HP Mini 311
I was at a brick and mortar store a few days ago and I saw the recently announced HP Mini 311. I am actually scouting for two netbooks to buy in a few weeks. A netbook that I can take with me daily, and another one with an 11.6 screen and a more capable processor to use for my school work. I currently use a Gateway LT3103, but I am planning to give this netbook to someone else. Right now, I have been looking at the Acer 1410 with its 11.6 screen and Core 2 Solo CULV processor with a promised 6 hours battery life, as a possible successor to the LT3103, but have not pulled the trigger since there are rumors that a dual core processor of this model will be coming out at the same time it transitions to Windows 7. Anyway, it is fun to play with new gadgets even if I am not yet buying so I decided to take a closer look at the Mini 311.
The Mini 311 is HP’s stab at an 11.6 inch screen netbook with an Nvidia Ion LE graphics card. This is probably one of the first, if not the first, netbook in the wild that marries the Intel Atom processor with the Nvidia Ion video card. Lenovo with the S12 and Samsung with the N510 have announced and shown in trade shows their Nvidia Ion-equipped netbooks, but if I am not mistaken none has been offered for sale in the US, yet. The Mini 311 has an Intel Atom 1.6 processor, the Nvidia Ion LE video card, an 11.6″ screen with a high native resolution at 1366 x 768 pixel, 160 GB HDD, 1 GB of RAM (max at 3 GB), Wireless b/g and bluetooth, Altec Lansing speakers, 92% keyboard, and Windows XP on it. The presence of the Atom processor with an 11.6 screen and a more capable graphics card than an integrated solution has effectively blurred the original concept of what a netbook is, but is nonetheless eagerly awaited by some netbook afficionados. The price point of the HP is at $399 before customization at the HP website and on the floor model at the retail store which is reasonable considering the set of specs it sports compared to the average 10.1″ netbook.
So how goes it?
Based on the few minutes that I played with the floor model, I was not impressed with the Mini 311. The palm rest and the keyboard feels like cheap hollow plastic and is too shiny that it is distracting. Also, both shows a bit of flexed when you press down on the palm rest, or type on the keyboard. The mousepad was erratic and tends to jump all over the place, but what really underwhelmed me the most was its performance. It feels like the Atom processor was struggling to even open up applications like Word or notepad. The few applications I tried opening lagged before it showed up on screen. The delay might have been caused by the usual abuse a floor model gets in a retail store, but I am thinking that this can also be attributed to the fact that Atom has to power a bigger screen with a higher resolution than normal, and the presence of the Ion card does not really help in such tasks. It just feels like the Mini 2133, all shiny and cool looking, but struggles to keep up because of an underpowered processor. I hope HP reassess this model and put in a CULV, similar to what Acer did with the Timeline series, and maybe use the chassis it used with the 2140 or the 5101, but till then I think I won’t be considering this particular 11.6 as a replacement for my Gateway LT3103.