HP's UMPC 2133 revealed
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Feb 19th 2008 7:29AM
posted Feb 19th 2008 7:29AM
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Im guessing its going to cost 4x as much as an Eee...
A machine without touchscreen cannot be considered an UMPC, don't get me wrong but this is just a small form factor laptop and that's all. Still looks interesting though.
Geert, I don't see a T (from Touchscreen) on UMPC.
Not that I disagree though, but UMPCS aren't required to have a touchscreen, unlike tablet PCs, which by the way can also be UMPCs.
UMPC refers exclusively to size, not to features.
@Ricardo
I'm afraid you are incorrect.
The term "UMPC" was coined by Microsoft and Intel as part of the Origami Project. There are a very clearly defined set of requirements for one.
A UMPC MUST have a touchscreen between 5" and 7". That's in the spec. That means that this is NOT a UMPC because the screen is too large and it isn't a touch screen.
Here are the details: http://www.intel.com/products/mid/index.htm?iid=personal+prod_mid_umpc
going to have to go ahead and agree the way I understand it:
UMPC - Ultra Mobile PC, sort of a small Tablet PC
Ultra Portable - Small Compact Size Laptop minus the touchscreen
yeah I believe it seeing the market right after I see the HTC shift.
With the exception of few useless and mostly keyboardless devices - There are no and I mean NO usefull umpcs sold in the retail stores.
Hopefully with Dell being able to have this product on the market it will shift the table and we start seing some models from the rest of the manufacurers who distribute through regular retal chains.
Meh...
I was really stoked when I heard HP was doing a UMPC; I figured they had a half-decent chance to make something new. Possibly an interesting new never-before-tried form factor.
What we got instead is an okay-looking little ultra-portable laptop. Too big to fit in a jacket pocket, too small for gaming.
I prefer my Samsung Q1U's form factor to this. Samsung has found the best form-factor for UMPCs so far. I plug in the USB keyboard when I need it and when I want to lay back in the armchair I take the deivce only. It has a wonderful grip (enough space at the sides) for holding it in two hands. And the little qwerty keyboard is a wonderful addition (from original Q1) because it allows me to enter short texts easily, like web addresses, log in information, searching text, etc. I'm very happy with my Samsung Q1U.
that looks bad ass. I was losing faith in HP but things seem to be changing. I just got off the phone with hp and they are offering me a brand new dv2700t in place of my old zd7000 since it died on me one too many times. Best phone call ive had with HP in 4 years. And now this? This actually looks like a quality product. Unless the specs much better, it would be hard to imagine an HP thats moroe expensive than a relatively similar ASUS
Is this for HP Business? or Office & Home?
This machine has Firewire and a built-in Ethernet port. It is not in the same class as the Eee.
It's true that early form of UMPC has certain specs defined, like a 5-7" touch screen. But this is a fast evolving segment and we're at the beginning of a new wave of low cost, ultra mobile laptops that will eventually flood the market. These tiny laptops will get cheaper and more powerful over the next five years, and possibly replace the touch-screen based UMPC.
If that happens, the term "UMPC" will be used to referred to these small form laptops, regardless of the existence of a touch screen.
Yes. But how much does it cost?!
Well... the rumor was:
"HP reportedly said that "you won't even need to consider this purchase," adding that, "you'll buy it like a handphone without a thought"."
Which means it CAN NOT be more than $600.
I'm fascinated to find out what HP considers to be a price so low that no one will think twice about it. I also want to know what the processor will be.
if that's the case, the only price i dont htink about is FREE
$499 at entry level. Unfortunately, it's saddled with a VIA proc at that price point.
Is it just me or are the mouse buttons in really odd places? Other then that it looks pretty nice, still like my eee for the price point though.
The location of the buttons aren't that crazy if you think about it. On my laptop I use my middle finger as a pointer, tap with my index finger and scroll/right click with my ring finger. It will take a few moments to get used to the locations of the buttons but will most likely feel very natural after a while. Either way I want this baby but with XP. HP has done a terrible job updating or providing perfect drivers for my high end "Vista capable" Pavilion.
No offense Homeboy but that's just friggin weird. I use my index finger for everything. From what I've seen most people do.
Michael: Mi ez Pr0gämed to meJk jous of al me fengerz!!
[/CODE]
Yes, Homeboy is crazy. Crazy ... like a fox!
