HP's Ion-infused Mini 311 netbook now on sale, starts at $400
By Darren Murph 
posted Sep 24th 2009 12:04PM
posted Sep 24th 2009 12:04PM
[Thanks, Steve]
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Congrats HP
***** Selection caused conflict ******
NVIDIA ION LE (For the N270 processor) requires the Atom N270 processor. Update Processor or Graphics card .
....LOLWHAT?????
if you change the processor you have to change the graphics to the one that supports that processor. ex, if you choose the N280 you have to choose the ION for N280 on the graphics screen...
I just saw that, thanks. $474.99 full stocked with ION, N280, BT and wifi N.
EPIC Fail
Mini+12 inch does not compute
10 inch and I'll bite.
A 12 inch laptop is still very small. I used an 11.6 inch EeePc netbook with the 1366 x 7XY resolution (forgot the value), and I thought it was still tiny, even when compared to the 10" inch Toshiba netbook with the massive bezel (although it's still a beautiful netbook).
Why pay extra, for such standard features! :[
I'd buy it still but. I'm angry.
Yeah! Why not make it so you pay for the features you don't need in the base price?
Nice rig, and possibly my next netbook purchase.
This with a 32GB SSD running Snow Leopard is my dream travelbook - perfect for movie-watching and photo previewing. Nvidia's Ion should have the GPU power handle 12 MP RAW & 720p video from a DSLR.
Although, it's pretty amusing to see that HP is offering an external Blu-ray drive.
AFAIK, ION has the capability to play even 1080p but with a player that supports CUDA or DXVA. I heard earlier that even Flash 720p videos from Youtube stutter on these ION netbooks because Flash is not GPU accelerated. Wonder if anything has changed recently.
I have a ION nettop for a HTPC, with a dual core Atom 330. When it's in a codec and player that the GPU can decode, it'll do high bitrate 264 into 1080p, smooth like butter. When it has to decode in CPU, it's game over. Nowhere remotely close to decent 720p playback.
@dave
Ahh! You've made me both happy and sad at the same time. Happy that I opted for a microatx and core2duo as my htpc vs. atom330 solution, which I had been waiting for for a while until impulse and impatience won. Sad because I've been waiting for an atom330+ion netbook because I figured that could handle anything my ati3200+turion x2 rm-72 6 lb laptop can - but apparently that's not the case. :(
Atom chips are worse than P4 2.4Ghz. Don't expect any miracles out of these things. I'll wait and see what an Atom refresh does for Flash performance.
@ sandipan_sen
Though Adobe has promised an update to flash that would enable hardware acceleration for video, it's not expected until "the first half of next year."
Get a 12" CULV instead. C2S @ 1.4ghz can play Youtube HD.
Really basic package, but what the hey. I would buy it at that price point.
Doesn't this one actually use the moderately crappy Ion LE?
This one does use the LE version - its on their website
--What's the performance drop?
The only difference is no Directx 10 support.
I've been holding off on buying a netbook for something like this..this is tempting, but is anything else coming around the windows 7 launch?
Doesn't beat my Acer 1410
In GPU performance, it kicks the pants off the Acer, even though it has an Atom CPU.
ION does not make up for ATOM.
When it comes to HD Video Ion should more than make up.... especially since a Core2 Solo 1.4GHz is still hardly ideal in this regard... provided that the player supports hardware acceleration.
I use Windows 7, what's this hardware acceleration you speak of?!
Seriously though, I don't watch HD on 11.6". Since the 1410 has HDMI out, I watch it on my 47", without one single problem.
But for my real world usage, it is all Office and Fox.
A player, as something like Windows Media or Winamp. Or Flash (though unfortunately they've yet to implement anything beyond GPU rescaling).
Which formats? Which "HD" (720p, 1080p)?
wouldn't buy this until it comes loaded w/ win7. buying a $500 netbook and it comes with a 10-year old OS on it? hmm no thanks!! will wait for october to pull the trigger.
damn it, of only i had not just bought a netbook - now i want this one!
