The HP Mini 5101 business-class netbook has been available for order for a few weeks now, and James Kendrick at jkOnTheRun has been handling a review unit for the past few days. I’m hoping to get a review unit within the next few weeks. But in the meantime, if you’re interested in this netbook you should check out a video overview James posted yesterday.
In a nutshell, he’s very impressed with the netbook’s nearly full sized keyboard, metal casing, and overall build quality. One strange decision HP made with this model was to require you to hit the Fn key plus the F1 through F12 keys if you want to, you know, hit a Function key. In a way, this makes sense. After all, most people are probably going to hit the volume and brightness keys more frequently than the F6 key. But it could take a little getting used to for users that are used to hitting F11 to use a web browser in full screen mode.
The HP Mini 5101 has a number of features that set it apart from your average netbook, including an aluminum/magnesium alloy case, HP’s DriveGuard technology that shuts off the hard drive if it detects the netbook is falling, and a 7200rpm hard drive. The version James is reviewing has a 6 cell battery with a built-in LED that shows how much juice the battery has left.
Nice video. Finally HP has a netbook which looks more like what I would have expected from them, Dell, and Lenovo from the beginning… except maybe for their glossy-screen-bezel tip of the hat to fingerprint lovers. 😉
Finally they came through with a 6-cell battery that looks integrated, like those of the Eee 1000HE and others.
JK thinks the metal makes it heavier, but I suspect the magnesium and aluminum are lighter than the plastic they replace.
Overall this looks like a winner to me.
They do look great apart from the ridiculous FN+Fx for a Function key. Notebook users have been used to pressing FN keys to get at extra features for years and keeping in mind this is a business model, making a laptop keyboard different from a desktop keyboard really isn’t going to help productivity or anything really.
I see what they’re attempting to do, trying (and failing) to make life easier in a really unnecessary way – but I guess that’s the cornerstone of 21st century culture.
For all that shove an Ion in it and I’d still buy it 😉
The fn-key mode can be changed in the BIOS.