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HP Mini 5101 doesn’t play 1080p video

I suddenly had the urge to watch Pirates of the Caribbean yesterday in full HD, I’m not sure why (but nevermind that) – perfect, I thought, to try it out on my newly acquired HP Mini 5101. I booted up the Mini’s trusty, musty Windows XP system and opened the movie in VLC. While the movie’s surround sound was mind blowing, it was no better than if a radio station tried to play a movie – if you know what I mean: No video. Yes, audio plays back well but without video. Gahh… anyone know of any software that plays 1080p movies on a graphic-less Intel Atom N280 system?

On a side note, I know a few friends who just received their Mini 5101′s, some with unresponsive/faulty keyboards – any Mini 5101 owners out there with faulty/unresponsive keyboards or Mini 5101′s with stuck keys? Well, my copy works fine, so the issue seems to affect only certain units.

Not yet…

I’ve had the HP Mini 5101 for almost 48 hours now and so far my impressions of it are very positive. I thought I’d post my initial feelings about the Mini 5101 now (I’m using Windows XP on it since it turns out Windows 7 64-bit can’t run on Intel Atom. I’ll have to get hold of a copy of Windows 7 32-bit RTM next week). I’ve brought it out and about with me for the past two days, and I’m absolutely thrilled at almost everything it has to offer.

Things I love about the HP Mini 5101 (this comes from me, a HP Mini 2133 user for almost 18 months now):

• Design – the Mini 5101 looks exactly like a mini-me version of the HP ProBook series, from the exterior design down to fine things like the touchpad and color of its status lights. The Mini 5101 looks very business-like and its non-flashy, very un-conspicuous design is an attraction on its own. I had friends asking me “is that a new phone inside that HP box” – alright, so with its lid closed, the Mini 5101 looks like a pretty little box (you know, like the one’s they used to ship the Voodoo Envy 133 in) – not exactly a bad thing since it brings in the right kind of attraction. Build quality is excellent – it’s metal case feels solid (unlike some of the plasticky-ProBooks).
• Keyboard – Yes, this has got to be the biggest feature that everyone’s after in the Mini 5101. The chiclet keyboard (95% full-size I believe) is the best thing that I’ve EVER used in a while, and easy the best in the ‘netbook’ class/market. Not only are the individual keys nicely sized and well-spaced, they have a soft rubber-like feel and give very good tactile/click feedback. For the last two days, I’ve been hard-pressed trying to decide whether to type out some reports on the Mini 5101 because of its nice keyboard, or on the dv4 because of the larger screen – that’s how good the keyboard is and I’m not exaggerating (I recommend anyone to go out to your nearest computer store and try typing a few blog posts or something on the Mini 5101*)
  *I’m not liable for any sudden urges to snap out that wallet to buy a HP Mini 5101 after your experience
• Matte screen – The second best thing on the HP Mini 5101 after the nice keyboard. It seems forever that I’ve been waiting for netbooks to have matte screens and finally, here’s one that does! I won’t deny – I’m a matte-screen purist (hey, I started out young) and I want all the non-glossy, non-reflective, great visibility goodness that I can find. Here’s my reasoning: Matte screen’s non-glare nature = Ability to turn down brightness while still being able to view the screen = Extended battery life. Oh, did I mention I’m a big fan of long battery life as well? I do have one issue with the Mini 5101′s screen but it’s not really HP’s fault… more on that later.
• Touchpad buttons – The re-location of the touchpad buttons to the more ‘traditional’, below-touchpad position was/is touted by many as yet another improvement that edges the Mini 5101 closer to being the ‘perfect netbook’. I think that statement is kind of overrated as I have no problems, even now, with the ‘side’ touchpad buttons of the Mini 2133. The REAL improvement here is the ‘button click’ feeling of the touchpad buttons – still tactile as ever, but requiring less pressure than on the Mini 2133 to register a click. The touchpad lock feature is missing from the Mini 5101 but I have yet to find that an issue, as of the 5634 words I’ve typed on the Mini 5101.
• Light-weight and battery design – Being a HP Mini 2133 owner has its benefits (sort of): I was able to directly compare both the Mini 2133 and Mini 5101 in terms of weight and the Mini 5101 is noticeably lighter! Not that the Mini 2133 is a burden to carry but if HP could maintain the solid build quality on the Mini 5101 while making it lighter, who wouldn’t take it? The 4-cell battery I have sits flush with the Mini, so fitting the 5101 into my bag is much easier a task now. I’ve seen (but wasn’t given) the 6-cell battery and it sticks out less, and not as awkwardly, compared to the 2133/2140.
• Battery life – I received the 4-cell battery for my copy of the Mini 5101 and so far, I’ve ran it through two full discharge cycles. Battery life is very good as far as I can tell – the first charge lasted 3+ hours with moderate screen brightness and a few minutes of music while the second charge lasted almost 4 hours of internet surfing at moderate brightness. HP says the 6-cell battery will power the Mini 5101 for twice as long, but I’ve yet to try out the 6-cell.

