It’s safe to say we’ve hit the third generation of netbooks. They’re nice now. The HP Mini 5105 strikes at Asus Eee Seashell’s fancily contoured plastic with aluminum and magnesium. Oh yeah, and 95-percent chiclet keyboard that feels fantastic.

In a crazy twist, HP has **finally moved the mouse buttons below the trackpad (because only professionals like clicking), and has included other perks like a 7200 RPM hard drive, Bluetooth 2.0, 2 megapixel webcam, and options of either a WSVGA (1024 x 600) or "HD" (1366 x 768) 10.1-inch LED screen. There are also options for 80GB or 128GB SSD drives, four-cell or six-cell batteries, with the latter rated at an improbable eight hours of runtime, and of course WWAN. There’s a start price of USD $449. The Mini 5101 goes on sale in July.

source: Gizmodo

It’s not perfect, but the new HP Mini 110 ($329 as configured) is definitely the company’s best netbook for consumers yet. HP has addressed our biggest complaints with the earlier Mini 1000 (no VGA port, small and slow hard drive), and has added more style to the mix with new color options. On the other hand, the attractive edge-to-edge glass display is gone, and the Mini 110 is thicker and heavier than its predecessor, not to mention that HP still includes awkward vertical touchpad buttons. The HP Mini 110 is a good value, but there are better 10-inch netbooks for the money.

Read the full view at Laptopmag.com

Via Tech65.org

Today I am happily pounding away on the HP Mini 1000 since I installed Windows 7 RC last night. It went on the Mini 1000 like greased butter and the only thing not working after the installation was the integrated microphone. That was remedied with a simple download of a new driver from HP and everything is working great.

Windows 7 runs very well on the Mini 1000, better than the Linux installation with the HP desktop shell they put on the 1000 Mi. It runs at a brisk pace and the new interface in Windows 7 works very well on this 10-inch screen. There was 5.5 GB of the 16 GB SSD free after the clean install of Windows 7.  I have a 4 GB SDHC card for extra storage if needed, which I shouldn’t since I am angelically living in the cloud.

Personally, I have been having a great experience with Win 7 RC on my MSI Wind. One thing that really impresses me is how well Win 7 is able to identify a problem or a missing driver and proceed to download and fix the issue. It really helps eliminate anxiety in installing a new OS.

Source: JKontherun

It’s hardly the first netbook battery comparison to appear in the Thunderdome that is the internet, but this latest thirteen-strong round-up from Australia’s NetbookReview is one of the more comprehensive to emerge as of late, with it only slightly compromised by a few netbooks that aren’t available in the site’s home country. Not surprisingly, the netbooks equipped with six-cell batteries came out well ahead of their less well off counterparts, with the MSI Wind U115 Hybrid leading the way with an impressive time of 6:56. That was obviously aided in no small part by the netbook’s dual SSD / hard drive setup, and by a less commonly used 5100mAh six-cell battery, as opposed to the 6600mAh version used in the second and third place Eee PCs (which each clocked in around the four-hour mark). Bringing up the rear were the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 and Dell Mini 12, neither of which were able to eek out even two hours of use. As you might expect, however, all of the tests involved a worst-case scenario, so you can expect to get a good deal more juice from all of ‘em if you’re not spending every waking hour watching WMV files.

Source: netbookreview, via Engadget

HP’s Mini 2140 netbook is pretty successful to date, and this time you will be able to choose from a higher resolution for its display, touching 1,366 x 768 pixels instead of the much lower 1,024 x 576 resolution found in the original. This higher resolution display will cost another $25, making it well worth the upgrade since you’ll then be able to view true 720p HD video. If HP is not your cup of tea, then only Dell is the other netbook manufacturer that offers a similar screen resolution on their device.

As the convergence of mobile form factors continues, it’s perhaps not surprising to see that someone has gone out and tried a mobile phone operating system on a mini-note. Here is a video of a HP Mini 2133 running Android, Google’s first attempt at a mobile operating system.

Via Howtobemobile.com