HP Updates Netbook Lineup with the Mini 110 and Mini 1101

‘Tis the season to update your netbooks, and joining Acer, ASUS, Lenovo, and Dell in releasing new models is HP. The company is updating its Mini lineup with the Mini 110 and Mini 1101. The Mini 110 with XP and Mini110 with Mi (Mobile Internet) are aimed at consumers, while HP is adding the Mini 1101 for business customers. The Mini 110 (pictured on the right and fully reviewed here) looks similar to the 1000 series but will be offered in two additional colors other than the standard black (White Swirl and Pink Chic). HP has also added an extra USB port (now totaling three) and a VGA port (as opposed to the adapter cable on the Mini 1000). Plus, the standard hard drive is now 160GB (5,400 rpm), compared to the painfully slow 4,200-rpm 80GB drive on thhe HP Mini 1000. Last but not least, the notebook vendor has included Syncables software, which allows you to easily sync  contacts, photos, music and more files between the Mini and your primary PC. In July, HP will add a video hardware accelerator from Broadcom that will allow the Mini 110 to play back full high definition content (1080p). HP estimates that this option will cost $30, as will the option to upgrade to a 1366 x 768 (720p) display. The Mini 110 still sports a 10.1-inch 1024 x 576 display as the standard option, a stellar keyboard, and a trackpad with mouse buttons that horizontally straddle the pad. It also has the same 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor as its predecessor, and consumers will be able to configure the netbook with either Windows XP or HP’s Mi operating system based on Ubuntu Linux and a three-cell (standard) or six-cell ($40) battery. The black HP Mini 110 with XP and Mi are expected to be available in the U.S. on June 10 and will start at $279. The Pink Chic and White Swirl HP Mini 110 will be available at a later date.. HP is also releasing a Mini 1101 model, which is aimed at business users. The Mini 1101 starts at $329 and is expected to be available June 1It will have more business friendly software and hard drive options up to 250GB.