HP preps new business netbook, Mini 1103

Business users shopping for a netbook just got another option: HP's Mini 1103. The bite-sized notebook draws many parallels with the company's consumer-grade Mini 210, but it forgoes the cheery 'luminous rose' colored plastic lid for a more conservative black and aluminum body. The design also appears to have been pared down from 3.1lbs to 2.78lbs, but the advertised dimensions seem unchanged at 10.55 x 7.52 x 0.89 inches.

The 10.1-inch machine carries an LED-backlit 1024x600 display, your choice of an Intel Atom N455 (1.66GHz) or N475 (1.83GHz) processor, an Intel GMA 3150 graphics chip, 2GB of RAM (there's only one slot), and a 160GB or 320GB 7200RPM hard drive. An upgrade from a three to six-cell battery is optional, while connectivity includes three USB 2.0 ports, VGA-out, a card reader, Ethernet, 802.11n, Bluetooth, and WWAN/GPS.


Being a business machine and all, HP offers Windows 7 along with SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 and FreeDOS for operating system choices. It also comes with HP's business software, including QuickSync and QuickWeb. We haven't seen official pricing information -- or a ship date for that matter -- but various sites report that it will start at $300. That seems about right considering the $330 entry price of the aforementioned Windows-only Mini 210.