HP Mini 311 Review

The HP Mini 311 promises the best possible netbook experience thanks to the use of Nvidia's Ion graphics. Can this netbook with an 11-inch screen, HDMI, and a great keyboard overcome the limits of Intel's Atom processor? Keep reading to find out.

Our HP Mini 311 (311-1000NR) features the following specifications:

• Operating System: Genuine Windows XP (32-bit)
• Processor: Intel Atom N270 Processor 1.60GHz (533MHz FSB)
• Memory: 1GB DDR3 SDRAM
• Storage: 160GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD
• Display: 11.6-inch diagonal WSVGA+ (1366x768)
• Graphics: Nvidia Ion LE
• Wireless: 802.11a/b/g
• Expansion: 4-in-1 media card slot
• Dimensions (H x W x D): 0.78-1.20 x 11.4 x 8.0 inches (including feet)
• Weight: 3.34 lb (not including weight of AC adapter).
• Power: 6-cell Lithium-Polymer battery
• Warranty: One-year standard warranty
• MSRP: $399.99

Build and Design
The HP Mini 311 looks like an obvious evolution of the HP Mini design. In fact, if it weren't for the larger size of the 311 you could easily mistake this netbook for the old Mini 1000. In short, nothing substantial has changed in terms of the build or design of the latest generation of Mini netbooks. That said, this isn't a bad thing. HP engineers did a lot of things right with the earlier Minis, and the Mini 311 likewise offers a nearly fullsize keyboard, large touchpad, and acceptable build quality at a low price. The clamshell-like design gives the Mini 311 a very clean look and the "Black Swirl" Imprint finish features a nice spiral pattern design that looks like either a bunch of black/silver galaxies bumping into each other or a bed of black roses. This Imprint design not only gives the lid a distinct appearance, but also helps protect the lid from scratches.

When open, the glossy black plastic extends around the glossy 11-inch screen. The entire exterior of the chassis is a combination of glossy black plastic, glossy silver plastic, and matte black plastic. Obviously, whenever we look at a laptop with this much plastic we're concerned about build quality ... and the Mini 311 was a bit of a mixed blessing. On one hand, the keyboard feels nice and firm with no flex. Likewise, the screen and rear of the netbook feel quite solid even under significant pressure. On the other hand, the front of the netbook suffers from some annoying "creaking" in the plastics of the palmrests. if you pick up the Mini 311 from either palmrest you will hear some unpleasant creaking sounds and feel some uncomfortable flex in the plastic. That said, we suspect the Mini 311 will hold up about as well as any plastic netbook priced below $400. The various parts of the chassis come together with tight seams and good attention to detail. The Mini 311 is also available in white just in case black isn't your color of choice.

Screen and Speakers
The new 11.6-inch screen on the Mini 311 is a nice LED-backlit display panel with a 1366x768 native resolution. The glossy screen surface helps to improve color and contrast, but we noticed the colors look a bit "washed out" or "pastel" compared to what our test desktop background looks like on other laptops. Although the 1366x768 resolution is a nice step up from the 1024x600 resolution seen on most netbooks the washed out colors made the viewing experience less than perfect. Vertical viewing angles are average with some color distortion when viewing from below and some over-exposed colors when viewed from above. Horizontal viewing angles are better with colors remaining unchanged at extremely wide viewing angles; you won't have trouble sharing a YouTube video with friends using this display.

The built-in speaker performance on the Mini 311 is extremely good for an 11-inch netbook. I'm not a fan of the location of the built-in speakers since they're located on the bottom front edge of the netbook, but the audio quality is quite good. The speakers produce excellent volume (enough to fill a small room) and there is minimal distortion even at higher volume levels. The speakers lack much bass, but the range of highs and midtones are perfectly enjoyable.

Granted, most audiophiles will want to use external speakers or headphones for a better listening experience ... but the built-in speakers work well in a pinch. The audio output from the dual-function headphone jack/microphone jack produced some high frequency background noise/distortion with some of the headphones we used during testing, but other headphones worked fine with no distortion.

