PC Mag reviews the ION LE-powered HP Mini 311

After months of waiting, the first NVIDIA ION-powered netbooks are finally available to the general public in the form of the HP Mini 311. PC Magazine is one of the first publications out with a review of the Mini 311 here on their website. Now the real question is – was all the hype about the ION platform justified? To a certain extent yes, and to a certain extent no.

In performance tests conducted by PC Magazine, the HP 311 easily played back 720p and 1080i video clips but suffered some playback lag when dealing with 1080p video clips. The HDMI output is certainly a boon for those of you that want to connect the netbook to large-screen HDTV displays but the inability to handle 1080p video is definitely a downer.

On the gaming front, the ION LE improves upon the nearly-standard Intel integrated graphics but that doesn’t necessarily translate to playable 3D games. As PC Magazine put it – “most of our high-end games were virtually unplayable on the Mini 311.” Let’s face it – the Atom processor just isn’t up to snuff for 3D gaming apps.

Finally, the other drawback to the Mini 311 is in the area of battery life. The higher power draw of the ION LE resulted in a five hour battery life for the Mini 311 (compared to 8+ hours on many other competing netbooks). This is not an all-day netbook system.

This brings us to PC Mag’s bottom line which is:

“The Mini 311 offers moderate gaming and HD playback benefits, but they’re not compelling enough to beat out other top netbook contenders.”

While the ION certainly improves upon Intel integrated graphics, don’t expect wonders out of these systems. Now I wonder when Samsung and Lenovo will ship their ION-powered netbooks??

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Written by flung

October 8th, 2009 at 5:32 am

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Posted in HP, Netbook News, Netbook Reviews, Netbooks