HP's Mini-Note Available in Canada

HP Canada continues to taunt Canadians by listing the Mini-Note computer on its hp.ca Web site, but won't sell it -- nor list an availability date.

HP Canada's pre-sales support has been spectacularly unhelpful:

-- When the Mini-Note was announced for the USA, I asked when it would be available in Canada. "We don't know that kind of information," was the response, paraphrased. A few days later, the five versions of the computer appeared on the Canadian Web site with no publicity -- but not for sale.

-- When I asked why the Mini-Note could not be purchased direct from HP through from hpshopping.ca, pre-sales support told me to buy it from a retailer.

-- When I replied that no retailer in Canada carries the new computer, I received no response.

Delayed Purchase

I'm still stoked about this fine-looking budget-priced sub-notebook, but I am glad it cannot be purchased here for several reasons:

1. It would be primarily for trips, and I have none planned for now. So there's no rush to buy it.

2. The only SSD [solid state hard drive, or flash drive] option is a mere 4GB; ASUS next month is shipping one of their budget subnotebooks with a 20GB SSD for $50 more than HP's 4GB model. Perhaps HP will react competitively.

3. Computers with Intel's new Atom CPU are due to start shipping in a few months. Perhaps HP will switch from Via to Atom -- and then it'll be interesting to see if there are performance differences, in faster computing speed and longer battery duration.

4. HP doesn't allow custom configurations right now. I would want 2GB of RAM with the Linux model; currently, you have to buy the 1GB model, buy the 2GB RAM module separately, and then swap the memory -- throwing out the 1GB. Such a waste.

Review

HP 2133 Mini-Note Review by Jerry Jackson and Tiffany Boggs

Comments

[Mark]

There are preconfigured models and I heard some HP guy saying that you could self-configure your own system on HP's website. ie. downgrading to XP.

I'm also in the same boat, tempted but not in a rush especially with lots of new options coming in June.