Hewlett-Packard's (HP) new OmniBook 900 is aimed at high-end mobile users - namely chief executives, corporate managers and people who want to carry a lot of computing firepower around with them.
Consequently, HP is touting the slim, compact nature of the 900, along with its strong multimedia capabilities. HP seems to believe that more than anything else senior managers want their notebooks to take up as little space as possible in carry-on luggage, a belief demonstrated in the company's alternative-looking Sojourn notebook.
Unfortunately, the Sojourn never made it to Asia, and HP believes the more conventional-looking 900 will fill that gap in this region. To be fair, the 900 is slim, at only 3.2 centimetres.
However, I found it surprisingly heavy for a notebook being promoted as a traveller's dream. This is especially true when compared with other lightweight models, such as Sony's Vaio range and Acer's 312T.
However, the 900 does come with a full-size keyboard and an impressive set of specifications. The slim case packs a 366 MHz Pentium II processor, a 6.4 gb hard drive, 32 MB of SDRam and is topped off with a 12.1-inch SVGA TFT display.
Furthermore, with a 256-bit graphics accelerator with AGP from NeoMagic, the 900 certainly meets HP's claim of being a multimedia notebook. However, I personally have always been rather doubtful of the need for multimedia features on a notebook.
