HP Mini 5102 review – one of the best PineTrail equiped netbooks
HP Mini 5102 review summary
Business netbook: HP Mini 5102
From the beginning, i have to say this is a more sober netbook from HP, from their business class. So, unlike other colored, glossy and joyful looking mini laptops on the market, the Mini 5102 offers a classy look. But boy, is it good!
Hardware is top notch for a 10 inch mini laptop and there are lots of customizing options available to add even more features. My favorite pack, that still manages to be affordable, includes the following: Atom N470 1.83 GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM, 250 GB 7200 rpm hard-drive , GMA 3150 graphics, 10.1 inch display (standard 1024 x 600 px resolution), Wi-fi N + Bluetooth, Windows 7 Starter and a 6 cell battery . With such a little beast I’ll get decent performance and great autonomy, and these are the features i for one look in a small portable laptop. Below you can find the Pros and the Cons of this configuration.
Pros:
- good performance for a 10 inch netbook powered netbook (for daily online use)
- good looking, at least for my taste (plus the entire body os matte)
- ergonomic chiclet keyboard, spill resistant + nice touchpad with independent click buttons
- fast hard-drive in this configuration
- good connectivity
- huge battery life (nearly 10 hours, tested)
- useful software bundle in the pack
- lots of extra options available (SSD storage, HD display, capacitive touch-display, carrying handle on the back and many more )
- 3 color options available
Cons:
- a lot pricier than other 10 inch netbooks
Conclusion:
All in one, there’s not much you won’t like on this mini laptop. It’s light and portable, pretty powerful and battery is one of the most long lasting on the market. However, in this config, price goes above the $500 margin. Add and extended battery, a mouse and a case and you’ll get to $600.
For this kind of money, you have quite a few options of laptops in the 13.3 or 14 inch class, with better hardware. But none of them will be as easy to carry around as this HP, nor will have such a good autonomy.
I for one consider the price is worth it, as i would need such a netbook as a secondary computer when traveling. However, it’s up to each of you to decide whether this HP is the netbook for you or not.
Where to buy:
Device is not available in stores yet. Prices start from $399 however, and i’ll update the post once the HP Mini 5102 gets available online later this month.
Also check out some pictures of the little beast.
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Best 10 inch netbooks with PineTrail in a show-off
[...] HP launched the new Mini 5102 business netbook [...]
[...] Sitting on top of my list of 10 inch netbooks to have, HP’s 5102 really provides all you can need from such a small device. There’s no wonder the folks at Laptopmag declared it the best PineTrail netbook at the moment and i had so few things not to like about it in my review. [...]
[...] lots of things to be improved on these tiny laptops. Perhaps the closest to perfection right now is HP’s 5102 10 inch device , but this one too could get [...]
[...] Besides the standard Intel PineTrail platform inside and the 10 inch display, tehre’s not much suggesting the HP 5102 is a netbook. The metallic body, good hardware (with up to 4 GB of RAM and SSD storage options), top notch connectivity, 10+ hours of battery life tested in real life scenarios are only some of the goodies, but there are more, as the device can come with HD ready display and even multi-touch screen. All these if you’re willing to play the price. For more details, check out my preview of the 5102 series. [...]
I can´t carry a hevy notebook, then, I´m looking for a netbook (price is not a problem). But I need to manage virtual machines with VMWare.
¿can you sugest any one that can perform them with reasonable speed?
Thanks
Enrique, you won’t be able to run VMWare properly on Atom, that’s for sure. So, i woudl advice for one of the new devices with Core i3/i5 processors. You will be able to find 11.6 / 12 inch laptops on those platforms in a couple of months. Will probably going to cost around 600+ bucks though, but if you say that money are not a problem…
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