HP’s New Mini-Notebook Gets Panned

HP’s New Mini-Notebook Gets Panned

Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - by Chad Weirick
Ever since the ASUS Eee PC stole our hearts, we’ve been longing for a similar product with a few extra features such as an ExpressCard slot and more storage. When we hear about HP’s 2133 we were certainly eager to see how it’d stack up. Sadly, it seems that the VIA CPU isn’t winning it many benchmarks:

"On paper the 1.6GHz VIA C7-M processor should provide excellent speed for general computing tasks," said Notebook Review's JerryJ. "In reality, web pages rendered slower than expected, multi-tasking was painfully slow, and most processor-hungry applications like Photoshop or video encoding software just didn't like the VIA processor."

The rumor going around pre-launch is that HP might launch 2 versions of the mini-notebook, one powered by VIA and the more expensive by Intel. It could simply be that HP is working on either an Atom powered version or a more traditional ULV-Core CPU-powered version. We’re hoping that this is one of those rumors that comes true because the 2113 is certainly an attractive mini-notebook and other than the platform, it has a lot going for it.
Via: Notebook Review | News Archive | Tags: Notebook, HP, ebook, Book, Mini, Mini-Note, mini-notebook
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By Crisis Causer on Apr 9, 2008

The CPU was actually the main reason I was worried about the HP's ultra portables.  I'm surprised it was that slow, you'd think it would be faster than a 1Ghz Pentium III, and those are alright.  I wouldn't expect much out of video encoding software anyway.  But it's a shame is multi-tasks slowly. 

By papa on Apr 9, 2008

OMG - Photoshop!!! No doubt it doesn't run Cray nuclear simulations very well either.  No graphics designer would ever use any UMPC for their graphics work so the complaint is totally bogus. UMPC's are used for web surfing, text editing, spreadsheets, etc.  Guess what?  THE HP MINI WORKS JUST FINE FOR THESE APPLICATIONS!!   Watch this video from jkOnTheRun   http://youtube.com/watch?v=U8kziSayoqM   jk runs aero glass on the HP Mini !   And yes, you can buy a XYZ laptop that includes a 15" screen, core duo, yada, yada, yada for the same price as the HP Mini so why would anyone buy...yada, yada,yada.  This totally misses the point.  This is a SMALL laptop with a USABLE keyboard and sufficient power for a road warror of which I am one. I ordered one within hours because I am tired of lugging my fairly small conventional notebook around.  I am also tired of not being able to use my notebook on airplanes unless I am in first class. This is rugged and plenty powerful enough for any road warror.  I guess I will have to give up doing photoshop in my hotel room at night and do my expense reports instead.  Oh well....

Also it is highly unlikely there will be an Intel Atom version.  The Via "Isaiah" processor will be shipping in volume in a few months with the same power envelope as the C-7 and it is pin compatable with the C-7.  Isaiah is a full 64 bit, out of order execution chip and will be much more powerful than the Atom.  It will be very, very easy for HP to replace the C-7 with Isaiah because they are pin compatable.  

 

By Drago on Apr 9, 2008

Why the hell would you need photoshop on a freaking small portable laptop??? You get it to so surf the web, type, IM, the occasional light weight game when you are bored. These little compys are not made for hvy duty computing. Heck the Eee pc has 900mhz celeron, and everyone knows how crappy that cpu is. I bet you anything the VIA cpu will run photoshop better than the celeron hands down any day of the week. Still it dont matter cause if you are stupid enough to buy one of these little computers to do photoshop on you deserve what you get. These are the perfect little comps for taking notes and web surfing, finally something affordable for college students, lightweight and small.

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