Ever since HP took over Compaq, it has been using the brand to sell its products with a lower price tags. Since the PC market has always been dominated by the big threes - Acer, HP and Dell, the new netbook market has also started to strike them as a place where they can compete. HP has been avoiding and testing waters for too long and now it seems that the company has decided to jump in.  First the HP Mininote 2133 with a supremely brilliant keyboard and now the HP Compaq Mini 700 which thankfully keeps the keyboard. This time it is a consumer product however.

Configuration wise you get the Intel Atom N270 which is nothing new. The processor churns a healthy 1.6 GHz. There is a GB of RAM,  a mere 60 GB hard drive both of which are nothing new. Then there is Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11 G WiFi again nothing new. Even though this machine has been named 700, the display is a healthy 10.2 inches. This is a device that is meant for use as a secondary computer unlike the samsung NC 10 which might as well be the only computer in your home.

The machine has an excellent keyboard which is 92% the size of a standard keyboard. HP did not bother touching the keyboard layout either. Nor did they touch the side buttoned trackpad layout, something to which most of the netbook and notebook users just refuse to agree. The display has an attractive, frameless design but it is glossy and is a complete fingerprint magnet. Another thing that you must know is that this device is hot and we mean it in the burning hot sense, not the smoking hot sense. Use the device for some hours and you would feel that you should run and touch the frost filled walls of your refrigerator.

HP also had another strange idea, it has put in a paltry three cell battery and has put it at the bottom instead of the back. What exactly was going in the mind of HP’s designers is something of a mystery. So all in all here is a half baked product at a price that rivals some of the much better options and HP expects people to buy it. Sure, and pigs have suddenly grown wings are now gliding across the horizon with the flying spaghetti monster!

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