The HP Mini 311 is Hewlett-Packards’ latest and largest iteration of the Atom-powered netbook. At the same time, this is the only netbook in the local market today that sports an NVidia ION LE chipset. See our full review below.
The HP Mini 311 went out with a design that crosses between the HP Mini 2140 and the Mini 110 — a glossy, black swirl lid and matte silver keyboard finish. It has a thicker base though that tapers into a bit thinner at the front end giving an impression that it’s slimmer than its predecessor.
In most respects, the Mini 311 has almost the same internal specs as the other previous mini-notes with the single exception of a souped up platform — an NVidia Ion LE, which includes the nVidia GeForce 9400M graphics with 512 dedicated memory. That, plus the DDR3 memory (the default 1GB is embedded and an extra DIMM slot can take an additional 1GB or 2GB stick).
The rest are pretty standard — an Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz, 160GB HDD, 1.3MP webcam, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi b/g, card reader, USB ports with an added HDMI port for HD output. There’s a dedicated physical button for WiFi on the upper right side of the keyboard.
The system is pre-installed with Windows XP SP3 and while it’s very responsive and snappy, I have yet to check the system running Windows 7 (nVidia ION LE is made to be only compatible with XP but a hack is possible to make it run Windows 7 smoothly).
If there’s one thing I appreciate the most, it’s the screen real estate of the HP Mini 311 — the glossy screen is bright and crisp with a pretty nice resolution of 1366×768 pixels. You don’t have that nagging feeling you always get with most netbooks — small, cramp screen with incessant scrolling. The only drawback is that the glossy finish is prone to glaze in the outdoors.
With size comes comfort and the bigger form factor of the Mini 311 allows for a much more comfortable keyboard layout. It’s the same as the one in the Mini 2140 but you get a more spacious palm rest and a much bigger (like 50% more area than the Mini 2140) trackpad with separated left and right clickers. The trackpad’s got multi-touch features too.
The unit has a built-in 6-cell battery that’s fitted into the body so you don’t see any protrusion of any kind at the back which is nice. A single full charge gives me an average of 5 hours of normal use with WiFi on.
The Altec Lansing speakers are situated at the bottom part up front and span the entire width of the unit. The speakers have enough volume even for open movie playback. The black paint tends to get chipped off easily though. The 1.3MP webcam is decent and comes with a small pin light.
From experience with normal usage, I feel that the graphics outperforms the CPU so some of the noticeable lags could be attributed to the Atom rather than the GeForce 9400M (This is from experience with playing Flash games and running YouTube HD on a number of netbooks of varying configurations). Will do a separate entry on graphics benchmark, gaming and over-all system performance at the PCLabs.
For a suggested retail price of Php28,990, the HP Mini 311 seemed a bit on the expensive side but considering you also get an external DVD+RW out of the box (worth Php3-4k), I think it’s a worthy buy.
yes it is still available. i called up HP trinoma branch and they have two units left. i got mine from Abenson in shangrila..
@JED
yeah,.. kabibili ko lang last jan.
sa huling kita ko, meron pa yta sa electroworld sa sm clark..
by order yta iun.. ung akin kasi, inorder ko.. kaya aun. ^^ try mo mag-order..
yeah electroworld in megamall meron din. Go and get one.. you wont regret it
[...] and with the HDMI port in place, you can hook it up to a big monitor to output some HD movies. My HP Mini 311 with NVidia ION LE still struggles with YouTube HD because of the Atom processor. The 11.6″ [...]
May available ba na white? Puro black lang meron sa Complink and Octagon.
[...] and with the HDMI port in place, you can hook it up to a big monitor to output some HD movies. My HP Mini 311 with NVidia ION LE still struggles with YouTube HD because of the Atom processor. The 11.6″ [...]
