HP announces Mini 1104 "companion PC"

HP (NYSE: HPQ) has announced the HP Mini 1104, which the company says is designed for business and students on a budget. Powered by a dual-core Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) Atom N2600 processor and costing just $399, the 2.78 pound HP Mini comes with a 10.1-inch screen and what HP calls a "93 percent" full-size keyboard.

Other specifications include 2GB of RAM and 320GB of hard disk space. Beyond the expected built-in webcam and Wi-Fi, the Windows 7 device also comes with TPM 1.2 embedded security. And it can also run for 9 hours with a 6-cell battery.

What got my attention was how the HP Mini is being announced at a rather curious time, in which most competitors are busy preparing to roll out their Ultrabook lineups. HP has billed the Mini 1104 as a "companion PC" in a blog entry; nowhere was the word "netbook" used. It appears next-to-impossible to associate anything else with the Intel Atom processor, unfortunately; most reports I checked about the HP Mini 1104 all called it a netbook on their article title.

Ultimately, there is no doubt in my mind that HP has offered a compelling piece of hardware at an attractive price point. It remains debatable, however, if the typical cash-strapped student would opt for an iPad for a little more money, or if businesses will simply bypass the HP Mini for the far sleeker Ultrabooks that are just making their way into the market.

For more:
- check out this article at ZDNet
- check out this article at Maximum PC

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