The HP Mini 5103 is the most recent business-class netbook from Hewlett Packard. Physically it seems to be almost precisely such as the HP Mini 5101 and 5102 which precede it. The primary distinction is the fact that from the US the netbook is only readily available in a brand new darkish brown "espresso" colour. Under the hood, the HP Mini 5103 has all the things that produced those earlier models unique - plus a number of new selections.

Style and design

Like the Mini 5101 and 5102 prior to it, the 5103 incredibly a lot seems and feels like a shrunken HP ProBook, that is a compliment. HP hasn't changed the outer design and style a lot for this generation, which can be mostly a great thing (with all the exception of your touchpad). You get a case with anodized aluminum on top and magnesium alloy around the bottom. Add in a very soft-touch therapy about the deck and also a clear HP DuraKeys coating to the keyboard, and you've a netbook which will stand up to a fair quantity of abuse. Not that the 5103 does not have design; the lid on our unit was a brown espresso shade instead in the regular black, a therapy that carries around to your deck. Weighing 2.8 pounds (with all the six-cell battery) and measuring .9 inches thin, the Mini 5103 can very easily slip into a backpack or briefcase. The six-cell battery protrudes a touch from the bottom in the system, but it's hardly noticeable. To make the 5103 far more appealing to college students, a carrying handle is readily available; it screws on and replaces the rear feet.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard around the Mini 5103 is straightforward to type on with its Chiclet-style design and style. Spacing involving keys was wide ample to support decrease mistakes though typing, as well as the style and design was really comfortable to type on for hours at a time. The slightly-smaller than full-size style did take some adjustment to have applied to, since some from the outer perimeter keys are condensed in contrast to keys across the center from the keyboard. The tab, `, and 1 buttons had been scaled-down than typical to assist make room for other keys. Typing pressure required to activate every key was minimal, with every single key only needing a delicate contact to engage. Key noise was minimal, allowing me to type without having annoying other folks in meetings or coffee shops.

Display

The HP Mini 5103 provides an optional multitouch display that has a WXGA resolution. For normal day to day usage the screen is wonderful for browsing the world wide web or writing paperwork with out excessive scrolling. For accurate finger-input the scaled-down details may be troublesome, but with practice it will get less difficult to hit the more compact icons. The screen incorporates a matte complete that's excellent when it comes to reducing screen glare. The additional layer for your touch-sensitive screen did not appear to add that significantly haze, keeping photos and text crisp and clear. We measured peak brightness at 225nit and also the contrast degree at the center from the screen as 151:1, that is about typical in terms of netbook or notebook displays.

Performance

The HP Mini 5103 is now becoming offered using the newest dual-core Intel Atom N550 processor. In our tests this considerably increased the responsiveness in the operating system, with programs loading quicker, webpages scrolling smoother, and startup and shutdown times improving. Our evaluate unit was also equipped which has a 7200RPM tough drive which also additional towards the much better user experience. In regular every day activities the dual-core processor was great when it came to flexing the multimedia energy of your notebook. We had been in a position to decode 720P videos played locally around the notebook and also play 720P HD videos on sites like YouTube devoid of stuttering. Currently to have that degree of performance you must consist of an external decoder card to support with HD video decoding. In contrast to other single-core Atom netbooks we did not notice an improve in 3D performance.