HP Mini 5101
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We have collected 4 reviews of the HP Mini 5101. Experts rate HP Mini 5101 8/10. Reviewsor.com helps you find reviews, best prices, user reviews of the HP Mini 5101 and HP Netbooks.
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HP Mini 5101 Reviews
HP Mini 5101 Review
We review HP’s business-oriented Mini 5101 to see whether a budget-class machine can really rise from the ranks and perform in the boardroom. Businessmen don’t use netbooks. Sure, all-day battery life would be nice for those long flights. They do fit awfully nice in most briefcases, too. And the Intel Atom is more than enough for Firefox, Excel and Skype. But the humble netbook has always been plagued by an image problem. They look cheap, and that’s not the impression an executive wants to exude when he lays his laptop down on the walnut conference room table. HP set out to reimagine the netbook for the boardroom with the Mini 5101. The magnesium-chassis netbook casts aside cheap construction techniques, sprinkles in a handful of business niceties, and earns our stamp as one of the few netbooks you don’t have to be ashamed of. Tear away the outside, and the main parts driving the Mini 5101 would resemble any other netbook: An Intel Atom processor running at 1.6GHz, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 160GB hard drive, all hooked up to a standard 10.1-inch LED-backlit display.
HP Mini 5101 (Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, XP Home Basic)
When we heard that HP was making some big changes to its small business Netbook, we were worried. After all, the current version--the Mini 2140--is probably our all-time favorite Netbook, thanks to an innovative keyboard (since adopted by HP's consumer Netbooks), full ExpressCard slot, and solid metal construction. This new version, the Mini 5101, is indeed a stylistic departure from the 2140, trading the gently rounded silvery metal look for a sharp-edged black brushed-metal chassis. It's a little bigger than its predecessor, and also a little less expensive, at $425. But since the start of 2009, we've seen a radical shift in Netbook prices, with entry-level models coming in under $299, for essentially the same combo of an Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, Windows XP, and a 160GB hard drive (in this case, you get the slightly faster N280 version of the Atom). The Mini 5101 offers some noteworthy extras, including a higher-resolution screen and a Gobi-powered mobile broadband module--but those cost extra, and are not included in the $425 base configuration. This new model also loses the ExpressCard slot found in the older Mini 2140.
HP Mini 5101
HP's Business-based netbook grows up--and introduces some long-overdue improvements. HP pioneered the notion of transforming a netbook into a corporate raider. The idea seems like a budget-conscious no-brainer now, but 18 months ago the HP Mini 2133 was a wolf pack of one. Since then, the netbook market has evolved--and so have HP's entries in it. The Mini 5101 is a smart update, with slickly styled lines, a batch of business-ready apps, and finally a serviceable touchpad. The gunmetal black magnesium alloy casing on the Mini 5101 stands in stark contrast to the shiny, silvery sloped exteriors of previous Minis. The unit measures 10.3 inches by 7.1 inches by 0.9 inch and weighs about 2.6 pounds, making it an ideal traveling companion. Two other big changes await you beneath the lid. First, the flat, wide keys of earlier HP Mini models are gone, replaced by cut-out keys that float like tiny, springy islands amidst a sea of black plastic (the keyboard configuration resembles that of the HP Probook 4510s). The coated, 95-percent-of-full-size keys are textured enough to permit comfortable typing (abetted by the rubberized textures around the wrist pad), and they don't smudge easily.
HP Mini 5101
HP introduced the concept of the durable business-class netbook, and the Mini 5101 raises the bar with a more compact design and even longer battery life. This $425 machine is slightly more expensive than other netbooks, and the touchpad is a little finicky, but the Mini 5101 will no doubt appeal to business travelers who need their netbooks to handle some abuse while on the road. The HP Mini 5101 should look familiar to anyone who has seen HP’s ProBook line. Unlike its previous business-oriented netbooks—which had a silver, brushed aluminum chassis—the 5101 is all black. While the lid is a brushed aluminum, the deck and underside (which is made of a durable magnesium alloy) are coated in soft rubber paint (called SoftTouch) that was very comfortable. Measuring 10.3 x 7.1 x 0.9 inches, the Mini 5101 isn’t the sveltest of netbooks, but it’s still easy to carry. While it does have an extended battery, it doesn’t protrude from the back of the system, as with the Toshiba mini NB205; rather, it bulges slightly from the bottom. At 2.8 pounds, the 5101 is about average when it comes to netbook weight.
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HP Mini 5101 : (8/10)
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