HP Mini 311-1025NR 11.6-Inch Black Netbook - Up to 6.25 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium) Review

As I was changing roles, I was turning over my company laptop. I thought about buying a full size notebook, but decided to give this netbook a try.

I custom ordered mine thru HP. It seems most of the HP 311's sold in the stores had the Atom N270. Well the Atom N280 is only a $25 upgrade option. Not much difference probably in performance, but a little helps.

I also ordered the netbook with xp and only 1gb of ram, and decided to add the 2gb ram upgrade myself.

My order in all, came in under $500.

For browsing, and most applications I say this netbook works just fine. For portable machines I usually prefer the "eraser point" mouse control over the touchpad. And this netbook only confirms that feeling. If you tend to rest your palms as you type, you'll find yourself accidentally tapping the touchpad and moving your cursor around. Palms up, wrists straight, they keyboard works pretty well. The mouse buttons are a bit stiff and have a loud click sound when in use. Eventually I forget about it, but it may be a minor annoyance for some.

The construction feels pretty solid. The 11.3 size is probably the sweetspot. It is small enough that it is very portable and lightweight, yet easier to manage and use than the 10" netbooks.

As a gamer, I'm a bit disappointed in the 3-D performance. That is more a reflection of the ATOM processor. It does however handle most of the streaming video and ripped DVD performance that other netbooks can not handle. That is a nice point for me. This machine seems to be the perfect travel rig.

Battery life is pretty good, as I can get about 6 hours of run time. The LCD screen is a little glossy, but colors are nice and is an improvement from the notebooks I've used in the past.

Ultimately, there are more capable gaming machines but they are not nearly as portable. I give the product overall a 4 star rating. It will not replace a more powerful notebook, but it fills most duties. I'm sure somewhere down the line there will be a netbook with more video capabilities but it is hard to find a machine with the perfect size, power and battery life.

I've considered trading to a more powerful machine, but the size is what makes me want to keep this netbook. It's just powerful enough to satisfy most of my needs. Get more detail about HP Mini 311-1025NR 11.6-Inch Black Netbook - Up to 6.25 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium).