HP Mini 5103: Looking at the Dual-Core Atom N550
by Jarred Walton on December 17, 2010 1:05 PM ESTHP Mini 5103 Battery Life
When we tested the 5102, we had both the standard 29Wh and a larger 66Wh battery. Since we only have the 29Wh with the 5103, we’re leaving both results in for the 5102. Note also that the CrystalHD chip tends to reduce battery life a small amount, and we only tested with it installed in the 5103. As you can see, the 5102 and 5103 get similar battery life out of the 4-cell battery, so you should see the same improvement with the 6-cell upgrade.
Despite having a second CPU core, the 5103 actually comes very close to matching the 5102. Of course, the 5102 has to contend with DDR2 memory instead of DDR3, so that does penalize it somewhat. Overall, though, battery life on the N550 looks to be very close to the older N450. The slower core clock does play a role as well, but looking at performance in general it’s a worthwhile compromise—for Atom CPUs at least. You’ll notice that the old CULV Timeline 1810T still manages better relative battery life than the 5103, and it also offers much better performance—for the CPU as well as GPU. Certainly other N550 based netbooks might improve on the 5103, but at least in this case the battery life is far too close to substantially faster offerings.
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evident - Friday, December 17, 2010 - link
Who in their right mind would buy a crippled laptop for $384. There are so many better choices of machines out there, such as the ULV C2D laptopstehslax - Sunday, December 19, 2010 - link
Its almost a scam.I have a asus dual core atom netbook(selling on ebay)
The performance is only SLIGHTLY faster than single core atoms
I wanted something portable but the loss in performance is completely frustrating
Ended up buying a thinkpad x201, yes its more expensive but I got protability with power
The netbook platform is a joke...
Shadowmaster625 - Friday, December 17, 2010 - link
...And the ship of sanity sails yet further away into the horizon. At what point does this absurdity become apparent to everyone? $1200? $2500? Hell HP should market a $10,000 crappy atom netbook just to see how many true suckers there are out there. I for one would like to know once and for all. Never mind that a K125 netbook costs $300 and can outdo this thing in every measurable category.So why dont we have more AMD design wins? I hope everyone understands why by now. It is because the guys who make the decisions on what chips to use.... well you know they all own 50 times as much Intel stock as they do AMD (if they own any AMD at all). That's because Intel is a DOW component. So if they have any money then chances are part of it is invested in Intel. So of course they're going to use Intel parts for the majority of designs, regardless of how craptastic they are. A $45 crystal HD decoder? Can I get a WTF? What kind of idiotic hare brained pipe dream hackjob solution is that? I bet broadcom execs bribed intel execs to make NM10 especially crappy just so Broadcom could sell a bunch of junk chips that dont even work right. Does an AMD chipset even cost that much?
Who decided that it somehow makes sense to waste $45 on a crackheaded patchjob HD video solution when they could just use an AMD chipset, which is cheaper anyway, and then dump that $45 into a larger battery?
erwos - Friday, December 17, 2010 - link
The pricing is absurd. The Asus 1210N and 1015PN come in way below that, even upgraded to match specs.Hell, my refurb Alienware M11x cost less.
lgpOnTheMove - Friday, December 17, 2010 - link
HP has the 11.6" dm1z Nile netbook. It's without a doubt the best netbook as far as performance is concerned, and not much bigger or heavier than a 10" Mini 210.I'm actually surprised why HP hasn't made an enterprise 11.6" netbook. I would love to see the Nile platform inside a chassis like the 5103.
seanleeforever - Friday, December 17, 2010 - link
okay. Jarred, do you really think this keyboard is "the best 10” keyboard I’ve ever used". I had a HP Mini 210, not 5103, but something that has the exact same keyboard. it is easily the WORST keyboard i have used (i give it to my cousin the second day because of it). and it has nothing to do with the keyboard built. it has to do with stupid keys themselves. and i simply cannot understand why this review doesn't even mention this gigantic flaw (unless they changed it in 5103, which i doubt)the smart HP engineers thought no one use F keys, as a result, the secondary function of "F" keys are swapped with the primary function. confusing? let me give you an example.
say you want to close a program by ctrl + F4, perform a search by pressing F3, refresh website using F5, or go to address bar using F6, or full screen using F11. you cannot do it. you have to press fn + F keys to do. i mean, unless you are totally newb who doesn't use any shortcut keys, this laptop is simply unusable. to close an application i now have to press fn+ctrl+f4. some more complicated actions such as print word doc ("Ctrl + Shift + F12") now is unachievable thanks to this stupid keyboard.
NOW. as i learned later on there is a way to solve it, and that is going to BIOS. but why doesn't HP make it default? and not every computer you use will give you the access to BIOS. and how many end user actually know this trick?
all in all, giant flaw, i repeat. GIANT FLAW.
JarredWalton - Friday, December 17, 2010 - link
I don't know about the 210, but I did try the Mini 311 and it's definitely not the same keyboard. Also, as you mention you can switch the functionality of the F keys in the BIOS, which is something I did almost immediately. Dell and a few others have tried the same thing for some reason... blame silly UI consultants. That said, the "best 10" keyboard" is still a far cry from a good 13.3" keyboard. :-)Belard - Saturday, December 18, 2010 - link
Its a reason I don't like Microsoft keyboards as the default settings for F-function are swapped for something else "Launch Word" "Launch Browser" etc. So after every time you boot up, you have to press the F-Lock key to turn on Normal F-Keys.I think the big-boys have done market research and found that most of todays users, especially younger generation, don't really make much use of F-Keys. Look at the ChromeOS netbooks for example... even doing away with the CAPS-Lock (which is understandable, if they simply make Holding the SHIFT key for a second turned it into a lock).
Jackattak - Friday, December 17, 2010 - link
$688 for a netbook is obscene. I don't care what freakin' market you're in for a portable PC or what "selection of features" you're looking for. Anyone stupid enough to spend that kind of money on a freakin' netbook deserves to be a victim of a Justin Bieber concert teenage girl stampede.Malih - Friday, December 17, 2010 - link
I think that price is only when you have opted for multi touch screen, and multi touch NOTEbook is priced higher than $688, cmiiw