I actually use my middle finger when using my touchpad also, my buttons are on the bottom, which makes it awkward (I wish they were on top) so side buttons would actually be cool, definitely a great way to save a bit of space.
Middle finger feels more natural to me on the touchpad.
I use my middle finger and pointer finger to click. If I use my index finger on the pad what should I click with? My thumb? That means you have to contort your thumb and bunch it up your index finger. Middle finger is the way to go!
'sexy' would be an understatement...
Yepp. W-A-N-T! N-A-O-W!
This is the greatest sub-subnotebook I've ever seen. The screen-res is fantastic, and the apparently almost full-size keyboard is great too.
Wow that is badass.
Hope that comes out really soon.
This laptop is really ugly.
OMG I must have one :>
But does it fit in an envelope...
Anything fits in an envelope. They make envelope in different sizes, you know.
-Since when is 8.9 on a laptop considered to be large??
-If SSD is optional then what on earth is under the bonnet, a 80GB 1.8inch HDD??
-What's the battery life that they bragged about the other day. Considering the relatively high weight for such a small device it better be very long.
-If HP wants us to goggle it like a handphone it better cost under €/$400 otherwise I'm not interested.
That's odd: a UMPC without touch screen??
Not a surprise, really. This form factor doesn't lend itself to touchscreens, unless you can swivel it like a hybrid tablet.
why do computer companies insist on designing these portable laptops with fugly 1" borders around the screen? Seriously, look at all the 7"-10" screened laptops. They all have the fugly borders that could be used for extra screen space.
look closer -> those are speaker ;)
extra screen space = more $$$ doh
The "extra" space is a result of the manufacturers choosing a small screen in order to make the device as portable as possible. I can guarantee you that if was to increase the size of the screen with 1-2 inches then both the weight, battery size and price would increase notability. Not to mention decreased battery life.
Blackster
There are other places for the speakers like in the keyboard if you have to
Jagannath A
If I'm already paying over a grand for this thing I'd pay an extra $100 to have it not resemble one of those kid computer toys with a 2 inch LED screen and 8" border I saw at Wal-mart the other day.
It's because manufacturers can't always just order custom LCDs for their devices - if they did, costs would be prohibitive on lower-quantity items. Same reason you can't buy a motherboard with _exactly_ the mix of inputs and features you might want - what's on the market is what you get to choose.
"It's because manufacturers can't always just order custom LCDs for their devices"
So, is an "8.9-inch 1366 x 766" pretty standard, in your opinion?
"Same reason you can't buy a motherboard with _exactly_ the mix of inputs and features you might want - what's on the market is what you get to choose."
Maybe you and I get to choose what's on the market, but large manufacturers don't. Case in point, Dell and HP have lots of custom motherboards.
Yes, actually, I would expect more 8.9" 1366x768 LCDs in the future. _Someone_ has got to be first. Why not HP?
And, again, it's all about production runs and costs. A custom mobo run isn't as expensive as a custom LCD run, from what I understand. If it was so cheap, everyone would be doing custom LCDs.
Ah, so this never-seen-before LCD is standard because you would expect to see more in the future; also it was convenient for HP to put in this PC because someone has got to be first, and why not HP. Yeah. Right.
Undefeatable logic, I guess.
I'm quite sure I have seen an 8.9" LCD before. Go look at I think, Toshiba or Fujitsu. They have one or two, tablet UMPCs.
Seriously. This is it !!!
HP say that the cost of this will be inconsequential.
When I look at what I use my PC for;
Surfing the Web - 60%
Sending Email - 15%
Low grade Excel work - 5%
Control of Entertainment devices (Slingbox, Sonos etc) - 20%
When I need really processing power, for Linked, Multi- table lookups in Excel and Access to really crunch numbers, I use a WORK desktop with 4GB RAM. This is WORK, not PLAY.
HP send me an invoice.
Until you can flip the screen around and use it as a mini tablet PC I for sure won't get one.
I keep waiting for something truly evolutionary instead of just a "mini" laptop.
Oh well, till then....
Now if only it wasn't a Compaq....
And this from a person whose first notebook was the Compaq Aero subnotebook, had a 3 yr warranty (remember those?) and which worked wonderfully well at the time.
Compaq's rep now puts it somewhere much closer to Packard Bell than Hewlett Packard. Its the poor man's Lada.
No matter. I still have my eee....
