[TEARDOWN+PICS] Mini 311-1033ca +WWAN experiments

[teknokracy]

I just picked up a 311-1033ca from Costco here in Vancouver, $499 - 2 year warranty and 90-day unrestricted return policy.
Specs are as follows:
Windows 7
Atom N270
2GB DDR3
250GB HDD
Black, EN-ca keyboard
SIM slot on the back (no WWAN installed but the free slot is there)

The trackpad will be getting a matte skin put on it ASAP, and I'm going to install either a micro Bluetooth USB receiver or an internal one if I can find a reasonably priced Mini PCI-e card. *EDIT* I found what might be an internal Bluetooth header, if anyone can confirm the pictures below...

It took 45 minutes just to go through HP's setup junk... I really wish it was all skippable... It'll be getting a non HP-ified clean install of Win7 as soon as I get an external CD drive working.

Now for teardown....

HP were kind enough to make the 311 easy to take apart. This is not a take apart guide and doing so will probably void your warranty (though, if you are good like me they won't be able to tell if it's been taken apart). They nicely used the same screws through almost the entire machine (T2x5mm), and only two other screw kinds (to hold down the mobo and the wlan card, and another kind for the display hinges.) You will also see that the AC jack is a separate part which is easy to replace - good, but indicates that sadly, PC manufacturers haven't come up with something like MagSafe yet (I've repaired so many jacks at work I can't remember them all).

The machine is quite well built. Other than some weak plastic tabs (I can see some people breaking these off during disassembly - razor blades, folks!), the unit is like any other netbook on the market (better than the annoying 9" Acer which requires complete disassembly just to get at the RAM slot!). There's not much room inside because of it's wedge shaped design, so it will be quite hard to modify it with internal USB ports to supply connections to things such as a GPS module, IR, flash storage, or other goodies. The HDD is very easy to take apart, undo two screws on the back and it takes 5 seconds to get out.
I thought it was neat that the right hand USB/Audio port board is removable and connected via a sturdy connector. And the card reader does take up a LOT of space, so if you did want to add things and didn't need the audio or card reader, those can be removed easily and independently.

One interesting thing (that will probably be revealed more when someone replies with confirmation ) is the possible Bluetooth port on the lower left of the motherboard (Front edge) along with a sticky pad where the module fits, or at least that's what I am assuming. Again, if someone can reply and confirm if this is the case or not that would be great. I want to start looking for the BT module online, as HP Canada is unlikely to offer any CTO 311s in the future from their site (they're pretty bad for stuff like that here).

Finally, the SIM slot is directly soldered to the motherboard. There is NO built in 3G radio. The SIM slot communicates with the Mini PCI-e (which is possibly WWAN only unless you unlock the device in a BIOS hack) - I really want to find out if a Sierra MC8775 will work with this SIM slot or if they are only supporting the Qualcomm 3G modules in the 311.

Up next for this thing is a dual boot of Win7 and OSX, thanks to the fine folks over at mymacbookmini and insanelymac we have a good usable install for the 311 for Snow Leopard.

Pics:

[anewman]

Apparently the antennas are not inside the lid for the WWAN, only if the machine itself is supplied with WWAN which would seem to kill off the casual stick a WWAN card in there upgrade.

[teknokracy]

WWAN antennas are readily available on eBay. They do not require opening the bezel and simply fit in on top of the card itself.

[solarnoise]

awesome teardown pics!! I wasn't able to make out the clockgen but it's late/early and I didn't really take a close look.

PS- if you find a good matte skin for the trackpad (one that doesn't have as much friction) please let us know

[teknokracy]

I had an extra Power Support brand matte iPhone screen protector lying around so I just cleaned the trackpad and stuck it on (it's restickable and cleanable btw). There's enough of a gap between the trackpad and the casing to use an x-acto knife to cut away the excess. It's got the same texture as a normal trackpad (very similar to the new Apple trackpads) and held up pretty well on my iPhone, so I'd imagine that it will last a while on the Mini.

Speaking of the touchpad, has anyone else noticed how the buttons are terrible? I have to push really hard on the left side of the left click for it to work, and the right side of my right click doesn't result in a click when pressed. I basically have to use my thumb in the very middle of the buttons to get anything to work...

I'll be honest, I am actually considering taking this thing back and waiting until the 2nd revision so that HP can work out some of the kinks. The glossy texture on the keys really bothers me too. I'd rather it be like the Mini 1000 series.

However, the SIM slot and WWAN capability without having to purchase a unit through a carrier is really appealing to me, so maybe I will try my luck with exchanging it with another unit.

[solarnoise]

I had an extra Power Support brand matte iPhone screen protector lying around so I just cleaned the trackpad and stuck it on (it's restickable and cleanable btw). There's enough of a gap between the trackpad and the casing to use an x-acto knife to cut away the excess. It's got the same texture as a normal trackpad (very similar to the new Apple trackpads) and held up pretty well on my iPhone, so I'd imagine that it will last a while on the Mini.

