Battle of the Ion Netbooks: Lenono IdeaPad S12 vs HP Mini 311

The netbook is evolving.

The category that began as underpowered, secondary  machines now includes notebooks capable of mid-range gaming and 1080p video playback courtesy of Nvidia’s Ion platform. Very few netbook OEM’s have paired Intel’s Atom CPU with Nvidia’s GeForce 9400M GPU, but those that have gone that route produced some of the most well-rounded mini-notebooks on the market.

We recently reviewed the Lenovo IdeaPad S12, only the second Ion-powered netbook we’ve gotten our paws on. Naturally, comparisons were drawn with the HP Mini 311 (Verizon Wireless version), as it contains the Windows 7 Home Premium operating system, similar screen size (12. 1 inches vs. 11.6 inches), and near-identical weights (3.4 pounds vs. 3.2 pounds).

In our tests, both netbooks leveraged Ion’s  extra graphics punch to allow us to stream flash video at over 20 frames per second, and coast through World of Warcraft (they both choked, however, on higher-end games such as Far Cry 2).

The main difference between the two systems are battery life and price. The HP Mini 311 lasted 4 hours and 52 minutes on our endurance tests, which was nearly an hour longer than the 3 hours and 56 minutes time that the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 notched. In addition, the S12 has a $649 MSRP, which is considerably higher than a similarly configured HP Mini 311 ($574).

Still, the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 is a well-built machine with very solid performance. Check out our full review of this Ion-powered netbook to see how it stacks up against its rival.