Coffee break- ordering an HP Mini in the coffee shop
I’m sitting in Starbucks and one of my buddies is on the phone right now ordering an HP Mini from HP. He’s been enamored of them since seeing the one I have been using here and today he is pushing the button. Interestingly, he wants HP to preinstall Microsoft Office which they are going to do and since he’s buying Office with the Mini he gets a free GB of memory. The rep told him that there are two memory slots on the Mini and that he gets an extra GB of memory to augment the 2 GB in the unit he’s ordering. I don’t know if that sounds right to me, is there even room in there for two slots? In any event he’s stoked to be buying a Mini and admits the relatively low price is why he’s "impulse buying" one.
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James,
So this is at least 2 of these units that people have purchased because of your recommendations. Man, HP needs to give you some kind of affiliate/sponsor payment for this :)
I just called HP to ask about options for XP and if I was going to get an XP recovery CD or something and the customer service rep said No so I am not sure how one can get XP on it without buying a license to XP.
I was also told that even though my delivery date on my order is stated as 17 April, they are selling like hotcakes and mine won’t be here until sometime in MAY. They expect a shipment there on 28 April in which mine is slated to come out of. I may not keep my order if it will be another 3-4 weeks (reminds me a bit of the Kindle) because I am taking a harder look at my Fuji and may just decide to wait and see what Asus comes out with instead.
Making enthusiasts like me with twitchy credit card fingers is a way to kill sells because the luster of “new and shiny” wears off when we have more time to sit back and take a look at whether or not it is a smart buy :)
I’ve heard from at least 20 people who say they’ve ordered one. I agree, waiting is murder.
I’m seriously considering doing the same. I’m very conflicted on this one, though. I like the hard drive, keyboard, and LCD. Heck, I don’t even mind Vista. Of course, there always has to be a catch.
If HP had slapped an Intel processor in that thing, I’d already have one ordered. As it stands, I’m having a very hard time pulling the trigger.
Ouch. Three to four weeks, huh?
That makes me feel a little better about my indecisiveness.
Matt, I ordered mine online and there are at least three different delivery dates listed depending on what page you look on in the order status area.
I admit I’m confused, James. The online specs claim there’s only one memory slot, so unless they’re upgrading your coffee shop friend from 1G to 2G…
But you know those customer service reps. They’re only as good as the last rumor that was passed around the cube this morning. I actually would be shocked if they shipped on time, but I hope they aren’t outrageously delayed. Otherwise I may as well sit back and wait for the Isaiah chip reviews.
Except I need it for traveling in June.
only one RAM slot on pix of it’s internals…
http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2008/04/hp-2133-mini-note-pc.html
I’m so horribly, horribly tempted to do the same. (With SuSE, of course.) That higher resolution in such a small package…
But so many great things are just around the corner! And how can I rationalize the purchase?
@RickyB: The new Asus EeePC I believe will have the same size screen and res. Of course, the kb will probably be smaller!
I agree with Warner Crocker in his GottaBeMobile vid. It should be in stores.
hp is going to lose sales because the Mini isn’t going to be in big box stores. People will see the upcoming Asus with larger screen and go for that, not knowing the hp even exists.
I wonder if hp’s margins on this are soooo thin that the *only* way they can sell it and make some money is direct sales only.
@ Mike Cane:
I think the eee 900 will only have a resolution of 1024×600.
Mike Cane: The Mini-Note will be sold through amazon. If amazon’s prices aren’t much lower than MSRP, then margins are probably pretty tight.