Though there’s a small chance that you may have already bought one before the New Year, HP decided to officially launch their Mini 210 consumer netbook anyway (with the latest Intel N450 processor and up to 2 GB of RAM). You can check out the full specifications of the Mini 210 here that we already posted last week (!!!). Along with the Mini 210 come two lookalike siblings, the Mini 2101 has mostly the same features as the Mini 210 but is aimed at professional users (I thought this was the Mini 5101’s job?!) and the Compaq Mini 201, which sports an older Intel Atom N270 processor and only 1 GB of RAM (looks those miscellaneous low-quality internet leaks on the “Compaq CQ10” and its specifications were wrong, huh?).
Remember that leak a few days ago about a new HP Pavilion notebook, Compaq netbook and four Pavilion Elite desktops from a retailer who sounded like they knew some stuff, but at the same time, were also putting in some guesswork of their own? Turns out they were right about the NUMBER of new products and product pictures, but they seem to be off about product names and were most likely, really half-guessing some of the specifications (and price, since HP as of now has no official pricing available).
Rightfully, the products announced today are the Pavilion Elite 110, 120, 130 and 170. They come in a variety of flavors: choose from AMD or Intel processors, with various quad core choices, up to 24 GB total DDR3 RAM, up to 2 TB of hard disk storage (though number of hard disk bays is unknown), and Nvidia or ATI graphics cards… take your pick! Other than that, details seem to be comparatively scarce compared to the netbooks/new Touchsmart tablet launched today. HP has also yet to decide on pricing and availability
HP will team up with Microsoft to launch a tablet this Wednesday
Hot off the press is an article by the New York Times highlighting the impending launch of the “Microsoft Courier” (or at least something based off the concept) tablet this Wednesday by Steve Ballmer (Microsoft’s CEO) at the Consumer Electronics Show. Looks like there’s gonna be quite a bit of drama as HP (as in Hewlett Packard) and Microsoft team up to launch a tablet way before Apple’s tablet even comes out of ‘vaporware speculation’ status! Go team Microsoft! This upcoming tablet will be a ‘HP device’ (although what sort of branding it will receive is still a mystery. Will it be branded with Microsoft or HP’s name?) will have multimedia functions, including a reader feature, and a touchscreen (size unknown) supporting multi-touch input.
A little bird told me HP will be launching their consumer and business oriented PC’s on different dates (a strategy well used by many companies to prevent news ‘cannibalization’ when releasing multiple new products), presumably so the two different sides get full attention from the public/media each time. And guess what they’re likely to do during the Consumer Electronics Show this week?!
It’s Tuesday already for everyone around the world except Hawaii residents. The biggest thing we’ve been hearing on the net and in the media lately is the Consumer Electronics Show 2010 (CES) being held in Las Vegas. CES is where many electronics and technology companies come out to showcase their greatest concepts and launch their latest products. For the computing sector, I’ve got a small list here of what to expect from this year’s CES:
- Pine Trail aplenty – Lots of netbooks sporting Intel’s latest N450 Pine Trail processor. While offering roughly the same 1.66 GHz clock speed compared to its predecessor, the N280 processor, this latest Intel processor sips even less power than ever and sports a marginally better integrated graphics chipset (but no, you still can’t play Modern Warfare 2 or Need for Speed Shift on your N450 netbook).
- Tablet PCs – Expect to see a lot more computer manufacturers entering the tablet fray. CES has barely begun yet we’ve already seen Lenovo come up with a “hybrid” netbook/tablet today and an accidental information burst from an internet retailer detailing HP’s upcoming Touchsmart tablet… and of course, the ever-present, ever-discussed speculation about Apple’s tablet, the iTablet (or not).
- Core i3 and i5 for notebooks – Both Intel’s Mobile Core i3 and Mobile Core i5 will finally see the day of light in many, many full-sized notebooks this year. As proven by initial benchmarking of new Core i5 processors against last year’s Core 2 models, we’re gonna see quite a speed boost from Intel’s latest with similar/less power consumption… and while it hasn’t happened yet, this is probably going to lead to the complete replacement of Core 2 “Socket P” processors by their Mobile i3/i5 counterparts. We’re already seeing Core 2 processors being phased out.
- More graphics power – ATI made a big bang last year with the 5000-series graphics cards and their famous performance benchmark numbers and have already come out with ‘notebook’ versions of their 5000-series graphics. Nvidia recently added their new GeForce 300 series graphics cards for notebooks, which offer a supposedly large leap over their predecessors. Reliable sources have also told me that there are still yet-to-be-announced Quadro Mobile variants of their GeForce 300 series for CAD work in mobile workstation models.
- Touchscreens and High Definition everywhere – With even the most basic of digital cameras about to feature 720p HD movie recording capabilities, computer manufacturers will be touting their HD features here, there and everywhere. “HD” displays, “HD” graphics, Blu-ray drives, HD this and HD that. They’ll also be quick to offer more touchscreen devices, and touchscreens on more devices. Savvy? More touchscreen phones, touchscreen LCD displays, touchscreen all-in-one computers, touchscreen tablets, optional touchscreens on notebooks (whose extra charge I would fail to justify unless a stand for holding my arm up to the screen for prolonged periods is included)…
I would say 2010 is a terrific year to go out there and shop for new gadgets; especially notebooks. With so much new and improved stuff (as in REAL, justifyable improvements), notably Mobile Core i5 and next-generation ATI/Nvidia graphics cards, getting a notebook this year would be great, because there’ll be a big leap in performance over last year’s models. And of course, who knows what other interesting things the year may bring in the tech area. I foresee lots of exciting, shiny stuff in my crystal ball 
The folks at eCost have a product page for the HP tm2 (whether accidentally or otherwise, I don’t know), HP’s upcoming consumer tablet PC. The tm2 will most likely go under HP’s Touchsmart branding, if not, their Pavilion line. Specifications wise, it looks like the Touchsmart tm2 will be a small step back versus the existing Touchsmart tx2 tablet in terms of processor speed and graphics, but makes up for that with DDR3 memory and probably much improved battery life due to the new power sipping processor (the current tx2 uses an AMD processor with higher clock speed).
Things that seem to remain the same compared to the previous model include the inclusion of a 12 inch multi-touch display that can be ‘rotated’ into tablet form/notebook, fingerprint sensor and connectivity options. The big question here is whether the new Touchsmart tm2 is a direct replacement for the 1+ year old Touchsmart tx2, or is there something more powerful on its way a few months down the road?
Written by Brad in HP Mini on Jan 6, 2010 | 
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