If only it wasn't HP.
Windows 7? I might jump on the netbook train with this.
Also, why is the N280 (1.66ghz) better than the N270 (1.6Ghz) besides clock speed?
N280 has a 667Mhz FSB so it supports 667Mhz RAM, while the N270 only supports 533Mhz RAM. either way, performance increases are minimal at best...
I have an N270 and it uses 667 RAM happily. It has 1GB 667 stock.
Technically you can use RAM faster than the FSB. You just won't notice a difference in performance.
hey don't get me wrong, i love netbooks... but why would anyone buy this if the Acer 1410 is the same price, is more powerful, has a longer battery life, and is actually smaller and lighter?
am i missing something here?
Yes. GMA Graphics are terrible. That's what you're missing.
That said, I'm going to hold out for Samsung and Lenovo's models, as well as the Win7 launch. I expect to see the prices come down a bit with more variety.
Come Oct. 30th, there will be a few netbooks with the full-blown Dx10 ION in them, and we'll have our pick of the litter--finally!
Not exactly, you are just mistaken. Go look up benchmark tests for the GMA4500 and Nvidia 9400m. The 9400m puts down scores that double, if not even more, the scored of the GMA4500. The processor in that Acer might be faster, but the graphics card is not.
My response was meant for Dan, not the speedy replier, Justin. :-p
benchmarks don't mean much in terms of real world applications. honestly, what can the 9400M do that the 4500MHD can't? they both can play 1080p and 720p videos without hiccups.
and please don't bring up gaming because don't tell me you're honestly going game on an 11" screen. and even so, the 4500MHD can play most games perfectly fine up until you reach Half-Life 2 graphic levels.
also, the Mini 311 can't even play HD Flash content because it's not GPU accelerated. you'll be constantly bottlenecked at the weak Atom CPU.
if they had a CULV + ION... that'd be a different story... but i personally thing that the Acer 1410 is a MUCH more well rounded system.
wow, didn't know about the acer. i was planning on getting a netbook. i'll take a core solo cpu with intel graphics over an atom with ion netbook anyday. the atom cpu just plain sucks. good luck with playing only some h.264 videos with the ion. not all h.264 videos are compatible with dxva or cuda hardware acceleration. of course ion isn't going to help with flash video but the core solo cpu will.
if you want even more power, acer is supposedly releasing a model with a ULV core 2 duo really soon.
Of course you can game on an 11" screen. I can guarantee you that your FPS will be higher with the Ion than with the GMA4500. Sorry, but perhaps what you should be saying is, if people share in your priority list, then the acer is better. I personally feel that an Ion netbook is a much better option than an Intel graphics powered netbook, currently.
if the core 2 duo comes out by november, i'll get that otherwise i'll get the current core 2 solo version. anyway, be it intel gma or ion graphics, gaming is going to be crappy anyway (at least for the games and settings i want). so my requirements for a netbook is video playing performance and video out to an hdtv. thanks for heads up on the acer.
...cause its the new hotness!!! Please turn in your "tech lover" membership card.
@Dan
Because the 4500 is doing it's processing at the cost of CPU performance, which is what these netbooks lack the most. No one is really buying them for gaming, but since Vista and Windows 7 are much more hardware accelerated, buying anything that has cheap Intel graphics is like showing up to an Indy 500 race in a 1986 Ford Taurus expecting to win.
wish acer 3810tg with ati 4330 switchable graphics would come over to u.s.
I think it looks pretty nice for $400... As soon as the wizards come up with a hackintosh procedure for it, i could be interested :)
Pretty good price, I think this is the best test when buying a new computer... http://whattowhen.com/page/4/
i'll wait until its got a newer cpu. and also what is the max ram it can handle since it came with only 1gb of ddr3.
You should be able to stick in 2GB DDR3. Microsoft's licensing with cheap $15 XP copies is that they can't have more than 1GB DDR3 or 160GB storage space.