HP Mini 2140 Review
When HP first released their Mini-Note 2133 it was greeted with mixed reviews. While it did contain a well thought of design and an extremely great keyboard (best to date in a netbook offering) it was still bogged down by price and some other minor flaws.
With the release of the Mini 2140 HP hopes to fix most of those problems.
Design
The design of the Mini 2140 is nearly identical to the previous version. HP has opted for an all aluminum lid with solid magnesium alloy chassis as well as a slightly redesigned keyboard. HP notes that the new design allows the netbook to be opened and closed for ten times a day for six years which is bound to outlast the netbook.
The dimensions of the notebook are comparable to other offerings in the market niche with the system weighing in at 3 pounds with a six cell battery and 3.4 if the adapter is added. This does make the netbook a little heavier than its rivals but still light enough to fit in a handbag or messenger bag without any major weight issues.
As we said before, HP totally nailed the design of the keyboard and has opted not to mess with that very much. That said, the keyboard is almost identical to the Mini 1000. The keys are well spaced and there is little cramp so typing is just as natural as on a regular notebook or desktop keyboard.
The screen of the Mini 2140 is 10.1 inches (diagonal) and carries a 1024 x 576 pixel display which gives the system a 16:9 aspect ratio viewing experience. The display can go high def to 1366 x 768.
Other features include a 160GB HDD or 80 GB SSD, optional optical drive via External MultiBay II, 1GB or 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM, Mobile Intel GMA 950 graphic chipset, integrated VGA camera as well as 2 USB 2.0 ports, microphone in headphone/line out, VGA out, and 1 Express Card/54 and secure digital slots.
You also get Bluetooth 2.0 as well as 802.11b/g/n WiFi technology.
Performance
The HP Mini 2140 is a netbook first and last and thus will perform like a netbook. The system can handle decent tasks. If you’re planning on doing web browsing, word processing and minor multimedia work on the Mini 2140 than you’re safe. But if you’re thinking more on the lines with Photoshop than you should probably check out the Envy 133 which is a pricier alternative but still offers the slim design of the HP Mini 2140.
WiFi performance is solid. The system can play YouTube and Hulu videos without a hiccup as well as copy 5GB folders of mixed media content in as little as 5 minutes.
As for the battery, this is going to shock you. Out of our standard tests we were able to pull a full 7 hours plus of juice out of a single charge. This of course was with the 6-cell battery. As for the 3 cell we were more along the lines of three and a half hours.
Conclusion
Thanks to a well thought out design, better than expected battery life and multiple options, the HP Mini 2140 leaves little to be desired in a netbook. This is the best netbook for the traveling professional, and thanks to its long battery life you won’t find yourself looking for a plug as often as you might have thought.