If you’re like me and happen to be in the market for an ultra-portable notebook PC which packs some power, HP has quietly added an option to upgrade to Intel’s latest Low Voltage SL9600 processor (introduced earlier this year) for its Elitebook 2530p notebook and 2730p tablet PC’s.
The new SL9600 is clocked at 2.13 GHz which is a decent step up from 1.83 GHz on the SL9400 processor. Like its predecessor, the SL9600 also packs a nice 6 MB of L2 cache and 1066 MHz FSB. If the performance of last year’s SL9400 is any indication (it performed well, sometimes behaving like it had even more power than its stated clock speed), then this latest processor should be even nicer, and snappier.
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.
Word about the new HP iPAQ K3 “Obsidian” came out today (courtesy of AT&T) and it looks like another step towards the better, I think. On paper and pictures, the new iPAQ K3 looks like the middle child of the iPAQ 912 Business Messenger and the recent iPAQ Data Messenger. There’s the iPAQ 912’s form factor here (if you’ve never seen one, think Nokia E71) along with a QWERTY keyboard… and from the Data Messenger’s genes come a 2.8 inch (supposedly touchscreen) LCD, microSD/microSDHC support and proximity + ambient light sensor. There are the usual culprits you’d expect to find on a smartphone – WiFi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, data syncing, etc.
The two key changes here are: Windows Mobile 6.5 and a 3.5 mm headphone jack (whew, thought I’d never see it again since the days of the iPAQ h6310). Congratulations HP, that’s a step in the right direction – bring back the standard 3.5 mm headphone jack!! It seems just about every phone nowadays has one, and I’m glad HP actually listens and is not ignorant to change (the reason why Sony Ericsson/Motorola = Fail). The only not-so-good item on paper I see here is a 2 megapixel fixed focus camera (Why oh why?!).
No, I won’t be surrendering my Data Messenger for the iPAQ K3 – I’ll be holding out until HP releases a full WVGA touchscreen, Windows Mobile 6.5 phone, when someone loans it to me, whenever that may be…
The Black Eyed Peas recently featured the HP Touchsmart in their latest music video “Boom Boom Pow”. The HP Touchsmart appears three times in the music video – at the very beginning, the end and somewhere in the middle of the video. And not just ANY HP Touchsmart – it’s a HP Touchsmart with a super-sized HP logo!! (and a plus-size screen? Read on for speculation)
Compare that to this closeup taken of a ‘normal’ HP Touchsmart:
Check out the proportions of the logo and it sure makes a huge difference (no pun intended).
There are three plausible explanations:
- HP Touchsmart “product placement edition” with bigger HP logos for appearances in music videos, TV shows and movies
- HP is introducing a slight cosmetic change to normal, retail Touchsmarts this summer (because someone thought the logo was too small)… and the BEP were the first to get their hands on one
- A new HP Touchsmart all-in-one model is coming (See why below)
I put my arm/hand up to my friend’s HP Touchsmart in the same manner as in the video above and my upper arm covers almost 60-70% the length of a 25.5 inch Touchsmart. So it seems the arm/Touchsmart ratio from the Black Eyed Peas video screengrab above is larger than mine – which could either mean body part dimension variations between humans OR that Touchsmart in the video is HUGE (Possibly a 28 or 32 inch model?).
HP just launched their new line of low-end business notebooks today (with your choice of 14, 15.6 or 17.3 inch models), giving them the new sub-brand of HP Probooks. The new line of HP Probooks today come under their s-series, which is the entry-level part of HP’s business notebook line (there’s s, b, p and w which stand for standard, business, professional and workstation respectively). Well, there’s really nothing groundbreaking about today’s new releases, besides their price tags which are surprisingly low for business notebooks. There’s the usual feature-trickle from higher-end Elitebook models such as Quick Look 2, HP Spare Key and File Sanitizer, HDMI port, docking station compatibility and the availability of optional dedicated graphics. The BIGGEST (most prominent, rather) change is the new HP Probooks have chiclet keyboards, in-line with the rumor posted three weeks ago… well, what did I tell yeh?!
Because my Mini Note 2133 just did last weekend (ouch, almost broke my heart when it toppled over by accident and crashed eight feet down to the ground) but thankfully, it still works – hard disk, screen, internals are all well… only the casing seam came loose and now there’s a small gap between the front/back parts. But that doesn’t matter anyway, I’m just glad my data is safe and the machine still works.
Still, I can’t help but I wonder, what would have happened if it was one of those plasticky Dell Minis or Acer Aspire Ones…
Written by Brad in HP Elitebook on Jul 11, 2009 | 
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