Hands-On: HP's $399 Mini 311 Netbook Brings Ion to the Masses

Posted 09/14/2009 at 8:10pm | by Norman Chan

1

Comment

Print

HP's newly announced Mini 311 netbook isn't the first ION-powered portable we've seen -- the Lenovo S12 and Samsung N150 both equip Nvidia's low-powered graphics accelerator (the equivalent of a 9400M). But HP's 11.6-inch offering is possibly the first accelerated netbook with the potential to break into the mass market. Part of that is due to its aggressive $399 pricing, which isn't shabby considering that the system is equipped with an Intel Atom N270, 1GB of DDR3 memory, 160GB storage, and a relatively high-resolution display. We got some hands-on time with the Mini 311, running several processor-intensive tasks to see if the ION chip makes a difference in real world performance.

 First the full specs: 

• 1.6GHz Intel Atom Processor N270
• Windows XP Home Edition
• 11.6" Diagonal HD LED BrightView Widescreen Display (16:9 1366x768 resolution)
• Nvidia ION LE with 319MB graphics memory
• 1024MB DDR3 system Memory (1 DIMM)
• 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• HP Webcam with integrated Digital Microphone
• 802.11b/g WLAN
• 6-Cell Lithium-Ion battery
• 92% of full-size keyboard
• 5-in-1Digital Media Reader
• 3 USB ports, HDMI, VGA, RJ-45 LAN

Not bad for $399. And in video playback testing, the Mini 311 shines. We watched it play a H.264 encoded movie trailer at full 1080p resolution without any performance hiccups, while only utilizing 20% of the CPU. In addition, transcoding a short high-definition video for mobile playback using Windows 7's built-in utility was an order of magnitude faster than with a non ION-powered netbook. The Mini 311 will also come with video upscaling software (valued at $99) to upconvert 480p video to high def. And while its LCD screen in "only" 1366x768, an HDMI port lets you plug the device into monitors and TVs to watch 1080p content.

The inclusion of Nvidia's ION chip looks to give the Mini 311 a significant boost in video and graphics performance over last-generation notebooks. We're looking forward to more notebook manufacturers giving consumers the ION option (assuming they can keep costs low). We also want to note that the MINI 311 comes with the LE flavor of the ION chip, which is the lower-end version (and lacks DX10 support). Lenovo's S12, on the other end, utilizes the uncompromised ION chip. 

Initial impressions show that the Mini 311 is indeed impressive, but keep an eye out for our upcoming full review for in-depth benchmarks and a thorough evaluation.