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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damianrobertjones - Saturday, December 18, 2010 - link
P.s. Having the APple macbook pro at the top of nearly every chart will probably take sales away from the other oem's. I bet they cannot be pleased by this!ProDigit - Saturday, December 18, 2010 - link
Why would you guys include a Corei and core2duo processor in the benchmark, this is just ridiculous!JarredWalton - Saturday, December 18, 2010 - link
ULV processors compete in the same power space, at least in theory, and Apple manages substantially better battery life (under OS X at least), plus we wanted to show some other IGP solutions.Lord 666 - Saturday, December 18, 2010 - link
Dual core AMD and discrete video ATI 4225JarredWalton - Sunday, December 19, 2010 - link
You do realize that in terms of performance, the Toshiba T235D is the exact laptop configuration you're requesting? Sure, the HP build quality and other aspects would be different, but the performance should be unchanged (K625 dual-core plus HD 4225).Lord 666 - Monday, December 20, 2010 - link
No, was not aware of that. Thank you for the responseJamahl - Sunday, December 19, 2010 - link
I think this is a sneaky attempt by intel to make people totally sick of netbooks before brazos arrives. What a pile of horse $@#%Ethaniel - Sunday, December 19, 2010 - link
HP can have a wild sense of humor, and 700 bucks for "this" proves it. And the Atom, well, I remember the fact that the old Celeron ULV (fully-clocked) used on the first models of the EeePC could beat the crap out of the Atom. It doesn't matter if it had a revision or if it's a dual core now: It's the same lousy chip. Intel couldn't use it in MIDs because MIDs were a fail. And they can't use it on a phone because it's still too hot and inefficient. ET's cartridges were dumped in the desert. Well, netbooks are the "desert" were Intel can dump the Atoms, and make money in the process.LostBeacon - Monday, December 20, 2010 - link
I've owned the similiar HP Mini 210-2000 since October, and it is much better than the 5103 for about $200 less It has the N550 dual-core CPU, 2GB DDR3 RAM, 250 GB 7200 rpm HD, 802.11n, BT, 6-cell 72wh battery (no protruding bump), 1366x720 display, Intel 3150 GMA with Crystal HD video accellerator (onboard chip), Windows 7 Home Premium-32 bit. Build quality is excellent, no problem with HD playback, and bettery life is more than 7 hours (rated 10+).,and good chicklet keyboard. Base price was $329,as configured $510..voltronnn - Monday, December 20, 2010 - link
Every single time.. without fail... come the few who have to proclaim... spluttering.. that netbooks are not powerful enough, blah blah.
I own about a half dozen pc's, laptops and a netbook.
The netbook is not as powerful as the pc's or the laptops
Its not supposed to be
I use it for browsing the internet
oh and watching some NON-HD videos..
and when I am on the couch watching tv to order some xmas present..
and when I am out in the sunshine
and when I am on the train on a 5 hour journey..
in fact I've ended up using it more than the other pc's put
together
Because..
its small, light, portable, cheap and has a long battery..
My desktop and laptops do not have ANY of these features
If you are a gaming enthusiast and cannot deal with the fact that a 300 euro netbook cannot play GTA4 at the highest settings, or that you can't watch your HD videos while running a virus check while running 3Dmark06.. then.. don't.. get... one.
Small, light, portable, long battery life - try to understand.. jesus