HP mini 5101 netbook is hot!

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/24/hp-mini-5101-cleans-up-nice-shows-the-serious-side-of-netbooks/

This thing is sweet looking with some very interesting specs. The netbook market really needs more of these more "professional" looking machines.

 

Looks nice in the photoshoot pictures :\ Looks crappy in the irl pic's

 

Hi2all,

I've got my eye on the model with the matte 1366x768 screen & built-in WAN card, which (will) sell for about €555 in the Austria / Germany region.

On paper, the Netbook looks good, but I was hoping for some feedback from the NBR crew. Surprisingly, there is liitle to no mention of this Netbook here...

Anyone already have it / plan to get it?

Here's a [limited] review from PCMag and another from Laptop Mag. NBR also showcased it here, but no review so far... .

 

I think the reason there aren't many reviews is that HP just launched it a few weeks ago and those people who have ordered them are still waiting for them to ship.

Another factor may be the price.

HP isn't offering free shipping or any other discounts on the machines now, making the 5101 quite expensive. By the time you pay tax and shipping in the US, the quick-ship model is $483! Compare that with the Mini 110 w/ 6-cell battery that I just got for $299 shipped and you can see why there aren't many reviews of it.

 

Maybe you're right, it's still new. When I think of the waiting time for my Dell XPS M1330... lol.

As for comaprison to the 110, it's apples2oranges (imho). I would instead compare the Asus 1005HA to the 110, both offering similar specs for similar price ranges, no?

Yes, the 5101 is pricey for a Netbook, but it offers a higher res screen, HQ case (magnesium-alu mix), higher-res webcam and the model I'm looking at has built-in WAN (read: broadband). There are models with a standard 1024x600 (WSVGA), without WAN that run closer to €450 (sorry, I'm not familiar with the prices State-side).

Although the Asus 1101HA also has the same WXGA screen and a decent look for less (€400), it doesn't have a WAN option (not to mention it uses the less powerful - albeit more efficient Z520 processor).

This leaves the 5101 in a niche of it's own. The only thing missing (imho) is a HDMI interface

 

€ 400 = 569.52 U.S. dollars

€ 555 = 790.20900 U.S. dollars

483 U.S. dollars = 339.233038 €

As you can see, 555€ is quite a bit stateside.

For $800 USD you can get far more powerful notebooks that aren't much bigger.

I paid $299 USD for the Mini 110, which would be about €210. Much better deal for me

Oh and by the way, those 720p screens might sound like a good idea, but on a 10" screen they are god awful to try to use! 1024x576/600 is much, much easier to use. And no, I'm not old and have deteriorating eyesight....

 

I'm sorry, but you misunderstood me; I'm not looking for FX rates, but was referring to the current U.S. price points HP has for the various 5101 versions.

HP would never attempt to sell a Netbook for $800; they will most likely offer it for ~$550-600. The price of milk, etc. (read "cost of living index").

You may just have a good point there! I did see an Asus 1101HA* on the store floor and typed a few words to test out the keyboard. I had no issue with the res but it's one thing to stare at it for 30s and entirely another to work with it for hours...

My thoughts were less on real estate as fulfilling "HD" standards w/o interpolation (read 720p). For everyone's reference, HP also provides the 5101 with a 1024x600 panel too - at a cheaper price


*EDIT / Correction: The 1101HA actually uses a 11.6" panel, not a 10.1". It may not sound like a big difference, but, to reuse the phrase, it's again an apples2oranges comparison...

 

I checked out a Sony netbook that had a 10" screen and a 720p resolution, and let me tell you it was SMALL.

But as far as dealing with native resolution video playback; the screens are so small would I really make a difference anyway?

 

...yes it would, but apparently in a bad way...

The Lenovo Ideapad S12, another "Netbook" I'm looking at, has a 1280x800 panel and uses a std. Atom processor. Consequently, the processor / on-board GPU has to "paint" more pixels per refresh and logically will cost more processing power with higher-res panels.

This is nothing new in the gaming world where you need a serious GPU solution to render games at "HD" or higher resolutions, but it never occured to me that this might be the case when playing back video! Here's a quote from Liliputing:

"And thanks to the high resolution display, some tasks like HD video playback, actually work better on a standard netbook than on the IdeaPad S12."

So I guess there's more against than for a higher-res panel when powered with the typical Netbook fare (Atom + GMA950 onboard graphics)...

Well thanks for "leading" me to this conclusion: better well-read than sorry

 

Well i guess its a good thing we had this 'discussion' to save you the troubles of using an hd screen

 

While I understand that screen resolution is pretty much a personal preference, the HD display on HP's netbooks are awesome. It's the primary reason I enjoy using my HP 2140. The higher resolution increases the usability of these netbooks.

Please don't make the manufacturers phase out high resolution screens. The 1280x800 displays on 12,13,14,15" notebooks are already ridiculously low.

 

Doesn't the 2140 have a 1024x576 panel...? What's so hi-res about that... Not to mention there's a huge difference between 1280x800 on a 12" and a 15"...

But fwiw, I'm aiming for 1366x768 on 11.6" (e.g. the Asus 1101HA or Acer 751 or Sammy N510 or Acer's newest 1810T. It's the right balance of ppi imho

Have a look at 13766x768 on a 10.1" and I bet even you'll be changing your mind...

 

when is the dual core atom going to be an option , that's when I'll upgrade from my 2133

 

i dont think we'll be seeing dual core atom's in netbooks anytime soon.

The TDP of an n270/n280 is something like 2.5w while existing dual core atoms are like 8w's... thats too much power to pack in such a small space...

 

The 2140 had a HD display option. Mine's the HD display unit.

