I just received the 1.6 GHz model (7200 rpm drive, bluetooth, 2GB RAM, Vista Business).
Very good keyboard. Large keys with no wasted space between them, comfortable, good feedback without being noisy.
The trackpad is going to take some real getting used to. It’s tiny, and the button arrangement is… odd. I’m currently using the Logitech VX Nano instead (really good notebook mouse).
It’s a bit heavier than I expected. It has an aluminum skin, but it’s just cladding, not a structural use of aluminum like on a macbook. It probably adds to thickness and heft, but it has a good feel and doesn’t show fingerprints.
I’m not sure I like the extended battery. It’s a big weight contributor and really changes the portability of the device – it sticks way out there. I wish they gave you both sizes to start with, and I’ll definitely be ordering the smaller one tomorrow (along with another power adaptor so I don’t have to lug that around).
The initial boot took a long time – more than 20 minutes. It was finishing the Windows installation (after asking for a language option), installing HP software, and then doing the typical windows user setup stuff.
The display is nice, very good quality for the class, but the font size is ** tiny ** . 1280 * 768 is pretty tough to pull off on an 8.9" display. It could use a Dell-style DPI adjustment option (I think I’ll have to go digging around for that setting). The Vista Basic theme was enabled by default, but Aero was available and seems to work well.
Performance is about as expected so far; not a screamer, but it hasn’t kept me waiting much in light use (browing, mostly).
Bummed: they aren’t selling batteries for these yet, so I’m stuck with the oversized extended battery for at least the next 2 weeks. It really hoses the tote-ability of the thing to have this big hunk of battery hanging out of it.
The small battery’s life really sucks, though. Literally half of the big one.
I wasn’t bothered by the big battery - just flip the laptop over when you carry it. :) I really liked the 2133, and I’m torn between ordering one now or waiting to see if they upgrade it with a better CPU. (Intel Atom?) I don’t need Core 2 Duo, but the CPU is sllllooow. That’s my only real gripe, though.
It runs Aero fine, actually, Denny. I had to manually select it, but it works great.
For other stuff, well, it might run UT 99 playably… 3DMark 2001 ran mostly in the 10-20 FPS range (except Nature), scoring 1245 total, and 3DMark 2003 scored in the 300s. Fill rate, vertex shaders, and CPU were killers. Bump mapping and (surprisingly) pixel shaders were reasonably okay (in the older benchmarks). This was on battery (might try connected to power later, but really why would this machine be used on power…).