Right, I have a few issues with the Mini 5101 I received (yes, I’m picky) but they are fairly minor problems and most of them are fixable:

• Low resolution LCD (fixable) – Since beggars can’t be choosers, the Mini 5101 I got has a 1024 x 600 screen which is noticeably lower in resolution and fits in less ‘lines’ than my Mini 2133′s 1280 x 768 screen. HP offers a ‘HD upgrade’ for the Mini 5101 (which, of course, costs extra) which will give you a boost to 1366 x 768.
• Windows XP (fixable) – I have been a Windows Vista user for a few years now since it became official and have never looked back. Going back to Windows XP is just… ugh, going backwards, for me. I can’t do ‘Aero’ previews of open windows, I can’t just type in a name when I open the Start menu to find a program, and suddenly file management in Windows Explorer and updating Windows is a challenge, etc. I’ll be going on and on, all day, if I were to continue with my rants about Windows XP since I moved to Vista… but the point is, I’ll be slapping on Windows 7 ASAP on the Mini as soon as I can a hold of the 32-bit edition.
• Glossy trackpad/touchpad – this is one thing that is UNFIXABLE. The HP Mini 5101 is unbelievably sexy (for a computer) and its clean, simple lines are just so good looking… no sign of gloss or bling anywhere until you reach the touchpad. The Mini 5101 makes me wonder why HP couldn’t have just put one of the Elitebook-style trackpads instead of the glossy one they have now. The HP Mini 5101′s touchpad is both glossy and it picks up (& shows) fingerprints fast.
• Quick Launch buttons – the HP Mini 5101 has two physical Quick Launch buttons which start up your default browser and e-mail client respectively. On one hand, I love the ability to instantly launch Firefox in just one press. On the other, if you already have an instance of Firefox open, pressing the Quick Launch button will NOT open another browser – instead it brings you back to your homepage *slaps own forehead*. And since I’m not some busy businessman, neither do I need to use a dedicated mail client on a netbook (I just use webmail and leave Outlook to my dv4), the second Quick Launch button is completely useless to me – I’d love it if we (users) could customize the functions of the two QL buttons. Firmware update, anyone?
• Direct-access function buttons – The HP Mini 5101 has ‘direct access’ Function buttons, like on the Envy 13 and Envy 15 (and Apple Macbooks too). That means the “F” function has been relegated to a secondary position while another feature takes its place (such as volume up/down, mute, screen brightness up/down). That means in order for the Mini to register “F5″, you’ll have to hold the “Fn” and “F5″ keys together. Sadly, the Sleep function is located on the F5 key and I accidentally put the system into standby a few times when I meant to refresh a browser page.

See, not so bad, right? More on the Mini 5101 experience as I continue to use it in the coming weeks.

As for the title of this post, means I won’t be sending my Mini 2133 into retirement (AKA send it back) yet, not till I get a Mini 5101 with the high-res screen option and 6 cell battery.

