HP Mini 2140 Review

by Jerry Jackson

The low-cost ultraportable notebook or "netbook" market might have exploded in 2008, but HP plans to take the top spot in 2009 with the all new Mini 2140. This business-grade netbook features a 10.1-inch screen, a remarkably large keyboard, a high capacity hard drive, and plenty of impressive specs. Did HP learn from the mistakes of the past? Is the Mini 2140 this year's ultimate road warrior machine? Keep reading to discover the answers.

Our pre-production HP Mini 2140 features the following specifications:

• Operating System: Genuine Windows XP (Vista or SUSE Linux also available)
• Processor: Intel Atom N270 Processor 1.60GHz (512 KB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB)
• Memory: 1GB DDR2 SDRAM, 800MHz, one SODIMM memory slot, supports up to 2GB
• Internal Storage: 160GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD with HP 3D DriveGuard (also available with 160GB 7200 rpm SATA with HP 3D DriveGuard or 80GB Solid State Drive)
• Display: 10.1-inch diagonal (1024 x 576)
• Graphics: Intel GMA 950
• Wireless: Broadcom 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0, HP Wireless Assistant
• Expansion slots: (1) ExpressCard/54 slot, Secure Digital (SD) slot
• Ports and connectors: (2) USB 2.0 ports, VGA, power connector, RJ-45/Ethernet (Gigabit), stereo headphone/line out, stereo microphone in, VGA webcam
• Input device: 92% full-sized keyboard, touchpad with scroll zone
• Dimensions (H x W x D): 1.05 (at front) x 10.3 x 6.5 inches
• Weight: 2.4 lb with 3-cell battery and hard drive, 2.93 lb with 6-cell battery and hard drive (not including weight of AC adapter).
• Power: 6-cell (55 WHr) or 3-cell (28 WHr) Lithium-Ion battery, 65W HP Smart AC Adapter with HP Fast Charge
• Warranty: One-year standard parts and labor warranty, pick-up or carry-in, and toll-free 7 x 24 hardware technical phone support.

Pricing for the HP Mini 2140 starts from as little as $499 for the base configuration.

Build and Design

The HP Mini 2140, like last year's Mini-note 2133, has a great design. Everyone in our office agrees that this ultra-mobile laptop has a solid chassis and attractive look. The brushed aluminum and plastic casing is durable and hides fingerprints well. It also keeps the Mini 2140 lightweight; only weighing in around 2.4 lbs as configured. The sleek business appeal feels at home in the corporate world, but the Mini 2140 is targeted toward students as well. One look at this machine and you can see why. Who wouldn't want an inexpensive mini notebook to toss in a backpack between classes, especially one that pretty much has a full-size keyboard?

HP was smart to keep the design of the 2140 mostly unchanged from the 2133. Nothing about the Mini 2140 feels cheap. The chassis is solid thanks to a combination of aluminum, plastic, and a magnesium alloy support structure inside. The larger 10.1" display is beautiful and easy to read indoors despite putting off some significant glare outdoors because of the protective coating. The Mini 2140 also comes with enough ports and storage capacity (thanks to the 160GB hard drive) that you might even consider using this business-grade netbook as your primary computer.

As I mentioned above, the keyboard is almost full size. It is 92% of a full sized keyboard, which is quite impressive for such a small form factor. It is much more comfortable to type on compared to the keyboards found on most 10-inch netbooks. However, the touchpad can be awkward since the placement of the right and left touchpad buttons are on the right and left sides rather than beneath the touchpad. As you can see from the pictures in this review the Mini 2140 also has neat power and Wi-Fi switches that light up and change from blue when on to orange when off.

Screen

Compared to the screens on other netbooks with 10-inch screens, the screen on the HP Mini 2140 is a bit of a mixed blessing. On one hand, the screen is nice and large with bright colors and good contrast. The screen doesn't offer wide viewing angles so people sitting around you won't have the best view of your screen. However, the biggest annoyance with the screen is the meager resolution of 1024 x 576 in the base configuration. This is actually lower resolution than the 8.9-inch screen used on last year's Mini-note 2133 which featured a 1280 x 768 resolution. The lower resolution on the Mini 2140 makes it easier to read small text, but the tradeoff is you can't fit as much text on the screen at one time. This means you have to scroll up and down more when viewing websites and some software menus might not fit on the screen as they should (since many software designers assume a modern computer screen has at least 600 pixels worth of vertical resolution.

