra, with a superior design that's both functional and alluring. Though performance could use a boost, the Mini-Note is perfectly capable of handling various workloads as long as you load the right operating system. This device's most compelling aspect, however, is that you can actually go out and buy it for about $500. Until now, that was a price point only ASUS could pull off.

Check out the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC's test scores.

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