If 2007 was the year that Asus has chosen to introduce the small and affordable sub-notebook, then 2008 is the year where the concept really began to take off. Asus, predictably, has the lead once more with its updated Eee PC 900 right to a large number of questions raised by the original. Meanwhile, Intel has enthusiastically adopted the idea by launching its platform Centrino Atom for small, low-power, affordable and notepads MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices). There are few machines to use Atom discussed, including the impressive research MSI Wind, but it seems it could be some time before we see Atom machines hitting the retail sector.

As such, it was necessary for companies to find alternatives while Intel accelerates production. Asus solution so far has been a 900Hz Intel Celeron CPU, but other companies have had to resort to lesser-known options, the VIA C7-M 1.2GHz CPU be a popular alternative. He jumped in a number of Eee PC-alikes, but with mixed success, it was somehow a surprise to see him feed HP first foray into the sub-notebook market, somewhat awkwardly named HP 2133-Note Mini-PC.
Although it lacks a catchy name on the toy-like Eee PC-Mini Note PC is a surprisingly elegant piece of design. Heavyweight in a portable 1.27 kg but the metal lid and brushed complete below internal money and beautiful glossy black bezel, while its curves to form a pleasantly tactile which immediately appealed. If the EEA PC borrows the MacBook white emblematic of the end, the Mini Note PC feels much more like a product manufactured by the house that Steve Jobs built.

This comparison, however, is not much HP justice because he was too design and production of notebook attractive for some time now and his experience is borne out in the Mini-Note. Everything about the machine feels extremely accomplished, with a compact, but feel light and solidity that belies both its price and size. Try to bend the screen and you will find it difficult to produce a lot of movement at all. Apply some pressure outside of the lid and you’ll be hard pushed to transmit it to the LCD itself.

Already, then, the Mini Note PC is an excellent account of himself. With a keyboard that strikes in September nuances of something unpleasant on the EEA PC efforts, it is already on track and the elegant metallic design is class personified. And if you take a look at the list of features, there is much else to smile.

For storage there is a very capacious 5400 trs / min disk of 120 GB and that you never find both wireline and wireless network board. It is even Bluetooth, too, while webcam with dual microphones is a more pure. Its value of 1 GB DDR RAM is also appropriate given the use, but if you opt for the more expensive version of Vista you get 2 GB of space.

Connectivity is, of course, limited by the size of chassis, but even then, the Mini-Note fate. There are two USB ports, one of which is supplied with a D-Sub (VGA) video output, headphone and microphone taken and an Ethernet port round the standard stuff. Furthermore, there is a 54mm ExpressCard slot and a slot for SD card, and even a lock slot. Meanwhile, on the front, you’ll find a wireless switch equipment, it is easy to save battery when you do not use the Internet.

For all these qualities, if there are some predictable compromises to find, starting with the keyboard. That is quite low is not a big surprise - it is a small machine after all, but true to say this is not the size that is the problem is buttons. Why? Because they were placed on both sides, rather than below, the keyboard and even if this May initially seem quite a smart move, it is remarkable how difficult it is to s’ accustom.

Anyone who regularly uses a laptop can find stabbing thin air from time to time and it takes a good dose of practice to make your brain think “left” or “right” and not “down”. Yet Is something that you may get used and the choice between the latter and less intuitively laid down keyboard is the best compromise.

We are also not entirely convinced by the screen. Provided that you are inside, it poses no problem at all. In fact, we would go so far as to say that this is excellent given its strong 1280 x 768 resolution and size 8.9in decent. But HP has given a “scratchproof” brilliant which is using the Mini Note PC high-light conditions outside a real challenge.

Neither can he claim to be an individual or cool the machine quiet. During use, the fan works without a break and if it does not buzz on the Asus U2E is a little embarrassing. Similarly, the bottom of the machine becomes very hot given the relatively low electricity consumption - a product without doubt to use a hard drive versus a cool and calm DSS. In any event, however, these issues are not catastrophic, they do small indentations in the mini-note of the call.

Although reflection screen, keyboard and a little strange excessive heat and noise are negative, they are nothing compared to the overall performance disappointing. In fact, you can call the Mini-Note performance “disappointing” is a bit hypocritical because it’s worse than that, it’s just downright poor.

Having rightly criticized the two and a half to three hours managed by the EEA 900 PC, the Mini-Note is like a thoroughbred in this department. Using the Mini-Note at full brightness wireless enabled resulted in a disappointing one hour and a half, while even disable wireless and the Goblet of brightness in half only added another 30 minutes of use very light. It is clear that the 3-battery that came with this configuration is not up and if you can get a 6-cell battery, he adds weight and protrude from the bottom of the machine.

More concerning, however, is the overall performance offered by the mini-Note. Even if a 1.2GHz processor VIA may seem faster than Intel Celeron 900 MHz, this is not the case at all. One can forgive a slow booting and launching programs, but there are clear limits on what the Mini Note can manage.

For example, you can watch YouTube and other flash-based video in windowed mode quite easily, but moving up to full screen choppy results in reading and unwatchable. More disturbing, but is it applicable to any type of video playback as well, so you can forget watching downloaded video full-screen mode. Lest we not forget the battery either, since it’s nothing like good enough to make regular viewing a reality.

Mini-Note is not anywhere near as user-friendly as the EEA PC, whatsoever. While both use the Linux operating system, SUSE 10.1 OS used by the Mini-Note is not appropriate in a way for novice users, while the documentation does little to illuminate. This will no doubt please more experienced users, because it presents them with a ready to use the machine with the flexibility they want, but everyone else will be left floundering in the dark. Furthermore, it is something of a travesty of HP said “education” audience, because it seems difficult to believe that teachers or students weaned on Windows find the change easy.
It would be useful, too, if the pre-installed software on offer were a little more exhaustive. Open Office 2.3 is on hand for productivity and is well suited to its task. Similarly, there are plenty of utilities such as RSS readers, email clients, music players and photo browsers. However, HP has neglected to pre-install any type of AVI / DivX video player capable standard, instead of opting for RealPlayer 10 - is there someone seriously the use of RealPlayer? Not by choice, that’s for sure.

Ultimately, all Mini-Note deficiencies giving the impression of a product that was pushed at the door prematurely, the loss of emphasis on the track. Its target market is the education sector but it is not easy enough to be used, and it does not have enough processing power and battery life for the most demanding users. Thus, it does not meet all needs perfectly - a real shame considering the superb design.

Nothing better illustrates this point that the lack of balance offered by the two configurations of the bid by United Kingdom. At around £ 350 of SuperGPS.co.uk and other publishing Linux seems the most logical option is more affordable and relatively cheap, a RAM upgrade would enhance the performance a shortly.

Regarding the second most expensive configuration, which will set you back up to £ 500, there are a few hardware changes, upped with 2 GB RAM and a 6-cell battery thrown at the same time that the 3-cell offered on the basis of specifications. Oddly, however, it is pre-loaded with Windows Vista. As anyone will tell you that this is the last operating system you want on a low-power system like this and considering VIA CPU same struggles on Linux, it will be worse on Vista. A Windows XP version would be much more logical to give the people know an OS that would not overwhelm the system too.