HP Mini 311 Netbook Review
HP Mini 311 Netbook Review - 6/7
Even though you may come across netbooks with larger screens and increased battery life, there’ one constant that remains in place for most – a sub-par processing system limited to tasks like surfing the web, emailing, editing basic documents and lo-res video watching. Enter the HP Mini 311. This little baby has been talked up as the first netbook that will enable users to create media as well as use it. The 311 features the Nvidia Ion, a graphics card that has been talked up pre-release. And it doesn’t disappoint. We were quite impressed with the improved gameplay, playback of high resolution video and video editing functionality.
HP Mini 311 Netbook Review – Top Features
- Good battery life - The Intel Atom CPU isn’t much of a drain on battery life, and for the amount of performance you get out of this netbook, 5+ hours of battery is better than expected.
- Stylish Design – HP makes good looking notebooks. They also make good looking netbooks. The funky exterior and the tapering two-toned interior make this a sassy, yet suave machine.
- Loud Speakers – The 311 features Altec Lansing speakers, and this makes a big difference. The volume’s up and the bass exists.
- Graphics Performance – The graphics performance trounces anything else out there. When we say trounce, we mean its as good as, say a MacBook Air.
HP Mini 311 Netbook Review – Drawbacks and things to keep in mind
- Boot is slow – Once again, there are a number of pre-loaded programs on the netbook that mean it boots up painfully slow.
- 1080p Video – You’d think the 311 would play 1080p, and so did we. But while 720p videos off youtube and Hulu stream beautifully, move to the denser resolution and the performance drops.
- Touchpad has a bit of friction – This is an issue that we’ve detected in other HP machines as well.
HP Mini 311 Netbook Review -Ratings
- Price and Value for money – 1.0 Star. At $399, this netbook shows that just because something is low priced, doesn’t mean it can’t perform admirably. The graphics performance surpasses many notebooks out there.
- Speed and Performance – 1.0 Star. The 311 has a N280 Atom and handles multiple tasks quite easily. You can download files, have multiple videos open and work in Microsoft Works simultaneously.
- Screen – 1.0 Star. The 311′s 11.6″ screen has a 1366×768 resolution and makes for less scrolling. The display quality is excellent.
- Keyboard, Touchpad, Useability – 0.75 Star. It’s gotten to the point where one can say it would be weird for a HP board to be anything less than super efficient. Can’t say the same about the touchpad though.
- Portability and Battery Life – 0.75 Star. The 311 has quite a decent battery life for the graphic processing power that it packs.
- Looks and Design – 1.0 Star. The 311 draws heavily in design from HP’s notebooks, but in a good way.
- Connectivity and Extensibility – 1.0 Star. The WiFi on the 311 is awesome, and the throughput that it gets is significantly above average.
This gives the Mini 311 an overall rating of 6.5 out of 7 Stars.
HP Mini 311 Netbook Review – Our Recommendation
The Mini 311 has received one of the highest ratings on our site and it’s a very functional system at a very reasonable price. The graphics performance kicks ass, and this netbook is comparable to a lot of notebooks performance-wise. The screens good, the keyboards great and the speakers are loud. There’s not that really that many flaws that we can see with the 311. We strongly recommend this one.
HP Mini 311 Netbook Review – What have buyers on Amazon said?
- “The Mini 311 does everything you could ask for.”
- “You can even hook it up to your HDTV with its HDMI port and watch HD video content.”
The 311 is available at amazon for the price of $399.99
HP Mini 311 Netbook Review – Technical Specifications
- OS: Windows XP (SP3)
- CPU: Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor
- RAM: 1GB DDR3 RAM (Upgradeable to 3GB)
- Storage Space: 160GB SATA HDD (5400rpm)
- Screen: 11.6 inch HD LED Brightview Widescreen display, Nvidia Ion LE Graphics card (319MB memory)
- Connectivity: VGA output, HDMI, Ethernet, Headphone & microphone slot, 5-in-1 card reader, 3 USB ports, 802.11b/g WLAN
- Battery: 6 cell Li-Ion battery
- Weight: 3.2 lbs
Filed under: HP Mini Netbook Review