Ummm Baz I hate to break it to you Compaq IS HP. They are only a name at this point. HP has so throughly canalized Compaq that the only real thing left of them are what remains of their PDA brand, their name, and their servers...oh and Smartstart. Never forget Smartstart. compared to HP's prior crap its a godsend.
let's not forget DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) that Compaq previously swallowed up, with their storage works and redundant architecture and wonderful DCL scripting language.
let's also not forget the Alpha chip, 64 bit computing in 1992!
VMS still is the best server OS in the world ;)
Missing info:
1. What's the external display output? DVI? HDMI? VGA? I looked at those pictures, and couldn't really tell.
2. Does it have Bluetooth? It isn't mentioned in the specs, but neither is the resolution.
3. Does it have a dock or port replicator?
If the answers are DVI/HDMI, yes, and yes, I'm definitely very interested.
Pictures show a VGA port. As for Bluetooth, I dunno. Docking station ... doubtful
It does look compact and sexy, but it reminds me of the Sony T-series (TX, TZ) which I've found frustrating to use. As much as I covet a minimal footprint, I've been much happier with a different take on "small and light" -- the MacBook Air.
Don't you mean "thin"? That's really the only word to describe the MBA. I mean, the MBA isn't that light or small.
The MBA isn't small in footprint, but it is very close in weight to the Sony TX, which I also have. The Sony is 0.2 pounds lighter, but the tiny AC adapter of the MBA probably makes up the difference.
I'm wary of this new HP based on trouble I've had with the keyboard and interaction of device drivers on the Sony. It could be Vista that's really the root of the problems.
In any case, despite it's relatively large footprint, I'm finding the MBA to be an unobtrusive daily companion. I was initially disappointed with the specs on it, and didn't plan to buy one, but I finally gave in and I've been very pleased with it.
what did you find frustrating? the extra usbs? the dvdrom? the video out? the removable battery?
if its around $400, i will take one!!!!
if not, i'll just wait for the 10inch eee :)
Whoops,my mistake.
It *is* badged as an HP, not a Compaq - so I guess marginally more effort will be put into it.
Still, my experience with a HP notebook has hardly been inspiring. Perhaps the option of doing away with Vista in favour of Linux will help, though?
Now, about the price...
Did anyone else notice that "persistence" is spelled incorrectly on the product spec sheet, where it lists "Computrace Persistance Module"?
Although spelling and grammar are getting progressively worse in professionally-written things (advertisements, etc.), I find it hard to believe that they'd miss this one.
Pretty impressive they got 95% of a full keyboard on that size
The reason they all have such big boarders around the screen is due to the bottom half of the computer.
You cant exactly have no boarder around the 9" monitor then when you fold it down have half the keyboard hangin out.
Yeah, I guess I'm just nitpicky, but that huge screen border is ugly. Reminds me of early pcs with their huge monitor boxes and tiny screens.
And no doubt it'll cost WAY more than the eee.
My little Averatec AV1050 will have to hang on for a while yet.
Nice. The big question is price. There's clearly a sweet spot here where a pretty average laptop is shrunk to eeePC size without the price being blown to Sony Vaio or MacBook Air prices. Does smaller always have to cost more? If nothing else the eeePC has shown that the answer is no.
Somewhere around 9"-10" there's another sweet spot on LCDs. Just big enough to show 1024 across without shrinking the font so small that it's hard to read. Let's hope 10" widescreen LCDs take off in a big way for things like photoframes so that we can have them in this style of laptop at a sensible price.
Is the screen displaying the HP-logo?
Edit: I see now that the screen is slightly bigger, but there is still quite a bit of space on the sides.
If HP can bring this in at $699 or less they have a winner on their hands.
I'll take mine with Vista please.
699$ would be awesome...but I guess it will be closer to 1699$.
Prove me wrong, HP!
+3 One for me, my wife and my brother. All with Vista please at that price point.
I was seriously thinking about the Fujitsu u810 too until I saw this.
I'm supposed to WANT to take this everywhere as well as my phone? and with a extra battery too? No thanks. The only way I would carry this everywhere is if I could ditch my phone / use it as a phone, and not a skype phone.
Wouldn't you look a bit silly holding a laptop to your ear?
damn thats hot!!!!!!!! but I want it less than 2 lbs!
sweet! dudes!
