Comparing The HP Mini 1000 to the HP 2133 is not really a great idea as they are both aimed at different ends of the market, but I do think that it is fair to mentions some of the areas that the mini 1000 has improved in. One example is the linux distro that the HP Mini 1120NR comes, I think that it’s fair to say the HP seem to have learned their lesson as they have provided an online software upgrade path with this new version of linux, which was absent from the SLED 10 Linux that came with the HP 2133. They Have also spent alot of time customising the Interface on the HP Mini 1120NR, it seems that HP has done something the many large companies fail to do, listen to the customers.

On the hardware side of things, They Have gone with an Atom processor which allows them to use Intel’s 945 graphic chipset. Many have welcomed this change, one thing that alot of people seem upset about is the fact that they have decided against an aluminium case but with the promise of a new revision of the HP 2133 in 2009, this really isn’t that much of an issue. Here are some comparision pictures for you;

 

Laptop Mag has a story and pictures of a new mininote with a 10 inch screen, their isd still no word on the internal specs. I really hope that they ship this with the Nano that we Have been hearing / reading so much about. It’s the same form factor but the screen takes up the entire bezel, I would guess that it’s the same resolution but that is just a guess.

hpmininotepc.com is reporting his/her experiences with googles’ new chrome browser, here is an excerpt from the article;

I downloaded and ran it on my hp mini-note and was very impressed with the performance and the simplicity of the interface. On Google Chrome, I was happily browsing with 10 open tabs and no performance degradation.

The google chrome browser is not available for linux yet but you can get the windows download here;

Google Chrome

Sorry I couldn’t post more but I could read the article myself as I only have access to IE6 (which crashes when trying to open that page).

Read More Here

HP has always been confident that the 2133 Mini-Note would sell quickly, to the point where the company planned to build some two million units this year, and it sounds like that bet’s paying off — China’s Apply Daily is citing sources at HP Taiwan quoting worldwide sales growing 50 percent monthly. That’s pretty good for one of the more expensive small laptops on the market — we’ll see if that rumored cheaper edition moves even more.

 

HP is to drop their price on the mininote in an attempt to compete with the price of Acers netbook.

Read More here

Ubergadget reports;

Hewlett-Packard has recently placed orders for VIA Nano CPUs and VIA have already started shipping. It is not known whether HP will use the CPUs in it’s notebooks or netbook series. VIA has said that in addition to previous orders from Chinese companies , the company also has orders from a notebook manufacturer and the product will appear in the market by October this year. As for VIA’s C7-M processor used in HP’s 2133 Mini-Note PC, the total volume that HP has ordered is a little over 500,000, which shows that HP expects to ship at least half a million 2133 Mini-Note PCs by the end of this year.

Do you cheer for the underdog? Would you love to see VIA unseat Intel in the battle for the hearts and minds of netbook market share just because Intel’s, well, Intel? Good, then you’ll love this highly emotive video produced by VIA showing its meager 1.3GHz Nano processor kicking Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom to the curb in a 1080p HD video test. We’d be more suspect of the results had we not already seen VIA clean Intel’s house in the head-to-head benchmarks. Now pull up a seat ringside and get ready to sputter along with the Atom-based netbook

 

Nano vs Atom Video

It was inevitable, was it not? With the success of HP’s 2133 Mini-Note, it was pretty obvious that the outfit would be working up a second edition, and according to Jerel Chong, HP Australia’s Market Development Manager for Notebook PCs, it’s already “looking at a similar device but at a lower cost.” Reportedly, the lower cost low-cost laptop will be ready for budget-conscience consumers sometime before 2009, though we have no idea what corners will be cut in order to hack down the price. Mr. Chong did mention that the cheaper edition would be less “durable,” but considering that we never viewed the original as a Toughbook replacement, we’re not so sure what he’s really getting at. Nevertheless, those looking seriously at the more business-minded 2133 may want to hold off, but good luck suppressing that insatiable desire to be instantly gratified.

Today VIA announced the VIA Nano processor family based on the VIA Isaiah Architecture.

Building on the market-leading energy efficiency of the VIA C7 processor family, the VIA Nano processor family offers as much as four times the performance within the same power range to extend VIA’s performance per watt leadership, while pin compatibility with VIA C7 processors will ensure a smooth transition for OEMs and motherboard vendors, and provides them with an easy upgrade path for current system or board designs.

The chip is going to be offered with a 800Mhz front side bus and clock speeds from 1.0GHz to 1.8GHz. The release also states the Maximum Power requirements (TDP Max) from 5W to 25W depending on the clock speed. The release also contains some of the additional features including 64-bit Out-of-Order MicroArchitecture, VIA Padlock Security Engine, and PowerSaver Technology. Click the link above for the full release.

HP has posted the image to the SuSE Linux 10 installation files on the HP Support Page. An excerpt from the release notes below: