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The HP mini-note 2133

Pros – stylish and robust chassis, excellent resolution screen, great keyboard

Cons – mediocre performance from an underspecced processor, poor battery life, unintuitive operating system


Summary
Looks to die for at a great price but don’t expect too much under the bonnet!
One look at the HP sets it apart from the ubiquitous Eee range from Asus. It looks and feels rugged and stylish in every way. The keyboard and screen are first class too. So how do they achieve the ca. £220 price point? Well, switch it on and you’ll find out. The HP is quite simply underpowered. The battery is weedy and the VIA processor is no match for an Intel Atom. So the HP Mininote 2133
netbook is a great choice if you want an eye catcher for a great price and IF you don’t mind the performance.

First Glance
Phew, what have we here? The HP Mininote 2133 takes your breath away. Look along the shelf at your local PC World and this baby jumps out at you. It’s beautifully stylish in a magnesium alloy finish. It has a classy and expensive feel. Ok so the Asus Eee PC S101 is a style icon with its sleek lines and fab colours but the HP looks stylish in a ‘workhorse’ kind of way. Pick it up and you’ll see it’s all but bullet-proof with zero flex. The 8.9 inch screen has a top notch 1280 x 768 resolution with crystal clear vision. Add to that a 92% keyboard (with only the function keys being slightly reduced) which again blows the Eee series out of the water. The touchpad is ok – takes a bit of getting used to as it feels a little cramped but HP do let you disable it if you are in the middle of typing to avoid slips. The mouse buttons are pushed to the side of the touchpad – not intuitive but you get used to it.

The Essentials
So far so good so let’s open the bonnet. The processor is a VIA C7-M ULV running at 1.2Ghz with 1024 Ram. And that’s where the problems begin. This processor is no match for the mighty Atom from Intel. It struggles with all but the basic applications. The basic operating system is Linux based but it’s not a match for Eee’s Xandros version. It’s not intuitive and takes a lot of configuring. OK you think so switch to the Vista Business version (£50 upgrade). Well, it’s easier to use but then you now the lack of power in the processor really comes to the fore. It’s a total mismatch with the HP Mininote 2133 struggling to cope with basic tasks.
The standard 3 cell battery is a real let down also – It struggles to reach 2 hours through normal usage and at full tilt you don’t’ get much over 1 hour 15 minutes! OK so what about the good news? – well take a peek at the storage – 120Gb standard HDD is good for a small netbook. Less robust maybe than an SSD but in this superior casing we don’t forsee a problem

What more do you need to know?
As with all things external the HP Mininote 2133 is well equipped with ports and connectors. Webcam and Bluetooth are options. SD memory card and ethernet port are standard. The sound from the speakers is pretty good.

Options
- Windows or Linux
- Webcam
- bluetooth