HP Mini 2140 new contender for 10-inch netbook crown

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 18 February 2009 02:22

IT Industry - Market

So far I have not heard a bad word about the HP Mini 2140 netbook PC and judging by my experience with its predecessor the 2133 I can understand why. From what I can see, HP's second attempt at a low-end sub-notebook has ironed out the failings of its first try.

The 2133 was a great looking little machine, but it fell down in a few areas. The 92% keyboard with large flat keys was great, the aluminium case was classy looking and strong and the screen was crystal clear. It was also packaged in a nice compact form factor weighing less than 1.5kg.

However, at AUD$895 here in Australia, it was just a bit pricey. And whoever came up with the idea of pre-installing Vista on an underpowered 1MB portable machine should be court martialled. The other thing that bothered me was the slightly too small 8.9 inch monitor, which was the standard for those early post 7 inch netbooks.

It appears that HP has learned from its mistakes  and correctedf them on on all counts because with the Mini 2140 it has come out with a product that may well be the best netbook in its class on the market.

At AUD$799 (US$499 in the US of course), the 2140 may still seem a little pricey for a netbook for some although it's a big step in the right direction.

However, for your money you get a beautiful 10.1 inch monitor, 160G hard drive, 1G RAM, GMA 945 graphics chipset, Atom N270 processor, built-in Wi-Fi, Webcam, plenty of connectivity including two USB slots (personally I'd like three), ExpressCard slot, microphohone and headphone jacks and more.

The Mini 2140 even has a motion detector that automatically locks the hard drive heads to protect it from damage during transit.

Importantly for many will be the fact that the Mini 2140 comes pre-loaded with Windows XP Home. Yes, it still is being advertised with the options for a range of other operating systems Suse, Vista, FreeDos but really who cares? What most consumers want is XP and thankfully HP has listened.

For many, what will sell the new HP netbook will be the best keyboard available for this class of machine plus a crystal clear monitor.

The monitor is just about the perfect size. The 10 inch monitor has proven to be a sweet spot for netbooks and, while the new Mini 2140 has been criticized for only having 1024 x 576 resolution compared to the 1024 x 600 of the 10 inch Eee PC, the difference should not really be that noticeable for most of us.

What will be noticeable is the sturdiness and great styling of the Mini 2140. Like its too pricey, sluggish predecessor, the metallic Mini 2140 looks a cut above its cheap looking plastic cased competitors.