HP Mini 5101 in da house!

Oh look what the wind brought in… I’ll have to post a write up on this little critter soon once I plop in Windows 7 and use it for a few days…

HP iPAQ Data Messenger + Windows Mobile 6.1 getting old…

I remember that it was just last year that I was using a HP iPAQ 600 and I installed like a gazillion apps into it and modded the heck out of its user interface. I’ve been using the iPAQ Data Messenger for about 6 months now and have been doing about the same. Today, I just tried to update my ancient v0.94 Throttle Launcher to the latest v1.0 RC3 version, at first rather unsuccessfully. But after a few reboots and file transfers later, things were working again. Sadly, the new Touch FLO 3D interface for Throttle Launcher displayed the fonts and formatting in a messed up manner… and frustrated, I uninstalled the whole package all together. Maybe I’ll put back the old v0.94 again one day (but I remember it wasn’t easy to set that one up either).

Over the last couple of weeks, my iPAQ Data Messenger hasn’t been too healthy – half of its storage memory disappeared for no reason (and I can’t seem to get it back), battery life isn’t as great anymore compared to when I first received it, using my own 3.5 mm headphones with an adapter is a hit or miss affair (sometimes the phone detects it, sometimes not) and the entire slide-out keyboard is feeling unresponsive – I now have to literally mash down at each key when typing out an SMS, it’s both frustrating and painful. I don’t know if I’m just fed up with Windows Mobile 6.1, the Data Messenger or both, but I’ve been using the iPAQ as ‘just a regular phone’ to make calls and text (painfully) these few days. I haven’t been typing anything, articles, reports, blog posts, etc except text messages and brief One Note files for the last few weeks thanks to the keyboard issue – strange, because every key is unresponsive, including those like the Symbol and Windows Start menu keys which I have almost never used.

Right now, I am impatiently waiting for iPAQ Season in October/November and having high hopes that HP will release some revolutionary iPAQ models (or at least models that are up-to-date with the competition) for 2010. I’m also looking forward to the day someone (Microsoft or not) comes out with a unified App Store for Windows Mobile to encourage developers to make more apps once again for the REAL business smartphone OS. I’m starting to find Windows Mobile apps rather stale as everyone gushes over to develop apps for Android and iPhone – isn’t that sad?

I’m feeling less enthusiastic using the Data Messengers these days but I guess I’m forced to hold out… until a better iPAQ comes along, whenever that may be.

On a more positive note, I managed to install the latest S2U2 AKA Slide to Unlock app for Windows Mobile, recommended by Luke, and it works flawlessly (See my home screen above!)

HP Envy vs MacBook Pro, really?!

Thanks to HP United Kingdom posting up the product page for the HP Envy 13, I finally have some numbers to play with and make a comparison ABOUT the comparisons people are making out there. First off, a little intro about what’s been happening since HP announced their Envy 13 and Envy 15 designer+performance notebooks five days ago… people have been touting the Envy 15 as the notebook that practically ‘owns’ (AKA pwns) the Apple MacBook Pro (any existing MB Pro) with its 1 GB of ATI graphics, quad core Mobile Core i7 option, solid construction, stuff like that.

On the contrary, the Envy 15′s sibling, the Envy 13 has been called ‘less impressive’ and ‘an overpriced copycat’ of the Apple MacBook Pro 13. Really now? I digress. First off, let’s take a look at the dimensions of the 13 inch MacBooks available.

Note: I’ll be using centimeters since HP UK has no measurements for the Envy 13 in inches and it’s only fair to use manufacturer supplied dimensions, instead of DIY conversion.