As a product specialist, I know what I'm talking about.

 

If you think that a specific res is comparable across a range of 12-15" then I'm not particularly impressed...

 

What I meant was 1280x800 is insufficient a resolution for anything > 11". If you try to use that resolution on a 12" screen, it's still bearable, but once you go beyond that, it's just ridiculously low. Even the 1440x900 resolution on my X301 is low when Sony could do 1600x900 on the Z.

 

For you at least.

For myself, I value my eyesight and the less I have to strain my eyes the better...

 

Hi guys i thought i would post up a picture of mine with the HD screen and just give my general POV on it:



The screen is very usable with this res and i dont find it to high at all, it runs 720p movies right out of the box on windows xp, i upgraded the ram almost straight away to 2GB 800mhz which made loading things like internet explorer much faster. The keyboard is one of the nicest keyboards to type on i have ever used i prefer using it to my Logitech G15, overall i am very pleased with the spec the bluetooth and draft N wireless are great. One thing i will say though is that it comes pre installed with junk like Mcaffee firewall etc that want to blog everything and i mean everything you cant move the mouse without it poping up.

If there are any specific pictures/requests anyone wants feel free to ask and i will do my best .

 

First off, congratulations

Secondly, thanks for posting & the pic too. I like your comments on the keyboard and your other findings, thx.

Image-wise, I'm not sure if a camera can capture a true representation of what is seen on the screen in real life, but just for testing purposes, I'd love to see a shot, of say, this thread. Some of the fonts on NBR's pages is quite small and would certainly show off the panel's res a little better.

thanks & cheers 8^)

 

Here you go, ive done my best with my phone camera but its not very good (K850I), i have had a look in device manager and the screen is actually made by LG if anyone wanted to know :

Closup of the screen on its lowest brightness:

http://img2.imageshack.us/i/dsc00728z.jpg/

Infornt of my main PC monitor HP LP2475W (monitor lowest brightness, netbook highest) :

http://img43.imageshack.us/i/dsc00726t.jpg/

Infornt of my main PC monitor HP LP2475W (Both lowest brightness) :

http://img185.imageshack.us/i/dsc00723b.jpg/


Please note the last picture shows its lowest brightness and its barely readable this isnt the case in real life its just down to the crappy camera .


Edit:

All these are with both screens on the highest brightness setting:

http://img522.imageshack.us/i/dsc00733dp.jpg/
http://img156.imageshack.us/i/dsc00734d.jpg/
http://img36.imageshack.us/i/dsc00736v.jpg/

I can browse these forums with ease with this netbook at least 40cms away.

Hope this helps if you need anymore postaway.

Cheers

Ben

 

Wow, lots of pics - very nice of you (rep-rep! )

I'll be honest, the pics gives one an idea, to be sure, but like I feared,it's still an approximate representation... :-/

The most useful, to be sure, are those with both panels. At what res is your LP2475W set to, 1920x1200?

Thanks again for the effort - much appreciated

 

Yep 1920x1200

 

Breezy can you do a quick measurement of the netbook please. the website says it's .92 inches at the front can you measure how thick it is at the back. i dont know which battery you have but the 4 cell doesnt stick out so if you have the 6 cell can you measure the back of it with the battery removed and with the battery attached? thanks this is the only thing that holding me back from getting it i hope its less than 1" thick.

 

Ok i have the 4 cell battery unfortauntly, the 6 cell is unavailable at the moment here in the UK , the height of the back is exacly 31mm from my desk (so including feet) or 27mm without the feet.

Hope this helps

 

I've had my HP Mini 5101 for about a week with the HD screen, 3G, and the 6 cell battery. The 6 cell battery barely sticks out the bottom (maybe about 1/3" to 1/2" at most) so the unit remains nice and slim. Overall, I'd say this is the best netbook I've owned (and I've had a few).

I also got the matching optical drive HP offers with this particular netbook. It looks great, matches the finish of the netbook, and if used with the 5101 is actually powered without an AC adapter using a combo power/USB cable, which is really convenient.

Edit: Forgot to mention this but by default the top function keys perform what are normally their alternate FN functions (like adjusting screen brightness, volume, etc), so in order to actually hit F4 you have to do FN+F4. I can see the merit in this (makes the experience very Mac-like) but I don't really like it. Luckily HP provides a BIOS setting you can use to switch the function keys back to "normal" (so F4 is F4, and increase screen brightness is FN+F4).

 

Thanks for the added feedback! What's you opinion of the keyboard...? I've only tested sony's 10" Netbook and the keys were so compact it almost felt like I was using the keyboard on my HTC mobile phone...

 

It's great. The island-style chiclet keyboard is spacious (95% the size of a standard notebook keyboard apparently) and very much like what you'd find on a Macbook, only the keys are slightly textured so you get a better grip on the keys. The fact that the keys are spaced apart also makes someone like me (with fairly large hands) less prone to hitting the wrong keys, something I had a habit of doing on the Mini 110 (where the keyboard is also nice and large, but the keys are placed much closer together).

So overall it's an excellent typing experience, and one that makes me wish there were a USB version of the keyboard I could use with my desktop PC.

 

Hey, that's great news, really!

Thx again for the info and keep on enjoying yours

 

Awesome looking laptop, looks like a solid performer too. A shame it's hidden, though. Have to go to the SMB store.

Anybody think HP will release Windows 7 drivers for this? Looking at getting it, and might want to run Windows 7. Since they have released versions of Vista on this, I don't see why they wouldn't put Windows 7 drivers out.

 

Anyone planning to make a new thread to form the Mini 5101/5102 Owners Club?

 

whats with the 1.5" frame around the screen? 1980s called and it wants it's styling back.