This is one time most, if not all, the speculation was right about a new product. HP has just announced the Mini 311 tonight it’s an 11.6 inch laptop just as we thought. Along with that 1366 x 768 screen comes NVIDIA’s ION LE graphics, which includes an HDMI out and 6 cell battery for $399 on September 23rd. I haven’t been keeping up on all the netbooks out lately, but I think that might be the cheapest 11-inch model with ION around.

That $399 will get you:

• 11.6″  HD LED BrightView Widescreen display (1366 x 768)
• NVIDIA ION LE with up to 319MB graphics memory
• 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270
• 1GB of DDR3 Memory (max of 3GB)
• 160GB 5400RPM HD
• Windows XP Home, or Windows 7 after October 22nd
• 802.11b/g Wireless and ethernet
• 6 cell Battery
• VGA and HDMI output
• 5-in-1 card reader
• Combo mic/headhone jack
• Webcam
• and a 92% keyboard

Overall the 311 looks to be pretty outstanding, except for the keyboard. HP has put a lot of focus into maximizing keyboard size in all their previous Mini (consumer and business) models, but for some reason decided not to make the most of extra real estate the 11.6″ screen granted them. From the pictures it looks like they just rounded the four corners of the current Mini line keyboards and called it good. Fortunately the Mini keyboards are pretty outstanding so it’s not a huge loss.

The Mini 311 weighs in at 3.22 pounds in a 11.4″ x 8.03″ x 1.20″ (.78″ at it’s thinnest) body. Unfortunately it has combo mic+headphone jack that previous Mini 100 series had which many disliked. Also like the Mini 100 series you’ll be able to pick one up in their regular swirl pattern in black or white.

Hopefully we’ll hear more soon!

Via Netbooked

Even better is More Computers and Top Product have potentially leaked detailed specs of the Mini 311c on a product listing page. If they’re true, we’re looking at a Mini with an 11.6″  HD screen, an Atom N270 processor (1.6Ghz), Nvidia ION LE, 1GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 160GB HD.

While it’s a really good upgrade to the consumer Mini line, it’s still a little bit underwhelming. With Windows 7 just a few months away they should’ve gone with the full blown Nvidia ION, instead of the LE version. (LE only does DX9, while the full version does DX10). Also they’ve should have gone with the Atom 280 like the Mini 5101 has.

Now we’ll just wait and see what is official announced…

Via Liliputing

Everything has gone great so far except for one little hang up… I went with SuSE Linux to save some money as I was just going to install Windows 7 anyways, but I still wanted to to try it out. So on first boot the SuSE load screen comes up and I hit enter. The screen changes, the load bar moves about 3 pixels and then absolutely nothing happens for 10 minutes. I give it the three fingered salute and am promptly greeted with a grub boot load error…Nice. Oh well, here comes Windows 7.

Windows 7 installed without a hitch and was happy to use all the Vista drivers. So far it runs great. Boots quick, wakes up from sleep and hibernation pretty fast too.

Hulu in window play back was fine, but fullscreen was a little choppy. At 480p the in window playback hit probably the same frame rate as full size, and full-screen play back was pretty choppy. Not really watchable.

Youtube in window also played back fine and full-screen seemed pretty much perfect. On HQ mode video play back was still good, but full-screen did drop some frames or hang for a split second here or there.

And finally the Super Bad DVD rip from the previous tests on the HP Mini 2133, played back perfectly.

Typing so far has been pretty easy, although the ‘1′ key is a little tricky sometimes because it’s a bit smaller. (This post was typed on it…hope there’s no typos!)

If you have any questions or if there is anything in particular you want to see or know about please ask in the comments below!

Twain did this by sacrificing a Lenovo S10 and an ASUS eeePC to the netbook gods…not really

Twain actually did it by figuring out what pin was responsible for locking the FSB of the Mini and which one would let the FSB be modified.  Then Twain  de-soldered the jumper locking the FSB and soldered the other jumper. Now the Mini can be overclocked via SetFSB! Thanks for sharing your work Twain. We look forward to see what else you do!

If you’ve been waiting to get a 5101 now is the time to buy. Use this promo code to get 12% off a 5101: CTO5101. That’s good for $47.88 off on the base model.

UPDATE: This coupon is only good for custom-configured 5101s and not the preconfigured models, and will actually give you 20% off. Thanks Andrew!

I ended doing the same as Andrew and getting the SuSE Linux model with the HD screen but got the 6 cell battery instead. Thanks to Michelle at HP for helping me out and giving a great deal!

The Mini 5101 is now available in a preconfig model with a 6 cell battery for $425. If you’re wondering how much bulk the 6 cell will add James over at jkOnTheRun has a nice video going over the specs and showing off the 6 cell.

Now for the HD screen and a 6 cell!

Update: You can use coupon code CTO5101 to get 12% off your Mini 5101!

If you’re looking for a little more detail on the 5101 those should help!

Hopefully we’ll see the preconfigs come out with the HD screens and bigger batteries soon. Word on the street is August 8th, but we’ll see…

via Liliputing

Currently there are just two models up of the Mini 5101 up for sale. Strangely they both seem to have the same specs as of right now, but one is a $125 more. Probably just an oversight and it will be fixed shortly.

The base model is starting at $399, and should get you the 10.1 inch screen, 1.66 N280 Atom, Windows XP, 160 GB HD, and 1 GB of RAM. We’ll see what the second model actually has sooner or later…