Nothing But Netbooks! Acer Aspire One, Dell E, Eee PC, HP Mini-Note, MSI Wind, and Other Netbook News, Reviews, Coverage

Jason Jacobs of Techware Labs posted a detailed, multi-page review of the HP 2133 Mini-Note. While there have been many reviews of the Mini-Note, and the conclusions of this particular article do not present any radical findings, this review is noteworthy in that he took the approach of a user needing to pick the model best for his needs as a frequently traveler and mobile professional, explaining the thought process he went through and the factors he took into consideration in ultimately choosing the Mini-Note.

In all, Jacobs used his Mini-Note for seven days before writing the review, putting it through quite a few rigorous power-user tasks such as upgrading the hard drive and installing about a dozen different pieces of software “to reflect a normal environment”. In the end, although he found its performance a bit wanting, he liked its appearance and design, giving it an “Editor’s Choice” award and perhaps as a more solid compliment, added that he would “keep and use [it] happily.”

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Posted under HP Mini-Note

HP is having a general notebook sale until the end of this month. You can get the Mini-Note for as low as $499 for the basic model (with an approximate ship date of mid-August).

Product link

Posted under HP Mini-Note

Techradar’s got a long comparison of the Asus Eee PC 901, Acer Aspire One, HP Mini-Note, and MSI Wind, evaluating each model on a scale of 1 to 10 in important things such as battery life, screen, and performance.

Final verdict? It ranks the four in this order:

1. MSI Wind: “combination of large hard drive and familiar OS makes for a well-rounded experience”
2. Acer Aspire One: “only Acer seems to be focusing correctly right now, and it manages this while producing a well rounded machine”
3. Asus Eee PC 901: “it just doesn’t capture the magic of the original, or do enough to warrant the high price tag. It works well though, and the expertise of the existing user base is reassuring”
4. HP Mini-Note: “The main problems we have with this machine are the relatively high price, and the choice of processor”

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Posted under Acer Aspire One, Eee PC 901, HP Mini-Note, MSI Wind

A more detailed article has surfaced regarding the deal between the Fresno Unified School District and HP for 7000 Mini-Note computers. Main points:

• How much does it cost to buy 7000 mini-notes? Total cost: $3.85 million ($550 per unit). According to the article, the model selected normally retails for $849 (which corresponds approximately to the 160GB 6-cell battery model with Windows Vista), so a pretty nice discount.
• Mini-Notes will be used by middle and high school students. The 1000 eeePCs they are currently using will be shifted to elementary schools, where it is hoped that the smaller keyboards on the eeePCs will be more suitable for the smaller hands of elementary school students.
• School employees, teachers, parents, and students will be offered the opportunity to purchase Mini-Notes at cost.
• With about 76500 students in the FUSD, but the 7000 Mini-Notes and the 1000 eeePCs would correspond to a ratio of one laptop per 9.65 students. This is of course not counting any other laptop programs they might have had in the past.

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Posted under HP Mini-Note

At last week’s National Educational Computing Conference in San Antonio, HP announced that the Fresno Unified School District would be getting 7000 Mini-Note computers. HP will also provide online courses to help educators learn how to incorporate tech into the classroom.

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Posted under HP Mini-Note

Testing done by the folks at HP2133guide.com has shown improved benchmark scores for the HP Mini-Note with Vista Service Pack 1 and the updated video drivers recently released by VIA. There are also results for Windows XP with Service Pack 3 and the new drivers, although for some reason on XP the 3DMark03 score was a tad lower after the upgrades.

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Posted under HP Mini-Note

A nifty chart from PC Magazine that compares Acer Aspire One, HP Mini-Note, and two Eee PC models.

Posted under Acer Aspire One, Eee PC 900, HP Mini-Note

Apparently there was an issue with using Skype with video calls on the HP Mini-Note with Vista (the default OS) which was fixable only by “upgrading” it to Windows XP (heh).  According to jkOnTheRun, Skype 4.0 Beta works much better:

I am happy to report that the quality of the video Skype chat with Kevin was acceptable and I found the video to be higher quality than the old version of Skype.  There was a little bit of choppiness at the beginning of the call but Skype quickly settled down and there were no issues with the video and the audio quality was excellent.

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Posted under HP Mini-Note