HP 2133 Mini-Note in Laptops

The HP's tall buttons are set hard up against the trackpad too, so if you rest a thumb on the leftmost button you'll find that same thumb leaning across the trackpad's bottom corner and occasionally interfering with the cursor. The light, indistinct feel of the buttons doesn't help matters either, though in its favour, HP has wisely included a button to disable the trackpad, to prevent errant thumbs pushing the cursor around whilst typing.

The trackpad may be a little disappointing, but the Mini-Note's display goes some way towards making amends. It shares the same 8.9in diagonal of the Asus Eee PC 900 (web ID: 188277), but where even Asus' premium Eee has to make do with a 1,024 x 600 pixel screen resolution, HP's answer boasts a glossy 1,280 x 768 panel. There's no hint of the slightly grainy quality on Asus' panel either, and instead the 2133 provides image quality that is bright and crisply defined.

Cast your eye around the 2133's frame, and it's even rather well appointed with ports and connectors. Look to its left-hand edge and you'll find USB and VGA ports, along with the usual headphone and microphone sockets. Look to the right and there's Ethernet, an ExpressCard/54 slot, an SD card reader and another USB port too. Wired connectivity is complemented by Bluetooth and 802.11bg Wi-Fi.

Not so Eee-sy

In the UK, HP offers the Mini-Note 2133 with the choice of Linux, in the form of Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10.1, or Windows Vista Business. Both the SKUs have the same core specification, but the Windows Vista version adds a 6-cell battery and makes up for Microsoft's licensing costs with a £50 price hike.

Our test unit came with Novell's Suse Linux 10 pre-installed, but unlike Asus, HP has made zero attempt to customise the installation to make it more accessible to beginners. If you've never used Linux before, that may make for a daunting first few hours with the 2133.

HP has installed some software to get you started, with familiar faces such as the fine OpenOffice 2.3 and Mozilla FireFox rubbing shoulders with a lesser known email client, photo viewer and music player, but if you find something lacking, and aren't versed in Linux's arcane installation procedures, some tearing of hair will ensue. And frankly, although we count ourselves as experienced PC users, we missed the delightful simplicity of the Eee's Xandros Linux install.

Flawed performance

But, even if we pretend for a moment that every prospective user is fully conversant with Suse Linux in its unsullied form, the 2133's downfall comes courtesy of its limited processing power.

Look to the heart of the 2133, and its core specification certainly looks enough to leave the Asus Eee trailing in its wake. An ultra low-voltage VIA C7-M processor nips along at 1.2GHz and it's partnered by a gigabyte of memory and a 120GB hard disk.

But while its specification looks great on paper, it's decidedly sluggish in use. The Eee 900's 900MHz Intel Celeron processor, partnered with the snappy solid-state disk, made for a system that was surprisingly responsive. Storage permitting, playing back DivX movies was well within its capabilities, and whether you opted for the Linux or Windows XP versions, programs sprung into life with appreciable haste.

The HP's VIA processor, in comparison, causes even lightweight programs like OpenOffice to slouch sullenly into view. And never mind DivX playback as, not only is there no compatible media player pre-installed, the 2133 struggles when confronted with the challenge of viewing a YouTube video in full-screen mode, let alone anything more demanding.