Keyboard and Touchpad
As previously mentioned, the HP Mini 311 features a nice and large keybaord that is 92% of full size. Most of the primary keys are the same size as the keys you'll find on a typical notebook and the spacing is likewise normal, but the space bar and some of the keys that are used less frequently are smaller than normal. If you prefer the shape and feel of traditional keys then you'll probably like this keyboard. That said, I personally prefer the "Chiclet" style keyboard used on many netbooks and ultraportables since there is more space between the keys to prevent me from accidentally hitting the wrong key when working in tight quarters. Still, the keyboard on this netbook is quite usable and should be perfectly fine for typing quick emails or editing documents while traveling.

The ALPS touchpad used on the Mini 311 is a multitouch gesture-enabled model that allows you to use multi-figure gestures such as "pinching" your fingers together or "pulling" your fingers apart to zoom in or out. The ALPS control panel in Windows also allows you to customize these gestures as well. Sensitivity and tracking seemed accurate even when you move your fingers quickly over the touchpad surface. Speaking of which, the touchpad is covered in a glossy smooth surface that sometimes makes it east to slide your finger across the surface and other times causes your finger to "skip across the surface because of the lack of texture/traction. The left and right touchpad buttons are located beneath the touchpad and each button has shallow feedback with loud clicks when pressed.

Input and Output Ports
In terms of port selection the HP Mini 311 offers a few more bells and whistles than your average netbook. You get three USB 2.0 ports, a 4-in-1 media card reader, dual-function headphone/microphone jack, Ethernet port, and two video out ports in the form of VGA and HDMI.

Here is a quick tour around the HP Mini 311:

Front view: No ports here, just clean lines.

Rear view: No ports here either, just the hinges and battery.

Left side view: Security lock slot, power jack, vent, USB 2.0 port, and HDMI.

Right side view: 4-in-1 card reader, dual-function audio port, two USB 2.0 ports, VGA, and Ethernet.

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Performance and Benchmarks
The performance section of a netbook review is generally the most boring part because all netbooks have virtually identical performance. That said, HP hopes the Mini 311 will change that thanks to the use of Nvidia's Ion graphics. In this case, our test configuration comes with Nvidia Ion LE ... basically standard Ion with some of the features crippled via software. Despite this, our performance benchmarks indicate Ion indeed gives the Mini 311 a nice boost over netbooks that use Intel GMA 950 graphics.

Unfortunately, Nvidia'a Ion graphics can't do anything to overcome the performance bottleneck of the Intel Atom processor. Although the latest version of Flash Player supports GPU acceleration, we didn't see much (if any) improvement in HD Flash playback because of the weak processor. When we tried to watch Hulu HD on this netbook there was significant lag and the video and audio playback was out of sync. In fact, if you watched a Hulu HD clip with a man and woman having a conversation the audio was so out of sync that it looked like the woman's voice was coming from the man and the man's voice was coming from the woman.

Overall performance with the Intel Atom platform is very reasonable for daily activities like web browsing, email, using Microsoft Office, listening to music, and even watching standard definition movies. If you're in a bind you can even use photo editing software like Photoshop or GIMP for basic image editing. Unfortunately, the Intel Atom N270 processor still feels painfully weak for general computing ... which means multitasking. Typical multitasking (such as switching back and forth between a full-screen web browser and Microsoft Office) was sluggish at best and frustratingly slow at worst.

All of the synthetic benchmarks we use to rate the performance of a laptop show the HP Mini 311 offers slight improvements over typical netbooks, but "real world" use is still limited by the weak processor. For example, games like World of Warcraft play flawlessly, but games like Counter-Strike: Source dropped to an unplayable 12-15 frames per second at the lowest detail settings whenever the CPU had to handle a large level map.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 comparison results against netbooks @ 1024 x 768 resolution (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune hard drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Temperatures on the new HP Mini 311 are quite comfortable and typical of most current-generation netbooks. Temperature readings taken from the outside of the plastic chassis remained "lap friendly" during normal use. The only time that temperature readings spiked was when I stressed the GPU and CPU when playing games.

