HP Mini 311, Now With Windows 7, 3G Connectivity, And Less Battery Life

As we mentioned in order recent battery life post, the HP Mini 311 with Windows 7 did get less battery life than its XP-bearing sibling. However, that’s not the whole story of this updated netbook. Though there is a loss in longevity, users gain 3G connectivity if they buy the system from Verizon Wireless. At $199 with a two-year contract, the benefits could outweigh the drawbacks.

The Mini 311 still has the NVIDIA Ion LE graphics chip and 1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, but comes with 2GB of RAM instead of just 1. It’s also not hampered by Starter Edition as HP thankfully opted to load it up with Home Premium. While overall performance didn’t blow us away, graphics performance scores went up.

Click here for the full benchmark scores and our impression of the 311′s 3G capabilities. It may be worth shelling the $59.99/month for some users, but others aren’t going to look too kindly on spending over $1,000 for a netbook over time, even one that approaches notebook performance.