Coffee Break- first Mini-Note in the wild

By James Kendrick | Tuesday, April 29, 2008 | 1:56 PM CT | 20 comments |

So I’m sitting in Starbucks working on the HP Mini-Note and look what I saw walk in the door:

Two_mini_in_the_sbux

It’s already started with the Mini in the wild.  :)   BTW, his is the $749 model same as the one I’m using on the left.

Funny thing is when I was snapping this picture of the two Minis and my friend and I were talking all about it another guy watching came up and asked us if the Via processor was stout enough to handle the Mini.  After a minute he introduced himself as an employee of Via, who I didn’t even know had an office in town, and he was excited about the Via being chosen by HP.  Isaiah will be available in limited quantities in June he said.

Comments (20)

  • In one of your previous writings, you said that you’re located near an HP office. Is this guy an employee, or a regular, non-HP, Joe?

    Nate — 8:04 AM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • This guy is the regular guy that I mentioned a while back who ordered a Mini-Note right in SBUX here. He’s gotten it and loves it. :) He does not work with HP nor is affiliated, just a regular guy.

    James Kendrick8:12 AM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • Cool.

    I have yet to see a twin for my Eee in public.

    Nate — 8:17 AM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • did he just say Isaiah will be available in limited quantities in June or that it will be available in the HP?

    GOGORack — 9:51 AM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • Available in June in the HP Mini-note or generally? I doubt it will be in the Mini-note by June because the shipment of the VIA C7 Mininote has just started and we are only one month before June.

    Alex Wattanabe — 9:56 AM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • Amazing! I am still getting head turns when I bring mine to Starbucks here in NYC. What OS was he running?

    JStern10:39 AM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • I usually fight for a power socket with another 2 HTC Shift uers in local Statbucks.

    Its great seeing less Macs with UMPC news flying around bring attention to general public

    Kirk — 10:52 AM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • I must be doing something wrong. I took my Mini out to the local Starbucks on Monday and no one even looked twice at it! Even sitting on my desk at work in a software development company and no one stops to admire it.

    My Mini’s getting a complex…where are all the admirers?

    Pam T. — 11:36 AM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • Don’t worry Pam, I envy you for your Mini… but only until Friday.

    Nate — 12:21 PM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • >>>Amazing! I am still getting head turns when I bring mine to Starbucks here in NYC.

    I was going to ask which Sbux, but then I saw the Joanna Stern signature! Bacon!

    Besides, now I am lusting over the Lenovo Little Red Riding Hood computer. But god, that PRICE!!! Can’t Lenovo see their way to giving me a Lust Discount?!!?

    Mike Cane1:02 PM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • We love you JAMES…thanks for the Insider INFO!!!

    Geancarlo2:01 PM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • JStern, he was running Vista Business, 2 GB of RAM, 120 GB HDD. He was actually doing the Vista first boot process in SBUX. What a geek. :)

    James Kendrick2:05 PM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • Isaiah is what’s available in June, we won’t see one in the Mini until much later if ever. HP still hasn’t decided.

    James Kendrick2:06 PM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • what did you answer him when he asked you about the performance of the via processor

    Jaber Alshaya — 9:46 PM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • I am really tempted to buy one of these units. Things that I like:
    1: The metal case/scratch resistant screen.
    2: The overall form factor.
    3: The keyboard size (currently working on an EEE 7″)
    Things I dislike:
    1: Lackluster CPU
    2) No option for XP “downgrade” currently.

    I would really like to see HP use this form factor/Case and cram in the specs of something like the IdeaPad U110.

    Jeff — 10:39 PM on April 29, 2008 Reply

  • I received my Mini on Monday. Whew. After being told 5/9 and 5/16 for ship dates it ended up arriving only 3 days later than my original est. arrival of 4/25.

    So-Now I’ve got my Mini but no Starbucks or bookstore coffee shop for 50 miles so I took it to my doctors appointment with me yesterday and found that the staff wanted to ignore me at first. I realized later I looked just like a drug company rep.

    Jennifer — 12:21 AM on April 30, 2008 Reply

  • BTW, My HP Mini-Note is the $749 Model.

    What are we thinking on the Isaiah chip? Will we be able to maybe just swap out the C7 for it and do a little update and go?

    That would be sooo cool.

    Jennifer — 12:30 AM on April 30, 2008 Reply

  • User upgradable CPUs never happen so I doubt we’ll see that.

    James Kendrick12:37 AM on April 30, 2008 Reply

  • Bummer about not being able to swap CPUs. I haven’t upgraded a CPU since the early Pentium days and then only desktops. Though I eventually take all my laptops apart I’ve never had occasion to want to upgrade a CPU in one of them. It was worth hoping anyway.

    I do have to say I’ve been pleased with just how well the C7 is doing at carrying Vista around. I think I’ll be switching this to XP soon though if the good news on making the switch continues.

    Jennifer — 12:59 AM on April 30, 2008 Reply

  • >>>I would really like to see HP use this form factor/Case and cram in the specs of something like the IdeaPad U110.

    Gotta have that engraved red lid too!

    Mike Cane1:32 AM on April 30, 2008 Reply

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