VaKo Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 This is the utterly gorgeous HP Mini-Note 2133, a netbook for grown-ups. I'm really tempted to get one simply because of the looks, the fact that its made from metal, has a 92% full sized keyboard, gives me the option of running vista (although i really want to try FreeBSD) and has a 1280 x 768 screen (8.9"). Its only about 50£ more than a EEE PC 901 20GB, which I'm also considering. The only problem is that it has a Via C7 processor, which isn't that nippy according to the reviews. Ideally I'd like the 1.6GHz version but HP in there wisdom have deemed that the UK shall only get 1.2GHz, which is even slower than the ones that got poor performance in reviews. But then I read comments from people who actually own them and say that in reality, while its not got much poke, its fine for every day tasks. Then there is the EEE PC 901, which comes with a 20GB SSD and Atom processor, but far more utilitarian in form than the HP. And the Aspire One which Darren recently reviewed. But mainly I'm wondering if anyone here has one or has played with one? What are your thoughts? Wait for a VIA Nano or Intel Atom version or is it fine the way it is? How does it compare to a Atom based system like the recent Asus, MSI or Acer models? I know that performance wise whatever i get for £350 is going to be on par with my 3 year old Dell and Thinkpad, but its the size and form factor thats more appealing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saxon Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 That thing looks great! I must get one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenzer Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 I fell in love with it at first sight, the better monitor is also appealing to me. However, I don't think I'm going to buy one before it gets the Atom processor, or anything comparable, as it would just be to quickly outdated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cripter Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 I've had the Mininote in the UK for just over 3 months now :D I was shown it by a HP beta tester and everything from the casing to the keyboard was so much better than the 7'' EeePc. I ordered the £350 Suse version from Misco with the 120gb HD and 1gb Memory (both of which I've upgraded now.) Currently dual-booting Win XP and OpenSuse - everything works fine The screen quality is excellent as far as i'm concerned and does it purpose for everyday tasks. The only problems I have had: *Can not get wireless to work with BT3 *The motherboard and Fan was replaced last week by HP and they forgot to stick back on the rubber feet on the bottom of the machine - HP tech support is probably the worst I have experienced! *Even with the new fan - the machine gets VERY HOT quickly, after an hour of use - you will burn yourself! Use a fan cooler if you can. *Don't put the lid down if the machine is very hot , some people have had there screens split. They may sound like major problems but overall I'm very happy with the HP2133, its good looking, the keyboard is easy to use, I have no problem with the mouse buttons at either side. If I had waited to today, I probably would have brought the Acer Aspire One with the 120gb HD due to the fact BT3 works out the box and the cost is cheaper yet the casing and keyboard don't seem as good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted September 2, 2008 Author Share Posted September 2, 2008 You know... I think I might just hold off on one given the heat issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenzer Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 You know... I think I might just hold off on one given the heat issues. It may become better with an Atom processor though ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Kitchen Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 I looked at one of these when I got my Aspire One. I was intrigued especially after seeing the custom versions of the HP Mini-note that H.D. Moore (of Metasploit fame) is selling at http://ipwn.mobi/products.html You're right the screen is beautiful, superior to the Acer's mere 1024x600 resolution. They share the same keyboard, only difference is material, which I must say feels wonderful under the finger tips. The all metal case is a dream. The whole thing looks like HP met up with Apple behind the iPod factory and got pregnant. The touch pad takes some getting used to. I'm not sure who came up with the bright idea to put left and right click on opposite sides of the touch pad but let's bake him a cake and shove it in his face. The rest of the hardware specs, aside from the CPU, are comparable to the current crop of netbooks (aspire one, eee pc 901, etc). This is not scientific at all but in the few minutes I was playing with it, it did feel a little sluggish. I'm, not saying the Atom is on par with today's dual cores but as far as mobile chips is concerned I'm quite pleased. Coupled with a good amount of ram I've been able to do my usual mega multitasking office and graphics stuff just fine at work. I'd wait for an Atom version. On another tangent: This reminds me of Pocket PC circa 2000, when you had Casio, HP and Compaq all running the new CE platform. They all ran different processors, HP with SH3, Casio on MIPS, and Compaq on ARM. As the market proved itself and the Compaq iPaq gained a big lead over the others the rest of the OEMs entered the race and things pretty much standardized on ARM. Later on they all went Xscale which was the 5th gen of ARM. I commend Via and Transmeta before them for their effort but as history shows when it comes to these small parts a leader will arise, typically Intel, and everyone will fall in line. You can already see a trend with the wireless chipsets on all these netbooks. Atheros anyone? This is still the beginning of the netbook explosion. Sure we'll all remember Asus and the eee PC as being a big part of starting it but as these little guys become more prevalent you'll see more and more OEMs get into the picture and they'll try all sorts of stuff to differentiate themselves (touch screens, fingerprint scanners) while attempting to copy Asus' success. The more players we have in the area the better since competition will drive innovation and hopefully keep the prices of these guys around that $400 sweet spot. Oh yeah, and if this goes anything like the MP3 player thing did... I'm drawing similarities between the Diamond Rio and the eeePC and all the others little guys catering to a small niche audience which will eventually go mainstream... You may see an Apple or Dell do one (that's not necessarily better) and put big marketing dollars behind it pushing it to the mainstream. No the Macbook Air doesn't count, that's white plastic bling for the cult of mac and I don't think the upcoming Dell 910 is it either, they're going to miss one of the three requirements. 