Beyond the limited resolution the only additional issue that caused concern with the screen on the Mini 2140 was the use of an additional protective layer of glossy plastic over the screen. While this extra layer of plastic helps protect the display, the unfortunate side effect is significant reflection. We're not talking about a typical glossy screen you might have seen on notebooks prior to 2008. We're talking about a screen with a completely separate glossy layer applied over (and in front of) the actual display surface.

The reflections on the screen aren't noticeable at all in a dark room, but most people don't use their notebooks in the dark unless they're just watching movies. If you aren't sensitive to reflections then the screen is beautiful when viewed from straight ahead.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard on the Mini 2140 is simply fantastic. Last year we said the keyboard on the Mini-note 2133 "is the best keyboard we've seen on a notebook this small." That statement holds true for the new Mini 2140 as well. Sure, you can find better keyboards on larger notebooks, but HP currently has the best keyboard we've tested on 10-inch and smaller netbooks. The keys have the silver "HP DuraKeys" finish that makes them resist dirt and makes the letters printed on the keys last longer over time. The surface of the keys are also smooth to the touch.

Regardless, the most important thing to remember about this section of the review is that the Mini 2140 has the biggest and best keyboard you will find on any netbook or notebook with a 10-inch screen. It is literally almost a full-sized keyboard, so writing papers for school or reports for work is a breeze. You won't see spelling errors due to hitting the wrong keys as often as you might with the tiny keys on most netbooks. I didn't notice any signs of keyboard flex and really liked that most of the keys were full sized except a few. The tilde (~) key and the number "1" key are smaller than the rest of the numbers, which was quite odd. The space bar was also a little smaller than normal.

As mentioned previously, most people find using the touchpad on the Mini 2140 a little awkward. The right and left click buttons are what catch you off guard. The buttons are located on the sides of the touchpad and it's easy to forget where they are located if you're used to a regular touchpad. I would have liked the palm rest area to be a little bigger so the buttons could have been relocated below the touchpad like on standard notebooks and most netbooks. The button above the touchpad is a convenient feature that turns the touchpad off and makes it inactive when you are typing or using an external mouse.

Input and Output Ports

Every netbook on the market requires one minor compromise due to the ultra-mobile form factor: limited port selection. You simply cannot accommodate the standard array of ports you'll find on larger notebooks in a computer this small. That said, HP did a remarkable job packing as many ports as possible into the Mini 2140. The complete list of ports includes:

• One ExpressCard/54 slot
• Secure Digital (SD/SDHC) card reader
• Two USB 2.0 ports
• VGA out
• Power connector
• RJ-45/Ethernet
• Stereo headphone/line out
• Stereo microphone/line in

Overall, the port selection is amazing for a notebook this size. However, we would have like to see one of the USB ports replaced with a combo USB/eSATA port. HP uses combo USB/eSATA ports on almost all of their larger notebooks and the combo port allows you to use either USB devices or eSATA devices such as high-speed external storage drives. Considering how easy it would have been to make one of the USB ports a combo port, we're a little surprised HP didn't do that.

Here is a quick tour around the HP Mini 2140:

Front view: Power switch, drive status light, Wi-Fi on/off switch.

Rear view: No ports here, just the hinges and battery.

Left side view: VGA out, heat vent, USB 2.0 port, microphone in, headphone out.

Right side view: ExpressCard/54 slot, SD card reader, USB 2.0 port, Ethernet, power connector, and security lock slot.

One additional thing worth mentioning regarding ports is that HP doesn't offer built-in 3G WWAN (mobile broadband from a provider such as AT&T or Verizon) with the Mini 2140. If you want to stay connected to the internet via WWAN you have to use an adapter card in the ExpressCard slot or one of the USB ports. It's sad to see that HP doesn't offer the option considering that smaller netbooks like the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 offer built-in WWAN.