How is this exciting? I've been toting my Panasonic R5 Aspec in blue for over a year, and an R4 before that. It's lighter, has a larger screen AND 5.5-6 hours of battery life in NORMAL USE. The only reason I'd jump ship is if ANYONE comes close with a good feature set and similar battery life.
are you kidding? that thing is well over 2,000 dollars. this is aiming to be a quarter of that.
Looks great, love the resolution and screen size... much better than the EEE screen so thats a positive. If they can keep the cost down to a reasonable amount I'd definitely replace my EEE with this.
Fake, at least the collateral materials, they don't comply with HP guideline standards, fonts, colors, layout, it's just fake, the person who did it doesn't have a clue on HP advertisement and brandbook.
The spec-page screenshot looks like a PowerPoint-screenshot to me, obviously not meant for the public. I'm sure internal stuff isn't handled all that strict in terms of used fonts and so on...
Nope, it is not internal, I can confirm you that the powerpoint templates also have guidelines that this does not comply with, at the HP offices those ads would be trashed at first sight and any agency behind those would be fired immediately. It's 100% fake.
We'll see.
The mere fact that the pictures are 100% real counts more than some wrong font choice if you ask me...
The mere fact that the way the product is displayed, tilted confirms this didn't come from an official HP advertisement agency of record. So, it suggest fake, the pictures do look convincing but so do the usual fakes. I'm just pointing out, because I know what I'm talking about, that there's a "tell" that it is a fake product.
Its real..... a quick search on the HP internal portal site, gave me the link to this PPT these shots came from... It was a traing PDF in the UK.
The funny thing is, this link was the first returned for 'HP UMPC' search! They are trying to hide it well.
Ahhh HP, you've done it again...
Believe me, even if the product isn't fake, the ads are. Why would they be fake if the product isn't?
As a fan of portability with keyboards, it is wonderful to see the world coming back full circle. Psion Series 5, Psion Series 5mx, Psion netBook, NEC 790 -I have owned all of these, and no one has matched the portability, keyboard, and battery life of the Series 5mx which still is useful if you forgo internet access. I was very sorry to see Palm pull Foleo, which I think would have found an audience, but you Engadget along with all you naysayers killed it! eeePC doesn't appeal because of short battery life -need at least 6 hours.
UMPC is a useless description for PCs any more as it is applied to almost any device with a screen size of 8.9" or less. Some come with keyboards, some without, and some with keyboards also have a touch-screen. The industry does no little disservice by not having more applicable terms so the consumer can distinguish between its offerings.
Since this has hinges on both sides of the bottom of the screen (see the picces), I'd venture it is not a Tablet PC, and the specs make no mention of a touchscreen. Although Microsoft quickly changed the name from Origami to UMPC, its original Origami specs called for Windows XP Tablet Edition 2005. They now presumably include Vista, but the Origami name is all but ignored by MS now.
BTW, those specs mandated neither the inclusion nor the exclusion of a keyboard. It just happened that the initial round of products released under the specs were slates. Origami was limited to a screen of 7" diagonal or less along with XP Tablet 2005.
It's always interesting to hear those covering the industry discuss the lack of keyboard on Tablets as if the baby was born without an arm. One presumes you have never used a tablet. If so, it is a shame that you bother to discuss them when you have no intimacy with them. It's easy to hate what you do not understand.
Did you start out clacking away at a keyboard, or did you use a crayon? Did you graduate to a pencil and then a pen?
Macbook Air in a smaller form factor would be nice, but at its current iteration, doesn't offer too many advantages over my Macbook Pro 15".
Today's most irrelevant post.
Thanks for participating.
Though, if the MacBook Air had been in this device category (EeePC size and price range, plus bluetooth, SSD option, and express card slot), I'd have totally bought into the MacBook Air.
If HP delivers this for $500ish before Apple offers competition in this market segment, it'll put the final nail in the coffin on me being a Mac/Apple buyer as I switch to Linux devices (Nokia N810, and then this thing, hopefully with either Ubuntu or Kubuntu).
this is what i wanted from apple (sans bezel).
a C2D ulv or maybe the new dual core celeron?
Wow. Depending on the price and bluetooth capabilities, this is just about exactly what I asked for in the thread yesterday (or was it the day before).
If the linux version has bluetooth FTP, and is under $500, I'll buy it the month it comes out. If for no other reason than what I said before: to use it as an in-backpack file server for my Nokia N810.
