SlashGear

The recently released Windows 7 pre-beta has had its moment on the ASUS Eee PC 1000H and the MSI Wind; now it’s off to find more netbooks to play with.  HP Mini Guide have loaded the latest build of the upcoming OS onto an HP Mini-Note 2133 with a mind to run some benchmarks and see how well the VIA C7-M processor handles things.  As it turns out, it’s been a mixed experience.

After a 25 minute install, Windows 7 boots in around 1m 22s; faster than Vista but slower than XP.  Three devices (including the ethernet controller) weren’t initially recognized, but Windows Update furnished the correct drivers; unfortunately, even after that certain functions – such as closing the lid to suspend the netbook – wouldn’t work properly.  The screen powered off, but the 2133 itself stayed on.

Some of the benchmarks also failed to complete, but those which managed to run properly showed that the Windows 7 Mini-Note was generally a little better than a stock Vista install but not as good as a stock XP install.  Introducing new video drivers – still not available for Windows 7 – narrowed the gap between the new OS and Vista, and moved XP even further ahead.

Still, while that might sound disappointing, the general responsiveness of the system is reportedly better than Vista.  This is also not the netbook build, it’s the Ultimate version, and so a more tweaked setup would likely do wonders.