HP Mini 311 Reviewed: Strong Graphics, Nearly 6 Hours of Battery Life

We gave you our early impressions of the HP Mini 311 yesterday, posting our results as we got them, but after spending a lot more time with the Nvidia Ion-based netbook, we’re ready to render our verdict.

In short, it’s a winner. Not only does this machine provide more than 15 times the graphics performance of traditional netbooks, but it offers nearly as much battery life.  At $399, the Mini 311 with Windows XP is quite a bargain.

As we note in our full review, the Mini 311′s ION LE graphics delivers pretty good performance when playing mainstream games: In Spore and World of Warcraft, we saw frame rates in the 20s and 30s. However, more demanding games such as Far Cry 2 and Call of Duty 4 showed the limits of Ion’s power; in FC2, we mustered just 12 fps with the screen set to 1024 x 768 and effects set to low.

In COD4, we averaged 11 fps (as measured by fraps) with the resolution at 1024 x 768. The cut scenes at the beginning of a level were jumpy and paused, and gameplay was choppy; we found it hard to aim accurately. When we set the resolution to 640 x 480, however, action was much more smooth, and we measured a frame rate of 24 fps.

It would be one thing if the Mini 311 only delivered strong graphics performance. But a hallmark of netbooks is their portability and long battery life, and we’re happy to report that the Mini 311 has both. Not only is it as light as most other systems its size (3.2 pounds), but its six-cell battery lasts a very good 5 hours and 46 minutes on the LAPTOP Battery Test. Granted, our test measures endurance when surfing the Web over Wi-Fi, not gaming or HD video playback, but this machine’s runtime is still impressive.

Overall, the silver-and-black system HP Mini 311 very attractive and comfortable to use, with the exception of the friction-heavy touchpad. Also, the Altec Lansing speakers are atypically loud and robust for a system of this size; while playing games, listening to music, or watching videos, we were impressed at their quality and volume.

In the near future other Ion-based ultraportables will be coming to market, including the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 and Samsung N510, but for now the Mini 311 offers the best bang for your buck when it comes to high-performance netbooks.