Mary to Many - It ain't heavy, it's the Mini-Note

It ain't heavy, it's the Mini-Note

21st Apr, 2008 at 1:02 AM

The only thing to be disappointed about in the Mini-Note is the processor. The Via C7-M isn't a powerhouse. But on a system this size, how much performance are you going to need? Short of free, it's always easy to say the price is a little high but compare it to the OQO with the same processor to see how quickly the price for a really portable machine is going down. And if you want to know exactly why I like the keyboard so much, see my preview over at Tom's Hardware...

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fjm wrote:

21st Apr, 2008 08:25 (UTC)

I'm really not happy with the battery on the eee. How's this one?

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marypcb wrote:

21st Apr, 2008 08:34 (UTC)

4 hours from the extended - though as I say in the preview I wasn't able to test that but I hear it from several people as well as HP. Not sufficient - but the 3-cell is small enough you can carry both and have 6+ hours. You'll love the keyboard, I think.

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fjm wrote:

21st Apr, 2008 08:42 (UTC)

Ok, recommendations for best place to order one?

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marypcb wrote:

21st Apr, 2008 08:45 (UTC)

RM - Research Machines, the education computing folk - or direct from HP

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fjm wrote:

21st Apr, 2008 08:49 (UTC)

cheers!

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autopope wrote:

21st Apr, 2008 09:54 (UTC)

Can't find anywhere on HP's UK website that appears to sell them (as yet). The US side of hp.com has them sort of listed, though. Might be better to wait, either 1 month (for them to get their logistics untwizzled) or 6 months (for a Diamondville based model with better battery life to emerge).

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the_magician wrote:

21st Apr, 2008 09:31 (UTC)

Sounds excellent, particular at those prices ... so recommendations on the best OS to run on it?

I have *no* Linux experience, I use XP at home and at work ... but I've never really "used" Vista ...

If this had been available last year before the Japan trip, I would have bought it to take with me :-)

I've seen news reports that this is the opening wave of a bunch of similar machines from a number of manufacturers ... but it does sound like this is an excellent compromise machine (weight vs battery life vs performance vs price) ...

... can you run the internal screen and one connected to the VGA at the same time to get a double sized desktop?

Thanks for the excellent review!

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autopope wrote:

21st Apr, 2008 09:57 (UTC)

You'd probably be pleasantly surprised by SLED (SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) -- uses KDE as a desktop by default, comes with most of the applications you'd need for personal productivity (e.g. OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, etc), has a very easy to use control panel for managing the set-up, and all the UNIXy goodness is still there under the hood if you want it. (Unlike the hacked Xandros distro on the Eee, which is superficially idiot-friendly but lacks most of the stuff you need to do anything serious -- I ripped it out and installed Ubuntu, but if you're a Linux newbie you wouldn't want to do that).

This isn't the opening wave, this is the second wave (already) -- the first was the XO-1, the Eee, and the Intel Classmate. The third wave (late this year) is the one to definitely catch (with Atom/Diamondville processors and hopefully much better battery life).

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the_magician wrote:

21st Apr, 2008 10:11 (UTC)

I'm discounting the "first wave" as they were machines that couldn't really run Vista (or XP) with any sensible performance at a sensible price, at least that was my opinion :-)

I really want a computer that fits the HP naming precisely, a notebook PC that's a little smaller and lighter, but at a price I'm willing to pay (which means as far under £500 as possible) but that will run PaintShopPro, MSOffice and other applications that I've gone through the learning curve to use.

The trouble with switching to Linux, for me, is that I know where the settings are in Windows, or how to find them, and I know how to use the applications ... I don't have any of that knowledge on Linux and I don't feel I currently have the spoons to go through that learning curve right at the moment (maybe later in the year ...)

But I can certainly wait for the third wave, I have a 15.4" Celeron laptop that runs XP adequately, though with too low a resolution screen (I think it's only 1024x768), but it will do for a while longer.

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