HP's Ion-infused Mini 311 netbook now on sale, starts at $400

We had originally assumed that Lenovo's IdeaPad S12 would be the first netbook to ship with NVIDIA's Ion platform, but since that rig was delayed until Windows 7 could make its retail debut, HP decided to swoop in and claim the honors. You heard right -- the recently introduced Mini 311 has just become the first netbook in the universe with NVIDIA's Ion to actually ship to end users, and it's up for order right now starting at $399.99. 'Course, you'll be asked to pay extra for a white chassis ($20), Atom N280 ($25), Bluetooth ($25), 802.11n ($25) and integrated WWAN ($125), but at least that 1,366 x 768 resolution display comes standard.

[Thanks, Steve]

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 24th 2009 4:44PM]

The person at HP I spoke with said that it wasn't possible for an end user to upgrade the RAM to something more useful like 2 GB. Of course, it might be pretty easy to do despite HP's claiming it can't be done, but there's no way to be sure until it starts shipping and people get to play with 'em.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 24th 2009 1:49PM]

just ordered 2 of them. they will be fun toys to muck around with. just need to get the sucker tethered to my android phone....

[k2001 Posted Sep 24th 2009 4:06PM]

Pretty competitive price, I would pick that up if I didn't already have a netbook.

[jdang307 Posted Sep 24th 2009 4:38PM]

I haven't been up on netbook game lately. IS there a reason dual core atoms have not made it to netbooks yet? Will we see a CULV or stronger proc with ion in a small package?

[Plothole Posted Sep 24th 2009 5:30PM]

For one thing Microsoft will NOT license Windows XP ULCPC or Windows 7 Starter Edition on machines with better than a single-core processor.

[Plothole Posted Sep 24th 2009 6:19PM]

>> 11.6"

[Plothole Posted Sep 24th 2009 6:21PM]

*Engadget ate my comment...*

****! Are we ever going to get a proper 10" Ion-powered netbook?

[kevoj Posted Sep 24th 2009 8:01PM]

MyHPMini.com for any HP Mini 311 news and info.!

[linuxluver Posted Sep 24th 2009 10:46PM]

Netbooks were supposed to be cheap. They were while Linux was being loaded on them. Now they appear to mostly have Windows XP and the price has nearly doubled. Instead, I got an Android-based HTC Magic phone.....at about the same price netbooks were supposed to be.

[kkg Posted Sep 25th 2009 3:23AM]

The black mini 111's are a lot prettier...why did they take a step backwards? WHY IS NOBODY BUT APPLE CAPABLE OF MAKING NON-UGLY HARDWARE?

[wired Posted Sep 25th 2009 4:16AM]

ME. WANTS.

Good thing I haven't bought anything yet =]

[pogodrummer Posted Sep 25th 2009 6:19AM]

haha lol someone failed here
in italy mediaworld started shipping the samsung n510 a month ago, and it's way better than this hp
here's the link, try with google translate!
http://www.mediaworld.it/tecnoguide-news/news/14921/116-pollici-di-potenza-grafica-per-il-samsung-n510.html
starts @499€

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 26th 2009 4:09PM]

The Acer 1410 at BJs for $399 is a much better netbook/laptop with the possible exception of gaming. Better cpu, more memory, larger hard drive, draft N, higher capacity battery. Graphics are hd capable. Comes with Vista Premium which it runs fine with a free upgrade to Win7. Win7 RC1 runs like a dream. Videos, including flash, run fine. I'm curious to see an in depth review of the mini 311 especially battery life since it only seems to include a 2600Mah battery.

[heltoupee Posted Oct 6th 2009 10:18AM]

Meh. Only comes with 1 gig of RAM. Why HP isn't giving the option to upgrade that is unbelievable. Probably something to do with cheap XP licensing. I'll pass. Give it 6 months until we get a faster Atom and Windows 7 with more RAM. Either that or sell it cheaper with no OS, or Ubuntu pre-installed.