HP Mini 5102

[McDethWivFries]

Well on another forum here in Oz, a 'Hp Employee' said they've just posted the 5102

HP Mini 5101 - Notebooks - Whirlpool Forums

Checking HP's site out as well shows:

HP Mini 5102 Small & Medium Business

Spec is fairly similar to the 5101 but with an Atom N450 in place of the N280 and an Intel NM10 Express chipset in place of the 945 Chipset. Also of note: HP Mobile Broadband (powered by Gobi™) with GPS.

[ilfretz]

The HP Mini 5102 is unarguably one of the best mini-laptops around. It has a great keyboard, gets excellent battery life and is incredibly sturdy. Agreed, it is a bit pricier than typical netbooks but it is aimed at businesses that wouldn’t probably mind shelling out a few more bucks for a netbook with premium features

The HP Mini 5102 is basically an updated version of the HP Mini 5101. The new version looks pretty much the same as the previous version, but there are some changes in the specs. While the Mini 5101 has an Intel Atom N280 processor, the Mini 5102 is powered by an Atom N450 Pine Trail processor.

HP Mini 5102 specs

Processor: 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N450 processor
Display: 10.1 inch display with 1024 x 600 or 1366 x 768 pixels, optional capacitative touchscreen
Operating system: Windows 7 options (including Home Premium and Starter Editions), Windows XP Pro or Home, FreeDOS, SUSE Linux
Memory: 1GB (Expandable to 2GB)
Storage: 160/250/320GB 7200RPM HDD, Optional SSD: 80/128GB

The HP Mini 5102 is different from the Mini 5101 in some aspects. For one thing, it is offered with an optional capacitative touchscreen display. It is also offered with higher capacity batteries. The 4 cell battery is expected to provide up to 4.5 hours of uptime. The 6 cell battery will power the laptop for around 10 hours on a charge. Other new features include optional handle which may come handy in educational settings and optional GPS.

The touchscreen recognizes multi-touch gestures such as pinching and zooming. The handle is non-removable, but it is an optional feature which you can choose while ordering the laptop.

Battery life
The HP Mini 5102 gets slightly better battery life than its predecessor. This is probably due to the improved power efficiency of the Atom N450 processor which is said to consume less power than the Atom N270/N280 processor. HP has also bumped up the wattage of the batteries. The six cell battery offered with the Mini 5102 is rated at 66WHr. The previous model had a 59Whr battery.

Design and Build quality
The HP Mini 5102 is incredibly sturdy for a 10 inch netbook. It weighs around 2.6 pounds with the 6-cell battery and measure just 0.91 inches in thickness. If you buy the netbook with the touchscreen display you may find it a bit thicker. The laptop is available in black, red and blue colors. Design is attractive.

Keyboard and touchpad
The keyboard is nearly full-sized. It is excellent and comfortable to type on. The touchpad is the normal size for a 10 inch netbook. Touchpad sensitivity is good.

Ports and Slots
The HP Mini 5102 has the regular array of ports. The supported connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Ethernet, Bluetooth, optional 3G and GPS.

Performance
Performance is quite satisfactory. The netbook has enough power to handle everyday jobs such as surfing the web and typing documents. What if you want to watch some HD videos and play a few modern games? Well, Atom powered netbooks aren’t necessarily good at decoding 1080p HD video. But to solve this problem HP offers the option of configuring the Mini 5102 with a Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Media Accelerator which would enable 1080p video playback. It also supports HD video streaming using Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta. Only HP’s consumer oriented netbooks offered the Broadcom card previously.

Pricing
The HP Mini 5102 has a starting price of $399 which doesn’t make it pricier than a typical netbook. But if you need additional options like touch-screen and handle you will have to pay more. In fact a fully-decked up machine may cost as high as $1,000.

The verdict
The HP Mini 5102 is an excellent mini-laptop. It delivers the same, if not slightly better, performance as its predecessor the Mini 5101. The relatively higher price point is probably the only issue you may have with this netbook, but it has the specs that match its price. And in case you aren’t keen on paying for features such as a touch-screen, you will be better off buying the Mini 5101 which delivers the same performance at a lower price.

[grundy]

Well on another forum here in Oz, a 'Hp Employee' said they've just posted the 5102

HP Mini 5101 - Notebooks - Whirlpool Forums

Ha! I was just browsing around for anyone else that had bought a 5102 and saw this post.

That was my WP post.

The 5102 just arrived today and got it unpacked and running at lunch.
Havn't had time to play with it yet, but I love the build of the 510X Mini's.

Happy to answer any questions on it later once I've had time to play.

Cheers,

G

[Jimaginary]

Happy to answer any questions on it later once I've had time to play.

Just one - how are you finding the battery life?

I got my 5102 yesterday morning, charged it all day and powered it up this morning (still on mains power). After all the first-time prep the thing did — at least 30-40min of "installing" — I took it outside and was disappointed to see the battery remaining indicator at only 6.5 hours (light browsing, 6-cell battery, wifi on, BT off, default "HP" power management plan). A colleague's EeePC1005 regularly states 9 hours or more when first taken off mains.

Admittedly I got one of the touchscreen models (Australian SKU WP428PA) which also has a Broadcom HD chip in it, and both of those presumably draw more power than other configurations, but after reading many claims of 10-hour battery life while researching I'm not happy about only getting 2/3rds of that. If the touchscreen cuts battery life so much I would have expected it to at least be noted in reviews, if not on the official HP website.

Kinda wondering if I got a dud battery? Or maybe it will improve with a few charge-discharge cycles?

That said, the touchscreen is a fantastic addition; I'm surprised at how useful I've found it already.

[OpelMantaLee]

Just got a 5102. Wondering about build quality. Near the caps lock key, is the bezel flush? Meaning the aluminum/steel frame for the keyboard is slightly bent? Looks like it was forced on. The right side near the enter key is similarly bent. Looks like some tabs there and in manufacturing the frame was forced on despite irregular fit so the frame is not symmetrical neat both the caps/lock and the enter keys but the caps/lock key side is worse. I got a black one. Otherwise satisfied. Went to the store and there was a 5101 on display with similar problem but eventually the frame cracked at the same spot. Saw a red 5102 but it was perfect. How does yours look? Advise returning??? Otherwise the 5102 is great. Scared a return could be a swap for other problems like bad pixel etc.