Out of the Box

HP’s much-heralded Mini-note has finally arrived and to favorable reviews.  CRN calls it “a real winner” and says that “the quality and finish is outstanding.” James Kendrick now questions whether his Fujitsu Tablet PC is worth its 3x price premium over the Mini-Note. While I’m no Tablet PC fan, I like the Fujitsu P-series and form factor, and the company will certainly feel more heat in its niche as other notebook heavyweights move in.

This segment will represent a test for Dell, which seems prepared to enter this space before the end of the year. Dell has done well in the education market (for which the Mini-Note was especially designed) with its aggressive pricing while trying to improve its design perceptions particularly as it has moved more aggressively into the hands-on world of retail. It will be challenging for Dell to lowball HP while live up to the 2133’s design expectation.

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in December, I wrote that HP was the most likely of all major PC vendors to respond to the ASUS Eee PC ultraportable notebook given its history with mobile devices such as the old 95LX and Jornada series. The detailed screen shots and specifications of the HP/Compaq 2133 have made it the device that is receiving the most Web traffic at UMPC Portal.

On paper, the 2133 looks just about perfect, addressing the screen resolution and keyboard imitations of the Eee. The trackpad buttons may be unusually placed, but they can’t be much worse than the Eee’s stealth two-button trackpad. And, look, it can balance on its corner defying the laws of physics — that’s gotta count for something. Of course, key details such as price, processor speed, memory/hard drive configuration and battery life have yet to be divulged, Rumor has it that HP will price the 2133 at a point where it is practically an impule buy, but here’s my E-Z guide to determining its potential based on price for a usable configuration:

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