The International Consumer Electronics Show has just taken place, and netbooks were heavily featured in the show, with several manufacturers showing new models.
Perhaps one of the slickest looking netbooks announced was Hewlett Packard’s Mini 2140, with a lot of positive feedback from those taking a look.
It shares the aluminium casing of its predecessor, the HP Mini 2133, but the real improvements go beyond the external casing to what lurks within.
The HP Mini 2140 will have a 6-cell battery option, which is a first for HP, and will mean longer battery life compared to what the standard 3-cell battery would offer. Other netbooks that have a 6-cell battery usually offer a battery life of 5 hours or more before needing a recharge.
The HP Mini 2140 comes with the choice of a 160GB HDD (hard disk drive) or an 80GB SSD (solid state drive). Those opting for the SSD drive should see a slight increase in battery life. You can find out more about the comparisons between HDD and SSD from one of our earlier articles.
Something that will be attractive to potential owners is the number of operating systems available with the HP Mini 2140. You can choose from Windows XP, XP Professional or Vista Business, as well as SUSE Linux.
Typing should be a breeze with the 92% standard size keyboard, and the visuals are taken care of by a 10.1 inch screen.
Prices are expected to start at around $499 for a basic version of the HP Mini 2140 with a 3-cell battery, increasing to around $700 for a better specification that includes the 6-cell battery.
One extra thing to consider is that opting for the 6-cell battery will increase the overall weight of this system. The basic version with the 3-cell battery weighs around 2.6 pounds (1.18kg).
As well as having the fairly typical Intel Atom processor, the HP Mini 2140 is able to hold up to 2GB of RAM.
The HP Mini 2140 should appeal to the more business minded netbook user, or someone who loves aluminium gadgets!
Expect it to be available for purchase towards the end of January.
Via: PC World, PC Pro, Reg Hardware, ZD Net
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