HP's ultra-portable notebook play

If the so-called ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) market has so far been
dominated by expensive models from the likes of Sony and Samsung, the market is
starting to open up with the arrival of computing heavyweights like HP.

The success of the Asus Eee PC has shown that people want highly-portable,
small form-factor laptops, but the limitations of the Eee PC when it
comes to memory and storage make it unsuitable for most computer users as a
primary device, unless you're pretty much living in the browser - doing all of
your computing online.

Between the high-end UMPCs popular is Asia and the
low-end Eee PC, HP has come into the market with the HP 2133 Mini-Note
PC, a UMPC with a $999 entry-level
price tag. I had some hands-on time with the 2133 last week and was
impressed with what HP has done with the form factor.

The concept is really a throwback to the HP Jornada 820.
It was released in 1998 and enjoyed popularity for a few years as a Windows CE-based 'palm-top' device that featured a full-sized
keyboard, wide screen and decent battery life. But the Jornada didn't survive
the HP-Compaq merger after which the iPaq PocketPC handheld
device ruled the line-up.

So what do you get with the Mini-Note PC? Well, it's
pretty much a fully fledged laptop built into a small form factor. It weighs
1.2kg, so isn't the lightest notebook on the market. It runs on the Via C7-M
1.6GHz processor, up to 2GB of memory and a 160GB hard drive as standard - you
can opt for a 4GB solid-state drive if you're running Linux SuSE. An
80GB solid-state drive will be available by midyear but will double the
cost of the device initially. HP is offering the Mini-Note running
Vista or Windows XP Pro with a Vista licence
thrown in.

The three-cell battery that ships with the Mini-Note
as standard gives a fairly average two hours of battery life – you'd need to
look seriously as investing in a six-cell back-up battery if
you need to get a day's work out of the Mini-Note and won't be near a
power point.

The screen is 8.9 inches and features very good resolution
(1280 x 768).There's built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, though no
integrated mobile broadband which mobile workers would find useful.
Importantly, there's an express card slot for adding mobile data cards or TV
tuners and an SD slot for flash memory cards.

There are two USB ports (one
powered) and a Gigabit Ethernet port. If you want to output to a separate
screen you can do so via VGA - there's no HDMI port here. A webcam is built
into the Mini-Note above the screen.

Obviously, there's no optical disc drive, you buy one
separately. The Mini-Note was heavier than I expected when I picked it
up, but HP claims it was never aiming to be the lightest UMPC on the market.

"It's not lightweight in this market. When you go very
light, you tend to lose durability," an HP product manager told me.

In terms of design however, the Mini-Note is fairly
polished, complete with MacBook Air-style buffed aluminium case. The keyboard
is particularly well done. The keys lie flat together forming a continuous flat
surface, which has allowed HP to give more room for the keys - the keyboard is
92 per cent the size of a regular laptop keyboard.

That was a good move. One of
the off-putting factors for me when it comes to UMPCs, is the scrunched-up
keyboards many of them feature. I can't write on a cramped keyboard for long.

At $999 I can see the Mini-Note having appeal as a
second computer for people who want a small laptop to take on their travels. It
is more durable that the likes of the Lenovo Thinkpad X300 (which I'll be
reviewing later in the week) and the MacBook Air. But HP and its rivals have
some pretty decent 12 inch and 13.3 inch laptop models in the market at higher
price points.

The question is whether you go for a high-powered
but lightweight laptop as your primary computer and pay upwards of $2000 or opt
for a Mini-Note type device to complement your desktop PC or heavier
laptop.

I still probably lean towards the former scenario - my
computer goes with me everywhere and maintaining two systems is just added
hassle for me. I had the HP Compaq nc4000, which was for years the smallest
offering in the HP laptop range and it was a dream to travel with.

HP's entry into the UMPC market signals the mainstreaming of
the form factor. That means the prices are only going to come down and more
features will be built into smaller form-factors. But fundamentally, I
think it's still to be seen just how big the market opportunity is here.

Do ultra-portable devices hold appeal for you? Would
you pay $999 - $1299 for a device that is unlikely to be used as your
primary computer?