Hey, here’s a two-in-one news story about HP tablet/slate devices. The first, fairly solid rumor/announcement is that the recently released HP Touchsmart tm2 will be packed with the latest, but currently unannounced, Intel low-voltage Core i3 and Core i5 processors in a few months’ time, most likely somewhere during summer, towards the July/August period where Intel has had some history in announcing new stuff. Well, that’s great news for ‘back to school’ goers and people who can wait for a while before buying their new notebook… but probably not so great for people like me – you know, the type who wants the ‘latest and greatest’ but at the same time needs to get a new notebook pretty soon (I’m looking for an ultra-portable to replace my current HP Mini this year).
In other news, there’s whispers of a HP Slate like slate in development that will run WebOS (courtesy of buying Palm not two weeks ago). Sources are saying that mobile processors will definitely be used in this latest “Slate” (compared to the original HP Slate that will run on Intel Atom ‘netbook’ processors), though the topic as to which mobile processor is up for speculation (I’m betting some upgraded/future Snapdragon processor/Nvidia Tegra 2). Rumors from the web (which usually are less reliable, like the time that the speculated ‘HP iPaq K3 Obsidian’ turned out to be called the ‘HP iPaq Glisten’ instead) label this upcoming HP slate, the HP Hurricane. Seeing we haven’t quite gotten any names from sources yet, I guess we’ll stick to that for now – look out for further news about the HP Hurricane in the future (which will be listed under our existing HP Slate news category)
I’m not sure what is it with HP recently, making products (or at least their product and order pages) available first before an actual announcement. But regardless, they’ve just come out with a new Touchsmart-like (similar form factor with no touchscreen here), budget net-top computer – the Compaq CQ1. The CQ1 may look a whole lot like the more expensive Touchsmart PC’s in terms of design but their similarities end there. The CQ1 has a 18.5 inch non-touch display, a dual core Intel Atom processor, 2 DDR2 RAM slots, runs Windows XP (what year are we living in again?) and has a relatively affordable starting price of $430. The CQ1 also sports its fair share of ports and a slot-loading optical drive.
HP Mini 210 Vivienne Tam edition
Get this, less than five days after HP announced their new Elitebook 2540p, 2740p and new ProBooks, they made another separate announcement today! This time it’s the successor to the Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam consumer-designer netbook – introducing the HP Mini 210 Vivienne Tam edition. This new designer netbook features a special Butterfly design(one of those love-hate things) on the lid and all-gold (just paint of course, not real gold) casing, and will be available for $600 in the near future. Other specifications like that Atom N450 processor, 1 RAM slot and other things are exactly the same as you would find on a regular HP Mini 210. Like butterflies and gold? Then the HP Mini 210 Vivienne Tam edition is probably your dream come true (at a small price premium over a conventional Mini 210 of course!)
From the “Oh snap!” department (because my HP Mini 5101 is officially outdated) comes the new HP Mini 5102. HP’s latest netbook targeting business users comes 6 months after they launched the Mini 5101 last year. The Mini 5102 looks a whole lot like the Mini 5101 with an identical exterior design, 95% full sized chiclet keyboard, various operating system options and tool-less access to the single RAM slot on the netbook’s underside. The Mini 5102 is not what you think – it offers more than just a processor upgrade of the Mini 5101. The new features on the Mini 5102 include:
- Intel’s latest Pine Trail Atom N450 1.66 GHz single-core processor (Mini 5101 had an Intel Atom N280 processor)
- Though HP does not mention battery life, from the point above, battery life is definitely going to see an improvement on the HP Mini 5102 thanks to the new power-sipping processor
- 10 inch LED backlit design with optional multitouch panel
- New handle connectors at the bottom of the Mini 5102 to attach an optional carrying handle
- New colors: Blue and red colors are now available, in addition to black
At present, there are two HP ultra-portable notebook models that look almost exactly like each other: the HP Mini 311 and HP Pavilion dm1. What’s the difference? On the outside, there are few design differences… the two main things that separate the two are the processor and graphics set used. The HP Mini 311 uses the single-core Intel Atom processor paired with Nvidia Ion graphics, which is a decent graphics card suited to playing some games (though on medium to low settings) and high definition video. On the other hand, the HP Pavilion dm1 uses Intel Celeron processors, allowing you to select from a decent range up to dual-core offerings (which are of course, more basic than their larger notebook counterparts). However, you won’t get dedicated graphics at all – you’re sacrificing the Nvidia Ion graphics of the Mini 311 for integrated Intel graphics (a poor choice for gaming).
- Mini 311 – Single core processor with Nvidia Ion graphics for video playback and basic/low-end games
- Pavilion dm1 – Dual core processor so you can run more day to day applications with less slowdown, but you make a sacrifice in the graphics department
