Reviews of the Top 3 HP Netbooks

As a companion to your main computer, netbooks are convenient, portable, and offer more and more features to rival full sized notebooks as your computing travel partner. HP offers a number of interesting features in its netbooks to make them some of the most popular portable computers available today.

In this buyer’s guide to the Top 3 HP netbooks we review the features, prices, and bargains currently offered by HP in a lightweight computer. Read these HP netbooks reviews to learn what to expect from HP ultra-portables.

At the budget end of the scale we have the HP Mini 210 Netbook. Shipping standard with an Intel Atom N450 processor (1.66GHz, 512KB Cache) and 1GB of DDR2 memory, you will have no problem running Windows XP Home as the default operating system. However, for just US$20 more you can upgrade to Windows 7 Starter 32-bit.

The HP Mini 210 is equipped with a 10.1 inch WSVGA widescreen monitor capable of displaying a resolution up to 1024x600 dpi. A 160GB 5400RPM SATA hard drives rounds out this package but larger drives such as a 160GB 7200RPM or a 250GB 7200RPM hard drive can be purchased for an additional US$10 or US$30 respectively.

Offering quite a bit in upgradeability, the HP Mini 210 is a steal at just US$279.99.

Offering the same features and upgrade options as the standard Mini 210, the High Definition Edition offers much more in its display capabilities. Also just 10.1 inches in diameter, the HD Edition’s monitor is capable of displaying up to 1366x768 instead of just 1024x600.

Unfortunately, the HD Edition doesn’t come cheap. At US$329.99, you must add almost 18% to the price of the Mini 210 to get the HD option. Still, if you find yourself staring at the screen of your portable computer quite a bit while on the road or traveling around your home on a wireless network, the added cost to get HD may be well worth every penny.

At the higher (and more expensive) end of the scale, HP offers the Mini 311 netbook. Featuring an Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz, 512KB Cache) processor and 1GB of DDR3 memory, this netbook doesn’t seem much different from the Mini 210 above. However, the Mini 311 offers far more upgradeability than the other two netbooks on this list.

With the Mini 311, you have the option to add up to 3GB of memory for your resource-hogging applications. This is a great option if you do more with your netbook than just browse the web and check e-mail. Hard drive options include a 320GB 7200 SATA or an 80GB Solid State storage device. In addition, you have the option to upgrade the processor to an Intel Atom N280 (1.66GHz, 512KB Cache, 667FSB) with nVidia ION graphics.

At US$399.99, the HP Mini 311 netbook is a bargain for those needing more power. However, if you upgrade too many features, you risk pushing the price of this netbook near the US$700 mark. At that price, you pretty much destroy the concept of a netbook as being a cheap companion to your main desktop or laptop computer.