New Mini 5101 Business Netbook Unveiled By HP

In order to keep up the good name and lead in the business-oriented netbook space, today, Hewlett-Packard Co. announced an updated Mini netbook. The new Mini 5101 Biz netbook has a starting price of $449 and arrives with a brighter OLED screen, a larger, spill-resistant keyboard and a better-resolution 2-megapixel Webcam.

As per Carol Hess-Nickels, director of marketing for business netbooks at HP, the Mini 5101 will also have a slightly faster Intel Atom processor, a new security feature and a higher-quality metal case than the current Mini 2140. The new Mini 5101 will run at 1.66 GHz as it uses Intel's Atom N280 instead of the six months ago released Mini 2140 that runs at 1.6 GHz N270.

Better than the 2140's 92% size, the new 5101 netbook will have a flat open key layout will have a MacBook-like look-and-feel, and will be slightly larger, at 95% of full-laptop-keyboard-size. Hess-Nickels said that the 5101 will retain the Mini 2140's spiffy anodized aluminum case, but add a magnesium metal bottom.

After Acer Inc. and Asus Inc. considering the third leading netbook vendor, HP is among a few vendors to explicitly target business buyers with its netbooks. In less than one and a half year, the Mini 5101 will be the HP's fourth business netbook. The Mini 2133 was released in early 2008, followed by the much-improved Mini 2140.

In May, a lower-end business Mini netbook, the Mini 1101 was announced by HP. On arrival in late July, the New Mini 5101 will keep up many of the same features as the 2140 such as 2.6-pound weight, a choice of Windows Vista, XP Home or Professional, Suse Linux Enterprise 11 or FreeDOS operating systems (for users to install whatever flavor of Linux they choose); hard-disk or solid-state disk drives with 3D DriveGuard, HP's technology to protect data in case of drops; a 10.1 inch screen coming in either 1024x600 or 1366x768 resolutions; and a choice of fast-charging 4- or 6-cell Lithium-Ion batteries, the latter offering up to 8 hours of battery life, according to HP.

The Broadcom "Crystal" HD video decoder that enables 720p or 1080p HD video that is available in the just-released $329 Mini 1101 will not be included in it. But if customers are interested in HD video than HP could use Nvidia Inc.'s Ion technology, as Lenovo Group Ltd. is doing.

"We have looked at Ion, and we continue to look at it every time we come out with a new product," Hess-Nickels said. "Right now, it didn't seem to be the right offering for our customers."

In reply to the popularity of Linux as a question, Hess-Nickels replied that the overall percentage of customers choosing Linux on HP netbooks, including business and consumer models, was "probably less than 10%," though probably "higher, in the mid-teens" for business Mini models such as the 2133 or 2140.

[Via: infibeam]