The excitement of Boing Boing Gadget’s Rob over the new HP Mini 2140 is understandable. Save for the really small trackpad, the Mini Note form factor is great because it wonderfully fits a decently-sized keyboard into a netbook. And a 10.1″ display with a native resolution of 1377 x 768? Even better! Or, is it?

My first encounter with my retired Dell Inspiron E1505’s 1680 x 1050 15.4″ screen was a giddy one. The resolution did allow me to keep windows side-by-side, until I realized that all those tiny pixels made the details hard to see. I’m no old fogey, but a significant time was spent craning my head in for a better view.

For some reason, experiencing the same resolution on my 22″ HP w2228h display was a totally different experience. Maybe it’s the screen size.

Yes, I was amazed when I encountered the HP Mini-Note 2133’s 8.9″ 1280 x 768. And yes, the Mini 2140’s display is bigger. But you can bet some users will be squinting, trying to decipher pixels too small for normal eyesight to comprehend.

(image from hp.com)

Post from: The Gadget Blog