HP prepping 2133 Mini-Note rival
Less durable, but cheaper, claims HP
Hewlett-Packard (HP) has confirmed that it’ll soon give birth to the 2133 Mini-Note’s baby brother, a cheaper alternative to recently unveiled machine.
HP's original 2133 Mini-Note
At an HP launch eairlier this week, Jerel Chong, HP Australia’s Market Development Manager for Notebook PCs, said that: “From a retail perspective we’re looking at a similar device [to the 2133] but at a lower cost”.
It seems you get what you pay for with HP though, because Chong admitted that the new unnamed machine “won’t be as durable [as the 2133] but it will be cheaper”.
HP unveiled the 2133 Mini-Note back in April. The machine has an 8.9in display and is powered by VIA's C7-M processor, clocked at up to 1.6GHz. There's up to 2GB of 667MHz DDR 2 memory on board. Storage options include 120GB or 160GB, 5400rpm or 7200rpm hard drives, or 5GB of solid-state storage.
The spec’s – or even the name – of HP’s 2133 baby brother haven’t been unveiled yet, but the firm’s confession that “it will be cheaper” should mean the PC sports specs more appealing to the financially challenged PC user.
A release date for the 2133 Mini-Note’s baby brother isn’t known yet.
COMMENTS
typos fixed... please update original comment.
Not a bad thing - mind you - but the 2133 sports pretty much everything required to make it a full ultra portable notebook sans decent CPU.
If there were a (slightly) pimped version of the 2133 with an SSD, max 4GB Ram option and a C2D T8xxx or T9xxx it would be a killer in the ultraportable space and still be much more affordable than Sony, Lenovo or any other players - which is a completely disruptive strategy.
Meanwhile, this is actually the problem with this notebook - its TOO GOOD for the market which it targets. HP realize this part of the equation and will now manufacture a 2033 (or 2132 or some such numeric variation) out of recycled garbage and the like.
Meanwhile - HP are still sitting on a cult-maker of a machine with the 2133, akin to the TC1100 series of tablets which STILL TODAY have a cult following of loyal users (actually, HP can thank Compaq for that - but all the same...).
So expect interesting things once the 2133 baby brother is released since it will probably also mean a big change for the next rev of the 2133.
Via Nano
If they dropped in the Via Nano processor (directly compatible with the crappy C7 used), either of these siblings could be a killer. Here's hoping...
2133 is barely in the budget category
Not a bad thing - mind you - but the 2133 sports pretty much everything required to make it a full ultra portable notebook sans decent CPU.
If there were a (slightly) pimped version of the 2133 with an SSD, max 4GB Ram option and a C2D T8xxx or T9xxx it would be a killer in the ultraportable space and still be much more affordable than Sony, Lenovo or any other players - completely disruptive strategy.
Meanwhile, this is actually the problem with this notebook - its TOO GOOD for the market which it targets. HP realize this partof the equation and will now manufacture a 2033 (or 2132 or somesuch variation) out or recycled garbage and the like.
Meanwhile - HP are still sitting on a cult-maker of a machine with the 2133, akin to the TC1100 series of tablets which STILL TODAY has a cult following of loyal users (actually, HP can thank Compaq for that - but all the same...). So expect interesting things once the 2133 baby brother is released because it will probably mean a change for the next rev of the 2133 also.
Doesn't bode well
The 2133 was too slow to begin with. Let's hope they don't scale back the performance even more in the cost-cutting process.
