Working for an IT retailed definitely has its benefits. Last week my boss sent an e-mail around the company informing us of this really nice deal he made with Hewlett Packard.
So whats this really nice deal, you wonder? Well Hewlett Packard had a Christmas discount deal for its employees, so that they could purchase a Hewlett Packard 2133 UMPC at manufacturing costs + taxes. My boss heard of that, did some professional ass kissing, and made it possible for us to buy one at a hefty discount!
The 2133 mini note comes in various configurations that range from € 269,- to € 599,- (ex taxes) depending on the features installed. The version we got, the FU344EA, has a list price of € 459,- (ex taxes), but we were able to get it for € 189,- (ex taxes). Quite the deal, Id say! Needless to say I was one of the first people in the company to place an order.
So what did I get for that money? Lets go over the features a little bit:
By default it comes with Windows Vista Home Basic installed. But given the specs of most mini notebooks, that doesnt seem like a good idea to me. So first thing I did was install Windows XP on it. Most of my co-workers initially decided to leave Windows Vista on it, but all complained that the 2133 took nearly 3 minutes to boot up, and was constantly at 100% CPU usage. My Windows XP boots up in just under 30 seconds, and doesnt suck up as much juice from the processor. After my co-workers saw that, most of them came begging at my desk to install XP on it.
By default it has 1 Gigabyte of RAM, which is provided by a single PC5300 DDR2 SDRAM module. First thing I did was replace that with a 2GB module. Some of my co-workers ordered an additional 1GB module, but found out later that it has only 1 memory socket. As always, it comes down to the simple matter of doing your homework properly by reading some reviews before making a purchase
It has a 1.6 GHz VIA C7-M ULV processor. According Hewlett Packard it has an 800 MHz FSB and 128 KB L2 cache, but VIAs website claims that it is 1.5 GHz with 400 MHz FSB. Maybe Hewlett Packard made an exclusive deal with VIA, but in any case the CPU is pretty ok. This particular CPU is known for its low power consumption, but also has somewhat lower performance than the most commonly used Intel Atom processor. Im curious why Hewlett Packard opted for this processor instead.
To accompany the CPU, the chipset features a VIA/S3 Chrome 9 video chipset, which uses up to 128 Megabyte of the main memory. Its not the best video chipset, but it does have some basic 3D capabilities. Some 3D games run perfectly on it, others have problems. Ive seen a video on YouTube of a guy playing some nice games on it. Of course it goes without saying that a net book is not a super game system, but playing some Quake 2 on the train ride home from work... It will do that pretty ok. I, for one, found a good use for my huge collection of Game Console Emulators 
The 8.9 Inch Screen has a native resolution of 1024x600 pixels (WSVGA), but a nice feature of said VIA/S3 Chrome 9 chipset, you can also set the video resolution at 1024x768 pixels too. The chipset will scale it down by 168 pixels, so it looks a bit squished; but its a nice feature if you need that specific resolution (for games that only support the standard 4:3 resolutions, for example).
Above the 8.9 Inch screen is a tiny webcam that has 640x480 pixel resolution. Its a typical notebook webcam, which has a pretty decent image quality with normal daylight, but goes very grainy with lower light conditions. My co-worker Rowan noticed that to the right side of the webcam, inside the casing is a tiny blue led that creates a blue haze in the lower right corner of his webcam. My 2133 doesnt seem to have that problem though.
To the left and right of the webcam are 2 tiny holes (about 1mm in size) where apparently there are 2 microphones; this means it has a stereo microphone, which is quite uncommon for notebooks. Most notebooks, even the really pricy ones, have a mono microphone; but this little rascal has stereo, which definitely has some big advantages with voice chatting. If youre slightly to the left or right of the laptop, you still get good sound, where most laptops lose volume rapidly if youre not strait in front of the microphone.
To the left and right of the screen are the speakers. Some co-workers said that it looks ugly to have these black bars next to the screen, but it has 2 benefits. Firstly, the whole screen has a thick black frame, which gives the screens contrast a good boost; The colors are just better visible when theres a black frame around a screen. And secondly, the speakers are aimed strait at you when youre sitting in front of the mini notebook, so the sound quality is better too.
Most laptops have the speakers in the base, and deflect the sound either via the screen or via the desktop to the user. That way a lot of volume and sound quality is lost. With the 2133 the sound travels directly from the speakers to your ears, which is much better. The speakers may be tiny, but they have an incredibly full and rich sound, with remarkably high output.
The keyboard is amazing! Hewlett Packard claims that the keys are 92% of a regular desktop keyboards size, and theyre not lying. My parents have an Acer Aspire One, which has a normal net book keyboard, and Im always hitting two keys at a time. With the 2133 I dont have that problem at all; while the 2133 isnt even that much bigger than the Aspire One (maybe 1cm longer and 1cm wider).
On the left side of the notebook we find the headphone and microphone/line-in plugs, a powered USB port (for external hard disks or USB CD-ROM drives, for example) and a VGA-out port. The right side of the laptop hosts an ExpressCard slot, an SD card card reader, a regular USB port (2.0 of course) , the power connector and an RJ45 network socket.
Connection wise its pretty well configured. It has an 802.11a/b/g wireless network card and a 1000 Mbps wired network connection. Unfortunately, the model we were able to buy has no built in Bluetooth adapter, but Kensington sells a really small USB Bluetooth receiver that fits very snuggly into the powered USB port (the port is slightly recessed), so I might pick one of those up sometime soon. My Cell phone has internet connection sharing and a 7.2 Mbps HSDPA wireless internet connection. I can use that on the 2133 for some browsing or perhaps even online gaming 