HP UMPC 2133 specs revealed, street date of April 7th?

We'd been hearing that HP's slick UMPC 2133 was going sport VIA processors, and now we've got some more info to back that up -- we just received what appears to be a full spec list for the upcoming machine, and it's VIA C7-Ms all around, with graphics courtesy of a VIA Chrome 9 chipset. According to our source, these will hit on April 7th, and it looks like those pricing whispers were pretty accurate as well: $600 will buy you a 1.2GHz C7-M, a 120GB drive, 1GB of RAM and Vista Home Basic, while $749 bumps you up to 1.6GHz and Vista Business and adds Bluetooth, another gig of RAM, and a bigger battery. There's also a mysterious $849 Vista Basic model listed as having "regional" availability (the others are listed as "Smart Buy") with Bluetooth and bigger battery, but we don't see why it's more expensive than the Vista Business version. Regardless, what really caught our eye was the $549 model that shares the same specs as the $600 unit, but looks to be running SuSE Enterprise -- another rumor that's come true. That could be the one that HP expects to sell like hotcakes -- after all, the goal is to have people buy these "without a thought," and that's certainly not going to happen at $749. We'll see soon enough, we suppose. Full spec sheet after the break.

[Nick @ Mar 26th 2008 8:29PM]

Um, 5.26 pounds? What kind of ultraportable is that? I'll stick with an Eee.

[Kamokazi @ Mar 26th 2008 8:35PM]

I am pretty sure those are shipping weight and dimensions...those dimensions are on par with a 14-15 inch laptop and WAY too thick.

[L @ Mar 26th 2008 9:08PM]

That's what I thought as well...if it weights 2.4kg, calling it "ultra-portable" is a bad joke.

And 5+" of height just *can't* be right.

[jason @ Mar 27th 2008 6:57PM]

But.... Will it blend???


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uZr3JWYdy8

[Rick @ Apr 1st 2008 11:53PM]

I'd go with the $749 Deal All the other deals would be horrible prices. Don't be dumb no one hardly knows about Linux, go with Vista business, not basic. $749 would be the best deal, whoever goes with the $849 Deal is getting "RIPPED OFF!!!"

[Kamokazi @ Mar 26th 2008 8:32PM]

I'll take the 2133 with Linux, to go please.

[bob e @ Mar 26th 2008 8:33PM]

Awesome - give me Vista Business please!

[kev @ Mar 26th 2008 8:33PM]

I think that refers to the net weight of the package itself...

[phanbouy @ Mar 26th 2008 9:06PM]

uh huh huh huh. huh huh huh. you said "package"

[Andrew @ Mar 27th 2008 1:39AM]

Balls.

[Andrew B. @ Mar 26th 2008 8:34PM]

Can those dimensions and weight numbers be correct? 5.281" thick? Maybe these are for the box...

[Cassini @ Mar 27th 2008 6:10AM]

Oh yeah, the dimensions are correct, all right. The 5.2" thickness is with the extended-life battery, dual optical drives, printer, and mini-Xbox 360 all built in.

[Travis @ Mar 26th 2008 8:36PM]

The model with the 3 cell battery weighs the same as the one with the 6 cell battery?

[substance90 @ Mar 27th 2008 7:39AM]

Exactly what I was thinking... Strange.

[bob e @ Mar 26th 2008 8:39PM]

I doubt the linux model that HP expects to sell like hotcakes...
Afterall, look at the Wal-Mart experience. The American consumer is not ready for linux.

For an extra $50 it is a no-brainer to get Windows. You can always get a free copy of linux and have the best of both worlds.

[Plutarch @ Mar 26th 2008 9:10PM]

Do you think the general mindless button-mashing population will ever select an option that doesn't have a huge shiny Windows logo burning into their retinas?

[Homeboy @ Mar 26th 2008 10:09PM]

It's not only American consumers who aren't ready but mainstream consumer in general. People don't like hassle and inconvenience especially with tech product. Linux bring is more bad than good for most people because of the following reasons:

1. Consumers hate change and learning Linux takes take, energy and effort.
2. Compatibility with software sitting on the shelves in Walmart.
3. Very few people have a close friend who's good with linux and can help when something needs resolving.


This is seriously the type of ultra portable I'm in the market for. Light, compact and offers decent specs. No hate towards the Eee but to me it's more like an expensive toy than a portable PC. The design is too primitive and the specs are too low-end for it to be a productive machine.

I have a bevy DV9074ea which I love to death but would like something on the opposite end and this 2133 HP has got going on, it perfect. The $599 version is on my wish list but it's a shame it only has a 3 cell battery. Either way I'm glad I know what to spend my tax return money on this summer. I guess there won't be a international vacation for me then.

[wootman @ Mar 26th 2008 10:10PM]

meh, you can get a decent real gaming laptop for that price.

[Carl Vitullo @ Mar 26th 2008 10:46PM]

actually, i'd say the opposite.
Buy the linux option, most people have at least one version of windows floating around their house, and the people that don't can usually "borrow" one from a friend.

[huh @ Mar 26th 2008 10:59PM]

I have to agree.. until linux distros have pluggable displays, the tickless kernel, and very pleasant bluetooth usage you're simply better off using windows for a notebook.

[dj-kenpo @ Mar 27th 2008 9:11AM]

I'd save the $50 and instal an illigal copy of widnows xp.

but that's just me.
and every last person I know. (including the ones with legal copies)

[paul-engadget @ Mar 27th 2008 5:38PM]

@huh - you commented about bluetooth being hard. kdebluetooth stuff, at least in suse10.3 with kde, is pretty painless.
everything works as you'd expensejust click on the bluetooth icon in system tray and it lists all discoverable devices, you can drag and drop files to transfer them, and receive them from mobile phones etc.

