Hasta La Gadget!

HP is marketing its latest netbook as ideal for business users — a rather peculiar move for a device in this category.

They’re called netbooks because they’re streamlined for surfing the internet and basic computing tasks — in other words, screwing around rather than getting actual work done. But HP is marketing its Mini 2140, to be introduced at CES 2009 this week, as an enterprise netbook.

Just what makes this netbook business-savvy? A keyboard that’s 92 percent of a standard, full-size keyboard, HP says. Secondly, a 10.1-inch LED display. Also, a longer-lasting, six-cell battery that HP claims will last about 8 hours. Finally, the sleek, silver case feels a lot classier than many other netbooks I’ve dealt with.

Those subtle differences aren’t mindblowing improvements from preceding netbooks. Like most netbooks, the Mini 2140 is powered by 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, and it carries a 160GB hard drive.

Nonethless, it’s clear why HP is marketing the Mini 2140 as a business netbook. We’re facing hard times, and businesses are going to look to cut costs on hardware for their employees. In fact, the typical lifespan of an office computer is three years, but 46 percent of businesses are postponing on purchasing their employees new computers, according to a Wall Street Journal story.

Is this the next direction for netbooks? Quite possibly. A decent netbook purchased in addition to an external display would be equal to or less than the cost of a desktop system — and employees would be able to carry their work with them.

We’ll provide plenty more on netbooks in our CES 2009 coverage in Las Vegas. Stay tuned for more.

See Also:

• Review: HP’s Mini Notebook is a Real Deal Eee PC Killer
• HP Mini 1000 Gets Official
• HP Mini 1000 Has a Secret 3G Modem

Product Demo [HP]

Photo: HP

Not content with letting the freelancers at Venture Beat hog the spotlight, some HP-loving Canadians decided to take their 2133 Mini-Note and add a dash of Google’s Android OS — the best thing to happen to netbooks since SSD. There isn’t really much in terms of details right now, but if you’re the kind of person who gets totally stoked by watching someone go through a preference pane and empty photo album — without using a mouse, mind you — we’ve got just the video for you after the break. Let’s hope this Android-netbook lovefest doesn’t stop anytime soon.

[Via Netbooknews.de]

Filed under: Laptops

Move over, Eee: Android now running on HP Mini-Note 2133 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With CES just around the corner, it’s no surprise to hear whispers of a new lot of laptops from HP (or anyone else, for that matter). A smattering of from reports around the web have it that Hewlett-Packard is looking to debut a few new machines here in the near future, starting with the AMD-powered 13.3-inch Pavilion dv3z ($799.99), the 16-inch dv6t entertainment notebook ($679.99) and the 17-inch Pavilion G70 ($799.99). We’re also clued in on a Compaq Presario CQ60, which will tout a 15.4-inch panel, AMD CPU and not much else considering the $469.99 price tag. Finally, it looks as if the company could introduce a new “Mi” (for Mobile Internet, duh) Mini 1000 edition, which could ship as early as next week with a Linux-based OS and a $379.99 starting tag. Check the links below for all the details, and keep it locked right here for any updates from HP.

Read – HP Pavilion dv3z
Read – HP Pavilion dv6t
Read – HP Pavilion G70
Read – HP Mini 1000 Mi
Read – Compaq Presario CQ60

Filed under: Laptops

New HP laptop releases rumored, Mini 1000 Mi included originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While most of the hype surrounding Voodoo right now pertains to the Firebird gaming tower, LAPTOP has discovered yet another undercover rig from the company’s arsenal worth swooning over. Before you go getting too excited, we must caution you that the Firefly is merely a prototype at the moment, but we all know concepts are made with the intent to commercialize. With the fine print behind us, it’s worth reading up on what this Voodoo DNA’d machine offered up; for starters, you’ll notice a 17-inch panel and a hefty 13-pound frame. There’s also a multitouch trackpad, keyboard with customizable backlighting, a secondary 4.3-inch 800 x 480 display sitting beneath the main screen, a 2.4GHz Core 2 Extreme CPU, 4GB of RAM, two ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 GPUs and a 250GB HDD. No benchmarks were allowed, but Far Cry 2 ran “silky smooth” even with details maxed. For the rest of the nitty-gritty, we’ll direct you to the read link, and before you get all irate that this isn’t available for purchase, just be thankful this post isn’t about yet another teaser from Mr. Sood.

Filed under: Laptops

Voodoo Firefly gaming laptop prototype gets hands-on treatment originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ever wonder how netbooks pack all that laptopy goodness into such small packages? Laptop Italia has your answer, tearing a Compaq Mini 700 (aka HP Mini 1000) into its individual components, supposedly for the sake of enabling you to repair the thing at home, but we think the real motivation is rather less instructional and more exhibitionistic. Regardless of your intentions, the site provides an extensive guide on how to take apart HP’s tiny laptop, starting by pulling the battery and ending with a picture of where the 3G modem would go if this particular model had one. Unlike some teardowns we’ve seen in the past, this clinical looking disassembly, if reversed, looks like it might actually put the thing back together again — if you’re into that sort of thing.

[Thanks, faber]

Filed under: Laptops

Compaq Mini 700 innards exposed by Italian fetishists originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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