HP Mini 2140

[mgraves]

After waiting a month for the better display I heard that it was in fact delayed until late in April. That made the decision for me, I needed the device shortly so I ordered a 2140 on Tuesday evening.

I bought it via Ebay from an HP reseller MWAVE. They said it would ship within 24 hours and that it was in stock. They also offered overnight UPS for an extra $39.

On that basis the unit would surely arrive in 3 days, when I was home today (2/27)

They lied. On several fronts.

The unit had not shipped as of this afternoon (3 days later) although they emailed me a "shipping confirmation" on 2/25 and advised that UPS tracking details would follow. They have never arrived.

It was to be dropped shipped from HP, so they held no inventory at all.

I had several email exchanges with them. They say that Paypal delayed the payment, which is a bold-faced lie. I have a confirmed Paypal account, and it shows the transaction was processed immediately on 2/24.

I called them and was given several phone numbers to call, and eventually an email address...that was a gmail account. How incredibly unprofessional!

I have advised them that if I don't have the UPS tracking number by the end of the day today that I will simply refuse the delivery and have Paypal reverse the purchase.

In dealing with all of this I found out two things:

1. If you buy the unit with XP Home they allow only 1 GB of ram

2. The unit with Vista Business can be had "pre-downgraded" with XP Pro.

Do you know if this is true? The one I ordered was XPH with 1 GB. If I have to order from elsewhere I'd rather have the XPP 2GB model.

Did you ever receive yours?

Michael

 

[thiggins]

Hi Michael,

I had an odd shipping experience with mWave a month or so ago with some SATA drives I ordered. Thought they would arrive in a few days and they took about a week and a half instead. The UPS tracking had some odd "rerouted" message. So I won't be using mwave any more.

I did get the 2140 and will be writing up the review this week. Basically, the screen vertical resolution is too low. You would think that 576 vs 600 wouldn't make a big difference. But for the first time with any netbook, I had to delete some standard stuff out of the Start Button menu to make room for the Command Window, Notebad and Wordpad that I always move there.

I think these "wide screen" screen formats are a mistake on netbooks. I saw somewhere that the reason was for better viewing of hi-def movies. But what netbook can play back even 720p HD?

It will be going back. For the way I use a netbook, a 10" screen must have 1024x600. But the 12" form factor in the Dell Mini 12 really works much better for me. The keyboard design is disappointing. But maybe with the HP-like keyboard design in the new 10" Dell mini I can hack it in somehow....

 

[mgraves]

Tim,

Thanks for sharing you experience with this vendor. I will surely avoid them in future.

I did get an email on Saturday with UPS tracking details. UPS shows the unit as to be delivered on Monday. Pity that early Monday I'm off to SFO. I may have my wife overnight the unit to my hotel. Either that or simply refuse it.

I'm not certain if XPH + 1GB is adequate. The netbook can never replace my laptop. It will be mostly for writing, blogging & reading online.

Michael

 

[thiggins]

I'm not certain if XPH + 1GB is adequate. The netbook can never replace my laptop. It will be mostly for writing, blogging & reading online.

I'm ok with XP Home and only 1 GB. But for browser-based activities, I find the vertical resolution too low.

Have a good trip.

 

[icebox]

As contemplating a netbook my self to replace my aging nokia n800 I have one question:

you chose a netbook with high expectation of screen, keyboard and trackpad size?

I would choose one based on portability, battery life and build quality FIRST and usability as compared to other devices that size SECOND. If I want screen size and keyboard good to type on a few hours I would go for a 14-15 laptop.

 

[rallystile]

As contemplating a netbook my self to replace my aging nokia n800 I have one question:

you chose a netbook with high expectation of screen, keyboard and trackpad size?

I would choose one based on portability, battery life and build quality FIRST and usability as compared to other devices that size SECOND. If I want screen size and keyboard good to type on a few hours I would go for a 14-15 laptop.

It's a toss up for me. While having a portable netbook with long battery life is important, who wants to spend all that time mucking around with an awkward mouse button and scrolling down all the time. Readability and ease of use is an important thing for me, as well as being portable. Oh well, I guess we can't have it all.

But I was considering the HP Mini 2140 but after the review I think I'll go with something else.