1. Small (Between the size of an eeePC 701 and 1000) 2. Cheap ($300-600, at least two versions about $100 apart) 3. Good enough (enough hardware and performance to do the basics on win or linux) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metatron Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 I picked one up and I really like it. The Via C7 processor is fine for what it's been designed for, I will say you may as well stick 2GB of memory in it and just put in a better wireless card, Atheros based ones are cheap enough. I'd get the 6 cell battery too, only other thing I could recommend hardware wise would be a FPGA ExpressCard solution which a handful of companies produce. On the OS side, I would recommend just doing a base install and configuring Debian. XFce looks nice and then just compiling whatever you need. A look inside http://www.hp2133guide.com/hp-2133-mini-note-dissection/ I picked one up as all other netbooks or whatever the fuck people are calling them feel cheap and largely look like kids toys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted September 2, 2008 Author Share Posted September 2, 2008 Its still really tempting, but go for it now or wait until they do an atom/nano version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metatron Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Its still really tempting, but go for it now or wait until they do an atom/nano version? If you need one get it now there good but if you don't need a new laptop wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 WHat is it with these new laptops and the awkward button configuration for the mouse pads? Darrens acer has the same layout. I like mine right under my thumb, and below the pad, not on either side of it. That would be one big turn off to me, as I hate having to lug around an extra usb mouse just to use the damn thing,as I would probably smash the lappy after a few minutes of using that mouse pad. There is plenty of space in that area to put a proper mouse pad and button setup on those damn things, yet all the smaller netbooks seem to be using that button configuration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueHart Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 personally i could get used to it easily. i'd just use my index, middle, and ring fingers. index to left click, middle to control movement, and either ring or middle finger for right click. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenzer Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 There is plenty of space in that area to put a proper mouse pad and button setup on those damn things, yet all the smaller netbooks seem to be using that button configuration. The MSI Wind hasn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Kitchen Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 Yeah it seems you've got your choice of a decent touch pad and annoying keyboard or annoying touch pad and decent keyboard. Personally using touch pads in general are annoying but the ones with the left and right flanking buttons are especially lame. For most stuff, mousing around and left-clicking it's fine but once you need to right-click-drag you'll find yourself quite perplexed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekio Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 I just wanted to add a little insight to the HP 2133. About 5 hours ago mine arrived from ups. The form factor is great, it is really cool looking, and the keyboard is great. The biggest problem is the heat. This thing is hot!!!! I've been using it for about 5 hours now and need a hot-pad just to pick it up. I'm not joking one bit, if I were to leave my hand on the bottom it would easily get a 3rd degree burn. This makes it very impracticable to use a mobile pc. Much much too hot to sit on your lap. The best way to describe the heat problem with this is to compare it a curling iron. Not hot enough to light a smoke, but enough to cause a minor burn of handled too long! I wanted so bad to like this thing, and thought I had found the ultimate UMPC, Mine is going back to HP ASAP! EDIT: if one ordered this from jr.com and sent in the $100.00 rebate then wait about 2weeks for the rebate to be credited they could really stick it to the man. JR.com has an unconditional 30-day money back guarantee. Just sayin.... EDIT: just to add I've just been surfing the web too. Nothing at all that should heat the CPU like it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr0p Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 This HP looks really nice (especially the full keyboard) but the processor looks to be really slow ;x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekio Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 This HP looks really nice (especially the full keyboard) but the processor looks to be really slow ;x Actually I'm surprised with the little 1.6Ghz Via. It really runs Vista great, no joke. I've got an EEE 1000 series with the 1.6Ghz Atom and they really are similar in speed. OF course the Atom is dualcore and doesn't need to ramp the FSB up to 800Mhz to make up for a lack of power.... With an Atom and SSD drive the thing might actually be usable. However, with the Via, 800Mhz FSB, and a 7200RPM Hdd it is just too hot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonlit Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 Actually I'm surprised with the little 1.6Ghz Via. It really runs Vista great, no joke. I've got an EEE 1000 series with the 1.6Ghz Atom and they really are similar in speed. OF course the Atom is dualcore and doesn't need to ramp the FSB up to 800Mhz to make up for a lack of power.... With an Atom and SSD drive the thing might actually be usable. However, with the Via, 800Mhz FSB, and a 7200RPM Hdd it is just too hot! The Atom present in the eee is not a dual core model but you're correct in saying that it does not have an 800MHz FSB, it is in fact 533MHz. It does, however, support HyperThreading which may appear to an OS as a dual core CPU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted September 30, 2008 Author Share Posted September 30, 2008 I have both the HP and the Dell netbooks now, and in all honesty the Dell isn't much faster than the 1.2Ghz C7 when it comes to using it. Both processors suck balls when it comes to performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swathe Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 So hot the screen cracks?PASS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted September 30, 2008 Author Share Posted September 30, 2008 Doesn't get anywhere near that hot. The case is aluminum and is ment to act like a heat sink. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swathe Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 Well i have never heard of it happening but I know SFA about them just blew me away what was written in the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekio Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 The Atom present in the eee is not a dual core model but you're correct in saying that it does not have an 800MHz FSB, it is in fact 533MHz. It does, however, support HyperThreading which may appear to an OS as a dual core CPU. You are correct. I didn't really pay much attention to it. A while ago I read Intel was coming out with a dual core Atom. Looking in Task Manager I noticed one could set the CPU affinity of the Atom. Guess my logic and assumptions were flawed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekio Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 Doesn't get anywhere near that hot. The case is aluminum and is ment to act like a heat sink. After downloading the latest VIA chipset drivers the heat situation is much improved. HP should really consider putting these on the 2133 download site. Before it was hot as in blister my finger hot. To pick it up after 4hrs use a hot-pad was needed. No Joke! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wetelectric Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 *Even with the new fan - the machine gets VERY HOT quickly, after an hour of use - you will burn yourself! Use a fan cooler if you can. *Don't put the lid down if the machine is very hot , some people have had there screens split. That is fucking insane. Too expensive too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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