$499 HP 2133 Mini-Note PC Available

by Marco Chiappetta — Tuesday, April 08, 2008, 12:45 PM EDT

HP has a new ultra portable notebook available for purchase today, that seems poised to do battle with ASUS' upcoming 8.9" version of the EeePC. The HP 2133 Mini-Note PC is offered in a wide variety of configurations with price points starting at $499. At the moment, five different pre-configured options are listed on the HP website, with VIA C7-M ULV processors speeds ranging from 1.0 to 1.6GHz and DDR2 memory configurations from 512MB to 2GB.

All of the HP 2133 series Mini-Note PCs feature 8.9" WXGA screens, VIA (S3) Chrome 9 graphics processors, and Broadcom WiFi controllers. Two models also feature Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity. Operating systems options include the 32-bit versions of Windows Vista Home Basic and Vista Business, or SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10.

HP Mini-Note PC

Also note, that unlike the ASUS EeePC, only one version of the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC is outfitted with flash-based storage, the KR922UT which has a 4GB flash module. Other pre-configured HP Mini-Notes feature standard SATA hard drives.

Rumor has it, Intel Atom based versions of the HP Mini-Note PC are in the works as well. But considering these early models are powered by VIA C7 processors, they're a good possibility of VIA Isaiah based models too, since the processors are pin compatible. It's going to be interesting to see how all of these new (and rumored) ultra portable PCs stack-up in terms of performance and battery like when or if they finally arrive.

Tags: HP, PC, Mini, Mini-Note, AVA, AV, vail, note, lab, AI

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com