Speaking of the touchpad, has anyone else noticed how the buttons are terrible? I have to push really hard on the left side of the left click for it to work, and the right side of my right click doesn't result in a click when pressed. I basically have to use my thumb in the very middle of the buttons to get anything to work...

I'll be honest, I am actually considering taking this thing back and waiting until the 2nd revision so that HP can work out some of the kinks. The glossy texture on the keys really bothers me too. I'd rather it be like the Mini 1000 series.

However, the SIM slot and WWAN capability without having to purchase a unit through a carrier is really appealing to me, so maybe I will try my luck with exchanging it with another unit.

I hear ya, I've had to get used to pressing the buttons down very close to the center. I don't even bother clicking on the sides any more.

I'll definitely try that screen protector, I really hate the surface of the trackpad.

[teknokracy]

So I'm taking my Mini 311 back to Costco as soon as I have some time off work.

Don't get me wrong - it's a great little laptop for certain uses (email, text, etc). Having worked on and taken apart many netbooks over the course of my last job, I can see that the HP is better made than most. But that's not much to live up to considering the quality of others. The screen is fantastic, and that's probably its only redeeming feature. I would have gotten the Acer 11.6" for its bigger screen resolution, but the slow processor really didn't appeal to me. It was laggy with almost anything I tried to do with it, games did not run as well as I expected, and in general it has some quirks. For example, the SD card slot wouldn't work with my SDHC card - not sure if this is a common problem or something Win7 specific, but it was certainly a deal breaker. That, and the fact that Me.com functionality was slow in every way, and that's not flash.

I've found that the Atom is just not very powerful, in almost every way. The ION platform would be better served by an ULV processor like we are seeing in the Acer Timeline series et al. If they made the 13 or 14" Acer Timeline with the ION chip, I'd buy one of those. Not only would it be compatible with MacOS (The X4500MHD is not), but it would be pretty nice - 16:9 screens, great case design. And maybe once ULV notebook manufacturers start using Li-Polymer batteries with larger power capacities, they will catch up with the 6-7 hours of some netbooks.

For now, I will stick to my Mac, and leave the netbook war to rage on, hopefully someone will come out with a true winner that's priced reasonably ($300) and is a good balance of quality.

Who knows, maybe we will see an Apple tablet by year's end...

[anewman]

Lol I'd never dare strip something apart, put it back together and return it to the store. You're brave! Good on you! (or maybe us UK folk are just not as good at asserting our rights lol).

Sadly we can't have all the technology we want today. One thing's for sure, the 311c is much better than, for example http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/toshiba ... 61097.html and that would have been the dogs danglies back then and cost a lot lot more than the 311!

[PMS421]

I hear ya, I've had to get used to pressing the buttons down very close to the center. I don't even bother clicking on the sides any more.

Mine both make a "click sound" and I have started clicking the left one closer to the centre as the noise is much less.

I also disabled the pad tapping as it was going off as I typed.

[t3hwoody]

@ teknokracy

One of the reasons it is really slow is all the crap hp puts on their laptops. When I get mine in (retarded fedex sux) I will either be using unetbootin or somthing similar to boot an iso of tiny xp and install that, which should yeild a nice preformance boost, or if im forced to, a pxe boot. after i get it all setup ill post a youtube video of howto and how much faster it is. so if you havent returned it yet, hold off for a bit, mine should get here within next week thanks to slow arse shipping. oh ya, and not having at lest 2 gigs of ram slows this thing down, it limits the gpu to something like 128mb of ram, plus if your running 7 you really need more than 1 to just run the system.

Now can anyone tell me where the hard drive goes on this sucker and is it a 1.8 or a full 2.5 sata. If its a full 2.5 are there any capicity limits because i have a 320 that came from my old tx2500z that just ate the crapper and would like some more storage for my 311.

[teknokracy]

Yeah I hear what you're saying. I understand putting a clean non-HP copy of Win7 would help, but there are too many other things about it that I don't like, so back it goes. I'd probably get used to the speed, which is why I might wait for a 2nd revision or another manufacturer to come out with an ION based netbook that's priced reasonably (I'm looking at you, Acer - mostly because I'm an Acer distributor!)

The hard drive is a standard 2.5" SATA

[t3hwoody]

I think one of the main problems is using windows 7 in general on this netbook. its perfectally fine to run it on a lower spec computer, but with an atom processor its not the best idea, id be willing to bet yours runs like the low end of hp/compaqs line when they moved everything to vista. i had to work on some of those computers and man did i just want to face palm. im not saying windows 7 is bad, i personally run it on my desktop and love it, i wont be going back to xp unless i really need something and ill probably just run it in a vm. i just need a new cheap laptop seeing as my table just died/is dying, its the second hp ive had that died because of the gpu. i was tempted to give 7 a try but ill take a hint and stick with xp and save myself the time.

what else dont you like about the netbook, im just curious to see what im going to have to put up with.
i speced my 311 to the n280 and 2 gigs of ram and when i get the thing in ill be swapping the drive for my 320.