Laptop-Review.eu

The lid



As mentioned already, the lid is fairly sturdy. It is quite thick and made of durable materials. As always it sports the HP logo in silvery metals right in the centre.
On the inside of the lid, things are fairly glossy. This is also where you will find webcam and microphone.



The hinges for the lid are incredibly strong and seem very durable. I have no doubt they will be as tight as ever for very long.




The front



At the bottom of the front are the speakers, but not much else of interest.

The rear



This is where the lid goes when you open up the computer, so not much of interest here. It is very nice to note that even though they fitted the Mini 5101 with a 6-celled battery, it does not stick out at the back. Instead it takes up a little more space at the bottom, raising the computer a bit. Good solution.

The bottom



The bottom has plenty of ventilation and is where you will find the battery.

The right side



The left side



Overview



You might long for some slightly more modern I/Os, but it has all the necessary ones.

Diodes





The diodes are slightly more modern in a greenish-blue, turquoise colour. There is one for the power button, but there are not really any status diodes. Perhaps to compensate there are diodes/buttons for internet and mail, capslock status and one for battery recharging at the front.

Keyboard and touch




As mentioned already, the keyboard is great and of good size. Everything is located in an easily accessible place, and it is comfortable to write on it. It is resistant to wear and tear and black so dirt is not too visible. The keys are faded black, resting on a glossy foundation.

The touchpad does not work too well, being too small and not as frictionless as it should be, so I would probably invest in a small mouse to bring along. The buttons below the touchpad work very well, though.

Display





10.1” is a great size if you ask me. It is a wide enough to cover most websites, meaning you only have to scroll down. Things only turn sour when you have to scroll both horizontally and vertically, but that is a rare occurrence. It sports a very reasonable resolution that makes it easy to work and surf on.

The display is very crisp and has a suitably wide angle of view. It does not have too many problems with glare, being fairly matte compared to most other computers. That also makes it less sensitive to sunlight, so despair not if you are stuck sitting by a window on the train.

As a new part of our reviews we now test displays for pixel errors and faults in the backlighting, using a program called MonitorTest. It works by, for example, blackening the entire display which will expose pixel errors, i.e. areas that do not change colour. This will also allow you to see if the backlighting is uneven.

This model appears to be well and evenly lit, meaning there are no dark areas on the display. There do not seem to be any dead pixels either...it is always a drag to get a display with errors, but HP seem to have it all covered.

Sound and speakers
The audial aspect is actually quite reasonable for a netbook. It restricts itself to balance the sound instead aiming too high. That is very refreshing. You can easily listen to a bit of music on it, but as always a couple of speakers are recommended or perhaps some good headphones. Still it is nice that they have not given up on the audio completely.

Noise, heat and power consumption

The computer barely makes any noise, staying relatively silent even at full performance. It does buzz a little, but that is acceptable and not annoying in any way.
The heat is a bit over the top though. Here HP should take a page from Acer who makes laptops that draw away heat from the bottom.

Part of the focus on this model is that it should retain enough juice for extended use, so our expectations of the battery life are fairly high. With a 6-celled battery, it should at least reach 3 hours at continuous use, and anything above that is just a bonus. We take a closer look at what it can actually do.