HP 2133 Mini-Note

The “Connecting Your World” Event in Berlin

Today at the Connecting Your World event HP unveiled a heap of new laptops and some other miscellaneous PCs. The most interesting part of their announcement was new Voodoo Envy Laptops. Overall the Envy is even slimmer than the MacBook Air and it looks pretty sweet too. (So it’s not just a clever name)  Unfortunately there was no mention of a Mini-Note refresh.

With no announcement of a Nano CPU refresh of the Mini-Note made today, it makes think it might not happen. The Nano is an easy upgrade for HP to make so today would have been perfect to at least announce an updated Mini-Note would be coming soon. Also with the supposed shortage of Intel’s Atom CPU in coming months, the Nano is a great choice. TongFang already has a netbook with Nano in it…why not HP?

On the other hand, it might just be too soon for an upgrade. They might not want to anger any corporate and educational customers that have already bought in on the C7-M models. So it’s hard to say…

At any rate, we’ll just have to wait and see a little longer.

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Mini-Note Batteries Showing Up on HP.com

*UPDATE*

Looks like we may have got some bad info on the batteries… In the comments Heather posted her chat log with an HP rep who said these batteries weren’t for the Mini-Note. So who knows at this point… Sorry for any confusion.

Over on the our forums caelum found some part numbers and xboiledeggx looked them up on the HP Parts Store as and they’re listed as “Part is orderable, please call 1-800-227-8164 for availability.”

#482262-001 3-Cell for $207.10

#482263-001 6-Cell for $191.90

I just spoke with an HP rep who gave me this link for the 3-cell battery that lists it as “Part is in stock” instead of call for availability. Not sure what the difference is yet. Unfortunately the battery is $207.10…ouch. She said the 6-cell battery part number was still KU528AA but wasn’t available yet.

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New Open Book subnotebook reference design from VIA

If you’ve visited any tech blogs today you’ve no doubt seen all the info there is to been seen on the reference design, so I’ll spare you all that.

However Laptop Magazine does have an initial hands-on review of the New Open Book which contains a quote of interest to most Mini-Note users:

We were hoping to see the much-anticipated Isaiah chip, in the hopes that it would add battery life or performance for a price that would sway potential Intel Atom OEM partnerships, but VIA actually has no plans to include the Isaiah processor in mini notebooks anytime soon. Company spokesperson Richard Brown says VIA is not concentrating Isaiah on mini notebooks, but rather, that the chip is intended for higher-priced 12- to 14-inch systems. Brown also insists that the C7-M can still beat out Intel’s Atom processor in terms of voltage, battery life, and performance, so long as it’s paired with the right graphics chipset

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My First UMPC

A little off topic…

In 1999, before the term “ultra mobile personal computer” even existed, I bought my first UMPC used from a friend. The Compaq C140 served me well for a year and a half before being forgotten to a random box. The C140 was a heck of a machine:

• Processor: 133 MHz SH-3 RISC
• Memory: 6MB (Used as system and file storage memory, originally 4MB)
• Screen: 5.25″ Monochrome LCD Screen @ 480×240, 2 Bit color depth (4 grey levels)
• Ports: Infrared, PCMCIA, Serial
• Windows CE

OK, it was no speed demon but for typing and solitaire it was great. I could play a mean game of solitaire on the C140 - single card draw completed in 90 seconds or less. You can see the wear marks up in the top left hand corner of the screen:

When I wasn’t playing solitaire the other main use was typing notes for my business law class. I got really good at touch typing with only three fingers on that tiny keyboard. (Yeah, keep crying eeePC users )

I remember how exciting it was to have this little computer in my hand and thinking about what sort of cool stuff would be coming in the future. The Mini-Note is the only thing that has even started to give me that same sense of wonderment since the C140. With this current wave of sub-notebooks I think we’re finally getting on the right track for the “perfect” portable computer. In another 5 years we’ll have nailed it.

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Mini-Note SuSE Linux Restore Disc Images Now Available

HP has released the SuSE Linux disc images for the Mini-Note online that you can use to install or restore SuSE from. Until now there was no way to reinstall SuSE on to the Mini-Note if you messed something up on the factory install. The discs are driver complete as well, so wireless and bluetooth should work right away. Anyone know if the restore images of SuSE have the necessary drivers for hardware 3d acceleration?

I’ll try installing it this weekend and post a video or two on it.

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New Mini-Note Models are up with Custom Config as Well!

HP has new Mini-Note models up as well as a custom config option! Check them out.

In the comments Heather posted a chat she had with an HP rep which states that XP will come pre-loaded with XP and a Vista Business install CD so you can upgrade in the future.

Update:

Alrighty, looks like the pricing and spec details we got on the new Mini-Note models were correct. We did get wrong (half) the release dates, the no custom-configuration and XP as a preload option. The initial tip did say two models on Monday and two on Thursday so maybe something else is still coming.