Apple MacBook White aka Plastic (13 inch model) = 32.5 x 22.7 x 2.75 cm @ 2.27 kg

Apple MacBook Pro Unibody (13 inch model) = 32.5 x 22.7 x 2.41 cm @ 2.04 kg

Got that? Now for the Envy 13:

HP Envy 13 (13 inch model) = 32.0 x 21.5 x 2.05 cm @ 1.70 kg (Source: HP UK)

The Envy 13 is a good 3.6 millimeters slimmer than Apple’s Unibody MacBook and also shorter/narrow. So there’s no way HP could have packs in a optical drive into the Envy 13, neither could they have stuffed in an Ethernet port without making the notebook thicker. HOWEVER, HP did manage to push in double the graphics memory (512 MB on Envy vs 256 MB on MacBook), a removable batteryand most ‘essential ports’ – things that I would personally appreciate more than an optical drive or Ethernet port. Not to mention the Envy 13 is supposed to feature ‘Beats’ audio, which people claim to produce much better sound than conventional notebook speakers.

Back to my point, people are complaining that the Envy 13′s $1699 price tag is too high. Why buy the Envy 13 when the so-called similar Apple MacBook Pro 13 can be had for 30% less at $1199, right? Wrong! I say that it’s only right to compare the HP Envy 13 to Apple’s MacBook Air (both spec and price wise).

Apple MacBook Air (13 inch model) = 32.5 x 22.7 x 1.94 cm @ 1.36 kg

That’s right folks, the HP Envy 13 is mere millimeters thicker than the MacBook Air. In fact, the HP Envy 13 is overall, a more compact notebook compared to the Apple MacBook Air. If you compare their volumes, the HP Envy 13 is 1410.4 cubic cm while the Apple MacBook Air comes in at 1431.235 cubic cm. Simply put, if you could fill water (but please don’t in real life) into the empty casings of both notebooks, the MacBook Air would hold more liquid (bigger) than the Envy.

Fine, the size difference isn’t huge, but my point was to prove the Envy is positioned closer to the Air than the Pro. But the Envy and Air have more than size in common: Lack of an optical drive, ultra-slim profiles, 1.86 GHz ULV SL9400 processors – you get the point. The Envy 13 costs $1699 but the MacBook Air is priced at a close $1499 ($1799 for the 2.13 GHz/SSD model) – pretty close huh?

HP hasn’t mentioned anything about disk capacities for the Envy 13 and Envy 15 yet. But comparing the HP Envy 13 and Apple MacBook Air in general, paying $200 extra for the HP Envy 13 versus the cheaper Air would get you:

• A HDMI port in place of Display Port
• 1 additional USB port
• 1 hour of extra battery life (5 hours built-in on Air, 6 hours primary battery on Envy)
• Ability to add-on a secondary battery to extend battery life to 18 hours
• More graphics memory (256 MB Nvidia on Air, 512 MB ATI on Envy)
• Option for DDR3 RAM up to 5 GB (Apple locks the Air to 2 GB)
• Supposedly better audio quality

Again, the difference between the Envy 13 and MacBook Pro is too large (no pun intended), in my opinion, for a fair comparison to be carried out. There’s no way HP could’ve fit in larger/more components into the Envy.

I don’t have the Envy 13 in person but I do have a Pavilion dv2 to get an idea of the Envy’s size.

HP Pavilion dv2 (12 inch screen) = 29.2 x 24.0 x 2.37 cm @ 1.70 kg

The dv2 is thinner than the MacBook Pro 13, and in turn, the Envy 13 is even slimmer than the dv2. So imagine that, HP had to do use some really compact components and a lot of design planning to make the Envy 13 as capable as it is now. Hence the premium price.

If you’re still complaining about the HP Envy 13 being more expensive than the Apple MacBook Pro 13, do yourself (and Apple) a favor by also complaining about how the MacBook Air is pricier than the MacBook Pro. After all, the Envy 13 is the Windows cousin to the MacBook Air. The MacBook Pro 13 is a whole different animal.

Disclaimer: In no way is this article an anti-Apple or pro-HP post. I merely stating my observation on how people are comparing the HP Envy 13 to the wrong notebook. It should be HP Envy 13 vs Apple MacBook Air, because, again, the MacBook Pro 13 is a different class of notebook compared to the Envy.