James Kendrick at jkOnTheRun has spent a week with the much-anticipated new HP Mini UMPC / ultra small notebook, and has got a great review up on it already.  This is HP’s entry into the relatively new segment of the mobile market where devices like the Asus Eee PC are proving very popular.

Judging by James’ early review, the new HP Minis (there are various models) should be a formidable entry in this mobile space.  Not only do they sound like they’re well-made and well-specced devices, but I was very surprised to see how keenly they are priced:

The basic model will start at $499, a price higher than the EEE PC but the Mini comes with far better hardware components than the EEE and it’s hard to make a strict comparison for that reason. This $499 model will sport 1 GB of memory and run SuSE Linux installed on a 120 GB hard drive. I played with this model for an hour at the HP offices and it is extremely snappy and well worth the low price in my opinion. The Mini is also available with Windows, Vista Home or Business initially and XP eventually given Microsoft’s easing of the restrictions on OEMs to provide XP going forward. The impressive model is the one I am reviewing here, the top of the line Mini with 2 GB of memory, a 120GB fast hard drive (7,200 rpm), Bluetooth, WiFi, 8.9" screen (1280×768), web cam, trackpad, SDHC slot, ExpressCard slot, 2 USB ports (1 is powered for running peripherals that require power), Ethernet and a 6-cell battery. The price is equally impressive with $749 getting you the whole enchilada which is a great deal in my opinion.

The Mini gets some pretty strong praise from a guy who has spent a lot of time with quite a few of the leading devices in this mobile category:

Here’s the topic that most are probably interested in, how does the HP Mini perform in the real world? Very well, I’m happy to report. The high resolution display coupled with an absolutely awesome keyboard make the Mini a real trooper for field work.

The review has a ton of good pictures of the HP Mini, size comparison shots (like the one with the Celio Redfly at the top of this post) and a thorough walk-through of this promising looking new UMPC – well worth a read over at:

http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/04/jkontherun-revi.html

Tags: HP, 2133, Mini, Mini-Note