HP Mini 5103 (Intel Atom N550) review: HP Mini 5103 (Intel Atom N550)

Nearly a year ago, HP's small business-targeted Mini 5102 Netbook stood out among a field of look-alike 10-inch competitors, with a premium design and features that others lacked. The latest version, the HP Mini 5103, is largely the same as before, with a few new design/feature tweaks that bear mentioning, including a new dual-core Atom N550 configuration and an HD screen.

7.3

HP Mini 5103 (Intel Atom N550)

The Good

Solid, stylish design; huge number of configuration options; comfortable keyboard; newly added dual-core Atom N550 and HD screen options.

The Bad

Subpar battery life with included four-cell battery; small trackpad; gets pricey in the higher-end configurations.

The Bottom Line

The newest iteration of HP's business Netbook adds some useful optional features, including an HD 10-inch screen and a dual-core Atom processor, but it's looking dated next to faster 11.6-inch ultraportables.

Even with these additions, however, HP's business Netbook doesn't stand head and shoulders above the crowd in the quite the same way as it used to, especially since higher-powered 11.6-inch ultraportables such as the 11-inch MacBook Air have stolen the spotlight with better performance. With a starting price of $399, it's effectively a higher-priced, far more configurable Netbook that can climb into absurd territory at the high end--our dual-core Atom N550 configuration with capacitive touch screen and Broadcom HD accelerator comes in at about $670. And the few features it does lack--HDMI in particular--stand out more than ever.

We could justify the $400 range for one of these Mini 5103s in the case of an executive or small-business owner needing a solid, well-performing device, but at higher prices there are better computing solutions for your business dollar, such as the similarly priced Lenovo ThinkPad x100e.