[ska8erforever @ Mar 28th 2008 3:11AM]

FYI SLED 10 is aimed at businesses (hence "enterprise" in the name) not mainstream consumers. Now if it was Suse 10.1 that's a whole different story (www.opensuse.org). Also, when you purchase SLED (or if it's bundled with your laptop purchase in this case) you get support, whereas if you just download it you have to pay for support. Anyways, sweet laptop, I think I'll Pick one up for the wife so I can use my m1330 again (tried to talk her into an eee, but she doesn't like the design, this she likes though).

[shineliang @ Mar 26th 2008 8:39PM]

no ssd, no buy.

[freakmarket @ Mar 26th 2008 9:08PM]

You aren't going to get SSD for that price point.

[Mush @ Mar 27th 2008 1:25AM]

yes you are....look at the eee 900 it has a 12GB SSD

[Homeboy @ Mar 27th 2008 6:29AM]

Muah: It doesn't have SSD, it has a embedded flash memory.

[Brodie @ Mar 27th 2008 9:43AM]

Do you even know what an SSD is or do you just think its trendy to say you won't buy a laptop without one?

[Matt @ Apr 14th 2008 9:43PM]

he's right, the eee pc doesn't use an SSD, they just tell you that so it will sell because SSD drives are more durable, less power consuming and are faster, people love to see the letters SSD listed under the specifications for their computer, but you can easily go onto google images and look up the eee pc's SSD and you can see that it's really a bunch of camera memory sticks that were pretty much broke open and the memory chips pryed off and re-sauldered into the motherboared. but it isn't bad, it just means that you can't upgrade the storage memory. but SSD's are essentially the same thing, just in a little metal box and has a place to plug it into your computer, but with the "real" SSD's, you can upgrade the storage memory while keeping everything else in your computer the exact same, and it's less expensive than upgrading to an entirely newer system (like a newer eee pc with more storage)

[jonsudra @ Mar 26th 2008 8:41PM]

Will we be able to drop an isaiah chip in there eventually?

[L @ Mar 26th 2008 9:10PM]

Hopefully. The C7 is rather crappy afaik...

[shineliang @ Mar 26th 2008 8:44PM]

3 cell battery....last one hour?

[nyoka @ Mar 26th 2008 8:44PM]

how powerful is the VIA processor compared to the Intel ones?

[paragraph @ Mar 26th 2008 9:03PM]

:\

For General Word Processing and Internet, you won't know the difference with a same-speed celeron.... anything more and you'll probably be crying tears of pain....

UMPCs have never looked appealing to me. For one, i want raw power, for two i have big meaty sausage fingers.... those little keyboards are too damned tiny...

[Chebwa @ Mar 26th 2008 10:45PM]

...

SAUSAGE FINGERS?

[Hung @ Mar 27th 2008 5:33PM]

A VIA processor clocked at 1.2 GHz, like on the CloudBook, is half as powerful as a Celeron M clocked at 900 MHz, like on the Eee [http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4282]*.

Note that the Cloudbook does not have integrated graphics, so it fails even worse in actual usage.

P.S. Just so everyone knows, the Eee's Celeron isn't the same Celeron from years ago. Celeron isn't an architecture, but a line of cheap processors. Previous Celeron Ms used Mobile Pentium IVs with the Northwood architecture. Current Celeron Ms use low-cache single-cores with the Core 2 Duos' architecture. That's why the Eee is so much faster than the CloudBook in benchmarks focusing only on the CPU.

[Sean @ Mar 26th 2008 8:50PM]

If they made something with these same specs, slider/touchscreen UMPC format, and finished "Origami experience", only then would I buy this "without a thought."

And, honestly, is 5 pounds that heavy?

[phanbouy @ Mar 26th 2008 9:07PM]

"And, honestly, is 5 pounds that heavy?"

ahem. i have a win95 dell laptop to sell ya.

[que @ Mar 26th 2008 9:11PM]

a macbook pro weights just over 5 lbs.
anyway, those weights are definitely not going to be the machine itself. probably the shipping weight, as someone mentioned earlier.

[Za @ Mar 26th 2008 11:09PM]

9" screen + 5lbs would be bad...14" and 5lbs would be reasonable to good.

[Chris @ Mar 27th 2008 9:43AM]

I have an older 15.4" HP with big (for a laptop) harmon kardon speakers that take up the whole front edge of the laptop and it 6.xlbs and it is not fun to carry around. for a 9" device 5lb would be a fricking tank. 5lb for shipping weight does make more sense.

[ridestp @ Mar 26th 2008 8:50PM]

They blew it by going with VIA processors over the new ATOM line.

[Sime @ Mar 26th 2008 8:53PM]

screen size?

[Sime @ Mar 26th 2008 8:54PM]

oh wait nevermind i found it. my bad =)

[rob @ Mar 26th 2008 8:57PM]

$50 OFF FOR LINUX OVER VISTA!!!!!!

I'D PAY A $50 PREMIUM FOR LINUX OVER VISTA

[Darryl @ Mar 26th 2008 8:59PM]

Would've been funnier if you used caps lock carefully or not at all.

[Gary @ Mar 26th 2008 9:01PM]

LOUD NOISES

[Marty @ Mar 26th 2008 9:13PM]

NO, SORRY MATE, CAN'T TALK RIGHT NOW. I'M IN THE LIBRARY. OH I KNOW, IT'S RUBBISH!

[phanbouy @ Mar 26th 2008 9:21PM]

quiet noises

[RD. @ Mar 26th 2008 10:02PM]

But linux is free. If you send me $50 I'll provide you with a special DL link.