Well had the new HP mini 5101 netbook for about a week now, so here are some thoughts.
First did a hard drive upgrade, which is a story in itself, more on that later.
Added 2Gb ram, easy, pop the battery out, slide the battery catch and the ram cover comes off.
Overall feel and quality of build is excellent, as good as any top business notebook. Why I got one in the first place. I like the cost and form factor of the netbook concept but the plastic build of most is awful.
So 10/10 for build and design.
Battery life is hitting 3 hours with the standard 4 cell unit. May upgrade to the six cell when I have time.
Screen is a matt finish and very good, audio quality good.
With XP pro installed its just possible to watch standard quality divx avi movies. But only just. I am hoping they will bring an ION version out soon.
Hard Disk upgrade Story
Ok if you need to upgrade the drive, read the user guide carefully. Basically the keyboard has to be removed with 3 screws in the battery compartment. However it is damn hard to get the keyboard to lift up. You need to use a small sharp flat blade to prise the keyboard up at the edges. Once the keyboard is up its is easy to change the drive. I added a 500 gb sata drive no problem. Once reason is the original 160GB drive is a fast 7200 rpm model and the vibration from it was terrible.
Overall a great little machine for web surfing on the train. Just wish the video capabilities were better.
