Unveiling the new HP Mini-Note PC

Asus has its [Eee PC](http://eeepc.asus.com/). Apple has its [MacBook Air](http://www.apple.com/macbookair/). And now, HP has its very own subnotebook, the [HP 2133 Mini-Note PC](http://h20426.www2.hp.com/news/minidpr/ap/en/index.html). (hmm, comparatively speaking, it’s a mouthful!)

I had the pleasure of attending the Mini-Note’s Singapore launch. The Blogosphere has been [buzzing](http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/08/hp-mini-note-2133-officially-official/) about it since the [official announcement](http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2008/080408xc.html).
Apparently I missed another version which was running on Linux. Now, that is some geek street cred. Then again, the Asus Eee already has it.
The Mini-Note PC looks good. It fits nicely in the hand.

The version I tried was running Windows Vista and had a skin on it, to make it look prettier. However it also had the heavy-duty battery attached, so it also felt heavier than I expected. HP says its weight (with normal battery) is 1.19kg.

Side view.
In terms of performance, I felt it ran like a normal-sized laptop PC, though I’ll leave it to the serious reviewers to do their performance tests. Despite its size, it comes with a respectable 160gb hard drive. It comes with wireless 802.11a, b and g as well as Bluetooth.
For a subnotebook, the speakers were very loud. We could hear them even though we were in the middle of Mezzanine’s bar, which was crowded and noisy. So that’s saying a lot.
Considering its size, it had a decent number of ports on the left and right sides.

The main criticism I’ve read about so far is the unusual trackpad design. Probably due to space constraints, the left and right buttons have been moved, quite literally, to the left and right of the trackpad. Time will tell if users get accustomed to this layout.

The other thing is the lights from the drive and wireless switches. I am wondering if there’s a need for these lights to be so strong. And they’re on, as long as the laptop is. Would that affect the battery life?

Also, some like the nearly full-sized keyboard, but that also means it is larger than the Eee, which many will inevitably draw comparisons to.
HP is targetting students with its under-US$500 price tag. So it costs more than the Asus Eee but hey, it also has a MUCH larger hard drive! Even bigger than the MacBook Air. So, it is probably a question of preference. What subnotebook you choose depends on what you are looking for.
I gave a video interview for [Tech65.org](http://www.tech65.org/). Looking forward to seeing it!
And now for the more social part …
I’d like to thank [Melvin](http://thepr2.0universe.com/) for the invitation and to [HP](http://www.hp.com.sg/) for organising this uber cool launch party!

See, Melvin really likes it!

I was also pleasantly surprised to meet Magdalene, my old SCGS classmate. One of my first questions for her was, “Are you on Facebook?” 😛 She asked about [Fatgirl](http://fatgirltales.com/) and [Monologs](http://monologs.net/) and [Dimsumdolly](http://dimsumdolly.com/). I proudly proclaimed, “I set up blogs for all of them!” While it’s been probably 14 years since we last saw each other, we felt we were still the same.
Good catching up with [Ming Shen](http://nuffnang.blogspot.com/) of [Nuffnang](http://nuffnang.com/) – at least we finally got to work together, albeit indirectly! Always love talking politics and big ideas with [Bernard Leong](http://bleongcw.typepad.com/). Didn’t see [Coleman](http://metacole.wordpress.com/) eat much, though. [Estee](http://9eek9oddess.blogspot.com/) and [Priscilla](http://joy.nu/), of course, looked as good as ever!
Nice to see [NTT](http://nttup.wordpress.com/) and [Farinelli](http://internet125.blogspot.com/) again, and meet [Nicole85](http://nicole.squoar.com/) (good grief, I’m remembering them by their Twitternames). Very gentlemanly of the guys to give us ladies the Martinis first. Met [Nicholas Aaron Khoo](http://www.khoocapital.com/) in person after being virtual Facebook friends for a while. Had a good chat with [Michael Cheng](http://miccheng.com/).