Just when you thought you were
safe from the netbook horde, along comes HP's new Mini 5101 to tempt you with the same basic specs once again, but this time with a slick aluminum and magnesium chassis to appeal to the "mobile professional" or anyone else with a bit of class. In a crazy twist, HP has
finally moved the mouse buttons below the trackpad (because only professionals like clicking), and has included other perks like a 7200 RPM hard drive, Bluetooth 2.0, 2 megapixel webcam, and options of either a WSVGA (1024 x 600) or "HD" (1366 x 768) 10.1-inch LED screen. There are also options for 80GB or 128GB SSD drives, four-cell or six-cell batteries, with the latter rated at an improbable eight hours of runtime, and of course WWAN. There's a start price of $449, but with some of these options we could see that shooting up pretty fast -- especially if you pick the optional USB-powered external disc drive, external speakers or port replicator. It's not cheap being cheap. The Mini 5101 goes on sale in July.
We got a quick hands-on with the netbook, and were fairly impressed. The square chiclet keys are much easier to hunt down than Mini 1000-series flush keys, and the proper trackpad configuration is naturally a huge bonus. We'd much prefer multitouch scrolling to the side-scrolling action, of course, but at least it's an improvement. The overall build quality is near the top of any laptop or netbook we've played with in this price range -- it's not perfect, and there's some of that telltale keyboard flex, but it's a big improvement over its largely plastic competitors and predecessor.
posted June 24th 2009 12:02AM
This a very nice netbook, but there is two thing wrong with it. The bezel is too big. They should a) made the bezel smaller or b) went with a 10.6in screen(LG use it on the X100, but then again that more of Sony TZ/TT, Asus U2 competitor). The other issues is the super old GMA 950. Heck, even the x3100 would be a better choice than the 950. Ion would be great, but if we are stuck using intel graphics then it should 4500hd at the least.
Very pretty.
BBBEEEZZZEEELLL... It looks like HP could have fitted a 24" screen in that lid.
I'm surprised by a lot of the comments here. When I saw this thing my first thought was how ugly it was. I mean, the keyboard and trackpad are slick, but I couldn't help but to stare at the HUGE bezel. Also, I really dislike how every port sticks out of the side. Those are just extra edges for things to catch on when your sliding it in and out of a backpack or such all day.
let's think about it... the bigger bezel is to cover the slightly larger size of this netbook... notice it has a *95%* sized keyboard... that's bigger than the 2140 which had a 92% keyboard. plus, the move of the trackpad buttons to the bottom means it had to get a bit taller.
why not a bigger lcd to "shrink" the bezel? how about to keep cost and power consumption down... notice the price point has not budged from the former 2140. the 3.0 MP webcam might be a bit larger to some extent too. maybe if lcd prices come down, we'll see an 11" version of this netbook at a similar price point in the same chassis down the road? it keeps the design options open.
ah yes, engineering and product design trades are hard for people to understand, i know.
it's too bad the lcd is glossy (sigh) and the ram is still limited to only 1 stick (2GB). and it's also too bad that we aren't seeing ion chipsets yet even in these late(r) to market models. maybe by year's end?
still... looks like a worthy replacement for the 2140 in more than a few areas.
ps to Fanfoot above: A 6-cell, 55WHr battery, 4-cell 29 WHr battery... not sure why you care if it's polymer vs. li-ion... polymer is mostly for shape/fit reasons... otherwise the tech performs mostly the same. Also, it does do 802.11b/g/n (just like the 2140 did).
Its deeper, at 7.1", vs the 2140's 6.5" depth. So yes, putting the trackpad buttons below the trackpad made it deeper. But the unit is no wider than the 2140 at 10.3".
I agree with others. There's nothing really that wrong with the 2140's keyboard. If they're going to use a 10" display, they should make the unit a little smaller, with a smaller bezel. As it is I'm just carrying around a bigger unit for no reason.
typo above... webcam is 2.0 MP. ;)
Shrink the bezel, shrink the keyboard. but i do love the edge-to-edge keyboard. mmmm. looks good, besides the huge bezel (and d-sub vga port on the side). i would poop on it.
D-SUB MAKE ME ANGRY! >:O
Seriously, they could've put an HDMI port on there and made everything better.
what's the reason they cant have a 1280x720 resolution in between?
also wish they had HDMI plus a larger screen that goes to the edge...
HP Mini 5101 Datasheet :
http://www.hp2133guide.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/HP-Mini-5101-datasheet.pdf
at what point are pc makers going to learn how to design a computer that LOOKS decent? And don't you DARE mention the Adamo, because that thing was ugly as hell. Just like this monstrosity.
If one is able to Hackintosh it, it's likely going to be my next computer.
Sigh, I was afraid they'd get rid of the 2140 design. All I wanted was a 2140 HD with room for their Broadcom Crystal graphics accelerator (maybe Ion) in the place of the Expresscard slot. Beyond that, I thought the design was as good as it could get short of swapping the touchpad out for a larger clickable one (a la Apple). Sorry, but I think this is ugly. 2140 was Macbook looking, this thing is Thinkpad looking. My preference was for the polished, rounded 2140 look that made the best use of every little bit of space. Maybe, they'll wedge an 11.6" screen in there ... they've got the room.
Agreed. Sounds like the HD version was available for like a day, before the 2140 was axed.
So once again HP fails to deliver things they promised when they launched the product:
- the graphics accelerator that was going to go in that (stupid) proprietary "internal" USB slot in the Mini 1000
- the VGA cable/adapter for the Mini 1000
- the HD display on the 2140
- the graphics accelerator for the 2140
Buy this unit if you like it. But if you're expecting HP to deliver on some promise they make when they ship this unit, like you want that cool USB dock, or a different sized battery, or whatever, don't hold your breath.
I'm sad to see both the Mini 1000 (nice size, a few too many weird ports), and the 2140 (beautiful build quality, great keyboard, promise of 720p screen), die off. Oh well, that's the price of progress.
HP may proclaim the specs on these new models, but they've clearly brought their costs down. The 110 and 5101 just aren't as nice as the 1000 and the 2140.
behhh still no HDMI, HP sucks!!! so many iterations and they still lack what many others offer.
WWAN is atleast one step on the right direction but HMDI should have been added as well.
Oh, I like the mouse buttons on the sides... I can't be the only one who holds their hand horizontally on the trackpad can I?
Still crap though. Like a fully equipped Peugeot.
Its not only a "who cares" that it has Vista, considering you can put W7 on it for free for quite some time (longer w/ rearming), but its in fact GREAT for that reason! It thus ships w/ Vista drivers, and I haven't come across a Vista driver yet that you couldn't get to work in W7 (worst case scenario running in Vista SP1 compatibility mode during install). The Dell Mini 10 is nice and all, but this loos gorgeous! Wonder if they'll throw some ION goodness in there in the near future. :D
Hey guys, I know you complain about the track pad being off to the left a lot and I wanted to point out that it's not off to the left in relation to the qwerty part of the keyboard, it's actually dead centre. On a 17" the track pad would appear A LONG way off to the left because the qwerty part of the keyboard is off to the left as well. If you put your hands on the keyboard in a normal typing position, you will find the track pad right under your thumbs. If it was in the centre of the laptop and not the keyboard, it would sit under your right palm as you typed.