HP 2133 Mini-Note PC Review

It has been great to be attending the Mini-Note’s Singapore launch in Mezza9 bar, Hyatt Hotel. The event is organized by HP together with Waggener Edstrom, a PR Agency. Thanks to Melvin Yuan, it is an interesting that brings together many technology bloggers to review this new HP 2133 Mini-Note PC which was unveiled in Engadget two days back. It adds to the other mini PCs, for example, Macbook Air, Asus Eee PC and OLPC and the competition for consumers to purchase mini PCs of such form factors below US$500 (other than the Macbook Air which commands a higher price) is now beginning to take shape in the months ahead. Here is what I think about the product after getting the chance to preview the product that will be coming out in May. (Updated on 12 April 2008 with video made by Miccheng and Tech65).

I have a confession to make. Before my current Mac G4 powerpc 15" laptop, I had held a HP laptop (6100 series) that accompanied me for six years. That product was very robust and was responsible for my masters and PhD thesis. Similarly, the HP laser printer I bought along the same time, lasted 5 years. So, to be honest, I do have a certain amount of expectation and faith in their new product. What surprised me at first, given that I have seen the picture of the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC in Engadget, is that it is slightly smaller than what I have expected. This is perhaps, the first time when I attended a tech event to find at least one PC they brought containing Linux. In fact, I was brought straight to look at the HP 2133 PC that contains the SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 inside. So, it did not disappoint that it has all the necessary ingredients of the Linux Operating System including the command line console that I seek often in UNIX systems.

So here are my thoughts about the product after playing with the device for a while:

• Design Form Factor from the Keyboard: If MacBook Air is designed from the perspective of the 13" screen, the ASUS Eee PC from a small size of 6" and the OLPC and Intel Classmate PC from the perspective of durability and energy savings for developing countries, then this HP 2133 Mini-Note PC starts from the perspective of a keyboard. Definitely, compare to the ASUS Eee PC, the keyboard is ideal for adult users, since I have difficulty typing in the ASUS Eee PC. That comment on form factor I must credit it to Preetam. While talking to several bloggers in the party, it is unanimously agreed among all that the keyboard is one of the good things that have happened for this mini-PC and I think that this is ideal for people who wants to travel and type reports. One improvement on the design form factor which I hope to see for the future is to enlarge the trackpad size from top to bottom. The reason is that when you try to use the mousepad to mark some words in a document, the space might be too small for you fingers to stretch the marker across.
• Battery Life requires more improvement: Without the special battery component, the mini-PC runs about 2 hours. If added with the battery, it can go as long as 4 hours.
• Hope to have Ubuntu Linux soon: Despite the HP Mini-Note PC supports Linux, it would be ideal to have Ubuntu installed instead of SUSE. SUSE is pretty good for enterprise Linux software, but somehow, I think Ubuntu Linux is ideal for mini-PCs as it has been demonstrated Asus Eee PC and OLPC. Of course, that would not come so soon. Yes, Open Office is inside the mini-PC, for those who need word processing, spreadsheets and powerpoints, everything is inside.
  
• The beautiful skins for the HP Mini-Note: Van Tan has managed to capture interesting shots of the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC with an interesting skin.
• The speakers of the HP2133 is loud: In a very busy bar with a lot of noise, the speakers for this mini-laptop are pretty loud, at least I can hear the music from a distance. That's pretty good to compressed so many peripherals into a small PC like this.

Nevertheless, I am now considering to get this HP Mini-Note PC (with the Linux OS inside) for travelling purposes. In any case, it was a great gathering, where I happen to meet many old friends here: Jerrick, NTT and Fairnelli from Tech65, Michael Cheng (who is busy filming the product and I look forward to see the video soon), Van Tan, Ming Shen (CEO - Nuffnang), Nicholas Aaron Khoo, Hillary Chan, Priscilla, Estee, Coleman Yee,  Preetam Rai,  Peter Du, DK, Nicole, Simply Jean, Juzzy Wurzy and  many others who I failed to mention.

Photos: Taken by me using Michael's camera - (i) The first one is the HP 2133 with an optical drive (see if u can see it because it is very dim), and (ii) SUSE Linux on HP 2133.

Video of the Event by Miccheng

Channel65: HP 2133 Mini-Note PC - Singapore Blogger's Preview from Michael Cheng on Vimeo.

---

Comments

[Bernard Leong]

Hey, Kevin,

I am trying to find which part I talked about the price but I did not indicate any. I did at the start of the article mentioned that the Macbook Air price is out of the range. The only comparison I made is on the form factor between these ultra portables.

[Kevin]

The price comparison most of you made is invalid. The MacBook Air isn't in this low-powered, low-cost processor category which is what these Asus Eees and OLPC are in. It ranks together with the Sony ultra-portables (Sony TX, umpcs) which use Core 2 Duo chips. These are clearly meant for more mainstream performance, thus the higher price.