How would you change HP's 2133 Mini-Note PC?

Sure, ASUS' Eee PC may have done quite a bit to spark the subnote revolution, but HP's 2133 Mini-Note PC has received an incredible amount of fanfare on its own. As soon as HP's order page went live, however, we began to hear grumblings like "Where's my option for XP?," and "I'm stuck with a VIA?" Nevertheless, reviewers found an awful lot to love about HP's first foray into the land of bargain-priced wee lappies, but we know the critical sect is out there keeping 'em honest. Now that the machines have been shipping for over a fortnight, we're interested to hear from you early adopters. Is it everything you hoped it would be? How on earth could the next model be improved upon? The floor is yours.

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 11:46PM]

I'm not a computer guru so can anyone tell me what to buy - this HP 2133 or an ASUS Eee?
I'm travelling overseas for a couple of months and need to access my emails, web, MS Office, Skype with webcam using WIFI, and would prefer XP so that I can upload my database software. Any suggestions as to what would suit me? Can I put XP and office on both of these?

[(Unverified) Posted May 6th 2008 3:15AM]

Multi-Touch trackpad

The Eee PC is getting this, clearly HP needs to keep up.

[(Unverified) Posted May 7th 2008 2:33AM]

If it had an E-SATA connection (3 GB/sec) and the option of NO MICROSOFT AT ALL it would be perfect! HP have dropped the ball in the UK by giving this to RM systems as exclusive distributor. RM will not sell the SUSE LINUX version and even those countries that do are not supplying a full spec machine with the Linux option. I REFUSE to pay for Microsoft RUBBISH! When will anti-trust regulators put the BOOT into manufacturers like HP who take pay-offs from Redmond to ship this lousy BUGWARE!

[(Unverified) Posted May 6th 2008 11:22AM]

I purchased this as a back up and for when I travel. I am just a normal guy who's not really sure what's even inside the case. With that in mind, it is perfect for everything I need to do when I'm on the road. In a pinch, it's not bad at home either. I was originally gonna go with the Asus, but it looked a little cheesey. I would think adding too much would change the whole purpose behind the 2133 to begin with.

[(Unverified) Posted May 8th 2008 3:36PM]

Larger SSD and XP -- colors.

[(Unverified) Posted May 9th 2008 5:06PM]

Faster CPU / Graphics

Anyone know if somebody has hacked this to put an Isaiah in it yet? It is supposed to be pin-compatible, but do the drivers and bios support it?

Also, I've heard you can't video chat using Skype because the CPU sucks so bad. Does this change if you use XP Pro?

[(Unverified) Posted May 15th 2008 10:49AM]

Since I have a HP 2133 I think i'm probably the best person to comment.#

Firstly I'm running openSUSE 10.3 on the basic version with 120GB hard disk.

THe laptop does get hot, but thats more down to the fact that it's aluminuim so it feels hotter, never the less cooling it a little more won't hurt. Obviously the fan only kicks in once you are grinding the poor thing. It doesn't burn you, unless you've got no clothes on.

I find the track pad brilliant, bottons on either side and soft ones as well, it takes a little getting used to but once you are, you will like it - plus i makes sense; a widescreen should have a wider track pad? Plus the little button allows me to disable the trackpad while i'm typing - like now!

The proessor seems fine to me, it's very responsive in Linux, and you can easily multitask, but an Isiah chip would have been nice (can anyone confirm I can just replace the C7 with an Isiah chip?)

The major grip i've had with it is the drivers for Linux, it ships with Suse Linux Enteprise Desktop, but can't seem to find proper drivers to get the wireless working,

Any other gripes with it are just small ones, no need for a multi SD card reader, as SD is standard. Plus it must have VGA and not HDMI or HDCP becuase it is designed for schools who all have VGA projectors.

Before saying this is what it should just remember it was designed for educational use and not for you old people. ;-)

[(Unverified) Posted May 23rd 2008 11:09PM]

Now available with "Genuine Windows Vista® Business downgrade to Genuine Windows® XP Professional" on HP website

1.6 processor, 2 GB, 120 GB HD = $819.00

[(Unverified) Posted May 30th 2008 11:36AM]

give it an 11 inch screen (it could fit just put the speakers beneath the keyboard or inbetween the hinges above the keyboard,) you'd have to move the and make the silver pad things black to make room for the 11 inch screen, give it a nano cpu (thats what the isiah's called now!) Move the keyboard up further to give space to make the trackpad bigger with better button placement.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 16th 2008 7:01AM]

I would change:
- same hardware for Windows and linux version (for example: wifi, i need 802.11a and don't want to pay for windows)
-VIA isaiah, intel atom sucks! just some power is needed. good that atom saves energy, but it's too little cpu performance
-add some ports for mobility, for example: i want to take my laptop to a
friend and if i want to see a film i want to connect it to my TV.

what do you think about via isaiah?

greetings, TuxWax

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 23rd 2008 10:42AM]

Over all experience, I have more than I expected. Most of the critics I read before to buy the mininote was how slow it was because of the VIA CPU. However, my experience has been that It has a good speed; at least fast enough for what I do. I use the mininote most for my work: text, schedule, little pics, emails, etc. I found myself very happy with it and I would not change. It is a beautiful piece of notebook. Really...