Price: $499.00

If you love sleek and sexy devices that make you look like 007, look no further; the aluminum encased HP Mini 2140 Laptop is here and stronger than its predecessor, the Mini 2133. This laptop is great if you’re a traveling business man/women who always drops his/her things (which is why I’m recommending this thing to my clumsy sister) and will also mean less computer maintenance. Aside from the aluminum encasement upgrade, the newer Mini 2140 incorporated an Ethernet jack, an ExpressCard 54 slot (the 2133 had an ExpressCard 34 Slot), and an upgraded CPU and memory.

Let’s look at some of the 2140’s specs:
- 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, an upgrade from the 2133’s Via C7-M.
- 160 GB Hard Drive. Ample space to fit all of your Zeppelin and Floyd discographies.
- 1 GB / 800 MHz DDR2 memory, nice and fast
- Mobile Intel 945GSE Chipset
- Windows XP Operating System
- 6.5” Deep by 10.3” Wide
- 1.1” High
- Weighs about 3 lbs.

These are some great specs for such a small laptop. The dimensions allow you to fit it in your oversized pant pockets just like a cell phone (just kidding, don’t try that at home). With such tiny dimensions, you would expect the keyboard to be about the same size as a blackberry’s. But HP has done a great job claiming that the 2149’s laptop is about 92% the size of a full-size laptop keyboard. Those of us that can palm a basketball will still have a little trouble typing on this thing, but it won’t be as bad as you thought. The only downside to having this bigger keyboard is that it takes away from the space where you normally rest your wrists. HP also changed the design of their touch-pad by squeezing it down into a long rectangle with the left and right mouse buttons off to the sides. This takes a little getting used to, but if you use your computer as much as I do, you’ll adapt quickly.

Although not many people have a use for the ExpressCard Slot, or even know what it is for that matter, it is a great feature of this laptop. This upgrade allows you to have mobile Internet connection, as well has TV tuner capabilities. The 1.6 GHz CPU is pretty standard, and is more than enough for the average users web surfing and multi-tasking.

Overall, I highly recommend this laptop, with its great low price of $499, you really can’t beat the value. With some basic computer maintenance done regularly, this laptop should last you a while.