Where can I buy ram for this one?
nice… just wanna ask, how do you activate or use its 3G capability? mine got a sim slot at the bottom….
how come this machine is much MORE expensive than the Asus 1201n, which is cheaper and I think, has better performance (dual core).. This one has a single core right? Anyway, it has a nice looks though.. like a metal keyboard. ^_^
Can anyone share on how can I back-up the file of my hp mini 311? The last time I bought this unit, complink didn’t teach me on how.
nice reviews and comments! I almost bought one yesterday but then i got another offer for sony w vaio series netbook! Almost same specs lang pero ung sony la ksama external dvd drive. Tsaka bkit gnun, same paren yung price ng hp311 now and since nov.. Windows 7 starter na yung hp311 n nkita ko..
Pakhelp nmn po to decide kung anung best best buy netbook to date. Thanks!
Im selling my HP mini311, kakabili ko lang last year November. Ginamit ko lang for thesis. Price P22,000. Running windows 7 ultimate.
Reason for selling: Buy dSLR Camera
this unit is P2,000 off from it’s launching price, as of june 14, 2010. from P29, 990 down to P27, 990. there are units with this price in trinoma and sm north edsa.
Guys help me out… I wanna buy this hp 311 however I went to the hp ph website, it’s no longer available. Is it still advisable to get this one?
or can you please suggest a good netbook that I can use? I’m not a gamer. It’s basically for surfing, watching videos, and ms office stuff.
i would suggest sa mga nawalan na ng stocks,mag asus 1201PN nlng kayo,d paq sure kung meron na sa market ne2 pero cguro before matapos e2ng yr. meron na yan.
same processor intel atom pero ung difference nea lng nka nvidia ION2 xa, i think mas better yun.tapos mas lower pa price nea
@Undaunted, where are you from? if you’re here in manila, have you gone to sm north? there are hp mini 311 there, in the cyberzone. my last post: this unit is P2,000 off from it’s launching price, as of june 14, 2010. from P29, 990 down to P27, 990. there are units with this price in trinoma and sm north edsa. hope you still fond one.
guys, im now selling my hp mini 311! see my previous post couple of months ago? i bought one and it’s really really a great buy! the resolution is so crisp and in high-definition, you wont even think it’s a mini note… got good compliments bout it! =)
but just recently, my sister sent me a new hp laptop so i wont be able to use this anymore..
so i’m selling it for only 24k, already preinstalled with ms office 2007, some movies and games! 99% scratch free! pm me if interested! =)
nice review! i’m looking for a netbook, and i think no.1 choice ko na ‘to.
@chelC: available pa ba yung unit mo? im interested.
hi missD! yup still available po.. may nag-express na din ng interest, depends kung sino una mag seal ng deal sa inyo. =) im sure u wont regret this, if i didnt receive a new laptop i wont even give this up, really! comparing it to other netbooks, this has the most promising design without compromising quality, HP pa! Add me up and send me a pm in facebook (enchanted.reethi@gmail.com). thanks dear!
I’ve beeen using my HP 311 Mini for almost a year now since last November. I’ve managed to do the Windows 7 install and hack the processor to run at 1.9GHz and ION LE uprated to the faster ION spec thanks to the LE upgrade hack (needs BIOS hacking in order to work). The only gripe will be that once the hacks are made, expect the battery life to take a massive nosedive.
The baby can handle Photoshop (retouch) processing of small images. As well as RAW conversion from my camera.
If I didn’t see this one available last year, I might’ve bought a Macbook instead
(at double the price)
To those looking: I got mine at Villman Trinoma since they weren’t showing the model on the display back then. You’d have to inquire from the folks there if they have in stock.
[...] August 15th, 2010 I had the HP Mini 311 for about a year before it was bought by a friend. I loved its design but wanted something better [...]
sir/mam how much this hp mini laptop i am living in philippines davao city i was a 10 years old and i am wanted to have hp mini laptop thank you
Do I have your permission to reference a couple of sentences from your post? I’m researching for a paper for college. Thanks very much!
Sir Yuga, ano po suggestion nyo na mas ok?
Hp 311 o Acer Aspire One 721 ?
im planning to buy early next month.