News - HP introduces NVIDIA ION-powered Mini 311 netbook

[HEXUS]

NVIDIA reckons its ION chipset is ready to saturate the netbook market in time for Christmas. HP wants in.

Read more.

[scaryjim]

Looks nice, and definitely a contender, but I'd like to see Ion paired with either a more powerful CULV Core Solo to match the GPU performance, or a lower power draw Atom Z-Series to increase battery life. At the minute Ion + Atom is just a bit betwixt and between...

[R3MF]

does the Ion Le chipset support CUDA and OpenCL?

[chis]

I'm sure it'll be a single-core Atom, as well. This form factor has my interest piqued, but it's just too underpowered with such CPUs (wouldn't want a Core Solo either). I'm prepared to take a battery time hit for something like this with a capable CPU so working in Ableton would be feasible... Oh alright, a shame they can't bump the res up to 1440x900 too.

[crossy]

Ignoring the discussion of the merits of Atom+ION v's anything-else-from-Intel+ION, anyone notice the glaring "fail" in that article?

Namely, that the US price is quoted at a reasonable US$400 which, according to XE.com, works out at UK£243. However, HP want us to stump up UK£349 - in other words just over UK£100 for the 'privilege' of being on this side of the Atlantic rather than the western shore.

Damn shame, because it looks like a good box (spec and design) and it'd be nice to treat myself to a Christmas present to replace my elderly Acer Aspire One.

Bob (who isn't happy).

[Funkstar]

Yawn

This again? the $400 doesn't include taxes as this varies in each state. Typical is about 8% though.

£349 will include VAT at 15%, so taking that off gives us £303, so only a £60 premium.

The costs of doing business in the UK and the rest of Europe are a lot higher than in the US, so mark up by retailers needs to be higher. Staffing costs, corporate taxes, rent and rates.... all generally higher in the UK. Then you have the very onerous consumer rights in Europe that just don't exist in the US.

What you will also find is that when HP says it will sell for $400, it will actually sell for $400. The £349 list price in the UK is just a guide price, retailers can sell it for anything they like. It margins are small it is likely to be within a few pounds of that, otherwise you could find some good bargains.

[aidanjt]

I'm sure it'll be a single-core Atom, as well. This form factor has my interest piqued, but it's just too underpowered with such CPUs (wouldn't want a Core Solo either). I'm prepared to take a battery time hit for something like this with a capable CPU so working in Ableton would be feasible... Oh alright, a shame they can't bump the res up to 1440x900 too.

Hmm?.. Atom is perfectly fine for 99.9% of every day computing tasks.

[crossy]

This again? the $400 doesn't include taxes as this varies in each state. Typical is about 8% though. £349 will include VAT at 15%, so taking that off gives us £303, so only a £60 premium.

Fair point about the state tax, but no where does it state that the UK price includes VAT, in fact usual practise is to quote ex-VAT since most businesses will try and claw most of that back anyway.

The costs of doing business in the UK and the rest of Europe are a lot higher than in the US, so mark up by retailers needs to be higher. Staffing costs, corporate taxes, rent and rates.... all generally higher in the UK. Then you have the very onerous consumer rights in Europe that just don't exist in the US.

Again, I'll agree with the consumer rights, not so sure that the US costs are necessarily that much cheaper than UK. Plus since these are priced in US$ to start with, then there's the small matter of exchange rate.

What you will also find is that when HP says it will sell for $400, it will actually sell for $400. The £349 list price in the UK is just a guide price, retailers can sell it for anything they like. It margins are small it is likely to be within a few pounds of that, otherwise you could find some good bargains.

Again, good point. I'll maybe stick a note in my diary for around December time - I work for HP anyway, so maybe there'll be some more 'accessible' pricing on these on the company store. That said the company store prices tend to be higher than those you can get from even very good online stores like Scan - I've been living with a Fifer too long, don't like getting me wallet out!

[baius]

Looks lovely, although I've yet to see what type of battery it uses. I'd be really, really, really pleased if it used the same battery as my MiniNote 2133 (but somehow I seriously doubt it).

At least the 311 should - hopefully - knock the price of the MiniNote 2140 down to a more reasonable level.