14 DAY TRIAL // With Windows 7 just a few weeks away from its official debut and the netbook market preparing for a new platform update, coming from Intel, HP has decided it's high time to update its line of Mini netbook systems, with the introduction of the new Mini 311 model. Previously leaked on the company's support pages, the new, ultraportable, low-power laptop combines an Intel Atom processor with NVIDIA's ION graphics, all within a product that is featured with an 11.6-inch LED display.
“This is another example [of] how good graphics can transform an entire category of products,” Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of the GPU business unit at NVIDIA, said. “Where last month netbooks were considered inadequate, this month HP delivers an amazing product with support for HD movies, games, video editing, and more. Why couldn't netbooks do this before? They lacked good graphics.”
Unlike some of the other NVIDIA ION-based systems that have already been launched, HP's new Mini netbook will ship with Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, as it comes with the lower-power NVIDIA ION LE chipset, which doesn't support DirectX 10 graphics. The system is featured with an HDMI and VGA connectivity, while the 11.6-inch LED display is capable of outputting images and videos at a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. To sweeten the offer, HP had also bundled ArcSoft's SimHD, which takes advantage of NVIDIA's ION GPU, to convert “most standard-definition video to near high-definition quality,” the company said in a statement.
The new NVIDIA ION-based laptop is just one of the expected 50 other systems that will be made available this year. It packs a sleek design and should provide users with an alternative to the company's own Mini systems, but also some of the other Intel-based solutions. Price-wise, you are looking at a netbook that will reportedly come with a starting price tag of US$400.