The cooling fan often kicks on, particularly when the netbook is plugged in, but the noise wasn't particularly loud. If you are very sensitive to noise then the fan might bother you in a quiet room, but chances are you'll never notice it.

Below are images indicating the temperature readings (listed in degrees Fahrenheit) taken inside our office where the ambient temperature was 74 degrees Fahrenheit:

Battery
Battery life with the integrated 6-cell lithium-ion battery . In our test with the screen brightness set to 70%, and wireless active, the Mini 311 stayed on for 6 hours and 18 minutes of constant use. Although some netbooks offer closer to 10 hours of battery life, the battery also has to feed the power-hungry Nvidia Ion graphics and larger 11-inch screen. All things said and done I think it's safe to say 6 hours of battery life will be fine for most people.

Conclusion
At the end of the day HP created a very nice netbook with an 11-inch screen, reasonably powerful graphics, and a nice keyboard ... and then crippled it with Intel's Atom processor. If all you want to do is very basic web browsing, email, social networking (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and play World of Warcraft then the HP Mini 311 is a great ultraportable laptop.

Unfortunately, the Intel Atom N270 processor is still painfully weak for general computing. Although the latest version of Flash Player supports GPU acceleration, we didn't see much (if any) improvement in Flash playback because of the weak processor. Translation: don't try to watch Hulu HD on this netbook. Typical multitasking (such as switching between the web browser and Microsoft Office) was sluggish at best and frustratingly slow at worst.

In short, the HP Mini 311 gives you a netbook that's better than a typical netbook (one that uses Intel GMA 950 graphics) but still suffers from one of the same problems as other netbooks: a weak processor. Although the Mini 311 is a nice netbook we have a hard time recommending this netbook at this time considering that there are a number of Intel CULV-based ultraportables and soon a variety of AMD-based ultraportables for the only $50 to $100 more.

Pros:

• Nvidia Ion graphics boost performance
• Improved port selection
• Good battery life

Cons:

• Still using weak Atom processor
• Good graphics limited by CPU
• Touchpad surface isn't great

Related Articles:

• HP Mini 2140 (HD Update) Review
• HP Mini 5101 First Look
• HP Mini 1000 Review
• HP Pavilion dv2 Review

 

Great review! Thanks!

I disagree there the ION is NVIDIA mGPU or IGP, not a stand alone GPU.

 

Valid point ... it just "feels" like a low-end discrete GPU compared to Intel GMA 950.

I made a correction.

 

LOL there I agree with you.

One question, didnt you find the click buttons too small?

 

Jerry, what settings were WOW played at? I was under the impression that while not exactly CPU-intensive, it would strain the Atom at anything more than lowest resolution and settings.

 

Nice review, Jerry.

I wonder where the netbook market is going to go over the next 6 mos-1 year. The CULV notebooks are very close to the netbook market in terms of price yet offer significantly more processing power, more hard drive space, no OS limitations, and get about the same amount of battery life depending on the model.
The statistic that 40% of netbooks are returned indicates that there are marketing issues with netbooks . . . the average joe consumer doesn't know what they are for.

The Atom processor is pathetic; it is fine for using one application at a time but it will choke on anything else. The two netbooks I tested this year were frustrating to use doing any sort of basic multitasking.

 

I agree with that. CULV is getting cheaper and cheaper, and Intel is pushing the Atom, but lets face it, the Atom cannot compete with a CULV.

What I have yet to see is a CULV+ION, now that would be interesting...^^

I wonder if the new generation of Atoms will do something to fix this, plus the 10.1 beta Adobe Flash Player that runs on the GPU...

