While the Asus Eee PC and Intel's Classmate and Netbook platforms have convinced us that low-cost, low-power laptops can be genuinely useful, we still long for something a little more upscale than the plastic construction of those systems. HP's bold entry into the mininotebook market comes in the form of the 2133 Mini-Note PC, a 9-inch laptop with a tailored look and magnesium alloy chassis that starts at $599 for Windows (or $499 for Linux) and tops out at $749 with extras including Bluetooth, a Webcam, a 7,200rpm hard drive, and 2GB of RAM.
The 2133's greatest asset is its unique keyboard, which manages to fit in full-size keys by eliminating dead space on the keyboard tray, but we're less enamored of the pokey Via processor, especially when Intel's Atom CPUs, seemingly designed specifically for systems like this, are right around the corner. Still, the HP 2133 Mini-Note works well enough for basic Web surfing and office productivity tasks, and it's quickly become our new favorite pick-up-and-go laptop.