You go, HP. I didn't think you had it in you.
I'll buy it the month it comes out. If for no other reason than what I said before: to use it as an in-backpack file server for my Nokia N810.
Ha ha. You say that now, but I suspect that the day you get an Eee or this thing your days of browsing on your 810 will come to an abrupt end. Trust me. I have an Eee. I no longer browse on my WiFi Smartphone, except in rare emergencies.
@Darex
You've no clue what a N810 is, do you?
I wont rule out what you're saying, but the in-hand form factor really does work for me. I can sit on the couch, and look up IMDB stuff while watching a movie, respond to stray IM's, etc. Without having a tv-tray in front of my to hold a laptop format device (even an EeePC sized laptop format device).
So, I'm still expecting I'll use the N810 quite a bit. I expect that this device will more likely replace my home iMAC (I have one of the older igloo shaped ones), than my N810. And, yeah, in some meetings, where I need a bigger screen, and OpenOffice, then it will replace my N810. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure I'll still have uses for my N810 :-)
and, Darex, what L is implying is:
The Nokia N810 isn't a smart phone. It's an "internet tablet", which means: palm-sized Linux box, with slide-out keyboard. Think of it like:
sidekick - phone + linux
(the slightly older Nokia N800 is basically the same, minus the keyboard)
The price will depend greatly on the CPU. I have some of the Compaq B1200 series only available in Asia, and have those newer Celerons that are as fast as Core 2's, but only have a single core, and the notebooks only cost something like US$700 at today's exchange rate, and weight about 4 lbs. (When I bought them earlier, the exchange rate would've put them less than US$650.)
Hmmm I wonder if this will be a good replacement for my aging Jornada 720
I WANT TO KNOW MORE DETAILS!!!! ME WANT NOW!!!!...I've been considering an EEEpc for quite some time know but I'm waiting to see what the competition brings to the table...If this thing is affordable enough, I just might ditch the asus plan and get this sexy baby...
Hello HP marketing department...
Um...catch a clue; this is an easy one:
THE OMNIBOOK IS BACK !!!!!!
Please rename this to OMNIBOOK 2100; or something similar, rather than the current lame product ID. By the way, adding "Compaq" does NOT add value.
One of the big complaint people have with the Eee PC is the big bezel around the screen, and how much wasted space there is there. Asus later announces an 8.9" screen that uses the same chassis, just with less bezel.
Now HP reveals an EeePC-like laptop with an 8.9" screen... and a huge amount of bezel. Sigh.
It's not as small, not as light, and it's almost certainly not going to be as cheap.
I'd rather see a $400 competitor to the Eee PC with an 8.9" screen in the same form factor (read: size/weight). The Eee PC is an excellent first attempt, and just a few tweaks would make it a killer deal for me.
You've got three options: make the screen bigger, make the keyboard smaller, or make the bezel bigger. The first will increase the cost and decrease the battery life, the second will make the device impossible to use, and the third means you have a place to put speakers and webcam. Your pick.
So, then, you're telling me that the EeePC is "impossible to use", and that the 8.9" model won't have any speakers or a webcam? If Asus can solve the problems of a thin-bezel 8.9" laptop, I'm sure HP can too.
Okay, let's go through this step by step. You have a machine (the Eee, this mockup, whatever) where the screen is surrounded by a bezel. The two alternatives to that bezel are:
1) Make the screen big enough to fill the lid. This increases battery life and cost compared to the smaller screen.
2) Make the lid, and therefore laptop chassis, as small as the screen. This makes the keyboard far too small to use.
I suppose there's a third option, a lid the size of the screen which doesn't cover the whole of the keyboard, but I wrote that off as truly stupid.
To clarify what I'm getting at, the reason the bezel is there on the Eee is because it would be utterly unusable if the chassis were the size of the display, and the alternative would be to increase the display size and cost which was not an option. There's exactly the same situation here - HP's chosen keyboard size (almost-normal) and screen size mean that a bezel is inevitable. The only difference is that HP went with a normal-sized keyboard and the Eee went with a near-minimum-size keyboard.
You're not getting me. The Eee PC has an 8.9" model coming out that uses the same chassis, but less bezel. This HP device has an 8.9" screen. So, instead of having a huge bezel, the HP device could be the size of the Eee PC. Battery life and keyboard size would obviously be sacrificed, but that's what I'm a lot more interested in seeing.