This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia. Do check directly with your local distributor for details.

Design

With a high-resolution screen and better graphics packed into a standard-price Netbook, you'd be right to expect a little cost-cutting somewhere else. The Mini 311 is far from the flashiest-looking laptop out there, even among low-cost Netbooks. Most of the chassis is a dull, generic, gray plastic, with either a black or white lid with a subtle swirl pattern. The white version had very faint gray swirls on it which actually made it look a bit dingy from a distance. On the plus side, the system itself feels sturdy enough, and there was no flex in the lid when we pulled it open and shut.



The keys on the keyboard have the same slightly scalloped shape and wide faces we've seen on HP's other Netbooks such as the Mini 110. It's a design we approve of, but in this particular case, the keys themselves felt a little loose and wiggly when typing. Likewise, the touchpad did not impress. Made of the same material as the rest of the wrist rest, it offered too much resistance to our fingers. There's a legitimate reason most laptop touchpads have a distinct, slick surface. We also had to go into the control panel to crank up the pointer speed--perhaps the default settings were created with an older 1,024 x 600 Netbook in mind. Two sliver-like mouse buttons under the touchpad also felt cheap and insubstantial.

Features

The 11.6-inch widescreen LED display is one of the Mini 311's highlights, with a 1,366 x 768 native resolution. We've seen this on a handful of other Netbooks, from the Sony Vaio W to the Asus Eee PC 1101HA. It's still very readable and provides enough screen estate that going back to a lower-resolution Netbook display feels positively claustrophobic in comparison. While the screen was glossy, we were actually more distracted by the even glossier black plastic screen bezel.



The HP Mini 311 includes a standard set of connections for a Netbook (entry-level models under S$500 (US$352.98) may be tempted to drop one of the USB ports or HDMI output). While not as customizable as Dell's Netbook line (curiously also named "Mini"), there are options for networking and mobile broadband.

Performance And Battery Life

At tasks which are not graphics-intensive, the Intel Atom N280 CPU performed as expected, roughly matching other Netbooks. As always, we consider Atom-powered systems to be fine for basic tasks such as Web surfing, email, and office tasks, and even basic Photoshop work--as long as your expectations are kept realistic.

Putting the Nvidia Ion to the test, we did the unthinkable, loading up a handful of full-fledged PC games on a Netbook. Most Netbooks can barely handle casual games such as Plants vs. Zombies, to say nothing of full 3D graphics. Despite the hype, this is definitely not going to be your main PC gaming rig, but Unreal Tournament still managed to get 23.2 frames per second at 800 x 600 pixels, which is borderline acceptable. Tweaking the settings could likely squeeze a little more out of that game. We also installed Call of Duty 4, and during a particularly intensive firefight sequence, we ran into some stuttering at the same 800 x 600 resolution, but overall found it to be fairly playable (although your definition of playable may vary).

The major triumph for Netbooks is still to be useful all-round devices, and as the Nvidia Ion shares much of its DNA with the GeForce 9400 graphics found in the 13-inch MacBook (which is excellent for an integrated graphics solution), the real bottleneck to achieving this goal is the 1GB of RAM and the single-core Atom CPU. We'd be very interested in seeing how the same gaming tests run under Windows 7 with double the RAM.

We also fully expect to see road warriors hacking away at World of Warcraft on the HP Mini 311 at airport departure gates and in coffeeshops. In fact, HP should just paint a giant WoW logo on the back of this thing and sell it as a portable Warcraft machine.

Video playback was excellent, and our test 720p WMV file ran flawlessly--something no other Netbook has been able to do. Web-based video is a bit of a different story, but an updated version of Flash (reportedly available in November) will let streaming Web video take advantage of the GPU.









Another pleasant surprise was that the HP Mini 311 ran for 5 hours 20 minutes on our video playback battery drain test using the included six-cell battery (which sits nicely flush with the system). That makes the Mini 311 especially appealing for watching videos and gaming on long trips.



HP Mini 311
Windows XP Home SP3; 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280; 1,024MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 512MB (Shared) Nvidia Ion LE; 160GB Seagate 5,400rpm

Gateway LT3103u
Windows Vista Home Basic SP1; 1.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 L110; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 384MB (Shared) ATI Mobility Radeon X1270; 250GB Seagate 5,400rpm

Dell Inspiron Mini 10
Windows XP Home Edition SP3; 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 256MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 950; 160GB Western Digital 5,400rpm

Lenovo IdeaPad S12
Windows XP Home SP3; 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 128MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 950; 160GB Hitachi 5,400rpm

Asus Eee PC 1101HA
Windows XP Home Edition SP3; 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 256MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 500; 160GB Hitachi 5400rpm

Sony Vaio W
Windows XP Home Edition SP3; 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 128MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 950; 160GB Toshiba 5400rpm

Service And Support

The system includes an industry-standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty from HP. Support is accessible through a 24/7 phone line, an online knowledge base and driver downloads.

Tags: Netbook, HP Mini 311, Mini 311, Sony Vaio, Sony Corp.

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