HP’s Mininote 2133 was originally designed to compete with the likes of Asus’s EeePC on the budget educational market. When HP’s marketing people got a look at it, they decided to bring it to the general market – and rightly so.

This 10-inch $550 notebook doesn’t feel like a cheap children’s toy with its sleek brushed aluminium case, a large keyboard – 92-percent the size of a standard notebook keyboard – and array of premium features. Indeed, it feels a lot more like an ultra-portable, ultra-expensive notebook than you’d expect.

Though it’s got the same 10-inch case as Asus’s EeePC, the Mininote 2133 has a much larger 8.9-inch widescreen display, which has a resolution of 1280x768 compared to the cramped 800x400 on the Eee. Unusual for a budget machine is a built-in accelerometer, so the MiniNote can park the hard drive to prevent damage or data loss if you drop it.

UMPCs are becoming increasingly popular thanks to their small form factor. They’re easy to tote around and make perfect solutions for school or business trips. Intel’s recent announcement of the Atom series of processors will definitely boost battery power and overall performance of UMPCs.

You can read the full preview of this very interesting UMPC on Tom’s Guide.