Performance and Benchmarks

If you've read our reviews of other netbooks that use the Intel Atom processors then you know that overall performance with the Intel Atom platform is very reasonable for most daily activities like web browsing, email, using Microsoft Office, listening to music, and even watching movies. You can even use photo editing software like Photoshop Elements or GIMP. That said, the Mini 2140 doesn't make the ideal photo editing tool because of the low-resolution screen and the fact that the Atom processor is slower than a faster notebook or desktop when editing large image files. You can play some basic games on the Mini 2140, but don't expect to play Crysis or Left 4 Dead at 60 frames per second ... or at all.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
HP Mini 2140 (Intel Atom N270 @ 1.60GHz)	138.812 seconds
LG X110 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	124.609 seconds
ASUS N10 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	126.047 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 1000HA (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	117.577 seconds
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	127.172 seconds
Acer Aspire One (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	125.812 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 901 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	123.437 seconds
MSI Wind (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	124.656 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 900 (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz)	203.734 seconds
HP 2133 Mini-Note (Via CV7-M ULV @ 1.6GHz)	168.697 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 630MHz)	289.156 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz)	200.968 seconds
Everex CloudBook (VIA C7-M ULV @ 1.2GHz)	248.705 seconds
Fujitsu U810 Tablet PC (Intel A110 @ 800MHz)	209.980 seconds
Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B (Core Solo U1500 @ 1.33GHz)	124.581 seconds
Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.2GHz)	76.240 seconds
Dell Inspiron 2650 (Pentium 4 Mobile @ 1.6GHz)	231.714 seconds

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
HP Mini 2140 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,489 PCMarks
LG X110 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,463 PCMarks
ASUS N10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,531 PCMarks
ASUS N10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, NVIDIA 9300M 256MB)	1,851 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1000HA (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,527 PCMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,446 PCMarks
Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,555 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 901 (1.60GHz Intel Atom)	746 PCMarks
MSI Wind (1.60GHz Intel Atom)	N/A
ASUS Eee PC 900 (900MHz Intel Celeron M ULV)	1,172 PCMarks
HP 2133 Mini-Note (1.6GHz VIA C7-M ULV)	801 PCMarks
HTC Shift (800MHz Intel A110)	891 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 4G (630MHz Intel Celeron M ULV)	908 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 4G (900MHz Intel Celeron M ULV)	1,132 PCMarks
Everex CloudBook (1.2GHz VIA C7-M ULV)	612 PCMarks
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600)	2,446 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook P7230 (1.2GHz Intel Core Solo U1400)	1,152 PCMarks
Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B (1.33GHz Core Solo U1500)	1,554 PCMarks
Toshiba Portege R500 (1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600)	1,839 PCMarks

3DMark06 measures video and gaming performance (higher scores indicate better performance):

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
HP Mini 2140 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	118 3DMarks
LG X110 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	81 3DMarks
ASUS N10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	73 3DMarks
ASUS N10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, NVIDIA 9300M 256MB)	1,417 3DMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1000HA (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	95 3DMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	N/A
Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	122 3DMarks
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)	122 3DMarks
HP dv2500t (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,055 3DMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	532 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks

HDTune hard drive performance results:

Audio

The built-in speaker performance on the Mini 2140 was nice, but not as impressive as the superior speakers on last year's HP Mini-note 2133. In order to accommodate the larger screen in the 2140, HP removed to large speakers next to the screen and used a pair of smaller speakers integrated into the chassis of the netbook. The end result is the speakers produce weak sound that's good enough for basic web browsing and online chats but doesn't provide a satisfying entertainment experience.

The best possible audio performance with this netbook comes via the use of external speakers or headphones. The audio output from the headphone jack is quite good and provides excellent, distortion-free sound for headphones or external speakers.

Heat and Noise

The ultra low voltage VIA processor in last year's HP Mini-note 2133 generated far more heat than we typically expect from ultra low voltage processors. Temperatures on the new Mini 2140 are thankfully much, much more comfortable thanks to the use of the Intel Atom processor. Temperature readings taken from the outside of the aluminum and plastic chassis rarely spiked above 95 degrees Fahrenheit ... compared to well above 110 degrees Fahrenheit in the previous generation.

The cooling fan was usually running at low speed during our tests and rarely increased to full speed. Most of the time the fan can't be heard even in a perfectly quiet office environment ... unless you put your ear next to the fan exhaust.

