The HP Mini 5102 is HP’s latest business-optimized netbook, with a ruggedized metal chassis and design elements tailored for the business traveler. Though packed with features that business users want, it’s expensive: The configuration we reviewed, with a touchscreen, 2GB of RAM, an Atom N450 CPU, and a six-cell battery, costs about $729, easily as much as a larger, more fullfeatured laptop.
The lid’s brushed-metal finish is handsome and doesn’t attract fingerprints or smudges. The keyboard is quite easy to type on, with extra-wide
The HP Mini 5102 machine’s display quality is slightly better than average, with decent contrast and viewing angles, but the 10.1-inch screen has a resolution of 1024 by 600, which isn’t a lot of desktop real estate, it results in frequent scrolling. You can pay a bit extra for a higher-resolution, 1366-by-768 display, and it’s probably worth it; that option isn’t available, however, if you go for a multitouch screen. Two USB ports are on the front left edge; on the back left edge is a VGA port. An ethernet port and a third USB port are on the back of the right edge, with headphone and microphone jacks in the middle, and a card reader up front. The front edge has only a Wi-Fi switch. Above the keyboard, you’ll find a power button and two quick-launch buttons. Both 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth are standard. Mobile broadband with GPS by Gobi is a $125 option, but it can’t be combined with some other options.
You can choose from several operating systems: SUSE Linux, Windows XP, Windows 7 Starter, and even Windows 7 Professional. Hard-drive options range from the 160GB drive of the test unit up to 320GB, or an 80GB or 120GB solid-state drive. If you deck out the system with all of the most expensive options you can combine, you’d push the price over $1100. The base model with 1GB of RAM and a four-cell battery costs $415. With a WorldBench 6 score of 34, the performance of the Mini 5102 is similar to other netbooks using the Atom N450 processor, though the 2GB of RAM makes things a little snappier when multiple apps run. The test unit’s extended six-cell battery improves battery life: It can for 9 hours, 41 minutes in the tests. As on other Atom-based netbooks, the graphics and video decoding is quite poor.
Though its design and feature set are good, especially for business users, all but the barest configurations of the HP Mini 5102 cost as much as many full-size laptops that perform much better. The Mini 5102 is a great netbook for simple note-taking and document editing on the go, as well as for long business flights, but if you just want an inexpensive companion PC, you’ll be better of considering less-pricey models.