The HP Mini 5102 is a netbook that comes with a 10-inch touchscreen, a long-lasting battery life, and features that can simplify some tasks. The only problem is that it takes a long time to set this netbook up.
 Click to enlarge |
The 5102 is available in three colours (Black, Red, and Blue) and sports a brushed aluminium lid. It is well-constructed and can probably withstand accidental bumps. Like any other netbook, the 5102 has a small profile (262 x 180 x 24.8 mm) and does not weigh a lot (starting at 1.2kg), which makes it perfect for on the go users.
The Mini 5102 has three USB ports, an SD/MMC card reader, a headphone and microphone jack, Ethernet port, and D-Sub out. A Wi-Fi adapter (802.11 a/b/g/n) and Bluetooth 2.1+ are also onboard the 5102. In terms of hardware, the 5102 runs on a 1.66 Ghz Intel Atom processor, has 2GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive, and a 6-cell Lithium-Ion battery that can last up to 10 hours.
Opening the lid reveals a well-spaced chiclet keyboard, a 10.1-inch LED-backlit HD 16:9 widescreen with a native resolution of 1366 x 768, and a 2 megapixel web camera used for video conferencing. The keyboard is responsive and maintained a similar layout to a full-sized keyboard. We did not have a hard time using the small touchpad, although its piano black finish was susceptible to fingerprints.
 Click to enlarge |
Setting the unit up for the first time takes a while, so be prepared to spend about an hour and a half just to get everything up and running. The 5102 runs on Windows 7 Professional and is pre-installed with Corel Home Office, various HP tools (such as QuickSync, Wireless Assistant, and ProtectTools), McAfee Total Protection, Microsoft Office (60-day Trial), PDF complete, Roxio, and WinZip.
Since the 5102 runs on Windows 7 Professional, users may find it a bit slow compared to other netbooks being sold in the market. In order to speed things up, we recommend uninstalling unneeded bloatware. Since the 5102 comes with 2GB of RAM, it is able to do perform a couple of tasks without grinding down to a halt. The 10.1-inch touchscreen was a good addition, although it was not as responsive as we hoped it would be.
HP has included two programs that allow users to check calendar entries or surf the Internet without having to boot up the OS. The QuickLook and Quickweb buttons are located on the upper left side up the notebook for easy access.
The Mini 5102 lasted for 310 minutes in our battery drain test (max brightness and volume while playing a video on loop), which means that it can probably last the whole day if used wisely.
Overall, the HP Mini 5102 is a great home/office notebook as it has noteworthy specifications, long battery life, and solid build quality. The Mini 5102 is available now starting from $599.