Below are images indicating the temperature readings (listed in degrees Fahrenheit) taken inside our office where the ambient temperature was 74 degrees Fahrenheit:

Battery

Overall, the HP Mini 2140 did a reasonable job in terms of power management. With the Mini 2140 connected to a Wi-Fi network and browsing the web with the display at about 80 percent brightness, we obtained 2 hours and 21 minutes of battery life with the standard 3-cell battery. Using the same settings we obtained 4 hours and 15 minutes of battery life with the 6-cell extended life battery.

Bottom line, the Mini 2140 makes an excellent mobile business companion with the extended life battery. The only possible negative to using the extended life battery is that the larger 6-cell battery sticks out from the bottom of the notebook adding both size and weight. However, this also has the advantage of providing a more ergonomic angle to the keyboard for typing.

Conclusion

The HP Mini 2140 proves HP can make a serious netbook for business professionals and students alike. Unfortunately for HP, the amazing design and solid range of features are diminished by a low-resolution screen. That said, there is a silver lining to this stormy cloud. HP informs us that the 2140 will be offered with a higher resolution screen (1366 x 768) later in 2009 for a modest price increase, and we're glad to hear that.

Last year after we reviewed the HP Mini-note 2133 we said, "If HP decides to replace the VIA processors with the new Intel Atom processors or alternative processors from Intel, the Mini-Note would become the undisputed champion of the subnotebook market." The truth is the Mini 2140 comes very, very close. If HP hadn't lowered the resolution of the screen in the base configuration of the new Mini 2140 this netbook would easily be an Editor's Choice.

As it stands now, if you're willing to put up with the lower resolution screen the Mini 2140 is probably the best netbook on the market. However, if you're willing to wait for HP to offer a higher resolution screen later this year you will be even happier.

Pros

• Excellent build quality (BEST in class)
• Great keyboard (BEST in class)
• ExpressCard slot offers fantastic expansion possibilities
• Multiple configuration options

Cons

• Base configuration has low-resolution screen
• Strange location for touchpad buttons
• Screen is too reflective due to second glossy protective layer

Related Articles:

• HP Launches New Ultraportable Notebooks
• HP 2133 Mini-Note Review
• HP Mini 1000 Review

 

Excellent review jj too bad about that screen RES though

 

Great review, glad to see that it hasn't changed that much appearance wise from the old one.

Netbooks like these really make me want to get rid of my D630. With the High-Resolution screen option, and Windows Vista, I would probably be able to use this as my main computer, and it would fit better on tiny desks.

 

Just a remark about ergonomics -- such "positive" tilt of the keyboard is bad for your wrist, so it is not ergonomic at all, quite contrary (you cannot put the hands on the palmrest).

Only the slightly negative tilt (Fx row lower than shift-ctrl-alt-space row) is ergonomic.

Or simply flat keyboard, no tilt.

 

HP would have the perfect netbook without that stupid glossy screen.

Glossy screens on notebooks, especially netbooks is a crime IMO.

 

Why did they drop the screen res?

 

It's optional.
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/321957-321957-64295-3841267-306995-3872994.html

 

Nice review, Jerry!

That elevation provided with the batt' isn't so bad


Cin

 

Maybe it's just me but the lower resolution seems to be covering up that the Mini-Note 2140 is performing slower than most other netbooks.

 

Looks like the performance numbers puts the Mini 2140 at almost 75% better than the 2133, which highlights how very bad that Via processor was.

thanks for the review Jerry.

 

This is true but PCMark and 3DMark(not that 3D matters in a netbook) are higher than they would be if the 2140 had a 1024x600 resolution. At the same resolution the 2140's scores would likely all be below average for an Atom N270 netbook.

The wPrime score, which doesn't benefit from the lower resolution, is 11-16 seconds slower than the other netbooks tested.

 

Thank you HP for ditching the Via C7 processor and putting Atom because this really is a nice netbook which I have used in-store and it was just the Via chipset and processor that killed its usabilty.

Good to see there is an option for a 1366x768 resolution for those that want it, in line with the 1280x768 that was on the original 2133 model. Its still a shame to see the standard models come with 1024x576 resolution vs 1024x600 on most netbooks. I don't think most of us want 16:9 on netbooks, we want the extra resolution and vertical space.

