Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: mininote, eee, umpc | Themes: Business, Laptops and Notebooks
- 3. Specifications and Benchmarks
- 4. Conclusions: A Real Portable PC at a Decent Price
4. Conclusions: A Real Portable PC at a Decent Price
The battery life and performance might be underwhelming, and the price isn’t the very lowest you can pay for a UMPC, but what you’re paying for here is a solid combination of features that matter in a portable computer. It has a full set of ports, a version of Wi-Fi that will work everywhere you go, a real (shock-resistant) hard drive and a full, familiar operating system.
Most important of all, the excellent keyboard that means you can do real work when you carry the MiniNote with you, and if you spill your coffee on the keyboard it should survive. With all that, the MiniNote feels as if it should cost more than it does. It’s a real PC that’s small and light enough to carry around; solid and sturdy enough to stand up to being carried around, and so well designed you’ll want to take it with you.
The processor in the MiniNote is a Via C7-M; we looked at the 1.2 GHz model, but 1.6 GHz is an option as well. And while there is a version with just 4 GB of flash memory and 512 MB of RAM for $499, the standard configuration has a 120 GB hard drive, 1 GB or 2 GB of memory, and a choice of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, Windows XP, Windows Vista Home Basic or Vista Business. With Linux or Vista Home Basic, a 1.2 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM and a 5400 RPM 120 GB hard drive, the price is still only $549 (Linux) or $599 (Vista Home Basic). The 2 GB Vista Business model has a 1.6 GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM and a 6-cell battery for $749 or $849, depending on whether you pick the 120 GB or 160 GB 7200 RPM drive. The price of the Windows XP model will be revealed in June. For the record, the Vye mini-v S37 sells for around $800.
As always, expect prices to drop over time. HP also plans a version with a solid state drive later in the year; there’s no price for that yet, and HP won’t confirm the capacity of the SSD, other than to say it will be larger than 64 GB and based on planned Intel drives.
Read our review of the Asus Eee PC.
- Previous page Specifications and Benchmarks
Reminds me so much of the Fujitsu P1120 I used to own back in 2003 - same 8.9″ screen, 2.5″ HDD, Windows XP, non-Intel CPU, same keyboard layout, battery, PC card slot… The resemblance is remarkable. It’s as if HP took the P1120 shell, redesigned it and stuffed it with 2008 hardware.
For $499, this kicks Asus EEE butt. The $749 top-spec version will make $1799 MacBook Air owners go into rehab.
I could throw in a 320 (or 500 if I wait) gigabyte hard drive in this device and retire my portable DVD player/Archos. With a wireless broadband card, it is small enough to sit down with ANYWHERE and instantly blog/email etc. Load up Cool Edit Pro on this and with the right audio cable you can transform it into a highly portable recording/editing/mixing deck. This mini-note is just a KILLER device.
I suspect HP is closely scrutinizing early reviews of the unit, because even THEY must know XP on this is sure to run better, and if VIA does offer better performance with Isaiah, then you can bet this is just an introductory product and HP may offer something better in the near future.
I had my eye on a tx2000t. Yes, that's the C2D version, until HP suddenly pulled it from the market. I'd like to know what else HP has in the works.
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inqu [...] l-atom-cpu
check this out also...http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inqu [...] l-atom-cpu
I'd like to see how that 1.8GHz speed works in real life with Vista.
Mary - you know XP will be off the market soon. Knowing M$, I wouldn't be surprised if they push (cough*force*cough) hardware manufacturers to develop better hardware. XP may get a few more months of final sales with the OLPC arrangement that's in place right now, but in the long term even these devices will have to saddle up with Vista - which is why I'm sure there has to be better products coming down the road. I cannot think keeping XP alive is in the best interests of M$. They want to sell Vista - it barely runs on it, but M$ wants to sell it.
I'm surprised how very little battery time the HP gets though - my little Fujitsu ran for over 4 hours on the regular battery, and would probably have easily done 7 hours with an extended battery.