 

The button size was fine, but the feedback was shallow (short throw) and I prefer touchpad buttons with a deeper press ... and a quieter click.

Oh, and I might not have been clear in my review, but I was using the Flash Player 10.1 beta during the review to try and get better flash playback ... but Hulu HD was still unwatchable (audio and video completely out of sync).

 

I don't recall the exact settings. I just played WOW for a short while using the settings that were chosen automatically by the installer.

The only reason I mentioned the detail settings on Counter-Strike: Source was because I had to drop the detail to the lowest settings in order for it to be playable. The gameplay with CSS at the lowest detail settings was good (30+ FPS) except for when there was a big/complex level and the gameplay dropped to just above 10 FPS.

 

Oh thanks for the clarification Jerry.

Great review!

 

Thank you for the reply and clarification.

 

Great Review! This is something I was interested in as it seemed to hit the right buttons for me.

Low Price-Check
Big enough to replace my D630 (it doesn't need replacing but i'm kinda itching for something new XD)
nice high resolution screen
ION

But it seems like the Atom processor wouldn't be able to cope with what I do so it's a no go.

If they put a pentium dual core in it, i think i'd get it!

 

Thanks for a great review!

I like that the 6-cell battery is not sticking out.

If the major glitch was the CPU power, do you think DM-1 (which is supposed to be 311 with CULV processor) might be highly recommended?

I am also surprised that in many performance tests, 311 beat Dell's 11z. Which CPU for 11z was used (I assume the slowest one). Is it because of the GPU, or is it an indication that CULV processors aren't that better than Atom siblings?

Keep good work!

 

I agree that the ULV cpu's are becoming a more reasonably priced alternative. Closer and closer to netbook level prices.

Two of the main killers of netbooks for folks - the atom cpu and the 600x1024 res screens - are easily taken care of by a low end ULV cpu and an 11.x inch screen. And some of the main attractive features of the netbook - weight, battery life and price range - are also included. To me it seems a no-brainer to avoid the atom cpu with the other options available out there.

 

The 11z used for comparison was the slowest 11z configuration (Celeron 723) which is why the performance benchmarks look so horrible. That said, the CULV processors aren't VASTLY superior to the Atom ... but they are noticeably better in real life use.

Even though the 11z uses newer Intel GS45 integrated graphics, it's safe to say that Ion has more graphics muscle than even the newer Intel IGP.

As for whether or not the next generation CULV ultraportables will be highly recommended, AMD has some very interesting stuff ready for CES and I think it's safe to say the ultraportable market will have lots and lots of Intel and AMD solutions that are better than current Atom-based netbooks.

That's about all I can say until early January.

 

Another good read here, thanks

Might also recommend Anandtech's review right here....which reaches somewhat similar conclusions.

 

Mmm teaser

Thanks for reply!

 

The one big difference between these two reviews is Anandtech seems to suggest Hulu HD plays fine with the new 10.1 Beta of Flash installed on the Mini 311.

Jerry, did you install the Flash 10.1.51.45 Beta on your Mini 311 that Anandtech used for this review?

 

That's why I said somewhat similar conclusions.........

 

Don't think the battery is integrated. So you can just buy an additional battery. We are not talking Apple. HP is not that sophisticated

I just mentioned that the battery is not sticking down from the bottom surface of the laptop (I remember somebody said he/she likes it because the sticking down battery creates an angle for the keyboard) nor sticking out like a handle.

 

The version of the Adobe Flash Player 10 Plugin we used was indeed 10.1.51.45 Beta. We tested three separate Hulu HD videos and all three played with video and audio out of sync.

I haven't read the Anandtech review but I wonder if there review unit was running Windows 7. The reason I say that is because during the review I found there is a way to use Windows 7 and updated drivers to turn the Nvidia Ion LE into standard Nvidia Ion with Direct X 10 support. Granted, Direct X 10 doesn't have anything to do with Flash playback, but my point is OS and drivers can make a huge difference.