What is the big deal if you watch a 16:9 movie and there are some bars on the screen? In fact, many movies aren't even exactly 16:9 resolution so in many cases, you'll still have bars on the screen and for most of the other time, you'll miss the extra vertical resolution 16:10 offers.

Just as widescreen has just about totally killed 4:3 in notebooks and now desktop monitors, I hope 16:9 doesn't completely kill 16:10 in monitors either. I want 1920x1200, not 1920x1080.

 

Wow. The Atom 1.6 still has a long way to go to match the Core Duo ULV 1.3 .. never realised it before looking at the benchmarks.

 

great review!Thx!

 

I hate to break it to you but 16:9 will completely replace 16:10 in the very near future. Some LCD manufacturers have already stopped making any 16:10 screens. Unfortunately, the notebook makers are powerless to do anything about this as the LCD manufacturers have almost complete control of the market and there is no "true" competition in the sense that no LCD maker has the guts to buck the trend.

Otherwise, this was a nice review except for the lacking resolution on the screen.

 

Making the screen bigger and lowering the resolution makes no sense, other than to get people to spend more on the upgrade later

 

Nice review Jerry - Thanks. I was one of the unfortunate owners of the 2133 - I loved the hardware but despised the performance. It was really a dog with Vista - but ran pretty well with XP. I'm glad to see HP finally bring the Atom to this system and the review makes me want to relook at buying one!!

 

This is due to a Microsoft limitation on XP licenses. HP could install Vista, but then everyone would be complaining about it's performance with the Atom chip.

Likely the reason for the higher resolution screen not being available until March/April is that Windows 7 will (hopefully) be available to OEMs and without the "netbook" restrictions that Intel and Microsoft imposed on XP.

 

The review doesn't say what type of lighting this uses.

 

JKontherun also has hands on with the 2140:

http://jkontherun.com/2009/01/19/hp-mini-2140-netbook-size-comparison-vs-lenovo-s10/
http://jkontherun.com/2009/01/19/first-impressions-of-the-hp-mini-2140-netbook/#comments

 

The review unit we received was also a pre-production unit, so that might have something to do with the lower-than-average wPrime score.

However, during real-world use in our office we felt the Mini 2140 was just as snappy (and just as slow) as any other Atom-based netbook we've reviewed.

 

The screen has LED backlighting.

 

I'll wait until the second half of the year for dual-core atom netbooks with Windows 7. That's when netbooks really get interesting.

 

Dual-core Atoms are restricted to nettops.

http://www.techspot.com/news/33147-intel-does-not-want-dualcore-atoms-in-netbooks.html

 

Thanks for the follow up reply. ;]

It would be a shame for HP to update the netbook chassis/keyboard everyone wants and still be at the bottom of the heap because of performance.

 

I honestly don't understand why the notebook mfgr's are obsessed with the whole 16:9 thing. I understand that that's the HD aspect ratio used on hi-definition TVs, but notebooks are far more than simply all-in-one TV/DVD players with keyboards. In fact, in many situations (like word processing for example), 16:9 is less than ideal, due to the reduced vertical height.

Unfortunately, the mfgr's don't seem to realize this, and think "Oh, HDTV/Blu-ray is soooo hot right now! Let's increase sales by throwing in real HD-ratio screens in our notebooks!!". They've lost track of the fact that notebooks are more than just HD entertainment devices, and while HD ratio screens are good for entertainment, they aren't good with work-related things.

The prime example of this phenomenon is the HP mini 2140 netBook (emphasis added). As everyone has said before, this would be the perfect netbook.... without the HD-ratio screen. There is hardly any vertical height to speak of in the base configuration. Honestly, the mini 2140 doesn't even have an optical drive, let alone the performance to handle HD content. So why did HP even bother with an HD-ratio screen??

Because HP, like most other notebook/netBook mfgrs. are obsessed with the whole HD revolution. Maybe the LCD mfgrs have something to do with it as well, like everyone's been saying. I realize that I used to support the 16:9 thing, but after seeing just how little vertical res there is in them, I've completely 180'd on 16:9. It's a stupid trend, and it needs to stop.