A friend pointed me to this review of the Samsung NC20, but still not sure. 12 inches is too large to be considered portable IMHO.

 

[thiggins]

I would choose one based on portability, battery life and build quality FIRST and usability as compared to other devices that size SECOND. If I want screen size and keyboard good to type on a few hours I would go for a 14-15 laptop.

We all have different selection criteria. Portability and battery life are obviously important criteria or I wouldn't be looking at netbooks in the first place.

The netbook will be my travel machine. When I travel I have multiple windows open and do serious, but not compute intensive, work. So screen real estate and readability are very important.

 

[thiggins]

A friend pointed me to this review of the Samsung NC20, but still not sure. 12 inches is too large to be considered portable IMHO.

I liked the NC10, but looks like they kept the one-piece mouse button bar, which I really dislike.

Portability for me is weight, not so much size. 12" still fits nicely in my travel bag. I really wish, however, Dell had used the HP mini-style keyboard that they put into the Dell Mini 10. The smaller ,./ keys are annoying.

 

[vnangia]

As contemplating a netbook my self to replace my aging nokia n800 I have one question:

you chose a netbook with high expectation of screen, keyboard and trackpad size?

I would choose one based on portability, battery life and build quality FIRST and usability as compared to other devices that size SECOND. If I want screen size and keyboard good to type on a few hours I would go for a 14-15 laptop.

I actually used my N800 as my main machine (painfully) for several weeks some years ago while HP and I negotiated whether something that broke was covered by warranty, along with a nice BT keyboard, but I have to agree with Michael, Tim, et al - the keyboard varies tremendously between machines and is often a make or break deal. I picked my Acer Aspire One over the Asus Eee for that reason: there was no comparison between the mushy, oddly shaped, weirdly located keys on the Eee and the neatly arranged, proportionately sized keys providing adequate feedback on the Aspire One.

By comparison, I almost always carry a mouse, so it's not too much of an issue for me that the buttons are on the side (and even if I use the built-in touchpad, I don't really notice - after all, we get used to quirks like different telephone keypads pretty easily). And given that there is very little difference between the devices (standard equipment: 1.6GHz Atom, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, WinXP Home, 3 or 6 or 9 hour battery life), then why not pick on something which makes a difference, like keyboard comfort or glossy or matte screen, etc?

 

[rothe]

Netbook, Fujitsu P-series alternatives

Tim,

Did you ever settle on a new netbook or sub-notebook? I was in a similar situation to yours until last week. I had a Fujitsu P5020D that has served me well for the past few years, but it's getting to be intolerably slow for anything more than web browsing and email. I had looked at a few netbooks, but couldn't see myself settling for 1024x600 after using a 1280x768 screen for so many years. And the best of the "real" ultra-portable laptops (the current Fujitsu P-series, the Lenovo offerings, etc.) were all in the $1500 range, at a minimum. That'd buy about five netbooks, so it was tough to justify.

Well, I stumbled upon a very sweet deal at CDW.com: $959 for a 2GB, 1.6GHz Core2Duo HP 2530p. (HP has other configurations of the same model, ranging up to nearly $3k.) This CDW offering is about $200 less than most other vendors carried this model for. At that price point, I got off the fence. I'm pretty happy with it.

Not wishing to sound like a commercial for CDW, but I was reminded that you had similar needs, and I figured I'd pass this on. Check it out:

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1552690

Also, see Gizmodo's comments about this laptop:

http://tinyurl.com/czwyvy

My version doesn't have all of the bells and whistles that their reviewed version does, but it's waaaay more computer than a netbook could ever be.

Hope that helps!

Jim Rothe

 

[thiggins]

Did you ever settle on a new netbook or sub-notebook?

Yes, Jim. A Dell Mini 12. The keyboard is somewhat annoying. But the price, screen size and weight were right for me.

Thanks for the tip, though!

 

[joyfultruffle]

I had been looking for reviews regarding the HP Mini 2140. Actually, I depend on reviews most of the time as people's opinion/experience matters more than any specification discussion which is primarily based on specifics of the gadget/s. It does help me if a thing is worth/good buy.Thanks for your inputs and will keep on looking to further educate myself.