14 DAY TRIAL // Late last month, HP made an announcement regarding the launch of its latest Mini portable computer system, the business-oriented Mini 5101, which the company targeted at “on-the-go professionals.” The system was largely based on the same Intel Atom platform that is available for the majority of PCs in its class, but provided users with a sleek, professional external design. On that note, it looks that the Palo Alto, California-based system vendor has now made the new netbooks available to its customers, with two versions currently on sale.
The base model, which has been dubbed FM955UT and comes with a price tag of just US$399, will provide users with the computing power of an Intel Atom N280 processor, clocked at 1.66GHz and coupled with 1GB of DDR2 800Mhz memory. The system is said to be ready to allow for about 4 hours and 30 minutes of battery life, while the 10.1-inch LED-backlit WSVGA display will provide support for a resolution of 1024 by 600 pixels.
Additional features include the 160GB SATA 7200RPM hard drive, integrated Intel graphics, 2MP webcam and a Broadcom 802.11 a/b/g/draft-n and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless solution. There's also a 2MP webcam and the Windows XP Home edition operating system, all within the US$399 package.
On HP's website, the company has also introduced the Mini 5101 VJ907AA model, which is US$125 more expensive than the aforementioned one. However, after taking a look at the specs, we found no reason for the price difference, as there is no difference between the US$399 model and the US$525 one in terms of technical features. It could be that this is just an error on HP's part, but for the time being the FM955UT looks like the wise choice of any professional or business user.