HP unveils aluminium-clad Eee rival

HP has made its first foray into the low-cost subnotebook market that was kicked off last year by Asus with its Eee PC.

The HP 2133 Mini-Note PC, which is being pushed out to the educational market, is slightly heavier and larger than the Eee, but is also more rugged. It sports a "scratch-resistant" 8.9-inch WXGA screen, while the Qwerty keyboard has a special coating to protect the letters from wear.

Also featured is HP's 3D DriveGuard technology, which uses a signal from a three-axis digital accelerometer chip to turn off the hard drive if the laptop is dropped suddenly. The notebook comes in an aluminium shell and weighs 1.27kg.