 

it's just a money thing, but yes, it should stopp. i today have seen a 4:3 20" or so tft and it was gorgeous. for coding, web and such i always prefer less wide. best imho is 3:4 actually.

 

The move to 16:9 ratio widescreens in notebooks has nothing to do with notebook manufacturers and everything to do with the LCD manufacturers making the display panels.

It started with the move to widescreen 1080p screens ... but it ultimately came down to economics. If you're an LCD manufacturer and you've got a sheet of glass to cut for screens, you could get 14 screens out of one sheet of glass if they're cut in 16:10, but you can get 16 screens if they're cut in 16:9.

(Those aren't accurate production counts, but the bottom line is LCD makers can make more screens out of a single sheet of glass if they cut them as 16:9 rather than 16:10 or 3:4)

If that isn't bad enough, LCD manufacturers want to make screens even wider (again, because it's more economic for them) and they've been experimenting with ratios like 20:9 ... it's getting pretty horrible if you care about vertical resolution on small screens.

 

That sucks.

Intel probably figures single-core atoms are "enough" for typical netbook usage.

 

And they'd be right. Increases to the data transfer speed like they're doing for the N280 is the smarter performance improvement.

 

Alright, so once the 2140 gets the N280 & 1366x768 resolution LED screen, we're in business. I might have to consider this one.

 

Wow i really need something like this on my travels, plug in an external DVD player to watch movies. Cool !!!

 

Great! Thanks! They might want that in the review. I just saw an HP model at Circuit City today with similar hardware for $450. Had a really nice keyboard, and seemed great, but it used florecent lighting (to my surprise) so I figured this would too.

Seems like the keyboards and general 'feel' on the HP and Dell models are a lot nicer than the Asus/Acer/Leveno stuff I've played with.

 

I've seen that model at my Circuit City and Best Buy as well. That is called simply the HP Mini and is geared for consumers and is limited to 1024x600 screens and lacks an Expresscard slot among other things whereas this is more geared for professionals.

 

The HP Mini i get here is 1024x600 screen resolution. How is the screen? Is it good and backlight?

 

The HP 2140 should have been released back in 2008. I'm looking forward more to the 2150 Pineview model coming out in June.

And then Medfield will replace Pineview in 2010. Either way, if it's performance you want, a Pineview netbook with Win7 will be the hot item for 2009.

I'm gonna pass on this one, there's much better gear coming in the next six months.

 

The only way Pineview will be the hot item for netbooks in 2009 is if the integrating of the GMA 950 onto the CPU stops the Nvidia Ion platform from working.

 

You'll be waiting a few months for this config if not longer. The Hi-res screens aren't due to be released until late April or May (probably for the Windows 7 release).

 

i dont know about anyone here but i think i would prefer 1280 x 800 in the Dell Mini instead of 1366 x 768 anyone agree?

 

That resolution is only available on the 12" Dell Mini model which I find to be too large to be a netbook personally. I like the more compact design of the HP Minis and Mini-Notes myself.

 

Depends on which Mini.

The Mini 12...no.

The Mini 10 though will be one netbook to keep an eye on with some excellent features. Built in 3G, GPS, TV Tuner and a Z530 Atom with GMA500. Some of the info Ive seen on it says it'll have the standard 1024x600 resolution butIve also heard mention it will be 16:9 with 1280x720.

 

720p not bad..........mini 10 looks ok i think the 12 is the nicest looking of the mini's

 

Great review!
Does anybody know if it's going to be sold at any retail stores?

 

Video Review

 

Does it have 3G built-in this lappy?

 

I don't think it does but unlike most netbooks, this has an Expresscard slot so you can easily add 3G yourself by an add-on card.

 

I think I will pass on this HP. For me is necessary a built-in WWAN so you don't have to buy Expresscard that will stick out. I am leading towards Sony P series now or the new MSI.

 

The 2140 will probably get updated with the N280 & 80GB SSD in the next few weeks. Once that happens, I'll either get that or the Dell Mini 10.

Well, maybe the N270 will be enough for me. But, I do want a 80GB SSD.

 

Great review, but netbooks aren't for me.

 

N280 won't be out until the 2nd half of this year.