I’m not sure if their pre-config is broke, but right now it’s only letting me have the 1.6Ghz processor, 2GB and 120GB HD with Vista Business, the 1.2Ghz with Vista Home and the either the 1.2/1.0Ghz CPU and either the 4GB SSD/120GB 5400RPM with SLED. It’s basically locking you into what is available on the pre-config’ed Mini-Notes. Since the pages are pretty new it’s probably just temporary error on their part…if not it defeats the purpose.

I find it pretty shady what HP is doing by pushing the XP downgrade. Remember if you get Vista Business you can downgrade to XP for free anyways. HP isn’t doing you some favor with these new offerrings. Unless you really, really need another 40GB, the KX870AT ($749, Vista Business, 1.6Ghz, 2GB, 120GB 7200 RPM HD) is the best purchase of all the Windows based models.

Update #2 (8:24am CST)

The custom-config option seems to be working properly and isn’t locking us into the general model configs. Curiously SLED and Vista Business are missing from the OS options. Only Vista Home and “Vista Downgrade to XP Professional” are available. Going for the XP downgrade will run you an extra $50. For CPU options the 1.2Ghz and 1.6Ghz processors are available, and you can get either 1 or 2GB of memory. On the hard drives, you can get any of the drives available on the pre-configs: 4GB SSD, 120GB at 5400 or 7200RPM, and the 160GB at 5400RPM. You’re locked into the 6-cell battery and the wireless a/b/g with bluetooth chipset.

For now it seems the pre-configs are your best bet because the custom-configs are ridiculously over priced. For $839 I could get a Mini-Note with Vista Home, 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 120GB 5400RPM hard drive, with the 6 cell battery and the a/b/g wireless with bluetooth. For $240 less you can get the preconfig w/o bluetooth and the 3 cell battery instead…No thanks HP.

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New Mini-Note Models coming on Monday and Thursday?

A very nice young lady from the middle east got to chatting with an HP rep today and sent her the following:

The rep also said he had not heard about any user configurable options, so I’m not sure what’s up with that. They are however offering XP as an install option.

The pricing structure seems to off on this, but when the Mini-Note was released they did have one for $849 that had the 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB RAM and Vista Home… so it could be these are not the finalized prices.

I just called HP and they confirmed that XP will be available on the 15th, but she couldn’t say if it was pre-installed or CD only. I’ll call again shortly.

Thanks again “that chick from Israel”!

Update: I called twice more and the rep said that XP is coming out for sure on the 15th…but the second rep didn’t have a clue when it was coming out. He could only “assume” it would be “soon”.

Update 2: I just did a chat and got this:

Jay: Good afternoon! My name is Jay, chatting from beautiful Colorado, and please give me a moment to review the chat so far.

Jay: Hello, and thanks for looking to HP’s award winning line of business notebooks. I see you have a question on the newly released 2133, and when an xp loaded mini is available. Next week we will be offering 4 new mini models preloaded with xp.

Guest: awesome

Jay: Does that work, and did you have another question for me on the popular 2133 mini?

So here they come!

Update 3: I was digging and some more and found this ultralight notebook comparison page which lists XP as an option for the Mini-Note

Digg this: http://digg.com/hardware/New_HP_2133_Mini_Note_Model_Info_Leaked

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Improving High-definition Video Playback on the Mini-Note

Over in the First Impressions of XP on the Mini-Note post, Peach1200 suggested I try the K-Lite Mega Codec pack and Media Player Classic on some high-definition QuickTime videos. I was very impressed by the results. The 480p and 720p QuickTime trailers and some 720p WMV movies played back flawlessly in Media Player Classic. It really is a night and day difference. Thanks for sharing that Peach!

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Mini-Note Sleeve Case Winner

The winner of our forums contest is skullhead. Congratulations on winning the Waterfield Designs sleeve case!

Check back next week for a new contest!

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Is HP going to stick with VIA, or switch to Intel?

Laptop Magazine recently interviewed Kyle Thornton, HP’s product manager for the Mini-Note. What has drawn the most attention to the interview is the following question:

Laptop Magazine: What is your take on the upcoming Intel Atom platform? Do you see it beating out VIA?
Kyle Thornton: I think it’s too early to call a winner. HP is talking to both Intel and VIA and we are in the middle of this discussion. We will make a decision for future road maps in due time. In the same platform, we probably won’t offer both options. We will settle on one.

Mr. Thornton tries to throw some uncertainty into the mix of whether or not the upcoming models of the Mini-Note will stay with Via. I don’t know if this was intentional, or just posturing to remind Via they’re not the only chips in town. I do know that it would be completely ridiculous for HP to redesign the Mini-Note for the Atom chip when Via’s new Isaiah chip will just pop right in with no changes to the rest of the hardware. Redesign, re-certify and re-tool the manufacturing process, or just plug something a little different in?

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