The Wall Street Journal reports that HP will release a netbook with a 10 inch screen this year. Since all of HP’s current netbooks have 8.9 inch screens, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume this is the next-generation HP Mini-Note we’ve all been waiting for.
But until HP updates its product line, now is as good a time as any to pick up one of the first generation HP 2133 Mini-Notes. Because HP is pricing them to move.The current generation of HP Mini-Notes have two things that most other netbooks lack: An excellent keyboard and a high resolution 8.9 inch, 1280 x 768 pixel display. But when HP launched the Mini-Note, it priced the netbook a bit higher than the competition. Of course, back in April there wasn’t as much competition. But with prices ranging from $500 to $800, the HP Mini-Note wasn’t quite the impulse buy that a $$350 to $400 Eee PC was.
Flash forward a few months, and we’ve seen a number of retailers begin offering the HP Mini-Note with deep discounts, bringing the price down closer to the $400 mark. And now HP is following suit and marking down the price at its own online store.
For $399, you can pick up an HP Mini-Note with a 1.0GHz VIA C7-M CPU, 512MB of RAM, and a 4GB SSD. It also has that glossy 1280 x 768 pixel display that makes the Mini-Note line so sexy. This model runs SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. If you want Windows Vista or XP, additional RAM, a large hard drive, or a faster CPU, you’ll still have to shell out a few more bucks.
HP sent out a promotional email this week describing the deal as an October promotion, but I’d be surprised to HP raise prices on the current HP Mini-Note line any time soon. But I do expect HP to announce a new line of Mini-Notes based around faster VIA Nano CPU and S3 Graphics GPU soon.
Actually the Nano’s superscaler architecture gives it quite the edge performance wise in most performance metrics, even at a larger-than-atom 65nm.
https://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/atom-nano-review.ars
https://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9885&Itemid=40
Personally I can’t wait, I’ve been waiting for this refresh since the mini-note launched in april and pray they don’t alter a thing about the outstanding build quality, finish, and feature set.
I hope they keep it the same too, except I would prefer a flat-black keyboard. It’s OK with me if they make some glossy-glassy candy-colored models as long as they keep one similar to the original. And I can deal with Vista. Just don’t make me use the Digital Clutch
https://blog.laptopmag.com/hp-shows-off-10-inch-netbook-the-next-mini-note
Thanks for the Nano links 🙂
If HP will stick with the 1280 x 768 resolution with this new 10-inch model, it might just be the lagniappe I need to push me into a purchase. By my calculations, you would get 28% more screen height (pixel-wise), meaning 28% less vertical scrolling.
Now, if someone could only convince me that the Nano is better than the Atom. I’ve used nothing but Intel processors for 20 years.