It has the guts of the Mini 2140 but comes with a much nicer design, a chiclet style 95% keyboard and an additional USB port – it’s the new HP Mini 5101!! The Mini 5101′s design has a lot more in common with the design of the Probook series launched by HP earlier this year – a chiclet style keyboard, all black casing with turquoise/electric blue lighting for buttons, even the touchpad buttons feel the same (and the Probook series have very nice, rubberized touchpad buttons, with a nice ‘fluffy’ feeling when pressed). Oh, speaking of the touchpad, the Mini 5101′s buttons are now located BELOW the touchpad area like any other traditional notebook, instead of the awkward positioning on the left/right on the 2133/2140.
[Pictures to come...]
Hmmm, but unlike the Probook series with plasticky casings, the HP Mini 5101 is made entirely of aluminium/magnesium alloy (which naturally, feels a lot more sturdy and as solid as its Business Mini predecessors). Could this all-black, metal design be a hint of what’s to come on HP’s 2009 Elitebook lineup? I mean, not that I have any objections to 2008′s Elitebook black keyboard, white casing color scheme…
Alright, back to the Mini 5101 – it sounds like the perfect netbook at the moment, except it lacks backlit keyboard keys and graphic card options (ie Nvidia Ion). I surely hope that HP adds these two options to the Mini 5101 once they start shipping.