|
7 Days with the HP 2133 Ultra Portable Netbook
Research:
Research is the part that almost every consumer overlooks and yet is the most important part of purchasing any new product. My research typically consists of the following:
- Manufacturer Website
- How much $$$, Specifications, Available Options.
- Online research
- What do the current owners think?
- What do the reviews say about it?
- Known problems?
- Upgradability?
- What are the internal components, and how good are they?
- Availability
- Who carries it for the cheapest price?
- Does purchasing it cheaply online cost me in the end?
- Warrenty
- Service
- Support
Of course I've skipped about three dozen questions I normally ask myself in this process and stuck to the highlights. I want to stress the online searching for information about the product as I usually find myself swaying back and forth between a purchase after reading several reviews and as much information as I can. I find that user support forums for the product as well as thrid party forums come in tremendously helpful in making a decision. In my case with the HP 2133 almost everything I read was positive and there were only a few issues I had witht he product.
- Poor battery life reports on the 3 cell battery
- Reports that the 6 cell battery sticks out the bottom
- Poor CPU performance
- Relatively higher cost when compared toother UMPC's
My reason for obtaining the HP 2133 even after becomming aware of these issues was due to the design of the 2133 and also due to the fact that it used a standard SATA notebook drive internally as well as being one of the few UMPC's (Only one in fact) that came with a bluetooth option. As an all in one person I use a bluetooth mouse, and I also sync my contacts from my Cell phone with my laptop. Blue tooth prevents me from needing extra cables or a dongle for the mouse when using both the phone and mouse. For me, the less I have to carry around the better. The SATA drive meant that I could upgrade the storage space in the 2133 is I wanted to, which I did and have done. More storage space, more programs and files, and as I said, Im a power user.
So the HP 2133 was obtained with the following specifications:
HP 2133 Model: KX870AT
1.6GHz Via C7-M
2GB DDR 667 Ram
120GB 7200rpm drive
Wireless A/B/G
Bluetooth
I knew that I would upgrade the hard drive storage before the unit was even in my hands but it should be noted that while most other UMPC's come with a 4200 or 5400 rpm drive HP choose to install a 7200 rpm drive. This will definitely assist in loading times and performance. HP also installed a Seagate 7200.2 drive in our unit which we are preferential to over cheaper options like Hitachi or Toshiba drives. It is our experience that the Seagate drives tend to last longer while still delivering excellent performance.
So lets drive into our hands on experience with the HP 2133.
REAL TIME PRICING