 

Thanks for the review.

Honestly though the ~6 hour battery life for Atom+ION loses to ~5 hours for Neo+Hd3200 seeing as you get a much stronger CPU and the Congo machine should cost about the same to boot.

 

I've owned 2 netbooks and both have been returned within 2 weeks. Have an AS1410 now with SU2300 and it's exactly what netbooks should be. As others have said, with CULV systems dropping as low as $299 (AS1410 with SU3500), systems like this HP are a lot less attractive.

 

Jerry - another great review and it makes me even happier with my 311. I'm going to swap in another HDD this morning and put XP Pro on it since I'm not even seeing five hours battery life with Win 7. There have been some other posts/info about people seeing 30 min or more less batt life with Win 7 verus XP. Oh - one possible typo in your review - having added a 2-Gb chip to mine I know that the memory spec (on mine anyway) is DDR3 not DDR2. Thanks for the review!

 

Fixed that for ya!

 

The Acer and Asus CULV offerings are so much more appealing than any Atom netbook, if you can find those for around $400 I'd definitely go with something like the Acer 1410 over the HP Mini 311.

It's unfortunate timing that a bunch of new stuff always seems to come in January, right after the holiday season when we're already to buy, buy, buy. Sounds like it'll be the case this year again though.

 

I pulled the Win 7 HDD from my 311, since Jerry observed such good battery life with XP, and just went thru the laborious and painful process of installing XP Pro. I had to slipstream nVidia SATA drivers onto an old copy of XP, and also updated that copy to SP3 at the same time. XP boots very fast compared to Win 7 and the 311 is pretty snappy running it.

 

Now try to overclock your cpu and see how much more snappier it will get.

some are running 2ghz speed and say its pretty nice with not much temperature increase. idle is still around 36 degree.

check it out

http://myhpmini.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=2445

 

I try to stay "up" on notebook stuff - Thanks almost exclusively to NBR. But, this is the first I've heard of overclocking an Atom. I'll have to check it out. My 311, with an N280, already runs sooooo much better than my dv2 with a single-core Neo. I will give it a try - Thanks...

 

well the n280 overclocked at 2ghz runs 800mhz front side bus. they say the n280 is more sensible to overclock than the n270. aparently its good to have ddr3 1333mhz memory installed to take advantage of the overclock.

have fun testing!

 

Thanks. I was trying to be cynical but without success obviously . I should have put like you did. Thank God our machines are not that sophisticated.

 

Agreed with this!

 

I'm hoping the next version of the 311 has a Pinetrail processor, Ion 2 and non-Bezel screen... then it'd be a must-buy for me. I would say USB 3.0 too, but it appears Intel is adamant on delaying the adoption of that.

 

USB 3.0 is coming to multiple PCs in 2010 whether Intel wants it to or not (unless manufacturers have a last-minute change of plans). The question is whether we'll see enough USB 3.0 accessories in 2010 to make USB 3.0 worthwhile to the average consumer.

I'd love to see some super-fast USB 3.0 external hard drives and flash drives next year. So far the implementation of USB 3.0 has been sort of a "what comes first: the chicken or the egg" dilemma. Notebook manufacturers say there's no point to having USB 3.0 since there are no 3.0 accessories, and accessory manufacturers say there's no point because there are no notebooks that support USB 3.0.

Like I said, unless there's a last-minute change we will finally be seeing notebooks with USB 3.0 in 2010.

 

Yes, but if Intel doesn't support USB 3.0 on their own hardware the average consumer isn't going to be seeing too much of it -- especially on netbooks.

 

Great review. I wonder how you found the gestures to work. I'm always interested to see if these actually work well on such small touchpads?

 

I am looking forward to usb 3.0 as well - although the main immediate "use" I would have for it is with external hard drives. It would be nice to see on desktop OR laptop!

 

asfar i know mini 311 has DDR3 memory not DDR II

 

Yeah, that is correct.